This is a couple of weeks late because I was trying to better understand this concept of copy rights and fair use. I think that I have been taught in my many years in school to be afraid of copy rights. I think that I have copy right when writing papers down to an art. I know when to site the different sources but I am very confused about the copy right and fair use on the internet. I think even after the lecture a couple of weeks I am slightly confused. I am working on my understanding using the different resources provided from my fellow classmates as well on the Google Docs. I found a couple of sources myself so that I could understand this concept so I will include them at the end of my post. I often find myself needing concrete examples of these ideas, I like to know definitions, examples and ways I can visualize the ideas. I think that my research has helped me clarify what the idea of copyright means to a teacher. I hope my resources help you to better understand the ideas and concepts of copyright and fair use.
Something that was confusing to me was what was public domain and what needed to copyrighted. I think that my idea of copyrighting before this was that anything on the internet needed to be cited and should not be used for your own without giving the author acknowledgment. I learned from a couple of sources that things in public domain do not need to be copyrighted. This source really helped me understand what is in public domain and what the idea of fair use really means. Another source that I found that was geared specifically for teachers is this source.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Digital Literacy
After participating in the lecture about digital literacy a week ago, I realized that I am far from digitally literate. I guess I was unaware of this fact because I am surrounded by people that are even less digitally literate than I am. My mom always calls me her technology savvy daughter and until now I have not corrected her. I think that this class is helping me work on my digital literacy because it is opening my eyes to new resources and possibilities of the internet. I have been trying to work on my twitter account and this is helping me to connect to others in many different worlds. Like other things (Facebook), I am trying not to become obsessed but it is not working too well. I just keep telling myself that it is helping me with my digital literacy.
When I sat down to work on my literacy lesson plan I did not really know where to start. I wanted to work on something that could be incorporated into a Kindergarten classroom because that is my interest and passion. I love this age and I believe we simply expose the students to digital aspects of their world they will become more literate when they are older. I think that one that is very important to digital literacy is safety on the internet. I think the first thing that children need to learn is safety in order to learn more about the digital world. I think that it was fun and exciting finding different resources for these young students to work on such an important subject.
Something that was very surprising to me was that the students in the second grade classroom that I am working in this semester for another technology class are very technology illiterate. I think that it was shocking to me because they could hardly type, much less find things online that could further their learning. I think that it is very important for teachers to work on digital literacy from an early age, hence working on a digital literacy lesson plan for Kindergarten for this project.
When I sat down to work on my literacy lesson plan I did not really know where to start. I wanted to work on something that could be incorporated into a Kindergarten classroom because that is my interest and passion. I love this age and I believe we simply expose the students to digital aspects of their world they will become more literate when they are older. I think that one that is very important to digital literacy is safety on the internet. I think the first thing that children need to learn is safety in order to learn more about the digital world. I think that it was fun and exciting finding different resources for these young students to work on such an important subject.
Something that was very surprising to me was that the students in the second grade classroom that I am working in this semester for another technology class are very technology illiterate. I think that it was shocking to me because they could hardly type, much less find things online that could further their learning. I think that it is very important for teachers to work on digital literacy from an early age, hence working on a digital literacy lesson plan for Kindergarten for this project.
Digital Literacy Lesson Plan
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Overview: I believe that part of being digitally literate is knowing the safety risks of internet. The students that I intend to teach are Kindergarten age so the students that this lesson will be geared towards are this age group. I intend to teach how to navigate the internet safely. This is the first lesson plan in a series of digital literacy plans that I would teach my students.
Objectives:
Students will be able to navigate the internet safely.
Students will be aware of the dangers on the internet.
Opening: (10 minutes)
First start out asking students questions about general safety rules such as:
What does safety mean to you?
Do we talk to people we do not know (strangers)?
What do you think it means to be safe on the internet?
Should we talk to strangers on the internet?
Should we go on websites without asking our parents or teachers?
After we have a pre-discussion about safety, the students will watch a video called “Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty.”
Main Activity: (40 minutes)- 10 minutes for each center rotation and 10 minutes for discussion and transition time
After watching the video on internet safety we will discuss the meaning of safety on the internet. This will be more of a post discussion about what they have learned. We are then going to break off into groups.
Center 1: This group will each have a computer. These students will have 10 minutes to play a game called “Internet Panic.” It is a game that includes the character Fauw Paw and they are going to navigate the “internet” in the game so that they can help the kitty get away from dangers. The game starts out by showing the children safe places on the internet such as parental approved websites, virus protection and secure websites and then it also gives examples of the dangers such as inappropriate content, unwanted emails and online predators.
Center 2: This will be a teacher led center where the students help set up a blogging website for the class. They will each have their own blogging username and password. They will be using www.kidblog.org. This is a great website for educators to use in their classroom because it is safe and secure. We will discuss the safety issues surrounding blogging and how we are keeping ourselves safe with the privacy settings on this website. This blog will be used throughout the year for the students to express themselves with different assignments.
Center 3: This is a group where students will discuss the safety rules that we should have in the classroom. They will work on a big poster with different rules. The students will have the option to draw and write the rules on this poster. Each rotation will just add on to the rules that the previous groups came up with.
Closing: (15 minutes)
Students will come back to the carpet and we are going to talk about internet safety as a group. We are going to review the “Internet Rules” Poster and add some more rules and clarify some of the students drawing and writing. We are going to post the rules at the computer center so that every time the students use the internet they have the rules in plain sight.
Evaluation: We are now going to have the students go to their desks and draw a picture of what internet safety means to them. I am going to go to each student and ask them to tell me what it means to be safe on the internet in one sentence. We are going to hang all their pictures on a bulletin board outside the classroom so that the whole school can see what it means to be safe. The following day we are going to have blogging as one of the center activities. We are going to record their sentences on their blog on how to be safe on the internet. I am going to evaluate the students throughout the lesson and see how they are understanding safety on the internet. I am also going to record their statements and use this as an evaluation tool to determine if they understand how to be safe on the internet.
Internet Safety Resources
Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty Video: http://ikeepsafe.org/assets/videos/?vid=fauxpaw_video
Kidblog: www.kidblog.org
Internet Safety game: http://ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/
McGruff Safety Games: http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
One resource I found that students can play to learn about internet safety is this website. The website has several different games including a matching game about internet safety as well as a game about cyber bullies. I believe that this website could be played after the lesson when the students are done with the main part of the lesson. This website just reinforces some of the ideas of internet safety. http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
Overview: I believe that part of being digitally literate is knowing the safety risks of internet. The students that I intend to teach are Kindergarten age so the students that this lesson will be geared towards are this age group. I intend to teach how to navigate the internet safely. This is the first lesson plan in a series of digital literacy plans that I would teach my students.
Objectives:
Students will be able to navigate the internet safely.
Students will be aware of the dangers on the internet.
Opening: (10 minutes)
First start out asking students questions about general safety rules such as:
What does safety mean to you?
Do we talk to people we do not know (strangers)?
What do you think it means to be safe on the internet?
Should we talk to strangers on the internet?
Should we go on websites without asking our parents or teachers?
After we have a pre-discussion about safety, the students will watch a video called “Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty.”
Main Activity: (40 minutes)- 10 minutes for each center rotation and 10 minutes for discussion and transition time
After watching the video on internet safety we will discuss the meaning of safety on the internet. This will be more of a post discussion about what they have learned. We are then going to break off into groups.
Center 1: This group will each have a computer. These students will have 10 minutes to play a game called “Internet Panic.” It is a game that includes the character Fauw Paw and they are going to navigate the “internet” in the game so that they can help the kitty get away from dangers. The game starts out by showing the children safe places on the internet such as parental approved websites, virus protection and secure websites and then it also gives examples of the dangers such as inappropriate content, unwanted emails and online predators.
Center 2: This will be a teacher led center where the students help set up a blogging website for the class. They will each have their own blogging username and password. They will be using www.kidblog.org. This is a great website for educators to use in their classroom because it is safe and secure. We will discuss the safety issues surrounding blogging and how we are keeping ourselves safe with the privacy settings on this website. This blog will be used throughout the year for the students to express themselves with different assignments.
Center 3: This is a group where students will discuss the safety rules that we should have in the classroom. They will work on a big poster with different rules. The students will have the option to draw and write the rules on this poster. Each rotation will just add on to the rules that the previous groups came up with.
Closing: (15 minutes)
Students will come back to the carpet and we are going to talk about internet safety as a group. We are going to review the “Internet Rules” Poster and add some more rules and clarify some of the students drawing and writing. We are going to post the rules at the computer center so that every time the students use the internet they have the rules in plain sight.
Evaluation: We are now going to have the students go to their desks and draw a picture of what internet safety means to them. I am going to go to each student and ask them to tell me what it means to be safe on the internet in one sentence. We are going to hang all their pictures on a bulletin board outside the classroom so that the whole school can see what it means to be safe. The following day we are going to have blogging as one of the center activities. We are going to record their sentences on their blog on how to be safe on the internet. I am going to evaluate the students throughout the lesson and see how they are understanding safety on the internet. I am also going to record their statements and use this as an evaluation tool to determine if they understand how to be safe on the internet.
Internet Safety Resources
Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty Video: http://ikeepsafe.org/assets/videos/?vid=fauxpaw_video
Kidblog: www.kidblog.org
Internet Safety game: http://ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/
McGruff Safety Games: http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
One resource I found that students can play to learn about internet safety is this website. The website has several different games including a matching game about internet safety as well as a game about cyber bullies. I believe that this website could be played after the lesson when the students are done with the main part of the lesson. This website just reinforces some of the ideas of internet safety. http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
Thursday, February 24, 2011
PLEK12-Week 2 continued
What is inquiry learning?
Inquiry learning to me is getting involved in learning. Being able to take an active role in participating in lessons or learning. I believe that inquiry based learning is ongoing. It is working towards a goal not stopping at the “finish line.” One of the main purposes for last semester’s internship was an inquiry based project. I had to be completely immersed in the content and actively participating to reach my goal. Last semester I thought my goal was to get to the so called finish line, the end of the semester. I now realize that is not the case at all. I am still working on this project and I intend to work on it for the rest of my professional career. Inquiry is also interactive and exciting, learning new things everyday, exploring all the options and working towards that exciting goal.
What tools are available to organize a PLE?
I think that one of the tools, which we saw in examples and resources this week to organize a PLE is through the use of the technology resource Symboloo. It is such a fun and interactive website for children and it is easy to use. I learned about this resource back in my first technology class and it was very interesting. One thing that I think the students will love is all the ways to organize resources with all the different colors.
I think another great resource for organizing a PLE is the use of wikis. When I first started in the college of education I did not realize that there were such things as wikis and now I am well aware of their powers. I think that this is a great way to organize and share all of your information because it is an easy way to organize such a vast body of knowledge. I think that this is also a great place for others to see and interact with your work.
I am not really aware of other ways to organize your PLE so if you have any suggestions for me I would love to hear them.
What does a PLE for K12 inquiry look like?
This is actually a question I keep asking myself. I am interested in teaching lower elementary grades, probably K-2nd grade and this has been hard for me to imagine. One thing that I have found very helpful are other’s blogs in this class. I have seen a couple of different examples of PLEs in the classroom and that has really helped me. I think that one thing that it would look like in my own classroom is an interactive way to learn through technology. I think that I would have to some of the background work on the PLE when it comes to more complicated tasks but I would like even my Kindergarteners to learn the importance of Inquiry learning. I think this is one of my main learning goals in this class, to make sure that I learn more about incorporating this idea into a lower elementary grade level. I would love some comments and suggestions on how to incorporate this type of learning into that environment as well.
Some Links that I found helpful:
Inquiry Learning
This is a link that I found extremely helpful when I was first starting to learn about inquiry learning last semester. It is a website that explores the differences that inquiry based learning has compared to the traditional approach and I found a few great quotes on there that I really enjoyed.
Symboloo
Here is the link to symboloo if everyone does not have it already. I like this website for the use in the K-12 classroom because it is fun and interactive.
Delicious-Social Bookmarking
Here is a link to a social bookmarking website that I absolutely love. It is called Delicious and it is very easy to use. This could be a place where people can view your websites and sources that you have accumulated on a concept.
Inquiry learning to me is getting involved in learning. Being able to take an active role in participating in lessons or learning. I believe that inquiry based learning is ongoing. It is working towards a goal not stopping at the “finish line.” One of the main purposes for last semester’s internship was an inquiry based project. I had to be completely immersed in the content and actively participating to reach my goal. Last semester I thought my goal was to get to the so called finish line, the end of the semester. I now realize that is not the case at all. I am still working on this project and I intend to work on it for the rest of my professional career. Inquiry is also interactive and exciting, learning new things everyday, exploring all the options and working towards that exciting goal.
What tools are available to organize a PLE?
I think that one of the tools, which we saw in examples and resources this week to organize a PLE is through the use of the technology resource Symboloo. It is such a fun and interactive website for children and it is easy to use. I learned about this resource back in my first technology class and it was very interesting. One thing that I think the students will love is all the ways to organize resources with all the different colors.
I think another great resource for organizing a PLE is the use of wikis. When I first started in the college of education I did not realize that there were such things as wikis and now I am well aware of their powers. I think that this is a great way to organize and share all of your information because it is an easy way to organize such a vast body of knowledge. I think that this is also a great place for others to see and interact with your work.
I am not really aware of other ways to organize your PLE so if you have any suggestions for me I would love to hear them.
What does a PLE for K12 inquiry look like?
This is actually a question I keep asking myself. I am interested in teaching lower elementary grades, probably K-2nd grade and this has been hard for me to imagine. One thing that I have found very helpful are other’s blogs in this class. I have seen a couple of different examples of PLEs in the classroom and that has really helped me. I think that one thing that it would look like in my own classroom is an interactive way to learn through technology. I think that I would have to some of the background work on the PLE when it comes to more complicated tasks but I would like even my Kindergarteners to learn the importance of Inquiry learning. I think this is one of my main learning goals in this class, to make sure that I learn more about incorporating this idea into a lower elementary grade level. I would love some comments and suggestions on how to incorporate this type of learning into that environment as well.
Some Links that I found helpful:
Inquiry Learning
This is a link that I found extremely helpful when I was first starting to learn about inquiry learning last semester. It is a website that explores the differences that inquiry based learning has compared to the traditional approach and I found a few great quotes on there that I really enjoyed.
Symboloo
Here is the link to symboloo if everyone does not have it already. I like this website for the use in the K-12 classroom because it is fun and interactive.
Delicious-Social Bookmarking
Here is a link to a social bookmarking website that I absolutely love. It is called Delicious and it is very easy to use. This could be a place where people can view your websites and sources that you have accumulated on a concept.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
PLEK12-Week 2
I think I have chosen my inquiry topic. I thought since this would be my first PLE I would choose something that I would really have a passion about-training dogs. I will talk specifically about training my own dog and finding new ways to do so. I am posting the link to my blog that is about training and I will post there about the links and resources I have found regarding my topic. I am also going to post updates on how the actual training is going with own dog.
Click here to view my training blog
Click here to view my training blog
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Situation Report 2
Project Overview
This week we entered the classroom for the first time. We introduced our idea to the second graders and had a discussion of our topic. We asked the students about literacy and why it is important. It was a very successful visit to the school. It was really great to see how excited the students are about our project. We introduced blogs to them and hit a little snag in our plan when the blogging website did not work on the student’s computers. So we demonstrated the blog on our teacher’s computer. We now plan to use Edublogs for the students to blog about literacy.
Current Roles and Responsibilities
My current roles have not changed from last week. I am still responsible for organizing the Thursday Roundup. Lauren and I came up with the lesson plan for this week and what we were going to work on for the rest of the semester. I was also one of the group members that were responsible for going into the classroom to work directly with the class.
Current Project Status
We are currently starting work in the classroom. The students will make their blogs next Wednesday (Monday was our plan before we realized that it was President’s Day). We are going to just have the students sign up for their own blog and if we have more time next Wednesday we will have the students write their first blog entry. We are going to encourage the students to work on the blogs on their own time if that is something they would like to do.
Preliminary Findings
I have found that it is truly inspiring to students to use social media in learning. They are just so excited to work on this blog, they want to write in it when they are not with us, they want to write their own stories etc. It is amazing to me that the students are actually wanting to learn. One of my group members sent me an article for the Thursday Roundup about the role of social media in a protest. I cannot believe that it has that much of an impact.
Next Steps
We plan to work in the classroom on our blogs and other social media.
This week we entered the classroom for the first time. We introduced our idea to the second graders and had a discussion of our topic. We asked the students about literacy and why it is important. It was a very successful visit to the school. It was really great to see how excited the students are about our project. We introduced blogs to them and hit a little snag in our plan when the blogging website did not work on the student’s computers. So we demonstrated the blog on our teacher’s computer. We now plan to use Edublogs for the students to blog about literacy.
Current Roles and Responsibilities
My current roles have not changed from last week. I am still responsible for organizing the Thursday Roundup. Lauren and I came up with the lesson plan for this week and what we were going to work on for the rest of the semester. I was also one of the group members that were responsible for going into the classroom to work directly with the class.
Current Project Status
We are currently starting work in the classroom. The students will make their blogs next Wednesday (Monday was our plan before we realized that it was President’s Day). We are going to just have the students sign up for their own blog and if we have more time next Wednesday we will have the students write their first blog entry. We are going to encourage the students to work on the blogs on their own time if that is something they would like to do.
Preliminary Findings
I have found that it is truly inspiring to students to use social media in learning. They are just so excited to work on this blog, they want to write in it when they are not with us, they want to write their own stories etc. It is amazing to me that the students are actually wanting to learn. One of my group members sent me an article for the Thursday Roundup about the role of social media in a protest. I cannot believe that it has that much of an impact.
Next Steps
We plan to work in the classroom on our blogs and other social media.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Situation Report
My group and I had a meeting tonight that was very informative! We discussed many different important elements that needed to be discussed and we are starting in the classroom next Wednesday. We have chosen to focus on the importance of Literacy in the classroom as well as the surrounding community. We are going to incorporate technology in order to promote literacy and to spread the importance around community and beyond. We intend to incorporate blogs, podcasts as well as a public service announcement to promote their final product. We are planning on going into the classroom twice a week during reading block. We have 90 minutes of work time and we will be able to work on the blog each week. Our goal is to have them do at least one podcast that the students can add to their blog and then as a final project we will be making a public service announcement. I believe that this will make the student’s learning experience authentic and meaningful. It will also help the students learn about different technologies.
My current responsibilities are to work on the blog with students each Monday with another group member. I am also responsible for the drafting the Thursday roundup. We are all responsible for coming up with ideas and working together.
Our next step is to go into the classroom and introduce our ideas to the second graders. We will see how that goes, hopefully well! We are going to ask the students for their input and revise our plans to meet their needs and wants.
My current responsibilities are to work on the blog with students each Monday with another group member. I am also responsible for the drafting the Thursday roundup. We are all responsible for coming up with ideas and working together.
Our next step is to go into the classroom and introduce our ideas to the second graders. We will see how that goes, hopefully well! We are going to ask the students for their input and revise our plans to meet their needs and wants.
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