The Fair Use Policy

This video used a mash up of disney clips to explain copyright laws and fair use policy laws. Which is somewhat ironic in itself.

Nature
Amount
Commerical Impact
Cant change the original value of the work.
Fair use is only legal in small possession.

The Fair use doctrine seems to me to have more of an effect on music teachers and art teachers than on general education teachers. Music and Art teachers have to be more careful that they do not use a movie, song, or piece of art without infringing on the creators copyright laws. General educators would more easily have access to other people's work without violating these copyright laws, as long as they use it practically and do not change its value on the market. The main idea of copyright laws is to protect the creators so that they get all of the money that they are entitled to.

A Vision of Students Today

This video shows a group of students in a large class. Each student outlines an aspect of their life today, both as a student and in life. They highlight the amount of time spent doing a specific activity each day, and some of the problems that exist in the world. The video seems to be suggesting that even though technology has helped with many things in schools and on the planet, it is not without its problems either. Today's student is forced to multi-task, even though every piece of evidence suggests that multi-tasking is not efficient. I agree with most things found in this video. Technology is both a blessing and a curse. It has helped to solve many problems and to become more efficient, but it has also bogged down the system, and stifled many people. The trap of the internet, and of sites like facebook, is very real and many students fall prey to it. Whether or not that is the choice of the student is another argument altogether.

Video: Kronkite & XML 3-12-13

This video of Walter Kronkite touring a home office of a potential 21st century workplace tells us alot about how technology has developed over the years. The video shows Kronkite explaining what were then futuristic devices to print papers, check the weather, and video chat. These devices were just a dream back in the 1960s, but all of those devices have now become reality, and are in fact much smaller and even more high-tech than the ones from the video. This goes to show that if something can be dreamed up, it is possible to create. Technology will continue to advance throughout time, and maybe someday students will look back and laugh about what Brian Williams thought was a dream about the future.

I remember first learning HTML in both high school and college. It seemed to me to be overly confusing and unnecessary. The idea that web users can create their own web pages without needed to know this complicated language is very encouraging. Internet users already can change and manipulate the web in terms of blogs, photo and video sharing, and social networks. Cutting out the complicated language will make the Internet and more friendly place for everyone and can contribute to a greater degree of technological learning as time goes on.

(However, since people can update web language at any time, problems arise, such as negative or offensive comments on blogs and youtube videos. If anyone can write on the web, there is bound to be some abuse.)

Educational Website Evaluation

For this assignment, I evaluated www.teach-nology.com. I found it to be a useful source, that, despite its few quirks, could help any teacher to gain resources for their classroom. This assignment was helpful because I got to see many different ways to determine a website's legitimacy and effectiveness. The trick is to find a form that is manageable to you, one that you like to use, and go by those criteria to determine if the website is helpful. I think any teacher would benefit greatly by running through this little exercise before they decide to use information or materials from any website or educational software program.

Teaching With Stories

• Students have a difficult time with reading that they don't understand. "It sucks."
• The teacher uses fun stories to make ideas within science more relatable to students. 
• The "cult of seriousness". Who says that science/ learning in general, can't be written in fun language?
• the need for professional exactness within science texts has made the language of these texts completely incomprehensible for students. 
• Emotional connection is much more important than exact, precise details. Leave out some details. 
• Sometimes you have to lie in order to tell the truth.

There are countless ways to implement story telling in the social studies. Movies, tv shows, songs, music videos, etc. already exist to tell stories and reenact historical events and governmental structures. Movies and shows such as Lincoln, the West Wing, Gladiator and the Patriot come to mind off the top of my head  Stories can also be told using games and reenactments during class. Projects, such as creating an american colony or having students write a song, can also be used to help students get a more real idea of the themes in social studies. 

Technology Previewing Questions

1. As a teacher, I could help students to become independent technology users by giving them the tools that they need during classroom instruction time. I could expand on this by giving them homework that further helps to develop these technology skills. Another crucial thing that I can do is to simply make myself available to students who have questions regarding the technology skills that we learn.

2.

•  The NETS standards for teachers are the National Educational Technology Standards. Teachers should be familiar with them so that they can effectively use technology in their classrooms.
• I am most familiar with Standards 1, 2, and 4. 
• I am familiar with promoting student creativity, and designing digital age learning experiences with the technologies that I am familiar with, and with modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. Standard 3 is a week area for me, as I do not keep up very well with new technology as it comes out, such as mobile devices.
• One of the best ways to help students to gain confidence in using technology equipment and application software is to simply utilize the NETS standards for teachers when adminstering lessons that involve technology. These standards are in place so that the students are able to get the most out of these lessons.

Post-Viewing Questions

1. Another instance in a middle school science classroom that could make use of spreadsheets is during a lesson on simple machines. Students can collect data on the amount of time that a machine takes to complete  a certain task, and from there decide which machine is effective for which task.

2.  When the student in the video gets off task, the teacher asks him what he is doing, and reminds him that that is not the best use of their class time, and politely asks him to remove the picture. I would address this issue by politely reminding the student that we are in class at the moment, and that he needs to give everyone in the room the respect they deserve, including himself, by staying on task, not being a distraction, and contributing to the group effort.

3. Technology in the video optimizes learning because the use of a spreadsheet helps students to record, organize, and analyze their data. Technology can help any science class in general by making experiments easier to conduct, data easier to record, and reports easier to write using a word processor. Science is one are of study that can be particularly benefited by the use of technology.

Word Processing Observation

Pre-viewing

1. Some ideas that could be used to help teach students how to use word processors in a social studies content area class could be to get the students into an experiential mindset by having them write a letter to a historical figure, congressman, or to write a journal entry as if they witnessed an historic event.

2. When I was a student, the technology tools that were utilized the most were word processors and power points. I often had to write papers, or do presentations.  These tools contributed to student learning because I could take the skills that I learned from these tools into college and real life situations.

Post-viewing

1. The teacher in the demonstration shows all the students how to use the camera, and even makes a presentation of the steps herself in order to model the process for her students. She also explained word processing.

2. The teacher demonstrates competency by explaining what she knows to the students. Her detailed instructions shows that she is competent in this area.