What's RIGHT about Copyright?

Where we would be without copyright laws?  Well for starters anyone could take anyone's work without any problems.  Sounds like legal plagiarism to me. We have all seen the copyright symbol (pictured left) but I wonder how many people really abide by copyright laws.   

According to (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008) whether you copy pages from text, music from a CD, or multimedia clips from the Internet, you may be in violation of copyright laws. As the authors mentioned someone put their time, energy, and creative talent into the product that they have created and has the complete right to decide how it is to be used and to profit from his or her work.

I think about ethics when I think about copyright laws.  If it is not correct, then don't do it-don't violate it.  Please allow me to help.  Use the three guidelines below and consider these facts regarding copyright laws:

             1. If you are an educator, you are not granted special permission to buy one license of a
                 particular product, make copies, and distribute to your entire class or school;

             2. Do not place your students work online without permission; and

             3. All info on the Internet is copyrighted in some way, regardless if you see the copyright sign
                 or not-don't take it for granted.

Perhaps number one and number two are the most important points to remember.  As current or former teachers you should be aware of purchasing a certain licenses for educational purposes. in addition, you should  also be aware that the "how many" question is always asked.  Purchasing one license and supplying the software to more than one is unethical.  In Why Teachers Violate Copyright (2008), it is explained that a school district in Texas purchased a single copy of a high-stakes assessment workbook for each grade level, then sent the copies to the district print shop. The print shop duplicated a copy for each student in the district. The copyright owner found out, and sued the district, alleging $7 million in damages!!!!  Be careful not to put you or your school system in this situation. To be on the safe side, use fair use judgement before proceeding in situations like this.

Secondly, refer back to number 2 (one cannot reproduce, distribute, or electronically transmit the work of others without their permission).  This seems easy, makes a lot of sense actually.  As a teacher have you ever posted your students work online without their parents permission? If so, avoid doing it again.  Remember, you must gain the permission of the student and the parent or legal guardian before doing so.

Abiding by copyright isn't hard...just avoid doing the wrong things.

References

Garner, T.  (2008).  Why teachers violate copyright? National Council of Teachers of English.  Retrieved on March 9, 2011 from http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-i-have-violated-copyright.html. 

Lever-Duffy, J. and McDonald, J. (2008).  Teaching and learning with technology.  3rd edition.  New York:  Pearson 

Is Social Media Leaving YOU Behind?

We all know that technology is changing on a daily basis.  Did you know that social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities?  Did you know that social media is the hottest internet search, surpassing all others.  Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and if face book was a country, it would be about the equal size of the United States? Don't believe it?  Check out this video by Flashpoint Communications.

Educators should jump on board and incorporate social media into their classrooms.  Blogs are a great start and just the beginning.  Incorporating technology into the classroom is a standard but incorporating some of the latest technologies surpasses the standard.  As a result, your students will not only learn, which is the ultimate goal, but love and respect the fact that even when they were learning, they were enjoying it!

What's the Hype about Skype?

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and video conferencing (see video on right).

Skype can also be used in classrooms to communicate with people in different places.  Students from the Gideon Elementary skyped with people from China as a part of a lesson that they were doing!  Wow!  Interested in seeing the video?  Click here.  Technology is amazing. 

Try incorporating Skype into one of your lessons. For a great learning experience, click  here for informal and formal ways you can incorporate Skype into the classroom. I'm sure your students will love it! To download Skype, click here.  



Open Source - Meeting the Needs of the 21st Century

Talk about embracing technology at school!  Open High School, the first secondary school to implement an Open Source curriculum, is the epitome of such. 

This approach may just be the transition that some schools (K-12) may go to.  We have learned and I have stated previously that technology is ever changing.  As a result, teachers have learned and currently implement new technological strategies into classrooms on a daily basis.  But, implementing online education across the board in post secondary education is interesting.

Perhaps advancing to this approach transfers the accountability level for students and parents. The setting goes from formal to somewhat informal and from teacher-centered to student-centered.  The teachers will actually serve as the Facilitators whereas the students must heavily rely on computer competence and doing their own work based off of instructions given via web (and not so much verbally, although some may be on site for assistance).

This setting also reminds me of a collegiate online degree or courses if you will.  In addition, this approach to education resembles Blackboard, the only difference is that they can physically see their instructor (unless they are elsewhere) and blackboard users cannot (unless they visit the instructor’s office).   

One of my concerns with this approach is the data collection process in which teachers search for information to bring to the classroom, sounds normal in a sense.  But, I wonder if the teachers compare this with Utah’s standard course of study and build upon goals and objectives when presenting/uploading lessons.  My last concern is, is it too much too soon? Are high school students ready for this? Maybe some are maybe some are not.  But if it works, then that is a sign of change to come.  After all, if we don’t challenge our students and continually present them with new advances and approaches to technology of the 21^st century, are we doing our jobs as educators?

Microsoft Office Suite-The Best in Productivity

2010 MS Office Suite



Microsoft Office Suite offers Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, Publisher, and other software that are user friendly and can be incorporated into the classroom.  As always, Excel is great for teaching students how to do spreadsheets and create formulas.

Currently, I am using the 2007 version. But if you are really tech saavy and looking to introduce your students to the latest and greatest, the 2010 version is available in stores and online. 

Check out the video below to see the new and exciting features.  Intrested in a free trial and how you can incorporate the new 2010 Microsoft Office Suite into your daily lesson plans at school?  Click here.