Creative Commons

I had always known that copyright laws were confusing, but the more I seem to learn, the more confusing and complex they get.  When you download an item, do you have the right to have that item? Do you have the right to share that item? Edit that item?  The copyright law allows for fair use of copyright material.  While watching the video "The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education" Peter Jaszi, a Law Professor at American University said, "What constitutes "fair use" depends on the situation".  I couldn't have said it better myself.   Teacher can sometimes use certain things for particular educational purposes.  So many regulations and exceptions.  However, Creative Commons helps the average person understand a little better of what is acceptable to do with the image or text.

I was ecstatic to learn (yes, I'm easy to please) that in Firefox, there is a pull-down menu of search engines and one of them is Creative Commons! In Science we are learning about Earthquakes.  What not better way to understand the impact of an Earthquake than to see a picture.  I decided to search Creative Commons for a picture of the recent earthquake in Haiti.

Original Image: Port-au-Prince,  January 2010, Post-earthquake
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4458418390_96a202a614.jpg
By: Treesftf (Flickr Name)
License Type: Attribution 2.0 Generic License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Creative Commons is open to the public! I was even able to create a Creative Commons License for my own image!

I'm a teacher.  Even on my honeymoon I'm a teacher.  While on our Safari in Kruger National Park, we came across these two rhinoceros- and the first thing that came to my mind- Symbiosis! What a wonderful example of mutualism.  I could not wait to get back to share with my students.  The birds sitting on top of the Rhinos are eating the bugs and other insects off the rhinos and the rhinos are protecting the birds from predators.

(Click on the picture to take you to the site!)
Original Image "Rhinos- Mutualism"
http://picasaweb.google.com/epstein.dana/SouthAfrica#5575982411129944242
By: Dana Collett
License Type: Released Under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Learning Styles

I am a visual learner through and through.  I learn best when meaningful pictures, videos, and charts are shown.  I also enjoy demonstrations and items that color-coded.  This couldn't have described me better.  While in college, I was constantly creating charts, tables, etc even if they were not given to help me learn.  I love to color-code things (even today) to help me differentiate. I wrote notes and color-coded them as well.  When I thought about them, the color helped me to remember certain facts.  And while i do hold some auditory characteristics (i.e. talking out loud to myself ) I chalk it up to being a teacher, and teachers always seem to talk out loud :)

I take my learning style and the majority of my teaching is for visual learners.  In an ideal world, it would be great to be able to teach to everyone, but that is not possible.  Most of the population are visual learners, so I am targeting a huge chunk of students.  I also try to incorporate many kinesthetic activities since elementary students have a tendency to enjoy hands-on learning, but the majority of my teaching is for the visual learner.  I enjoy creating power-points with pictures from my life to help explain a concept in hopes the students will make a connection.  I love to color-code things and write in different colors to help get my point across.  For example, if I were teaching a math lesson I would explain each step to solving a problem.  I would write each step in a different color.  When I solved the problem, I would use those same exact colors that corresponded to the step.  I have taught inclusion for the past couple of years and they have told me that it has helped them.  They can look and see if they have the blue step, red step, etc.

While there is nothing wrong with sticking to your own learning style as a teacher, it is also important to make sure that you cover all the basis in order to make sure you are giving the students all they need to learn.

RSS Reflection Take 2

Home Page

Everyday I come home from school and check the same websites: The Leaf Chronicle (our local newspaper), Click on Detroit (so I can see what it going on back home), Fox News (to make sure I am up to date with the worldly news) and of course, People (to make sure I am up to date on my celebrity news!) But now- with my amazing netvibes site- I can go to only ONE website rather than 5! But my netvibes site is not only for my entertainment, it is also for learning.

MAET Sites

When I first set up my site I added the 5 required sites and 8 sites of my own. My task was to follow the sites I chose to add and observe the changes. However, I after days and days of checking my chosen sites, I realized that some of them have not been updated in years! Therefore, I set out to add more sites which are updated on a more consistent basis.

After constant monitoring I found myself taking a liking towards certain sites. One site is Free Technology for Teachers.  There is just a wealth of information on this site.  One post contained a video from ESPN that "demonstrates the roles of angles, velocity, and rotation in making a three point shot in basketball." While this video may not get everyone's attention, it sure is a lot more fun to watch! This sites contains tons of video clips and various websites to use as resources.  Also, the sites is updated almost daily, which makes following it fun and interesting.  

Free Technology For Teachers

Another site I enjoy is A Year of Reading.  There are a ton of wonderful book ideas for the teacher to enjoy and learn from as well as to read in a classroom and share with students.  I really enjoyed the post, "What to Read Aloud Next?" I am always looking for great read aloud ideas that will keep the student's attention.  I also enjoy the site as it seems to be geared toward upper elementary.

The Scholastic website Classroom Solutions offers a variety of information.  I enjoy this site because it seems to range from kindergarten all the way to middle school.  I have always liked Scholastic, so I was quite excited when I came across this site.  I like how the site offers ideas and activities for current events and holidays that involve strategies such as comparing and contrasting and cooperative groups.  This site does not stop there though, it covers everything from how to organize your classroom efficiently to drug and alcohol abuse in schools to how to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  Not all of the sites have to do with technology, but the ideas are marvelous nonetheless.  I love checking daily to see what the new post is about.

Finally, the last blog I am going to talk about is the Langwitches Blog.  The only thing that bothers me about this blog is that it is not updated on a regular basis.  Sometimes new information will be posted two days in a row and then nothing for 2 weeks.  But, this site does contain good information, so it is worth the wait.  One of the most recent posts is about quality comments classroom blogs.  I loved this idea, especially since my SIG group is focusing on digital storytelling.  What a wonderful way to share an idea- make a how-to video and post it on a blog- students would love that! The website also contains a cute video clip about the copyright laws and why things are the way they are.  I thought this was a cute video to help the older students understand.  The video is bits and pieces of fairy-tales and Disney movies taken out of context to explain the copyright laws.  My only complaint is that it is on YouTube and our school has blocked that site, therefore, I cannot share this awesome video with my coworkers or my students.  Take a look at the video: A Fair(y) Use Tale.

Everyday I am learning more and more about technology and the teaching field.  It is amazing how much there is to learn.  It just goes to show that a teacher is just a grown-up student.

PC Maintenance and Security

I have to start off with a bit of frustration. The title of this blog is "PC Maintenance and Security" with the emphasis being on PC. Well, I own an Mac and my school system uses Macs. Therefore, many of the videos on the Atomic Learning Tutorial site were based on Windows and PCs and not compatible with Macs. I was interested in defragmentation until I realized that unlike windows, OSX doesn't offer an easy way to defragment the hard drive. So I stuck to the videos which focused more on security and internet rather than PC maintenance. However, I did watch a video about Intrusion Prevention Software (IPS) and Intrusion Detection Software (IDS) which i found rather interesting even though it did not really apply to me. After further research I found out that the best IPs and IDS are not for Macs. I was a bit confused at the beginning when it told me that how anti-spyware and anti-virus programs are based on a "signature". BUt the tutorial went on and used an awesome analogy which made complete sense! The tutorial stated that "IPS and IDS detect malware based on behavior and not a signature. This is like catching a thief based on characteristics and not fingerprints." That totally makes sense! (To add to the confusion, my husband, was trying to explain the software to me which made zero sense. So naturally, when I finally heard the analogy and understood the concept it made sense.)

I watched another tutorial on Phishing. I thought I had some knowledge about Phishing, but I did not give the "bad guys" enough credit! The tutorial showed an example of an e-mail sent using the Bank of America logo. The e-mail looked very legit. But rather than asking you to respond to the e-mail with your account number, password and social security number, they took it to the next level. They put a link to a "Bank of America" website (not the actual website but one that looked identical) and had you enter your information there. This just amazed me. I always knew that no legitimate financial institute would ask for any of that information, but asking you to click on a link was a good way to confuse people. When in doubt, always go straight to the actual website- and do not click a link. What great advice that is since phishing happens to large bank companies, credit card companies as well as ebay.

Finally, the last tutorial I watched was on online backup. My brother is a big supporter in this and constantly tells me to do so. To tutorial talked about two main sites: Media Max and Foldershare. Both are available for PCs and Macs since they are via the internet. The Media Max offered free 25 GB secure storage. Something I never thought of: back up your pictures and videos! It's not just your documents you can lose if something were to happen to your computer, but all those pictures you have saved. So just for the sake of my memories, I think that's where I will start. :)