A Teacher Journal #4: Goals for Connecting

After many years of saying "someday," I'm finally enrolled in an Educational Technology Master's Program. My current course requires me to keep a journal to document "connectedness" online. Below is my fourth entry. 

I have been forming connections online for many years now as an educator. However, I am not sure that I ever stopped to actually reflect on what my goals were while online. Usually, online I will have one specific question that I am looking into: How are other teachers using Genius Hour? What are some good ideas for using Spheros with middle schoolers? How can I better organize my classroom materials? Is anyone else out there having trouble with "community supplies"? So, my goals are more immediate, not long-term. There are many great ideas online, and often I find myself going from one query to the next seamlessly. Ultimately though, I should think of what my primary goals are. I believe there are three for this year:

• GOAL 1: To stay culturally literate in education

• This takes constant peeking around especially when technology changes so quickly. This can also benefit my students as I read more about teaching the whole child and organizing projects through blogs such as Cult of Pedagogy and Catlin Tucker.

• GOAL 2: Find more hands-on and "real science" learning experiences to support my NGSS science classroom

• Facebook Groups such as California Middle School Teachers and Kesler Science have vibrant, active members. They offer a place to share ideas with teachers around the state and nation.

•  GOAL 3: Inspiration

• Teaching can be hard and isolating. Sometimes it helps to see others who are doing it well or even others who share the same struggles. Twitter #whatisschool and EduMatch have been excellent places to find teachers who are striving for innovation and excellence. Through these resources, I have "met" teachers working in the International School in Singapore and learned about ways to connect my classroom to others using tools like Flipgrid. 

"Connect Ideas" by Luigi Mengato licensed under CC-BY 2.0

This is not an end-all list. Just where I am at for the moment. So, what about you? What are your goals for connecting online? What are the best places you have seen online for connecting with other educators?

A Teacher Journal #3: Copyright, Creative Commons, Fair Use

After many years of saying "someday," I'm finally enrolled in an Educational Technology Master's Program. My current course requires me to keep a journal to document "connectedness" online. Below is my third entry. 

According to Common Sense Education (using Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike copyright), here are the definitions of these terms:

COPYRIGHT: A law that protects your control over the creative work you make so that people must get your permission before they copy, share, or perform your work.

CREATIVE COMMONS: A kind of copyright that makes it easier for people to copy, share, and build on your creative work, as long as they give you credit for it.

FAIR USE: The ability to use a small amount of copyrighted work without permission, but only in certain ways and in specific situations (schoolwork and education, news reporting, criticizing or commenting on something, and comedy/parody).

We live in a time when images are all around us and almost effortless to obtain. Almost any look online at social media will bring up dubiously acquired images. Do we know that the artist who created that image has given permission to it being attached to someone else's tweet? No. The tweeter or Facebook poster most likely did not create it themselves, but there is no credit attributed. Most of these images are not copyrighted. We have to assume that they are not trying to steal. We also know that they are not really benefitting from posting the image. Often they have adapted it to use for their purpose of sharing. If we are concerned, we can gently ask, "Did you take that photo? It is beautiful!" to make them aware of what they are using. Plus, sometimes you can't tell--maybe they did take the photo!

In the classroom, we can teach our students to add the appropriate copyrights to their own work when posting online. We can also teach them to search more carefully, pay attention to copyrights, and make sure to follow the rules of fair use. We can make sure that they give credit to their sources properly and not plagiarise.

Here's a fun Kahoot that I made to share with my classes on the topic. Feel free to use it (or adapt it for your needs)!