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.