Copyright 101

Copyright is something that us future educators should be informed about. Being that we are using material that can be shared, we must know the rules before we get into trouble.

• Everything that you post on the internet is copyrighted!!!
• You can show an entire film in the classroom but only if the school has paid for it. However if you show a video in an alternative classroom you can show the movie in its entirety.
• A lot of times whenever you write a paper and the paper gets published the author ends up losing the copyrights to there paper. This happens a lot because people do not know that they are signing their rights away.
• You can photocopy a page out of something but you can’t copy a whole book.
• Google images has a link where you can go to advanced search and you can specify the usages rights that you want Google to bring up.
• Amount of the work - has to be a small amount . amount a 10th of the work.
• If you need to copy the whole book. You need to ask for copyright privilege, normally have to pay amount.
• Don't mess with Disney!

A great place to be informed about copyrighting is at the TAMUCC library. They have information set up where you can learn what to use and what not to use in the classroom. Here are some great links to help us out:

http://tamucc.libguides.com/ETEC3310

http://www.copyright.com/  find out what you can do with copyrighted material.

http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/teachact.html

http://creativecommons.org/ Where to go if you want to get something you write copyrighted

TAMUCC Disability Center

Today we went to the Disability Services Office on campus to explore the Assisted Technology that is available for students on our campus. There were different stations that each displayed what they have to offer. These programs that are offered are: Kurzweil 3000, Perkins Brailler, Adjustable standing desk, Echo LiveScribe Smart Pen, Dragon Naturally Speaking, Kensington Expert Mouse, Victor Stream DAISY Player, Jaws ScreenReader, Audio Notetaker Software, Zoomtext Magnifier Software, Smartview 360 CCTV, Comfort Contego FM System, and UbiDuo Communicators. Here is a link to some of my notes over all of these programs and how they are beneficial to students.

Spreadsheets for Kids

Why in the world should children learn to use a spreadsheets?
We use tools to make life easier. The spreadsheet, simply, is a tool, like a calculator or a slide rule. As our children get more and more into computing, I feel very strongly about them learning how to use different computing tools, more than just learning how to insert a CD or surf the Internet. Spreadsheets are about doing math and doing computations. Introducing children to spreadsheets can be, stay with me, a low-key,entertaining way to play with numbers. And this kind of play increases your child's comfort with spreadsheets and math.
The best way to design a spreadsheet is to take something that the children are all interested in and have them design Inquiry based questions and have the students fill out what they want to know; how many people got this, how low with this. etc etc.
For Example: 
Here's a nice activity idea I have found to help consolidate children's understanding of basic formulas whilst at the same time teaching them how to use conditional formatting on cells.

Digital Story Making 101

  Digital Story Making isn't as hard as it may seem. This is a great way for our older students to be engaged in learning through a story. This should be a great opportunity to have fun with your students.
  What is a Digital Story? It is a short form of digital making using digital media, such as images, audio and video. This process will be successful for the student because they will incorporate what they learn into technology which will enhance their creative process along the way.
   There are three different types of Digital Stories:

1. Personal Narrative- A way to document a discussion about current events such as multicultural issue, such as race, and religion. Here is one example of a personal narrative about a girl learning to speak Japanese.
2. Historical Documentaries- Designed to create material from historical material that was contained from the classroom.
3. Stories that Inform or Instruct- Stories that inform you on content areas in the classrooms like math, science, and instructional technology. 

Here is a link to my Activity Plan for Digital Story Telling.

Internet Resources

Here is a link to my Internet Resources post concerning iPads in the Classroom. You will get to see why I think that applying iPads in the classroom are a great way in incorporating technology in the classroom. I thought this will also be very helpful in my Special Education Classroom.

Two Cents 2.0

As I venture into David Warlicks blog, I come across on the side panel a link to a post about First Year Teachers. This post was about Warlicks speech to a group of first year teachers in Phoenix, Arizona. This speech was about technology, blogs, and Web 2.0. Almost all of the first year teachers had not heard of many of the things that Warlick was talking about. Web 2.0 is something that most of us use now a days. If you use Facebook, instant messaging, and twitter than you know Web 2.0.
One of the things that I wonder as I would have probably been one of those teachers who did not know what he was talking about, is how prepared are we (future educators) for the future digital classroom? As I feel that I may know a good amount of technology, I feel that after reading his blog, maybe I could use more information on it. I guess this is why it is a major requirement for me to be taking this ETEC class!

Inquiry and Project Based Learning

Hello, over the course I will be talking about inquiry and project based learning. Listed below is a little overview of what they are all about.

Inquiry Based Learning:

• Inquiry based learning is based on a more hands on approach, seeking the truth in questions, finding out what happens if this is done. Inquiry based approach is great in Science classes but could also be used in other subjects. In science projects, students can use the inquiry based method very often throughout their project.

Project Based Learning:

• Project based learning is based on activity learning. Activities that engage their motivation and interests is the root target of all learning. They are based on answering a question and solve a problem that reflects the different types of learning. This is great because it includes skills such as communication, presentation skills, organization and time management skills.

As a future Special Educator, these different kinds of approaches could be helpful to my classroom. 
Throughout this blog I will be exploring the subject ELA. As I develop my unit plan, you will be able to see how the use of Reading will provoke students interest in the subject. Tied into this subject will be other subjects such as science and history.