Copyright and Fair Use

Why do we have to respect copy rights and fair use rules? Why is that so important? How will you teach your students about this?

First of all, we must respect copy rights and fair use rules because they are mandated by federal law. It is also important because we need to protect the work of individuals and give credit where the credit lies. In the future, when what we are doing now is history, correct information about the creators and authors of particular works becomes very important. Royaly monies would also be an important factor to consider regarding fair use and copy rights.

What is online safety and is it different from cyberbullying? How can we protect our students and ourselves from potential online predators?

Online safety is basically taking steps to protect yourself, just as you would physically protect yourself by parking in an area that is well lit at night and avoiding areas that are isolated and dark. Steps that can be used to protect our students and ourselves from potential online predators includes not giving out personal information such as address, full name, age, telephone number, and parents work/cell numbers.

What do you think about the activities that you have learned so far? Did you learn anything new?

So far, everything has been very informative. I have learned more about things that I was previously only familiar with.


Citations:
www.fema.gov/kids/on_safety.htm

Community Building with Technologies

I would use wikis and blogs to integrate more technology into a traditional classroom. Using these medias to study spelling words or perhaps more effecitvely using wikis to search vocabulary words. I would also consider using a blog for the students to journal rather than traditional pen and paper.

Social bookmarking could be used effectively as a reference tool for students from home. Often students forget notes or can't remember what homework they are to prepare for the next day and social bookmarking could easily be used for that purpose. I would also use a voicethread for readers theater every week. A different group of students could perform a small skit using voicethread and this would help them become more comfortable speaking before they were actually performing in front of a live audience.

I enjoyed the activities this week, however, it is far from my comfort zone to create these media rather than just enjoy and peruse with them.