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Thursday, October 11, 2007

New Information

I thought going into reading the handout on copy right I was aware of what was allowed and what things were not allowed. I was amazed though to find that there was a lot more things that were illegal than I knew. When I was going through school and doing a project, I would take pictures and things off the Internet all the time without even thinking about it. I started to learn once I got into the upper classes about siting sources and the importance of making sure you were documenting what information you used and that it was in your own words.

The things that I learned through the handout I believe I will use as a child life specialist because of wanting to use different handouts that I have found that will help a child and their family or maybe using a movie clip of some kind and showing the child a particular point that I wanted to be made. I now realized how careful I have to be when I am looking to share things with people. I want to make sure that I dont cross any lines and I think learning these standards will help that and will make more clear what can and cant be done.

I am looking forward to these next couple of projects because I believe they can be very helpful and that I will be able to find things that are specifically related to my topic of interest and things that I may actually use when I get to my profession. Finding videos will be something that I can use and learn from and then share with others. I think this social networking idea will be of great help when it does get linked to other people who are looking for the same information because there are not a lot of people who I know who are in the same field as me and it will be nice to have others to communicate with who are familiar with my profession.

New Discoveries

Copyright laws are SO specific nowadays that it is a dangerous for a future educator and for that fact an educator not to know about. I was shocked that there were so many specific guidelines to using information found through Internet, media, video, etc that were considered disobeying copyright laws. I wonder if because of the advancement in technology, that these laws are being enforced with a stronger hand. I know for a fact that many of my teachers has disobeyed copyright laws by using anything from video, music, pictures, and many more uses of technology without giving credit or resources at all.

The problem with copyright laws is that most of the time when they are being disobeyed it is out of being naive as opposed to down-right disobeying. So in this case, it is important to read all individual copyrights or disclosers so that we as educators are not taking advantage of another person's/business' work.

It almost comes down to the point that sharing information found on the Internet can be a copyright infringement without giving the specific website to that person. I can understand most of the laws, but I feel that if you give credit to the site, author, web-designer, etc. then it isn't disobeying copyright laws. All the specifics seem to be a little dramatic to me. But of course I am wrong...and learned something new.

The Wonderful world wide web

I once had a friend try to explain to me podcasts, and it didn't work very well. He downloaded a podcast to my itunes and ipod and I never listened to it because I never updated it and I rarely update my ipod. I had kind of given up on podcasts until this point, and to my surprise they can be utlilized in the classroom. I hope to understand them a little better after a proper tutorial, I feel like my knowledge of the Internet decreases daily, as I learn what's out there. I feel like it'll be hard to find quality podcasts because they seem to be created by your average Joe. I know there is probably quality stuff out there too, it's just a matter of finding it. I can't actually imagine myself using the rss feed either. Maybe once I have a classroom and a class website rather than going to the website and seeing nothing, I can just check it through the feeder. But for me that seems almost pointless, only because there aren't too many websites that I go to, so to check one to see if there are updates and then go to the other seems like an extra step. And if there isn't anything new on the website I check it doesn't save time to check one website over the other to see that nothing is new. Maybe in a few years there will be more sites that I'd be interested in checking out regularly so it will be of use than.
I feel like the copyright information is very valuable and its important for students to know, and know how to avoid plagiarism. However, it seems very easy for students teachers and schools alike to take information without realizing it's against the law. I really didn't know the copyright information on all those formats, so it was useful for me.

copyright and RSS

I definitly like the google reader. It is very helpful and saves a lot of time. Plus this way, I can see what is new on all the sites instead of having to go to each site, especially since I forget sometimes to check certain sites. I think the google reader can be very helpful as a teacher because it lets you get a bunch of news without having to waste time since teachers don't have a lot of it to spare. As far as del.icio.us goes, I also think this could be very helpful, especially with the amount of sites we have looked at so far in class. There are so many useful websites out there but it gets so overwhelming trying to remember which ones to look at and which ones are useful. It seems like del.icio.us will be a useful tool to help ease the task of looking at all the websites.

I learned a lot about copyright issues. I didn't really know much about it besides the basics such as don't plagerize. I found it extremely interesting that most of the time you can copy things as long as they are used for an educated purpose and are distributed fairly and in reason. I was caught off guard when I was reading about the ability to copy videos if the they aren't being offered at a fair price. This seems a little sketchy to me. Who is to say what a fair price is? Just because one person thinks it is fair, does not mean someone else does. That one is the one that seems the most flexible to me.

copyright and podcasts

To me, the purpose of copyright laws and regulations is simply to give credit where credit is due. If people always just do that, I don't really see the need to have specific rules about stuff. If you use something that isn't yours, just say whose it is. It's that simple.

We went over podcasts very fast, and I don't feel that I really understand what podcasts are and what the point of them is. For our project, how many podcasts are we supposed to find? Do we have to review them? So many questions . . .

As a side note: I feel very rushed in this class; there always seems to be so much stuff to do and barely any time to do it all.

CopyRights

The chart that we printed off is very useful for educators. I had no idea that certain things were illegal and some things I thought teachers couldnt do, we can! Educators need to be incredibly careful when incorporating technolgy into the classroom because many copyright rules can be broken. It becomes difficult for teachers, however, when certain materials are unavailable, or a teacher has a really great idea and no resources. We all want to incorporate as much technology as possible in our classrooms so that our students have fun while learning, but we also have to keep in mind the legal aspects. Personally, I need to brush up on these copyright rules so that I do not break any laws in the future. As technology progesses, however, the laws on copyrights may also become more strick as well.

Copywrite Information

I found this all to be very confusing. The table that we printed was almost contradictory in spots and also subjective. For example, under computer software it says that Librarians can make copies if the software is sold at an unfair price. How do we know what an unfair price is? Who gets to decide whether $20 is fair or not? Also, it says that poems that are less than 250 words can be copied but for those longer than 250 words you can only copy an exerpt. Why are shorter poems not given the same consideration as longer ones? Also, under the interenet it says that links to legitimate sites must be posted. How do we know what sites are legitimate?

It just seemed to me that there were a lot of holes and questions regarding this handout. Maybe I am just reading it wrong, but it looks as if a large portion of it is subjective.

Copyright and Ciber Ethics

I think that, obviously, copyrights are necessary and important to protect products and new technologies. Also, cyber bullying is a very dangerous thing that can affect numerous people and lead to serious ethical and moral problems. However, it is also important to note that people cannot be forced to protect themselves. I think that instead of demanding students or families to register or protect their computer using web-available commodities such as Net Nanny, people should be educated on the dangers of surfing the net. One of the main arguments in the article "The Concerned Educator's Guide to Saftey and Cyber Ethics" is that teachers stumble upon websites such as whitehouse.com that are pornographic and clearly not intended for classroom use. However, teachers should test websites for not only appropriateness, but also validity and content before they show them in the classroom. I think that by forcing students, families, and teachers to be policed by these cyber organizations that fight "crime" and "indecency," we are creating a boundary of distrust that shows lack of faith in students, parents, and teachers.

RSS

I am glad we learned about RSS today in class. I am also glad we set up our Google readers. I definately see the benefits of this internet feature. In the future, I predict that the RSS feed will be helpful when I become a teacher in order to receive the latest updates in teaching techniques and standards while saving time. Conducting daily searches can become very time consuming, especially for teachers whose days are very structured. It is important that teachers can access necessary information through the internet quickly and efficiently in order to conduct their classes smoothly.

The copyright laws are especially important for teachers yet can be a bit overwhelming. I think it is vital for teachers to always have a hard copy of the rules and regulations on hand in the classroom so that they are able to protect their work as well as their students. Plagerism and illegal copying is easy to do without even realizing you are breaking the law and can get really messy. I feel it is the teacher's responsibility to protect him or her self as well as the student's because otherwise the entire school can be punished.

Wiki Wiki Wiki

As our wiki projects come to a close, I have been reflecting back on what I've learned over the past week or so. I have to say that I found Wiki easy enough to use, but I did stumble across several coding errors that became very annoying as I tried to complete my projects. Also, some of the pictures that I tried to upload refused to appear on the screen.

I think wiki would be beneficial for me as a teacher to post a syllabus, calendar, or classroom announcements, but I would save Wiki for my upper level English classes. I do not think this is the best way to present a project, but it can definitely compliment a project. I feel like there are other websites that are more creative than wiki that allow changes in fonts, sizes, colors, and themes. They offer a website that is more visually appealing, but not many people can edit the page at a time.

I do wish we would have had a more interactive lesson while learning the features of Wiki. Watching the videos in class today about RSS and del.icio.us, for example, were helpful. It was easier to understand in simple language and have a visual to guide us. It is aggrivating at times that we cannot utilize some programs in class because we are not administrators. We just have to explore on our own!