Wiki Wednesday #5 - Copyright Confusion

As teachers, we all know the trouble that the Internet and the Web has caused when it comes to students using Copyrighted material or plagiarizing  someone elses work.  I know that it has been a constent battle within our school system when it comes to portfolios and posting student work on teacher webpages, something that is completely new to our district.

Well, there is a Wiki out there that will help answer some of the questions you might be having and address the issues that you are facing.  Copyright Confusion is a great place to learn about the Code for Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy.  You can learn more about this Code by reading the PDF which is provided on the Wiki.

One of the best resources on the site is a worksheet that allows you to determine if the use of copyrighted material could be considered fair use.  This would be a great tool to evaluate projects or for planning your own project.  You can view the concept and fill out the worksheet here.  Another link worth visiting is the Scenarios page.  What a great way to learn if something you are doing violates copyright laws.

This site would be a great way for you to start a project or to provide to your students so that they have a better understanding of how to avoid getting in trouble with copyright and plagiarism.  Just spend some time here looking through and educating yourself.  If you feel you have something to add, do so...that is why it is a Wiki!!

Twitter Tuesday #6...From Sick and Unplugged to First #edchat

Well, being sick sure did take a lot from me.  I was unplugged from Twitter for quite a while.  I guess you know you are sick when you are to tired and just don't feel like reading and updating Twitter!  I jumped right back in tonight though, and participated in my first #edchat.  It was a great experience discussing teacher evaluation and how teachers assess their own classroom and teaching.  The usual responses were mentioned, but then there were also some others.  Most teachers will tell you that portfolio's, scheduled walk-through's, and student surveys do little to help teachers learn about themselves.  Most of the time, its ineffectiveness is not because of the process, it is because of the user.


We always had a saying when I worked in retail and a customer would bring in a computer with problems that we could not solve...."I guess it must be user error."  Same thing for teacher assessment.  If you don't use the tools correctly, then it must be user error.  If you don't take information you learn about yourself to improve what you are doing, the only person to blame is the user.  Think about it.


One option is Peer Observation, but how do you monitor it?  How do you ensure that teachers really are observing each other?  You could probably require a form, but does that really ensure that learning and assessing was going on?  Probably not.  One suggestion I had was to have teachers on planning go with a principal when they complete a walk-through.  This would ensure that peer observations are going on and when post observation meetings happen, that teacher could also participate.  Maybe even participate in the pre-observation meeting.


I am not teaching now, but keeping a blog has been a great form of reflection for me in this new job.  I take much of what I find and reflect on how it could be used in the classroom.  I then share that with teachers.  I know that keeping a reflection blog would receive quite a response, but if you could trade that for keeping a big binder portfolio would you?  Most of the time, a portfolio completed by teachers has the necessary parts required by the administration/district thrown in there, and often times, nothing new is put in, even though you have new students. There is also very little reflection.


Another topic within the #edchat was assessing Administrators.  Most of their assessment comes from test scores, attendance, teacher retention, etc.  But who assesses them on things like communication, organization, leadership, etc.?  Should teachers have a say in such evaluations?  A lot of that comes down to respect.  Would an administrator respect the opinion of a teacher fresh out of college?  If you create such a system, who is in charge of seeing suggestions implemented?  Teachers always have to show evidence, would administrators have the same requirements; to show evidence?  Just throwing this out there.


So, on top of all the other reasons why I have created a Twitter account and started Tweeting, I discovered that #edchat in itself is a whole reason in its own.  Through #edchat, I also discovered many other educators that I added to my PLN.  So if you have a free Tuesday night, 7 EST time, or 12 EST, you can join in the fun by searching for #edchat and then following the conversation, and when you are comfortable, join the conversation.  Just following the conversation will open a ton of doors, so don't feel like you have to immediately join the conversation.  Get a feel for it first.


I am sure that there was a lot more to the #edchat conversation from tonight, but these were the conversations that I took part in and wanted to highlight.

Must See Monday #6 - Ahead - Playground for Creative Minds

As most of my readers know, I am a big fan of Prezi.  I recently wrote a post about other ways to complete lecture other than Power Point.  Upon completing that post, I discovered another option; Ahead presentation software.  It was also suggested in a comment on my Blog.  So I thought it was only appropriate to discuss it today.

Ahead is very similar to Prezi.  It has a 3D canvas for creating your presentation.  It allows you to zoom in and out on aspects of your presentation.  What I like about it compared to Prezi is that you get more options for creating your presentation, especially when it comes to fonts and text.  It bodes itself as "No Coding, No Boundaries."

Ahead is for people with more tech savvy backgrounds, but for those that are not, I highly suggest that you visit the tutorial for help creating your presentation.  Another benefit is that it gives you the option of 25 prearranged slides if you have a fear of an infinite open space to work on...might be useful for those wanting less freedom.

When creating your presentation, you create scenes, which can be put in order within your presentation.  That is how the software knows where to go in your presentation.  You can upload any file to the presentation, video, audio, picture, PDF, etc, however, it does take some time to upload the file, so you might want to upload any files to the presentation to start with, so they are ready when you need them.

It definitely takes some getting used too, but it is definitely worth looking at to help change up your normal lectures.  You could easily copy and paste from your old Power Point Presentations as well.  My suggestion, is just visit the site and play around for a while and see how you might use it....that is what i did.  When you visit the homepage, click on the arrows in the bottom of the right of your screen and go through to learn about Ahead.  Here is a screen shot of the homepage.

You can follow the company on Twitter.  I am, so that I can make recommendations for education use and licensing.  You should follow them too and make the same suggestions!

100th Post - The Growth of my PLN

Around 3 months ago I started this blog with different ideas for where I wanted it to go, and who I was hoping to reach with it.  For my 100th post, I want to focus on my PLN; the people who follow this blog, follow me on Twitter, and that I follow on Twitter.  The whole blogging experience has been probably the most influential of any professional development that I have had while teaching.  Partly because of what I have learned and found, but mostly because I have been able to share that information with others and hear of their personal experiences and then share them.

So what is a PLN?  Well, it could mean Professional Learning Network, or even Personal Learning Network.  That is the literal meaning of the acronym, but what does it really mean?  Imagine for a minute teaching in a school where some of the most influential educators all teach.  Imagine teaching in a school where the administrators encourage new and innovative ways to teach to your students.  Imagine teaching in a school where all those teachers share their ideas and lessons openly without fear of being seen as "that teacher."  That is the experience of a PLN.  Sharing ideas and experiences with people who enjoy what you have to share and openly share their personal experiences.

Most of my PLN started via a few Social Networks that I follow.  The first one that I joined was Classroom 2.0.  Very helpful in allowing me to share my blog as well as get feedback for future ideas.  I also met some people in the same career path as me, as well as some teacher education students who were enthusiastic about learning from other educators.  Another social network that I discovered was the Educator's PLN.  This was another website that allowed me to meet other educators who were experiencing the same change in education that I was experiencing, and many of these same members I follow on Twitter.

Then of course there is Twitter.  This is truly where the growth of my PLN started to grow.  I went from a few followers and following a few people to following over 100 (which I hope to increase soon), and being followed by over 200 in a matter of a month.  The problem with Twitter is its perception through out the education world. Yes, it originally and is still perceived as a Social Network.  But for educators...it is a Professional Network.  It is where I discover new ideas.  It is where I experience new thoughts.  It is where I find people who share many of the same educational values and beliefs that I do, and we discuss those without fear of egos, retribution, or fear itself.  From my original post about Twitter, you can tell that I am passionate about its use as an educational tool.  So let this be another opportunity for me to suggest joining Twitter and learning more about your PLN.  To give you another example, Dodie Ainslie Tweeted for suggestions for  what to include in a professional development about using Twitter.  I replied with ideas and from that, I had about 10 new teachers to Twitter begin to follow me....thus starting the creation of their own PLN.

Another opportunity came through Kelly Tenkely and the creation of a Blogging Alliance.  You can read more about the Blogging Alliance and see how to add the blogs to your Reader Account on her blog here.  By visiting the blog, you can click on a link to subscribe to the bundle of educational blogs.  This type of Alliance created a whole other type of a professional network for me to get to know and follow.  I highly recommend that you check out and follow our Alliance.

So, my questions for you are....what is keeping you from creating your own PLN?  Will you break away from the trend of most teachers and branch out from what is comfortable in your classroom and school and start a PLN?

Remember the following quote:

"CHANGE IS LIKE THE SUN, YOU EITHER CHANGE BECAUSE YOU FEEL THE HEAT, OR BECAUSE IT CAUSES YOU TO OPEN YOUR EYES." Not my own, saw in a book, drawing a blank on the author's name.

Think Twice Thursday #5 - Oh Come On...Not Another Power Point?!?!

Now, let me start off by saying that I am probably one of the most guilty users of Power Point in my classroom.  I created and have a Power Point for every unit that I teach.  I can only imagine how boring it was for my students after the 2nd unit to see me start up my computer and projector to begin another section of lecture using Power Point.

Power Point is a very useful tool.  It is a very easy way to present information.  It is a very easy way to organize information for students.  It is very easy to add pictures and video.  It is also very easy to use wrong and use slides the wrong way.  It is also very redundant, and thus, very boring.  Students are tired of Power Point.  Most of them will tell you they have done more Power Point than any other kind of projects.  How many Power Point Presentations have you created???

Five years ago...heck, two years ago, Power Point was THE method of using technology in the classroom for many teachers.  Because of Web 2.0, teachers have more options for presenting content to their students.  So with this post, I make a suggestion.  Think Twice about using Power Point for your next lecture presentation.  Instead, use some of the other tools out there.

Digtial Story Telling - Use sites like PhotoPeach (which you can turn your presentation into Quizzes) or Animoto.  Tell your lecture through pictures.  You can also download Photostory 3 from Microsoft.  Another option is Voicethread and make the lecture more interactive.  Storybird would be another option, and your students could add to the lecture

Glogster - Make a lecture into a Glog.  You can easily link to outside websites that enhance your lecture and then return back to the Glog.  Embed videos and audio clips for your students to watch and listen to while you take a break from the lecture.  A great change of pace to Power Point, with some of the same features.

Prezi - Take that linear Power Point Presentation, and put it on a 3D canvas.  Upload videos, pictures, and PDF's.  Zoom in and focus on a certain aspect of your presentation.  Students who have not seen Prezi, will probably be more attentive in class that day seeing you use a new presentation tool.

Comic Strips and Cartoons - Yes...Comic Strips and Cartoons.  Make your lecture into comic books.  Make it entertaining for your students.  Imagine the reaction students would have that day if you had a cartoon for their lecture that day.  You can visit my previous post for information on Comic Strip and Cartoon websites.

Virsona - Create lecture from the perspective from someone in history in the form of a chat.  Let your students ask the questions to lead the lecture.  You can see my blog post about it here.  Or for entertainment purposes, you could use a site like Blabberize, and record the lecture ahead of time.

Timeline - There are plenty of Timeline Applications on the web.  You can visit my blog post about them here.  Take your lecture to a new level and present it in a timeline, giving your students chronological order within the lecture, helping students with their organization.

Again, don't get me wrong, Power Point is great...but it is time that we rethink or Think Twice about how we use it in our classrooms.