I agreed with Steve when he spoke about this issue during class and continued with that agreement after reading this chapter.  People can rationalize some very convincing arguments for making the choice to copy, however, at the heart of the matter are the issues of honesty and integrtity.  It is important to do the right thing…even if it is easy to do the wrong thing…even if there isn’t anyone watching over your every move to catch you. The only way to instill these morals in our students is to model it ourselves in addition to teaching it.  That being said, I would like some clarification on the Fair Use Guidelines in easy to understand terms.  I would like to believe that I am following them, yet I am needing some translations to be sure that I understand them correctly as that can be the only way that I can make sure that I am following them!

Sites related to this chapter: http://del.icio.us/schalman/summercoredayfour

This chapter gave a very clear explanation of the difference between a blog and a wiki.  My experience creating a blog today during the training also helped to give me some background knowledge of what I was reading about blogs and how to use them in the classroom.  I read some great ideas for use and management of both blogs and wikis and thought of a few that would work specifically for my classroom.  I have to admit that I was one of those teachers scared off from the idea of blogs and wikis because of the reputation they had.  I realized after class today and after reading this chapter that they can be a valuable tool in the classroom when teachers are proactive by setting clear guidelines for students/parents.  We have a wealth of resources at our fingertips as educators and students are sure to be excited to be able to use technology on a more regular basis.  I think it will help to instill good habits for future use if we model blogs and wikis as learning tools and as places for positive collaboration to take place. I am still a bit hazy about RSSs.  I think that I understand the premise of them, I just need a bit more explanation to know how they work and how I could apply them in the classroom to manage blogs and wikis.  I am hoping to get opportunities to work with both wikis and RSSs to gain a deeper understanding. 

Sites related to this chapter: http://del.icio.us/schalman/summercoredayone

1.  www.teachersfirst.com: search engine made by teachers for teachers

2.  www.kiva.org: great community service site, microfinancing so that you can lend small amounts of money to those in need in other countries

I thought it would be helpful to apply the things we are learning here at SummerCore to our first unit planner: We Are Family.  Below please find a YouTube Video.  To put it in this blog:

1.  go to YouTube.com

2.  find a video realted to curriculum

3.  copy the URL of the video (note that if you use a “related” video, you need to click more info to get the correct URL)

4.  on your blog, write a new post, click on the icon to add video and paste the URL

5.  click insert

6.  click publish

This video recounts a young child’s memory and journey of leaving Denmark and coming to America through Ellis Island.

To insert a photo into a blog:

1.  find the photo you would like either online or in your pictures

2.  copy the URL of the picture

3.  click on the icon to add a picture and paste the URL

4. click publish if it is a new post or save if it is an existing post that you are editing.

A photo of the Statue of Liberty taken from http://www.freefoto.com/images/1210/11/1210_11_58-–Statue-of-Liberty-New-York-City_web.jpg

Day 1: I just created my very first blog!  How exciting!  Steve and Lynne have ignited my curiosity about the possibilities of incorporating technology, specifically, Web 2.0, into the classroom. I appreciate the step by step directions, modeling, opportunites to practice and encouragement to explore.  There has been a great balance of information and practice and plenty of support. 

Day 2:  Today we had the opportunity to experience working on a wiki to answer the 33 questions.  It was a novel way to review the answers and allowed us creativity to have fun with how we answered.  I believe that this interaction with the content through careful consideration and collaboration with partners about how to illustrate the correct answer with images or video strengthen our memory of the correct answers because it provided an “episode” to attach to the information.  As educators, we are constantly in search of ways for students to efficiently and accurately retrieve information and this was a new way to consider in order to foster that.  In addition, we explored websites and created our own ‘delicious page where we can store, tag/categorize and share bookmarks with others.  I was probably in a bit over my head at the varsity excel session, but surprised myself by being able to apply what Steve had demonstrated…things like the sum function, the “magic” bottom right corner of the cells, the if, then function, the power of ”Format/Cells” and conditional formatting.  My friends have been pittying me for having to attend this workshop for these long days and my response has been how much fun I am having because I actually get to receive instruction on how to do things with technology that have interested me for a long time and immediately get to try it with support available to make sure I am on track!  I’m loving it!  I am making some connections that I’m certain will prove beneficial to both my classroom and my colleagues. Thanks to a SKYPE session with Sam at Horace Mann, the creator of their school’s LionTECH Institute, a big “aha” for me today was the need for Humanware to support teachers attempts at integrating technology into the classroom…some suggestions were to have a tech person meet with teachers weekly, monthly professional development where teachers give input into the curriculum, a school site to post ideas, projects, and resources with other teachers, allowing teachers the choice to participate in a technology initiative that incorporates these ideas…all of these seem to require an actual person dedicated to just this type of support.

Day 3: Today, we discussed our reading from last night on copyright. We reinforced the fact that it is not the medium that you copy something to, but the brevity, cumulative effect and repetition.  The way I understood it, you can show something once within 10-30 days after copying it.  You are then responsible to contact the publisher for permission if you want to use it again in the future.  In regard to music, we are only allowed to use either 10% or up to 30 seconds of a song on projects.  For example, if we create a DVD of photos from the year, we can only use the above time limit of songs on the DVD.  We cannot create a CD of entire songs to distribute to the class unless we have permission from the publisher to use the entire song.  We emphasized the importance of teaching both parents and students what the laws are and then modeling and enforcing them throughout our school.  It was suggested that we have parent meetings on this topic.  There are sites to go to with copyright friendly iamges and music such as www.creativecommons.org.