Week 1/Blog #1 Comment to Curt Isakon

Image above by Leslie G Perry

Week1/Blog #4 My Opinion on Copyright Solutions
Flute player. Photo by Curt Isakon (image from original blog post)

As a creator of music, website content, and art I believe the most important thing one can do is educate yourself how to create as much of your own content as you can. This solves many of the dilemmas in worrying about what you can and can't use.

I have realized that over the years I have come to depend on myself to take the pictures, polish it in Photoshop, and create my own presence on the web so I was not dependent on anyone else's stuff. This is truly the answer. I have created an enormous amount of media content, and I am really not concerned about copyright issues because the stuff is mine.

So, take the time to learn how to create and use your own material as much as you can and this will help keep you out of harms way and people may be stealing your content instead of the other way around!
Posted by Curt Isakson at 10:53 AM


1 comments:
lesliegperry said...
I agree! I am a photographer and filmmaker so I like to shoot my own stuff to use. Additionally, when I was in the EMDT program, I really enjoyed learning how to make my own songs in GarageBand and purchased the Symphony JamPack so I had more loops to work with. Knowing that I own the rights for what I'm doing definitely feels good.

Image by Leslie G Perry

Wk 1 Comments: Reply to Hardy Reeves Wk 1 Sacramento Bee Article http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/08/2663187/california-capitol-expo-spotlights.html Cap

As I read through the online edition of the Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com) I came across this article that talked about the need for technology education in the classroom. In the article, it discusses how California, home to Silicon Valley, has one of the lowest performing groups in technology use. Students don’t know how to use the technology and access to it. I can only guess why, since I teach in California - on my campus Math and Reading...Math and Reading - that’s it.

When you visit the computer lab, there is Lexia, a program that teaches Reading skills, that we must use. Create a project in PowerPoint? Train teachers to use the technology that we have purchased? Are you crazy? How will that help Math and Reading? This is ultimately what led to my Action Research Project choice since I had fifth graders coming to me not knowing how to find their way around a computer, unless the items were on the desktop and the name of the program was Lexia. Stepping down from the soapbox and moving back to the article...

The article also stated two other very interesting items. The first is that the U.S. Department of Education will be requiring students to demonstrate technological literacy in the 2010-2011 school year (leaving me to wonder how that is going to go). I am excited about this prospect because hopefully, elementary students will have to take this test and we can actually start teaching the skills they need and also because California is finally looking at developing a plan for technology instruction. Something that will no doubt be intense, but it will clearly define what we believe technology instruction should look like.

The other item that I found very interesting is that the article also states how many business leaders in California state that students are not prepared to compete in 21st Century digital workplaces. I have talked to my high school students about their Computer classes there and have been told that they are a joke. That students are left to their own devices many times and that they just learn to type. This concerns me because again, many of the items that they need to learn how to do need to be taught to some degree. Sure, we can leave them with the computer and some will learn to create items in Word or PowerPoint, but who is teaching them to actually present the material, or collaborate across the internet in groups? After being in EMDT I feel I can, which is why I applied for a job in the district I work in for the Computer Applications class at the high school - something I probably never would have considered doing if I hadn’t been going through this degree program (or if I did I definitely would not have the 21st Century Skills I currently have because of the program).

Comment from Leslie Perry to Hardy Reeves
Absolutely! Bravo to you for applying to work teaching Computer Applications. You are so creative and engaging. I have the same experience when it comes to technology in the district overall but in my son’s school (and IB public magnet school), a former 5th grade teacher and now the new Media Specialist is helping to improve this. She is creative and open to adding new ideas. But the district policy is in the dark ages. And this lack of leadership leads to uneven teaching of technology across the grades. At the high school, students who do get the opportunity to blog (rare) can only do so within the firewall of the school eliminating one of the most important components of blogging – connecting with like-minded people across the globe.

I do wonder what the Department of Education will be testing students on for technology literacy. While I agree that this effort could force schools to teach more tech skills, I also am worried the bar will be so low that it won’t really be testing 21st century skills like what we have learned to use over the past year.

BP23_2009114_Flickr

Flickr is a tool that has grown exponentially as a place to share photos with friends, family and the world. In addition to sharing photos, Flickr is a social network where people have conversations and post comments to photos. Its openness is reminiscent of Wikipedia before editorial review and embodies the spirit of democracy. But should students be set loose in this vast democratic world of Flickr? While the site has great promise for education, it can be a problem for teachers to allow students full access to the photos since the bad can be easily discovered along with the good. While students should be taught how to survive in a world increasingly connected socially via the web, schools need to proceed cautiously for their student’s safety. Most educators are leery of putting up photos with faces of students and may compromise by uploading images that don’t have children’s faces as a way of sharing images with parents.

There is also the legality of uploading images of students to consider. In our school district, each parent has to sign a media usage waiver and indicate what level of media access he or she approves. The list of students with various levels of approval is long making the uploading of images more complicated. That said, I know of many parents who enjoy seeing photos that the teacher has taken in the classroom. How much openness is okay? That is a question that is still being answered by school districts in regards to Flickr, YouTube and many other social networking sites.

I am not a teacher, but as a photographer and dedicated parent, I developed a unique photography unit 3 years ago as part of a 4th grade cultural partnership with the Guggenheim Museum. I introduce photography to the students and then they get a chance to explore photography as an art form. The unit is extremely popular with all the students, and especially with those who often despise art and those who have attention or disciplinary issues because taking photos is so much fun and engaging.

Since the students often take photos of other students, I can’t use Flickr to add a social element to this project. However, I found one idea that I could use for this project and I could also see it being used in a writing class as well. The group is called “Stories You Can Tell in School” (http://www.flickr.com/groups/storiesyoucantellinschool/). The idea is to have a small set of photographs (4 – 6) tell a story. In the discussion, there are several wonderful stories that have been uploaded.

Here are two I liked a lot. The Birdfeeder shows a man on a motorcycle going into a plaza, the birds there the congregate around him and he starts feeding them. This story has an extensive description of each photo attached so that the story is both visual and verbal. My personal favorite is called Practical Hero, which is about a toy GI Joe going into the washing machine to retrieve a lost sock and then gets a hero’s kiss from the mother. Now words are needed – the photos are composed very well and clearly tell the story.

I might use this idea next year when I teach my photography unit. What is great about this use of Flickr is that students can stay out of the picture (avoiding the legal issues). To be honest, I’m not sure I would be able to upload to Flickr given that the students are only in 4th grade, but this is an idea that is an excellent way to use Flickr in education.

Standon, Amy. (2009) My friend Flickr: A great photo opportunity. Retrieved November 22, 2009 from http://www.edutopia.org/my-friend-flickr

BP22_2009113_Web2.0tool_IntelTools

Intel has dedicated significant resources to supporting education in a variety of ways but for this review, the focus is on their Online Thinking Tools, which are one feature to free resources created specifically for K-12 education. This review describes briefly the three tools individually but the overall focus is on the three tools as a whole for use in the classroom. The 3 tools include Visual Ranking, Seeing Reason and Showing Evidence. Visual Ranking helps students evaluate and analyze information visually by applying criteria to assigning ranking to an ordered list. Seeing Reason asks students to create visual maps that look at the relationships of complex systems. Showing Evidence visually helps students develop arguments supported by evidence. Overall, these tools provide students multiple ways to develop meaning from information. In particular, each of the tools is highly visual, require using logic, and encourage collaboration. Finally, each of the tools has strong support from Intel to assist teachers.

Once the user clicks on any one of these tools, there are structures and features to each of the tools. Each of these tools has these common features:
1. Every tool has common tabs labeled as; Overview & Benefits, Try the Tool Project Examples Instructional Strategies and Workspace.
2. Every tool has a sidebar link with educational research to back up the use of the tool with references.
3. Every tool has a visual image of what the tool looks like when filled out from the Overview & Benefits page.
4. Every tool has animated demos, tutorials and help guides. Also, there are hot buttons at the bottom of every tab that assist teachers in contacting Intel’s Education department for more help.
5. Every tool provides examples of units that can be used immediately and are developed for a variety of grade levels.
6. Every tool includes strategies to help the teacher integrate the tool into their curriculum including the stages to use the tool and recommendations of how to assess student’s progress.

Positive Aspects:
Collaborative, engaging, backed up by educational research, free

Negative Aspects:
None

BP21_2009113_VideoCommercial_Diigo

BP20_2009113_Comments on CMYKRGBblog

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
BP11_2009112_Web2.0Tools_kuler

Review Web 2.0 Tools: kuler
http://kuler.adobe.com/

Kuler is a dynamic color-theme generator. It uses structured methods of color relationships and/or intuitive methods of visually choosing colors from an image or spectrum color wheel. The visual color information is easy for anyone to access, and very intuitive to use without knowing any code or specifications. The technical color information is useful cross-media data for print designers and web developers, and works well as a conversion tool between formats.

Main sections of the kuler website include Themes, Create: From a Color and Create: From an Image.

The community features let you browse the color themes posted by others for creative inspiration or share your own color themes with a team. Tags posted by the color theme creators make them keyword searchable. Comments and star ratings are enabled, and the number of downloads is tracked so that the themes can be ranked by popularity. There is even a Community Pulse area that visually shows the popularity of all colors by how many times they have been included in a theme.

There are many benefits of this free color-palette-generating service in that it is cross-platform (Mac or PC), cross-media (print or web), and it offers both visual and technical information for design and production. Kuler functions are also built into the InDesign CS4 and Illustrator CS4 applications of the Adobe Creative Suite software. A drawback of kuler is the need for a separate Adobe I.D. registration to use online, as well as a Flikr account to upload images because the Color Extraction feature can only access images uploaded to Flikr. Color Extraction has difficulty with CMYK-mode images, and this feature does not support color management, so associated color profiles of uploaded images will be ignored.

kuler could be used in a classroom lesson for design inspiration, print or web color gamut specification, or understanding relational color theory.

Help and more information about Kuler is available at http://kuler.adobe.com/links/kuler_help.html
POSTED BY CMYKRGB AT 11:00 PM
2 COMMENTS:

David Noller said...
Good day, Cathy!

As a Technology Curriculum Coordinator, I am charged with working with all of my teachers to help aid their instruction. This tool will be one that I will share especially with my publications instructors (who use InDesign 4) and with my art instructors, especially our Computer Art staff.

The concept is fascinating: sharing color palettes within a community of designers as a way to inspire and collaborate. Student designers have the opportunity to see what other designers around the world are using within their own work. This is such a great, simple idea. I just wish I knew what "relational color theory" is--I guess I'll leave that one to the designers. :)

NOVEMBER 11, 2009 6:43 PM
lesliegperry said...
As a designer, I am always trying to think of new color combinations that would work with my project. I loved having this resource of interesting combinations that I can use. I already have an Adobe ID and use InDesign often so I expect to integrate this tool immediately into my practice. I went in a posted on one of my favorites! Thanks for the review.

NOVEMBER 15, 2009 6:53 PM

BP19_2009113_Comments on Classrooms Are Not for Squares

BP11_11112009_Broadcasting with UStream.tv

What if you could broadcast your class to the world, or at least to that sick kid at home, and include the discussion and questions raised during your presentation? What if you could host a podcast with the opportunity for your live audience to make comments, ask questions, and participate in real time? Wouldn't that be awesome? The answer you are looking for is "Yes."

Ustream offers educators that opportunity--free of cost and with minimal hardware requirements. All you need is a computer with high-speed internet access and a webcam/microphone combination.

The first time I saw this tool demonstrated was in a room with over 300 fellow educators. Leslie Fisher, AKA My Tech Goddess, delivered a presentation on educational Web 2.0 tools at the 2008 MACUL Conference in Detroit, Michigan. By simply providing the link to her presentation, audience members who had internet access through either laptops or other mobile devices were able to join the text conversation that appeared to the right of her broadcast.

Fisher's image appeared on the large projection screen as she faced her webcam, and audience members posted responses to her poll questions, offered ideas, and asked questions about the material. The entire broadcast was recorded, allowing for the opportunity for those not in attendance to view not only her presentation, but the audience's participation as well.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The great benefit for educators who take advantage of this tool is that an entire lecture, demonstration, discussion, or other presentation can be recorded for those students who miss our classes for all the myriad reasons we hear about every day: home sick, gone for a sports event, attending a music festival, or staying home for the newest release of their favorite video game franchise. I had that last one today.

Ustream is collaborative, shareable, and free. What more could you ask for?


References

[Untitled Screenshot] Captured Nov. 11, 2009 from http://www.ustream.tv/channel/WEB-2-0-Literacy-Tools-Transforming-K-12-Education
Posted by David Noller at 6:23 PM
1 comments:

lesliegperry said...
This Web 2.0 tool has enormous potential. Putting on my PTA President hat, I would love to use this to allow working parents the opportunity to view and participate in meetings we have. Just recently, our new Superintendent visited our school. It was a great discussion and he presented his ideas for improving education for our students. Several parents told me they couldn't come because of work commitments. This could also be used for in-school presentations that parents might like to be a part of without actually being there. Great find!
November 15, 2009 6:31 PM