520 Blog 4

I found the Virtual Classroom assignment extremely challenging. I think it may have been because I really didn't know what the essential elements of a virtual classroom are. I know we covered some of the features in class, but I thought maybe that was just a get started point and that there had to be more. Yeah, well, I think I was wrong. The elements of a virtual classroom are quite basic eventhough they are very powerful. The difference from useablity between the two programs I looked at was the primary difference. (I didn't get so far as to check the pricing.) Maybe I just need to take a chill pill and not make things so complicated...sigh...

As far as the Copyright Laws and Creative Commons assignment goes, I've got the same thing going on. The material is interesting on some level (avery shallow one), but I know it is incredibly important for me to know and understand. So, I imported the reading into my OneNote, highlighted, scratched notes and opinions down, and searched for other information. In the end, however, I still felt as though I didn't really get it. I mean, where the heck do I find a CC license? Not for myself, but on something I would like to use? That information wasn't in the FAQ portion of creativecommons.org. I read that Creative Commons is not a database for licensed work. So, I needed to do a bit more research to find an example of a Creative Commons licensed piece. Yep. You guessed it. I Googled it...AND I found a search engine by Creative Commons ( http://search.creativecommons.org/ ).

What this is, is a compilation of search engines (ie. Google, Yahoo, Flickr, etc.) that has been limited to items that have Creative Commons licenses and can be sorted into a list of CC licenses for commercial use or licenses to modify. Handy.

Another helper was YouTube. I definately do not retain very well information I read, and with the dry material presented, I was able to find some videos that enabled me to go back to the reading and sort it out. This was another useful skill that was modeled in the MEIT program. Thank, all.

Child safety is something I have been putting more formal thought into since I have started teaching 7th grade along with implementing several online learning tools. In addition, I have a few sons that are becoming more interested by the day in what they can play with on the internet. (We should never had played with YouTube that one night...) With that, I have been involved in discussions with my students about why they need to respect the limitations put on them in school online even when the filter is down; discussions with my sons on the anonymity issue with predators online; and exploring several parental control options to install on my home computers.

I found the assigned articles eye-opening, with a few things especially standing out.

P.S. I just had to add that Google Alerts rocks. I signed up to receive alerts on teaching math and have received my first daily hit. One of the links was to an article from 2005 on 'How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom'. It totally applies to the math conference I am at right now...