Fair Use

It was really interesting to learn the basics of copyright and fair use. I showed my roommates the video because they are Disney fanatics, and they quite enjoyed it. :)

I think that fair use benefits teachers because they can supplement their lessons with materials without too much effort or expense. Without fair use, teachers would have to go through an extensive process to get permission to just use a picture or a video. Since I am a visual learner, I benefit so much from pictures/youtube videos/diagrams that teachers use in powerpoints, etc. Lessons would be pretty boring without the chance to spice up with materials. Also, it would be very difficult for a teacher to gather their own materials if they couldn't use someone else's for a lesson.

Basically, fair use makes it easier to be a good teacher. As long as you are giving credit where it's due, I think it's great to take advantage of the opportunities given thanks to fair use.

Website Up and Running

Here is a link to my class website. Thanks to Ben for the help to make it enjoyable instead of frustrating :)

Videos

I really enjoyed making the class video together. I was blown away by how simple it was to piece it all together. I can see real value in making videos as a teacher. Depending on your location and materials, it isn't possible to do all that you'd like to in the classroom. So, if you can make a video and show it in class or put it on your website, it could be a real learning tool. Also, it gives another way to reach students who might be bored by normal lecture or who are very visual learners. I'm excited to start work on project #2 and make a movie of my own.

Personal Learning Networks

First of all, I always realized the internet was huge, but this week my eyes were opened to so many resources online! It is incredible how many different types of sites that you can explore as a part of your personal learning network.

Some of the resources I explored were teaching related. For example, I subscribed to an education blogs website where teachers can share lesson ideas and materials. Also, I subscribed to scholastic's teacher sharing website with a similar premise.

I also signed up for an account on Linked In because it seemed like an interesting concept to me. And I'll be looking for a job within the next year, so it'd be nice to start forming contacts. I'm still in the process of finding people on the website, but I'm glad to have an account that I can go to later when I could really use it.

Another resource I discovered through this activity was ItunesU. This is a part of itunes that I had never discovered before. You can find information through different universities as well as K-12 programs. There are podcasts, links to websites and videos, etc. It is a tool that I am excited to explore more. To get to it, you open up itunes store and then click on the itunesU link along the top menu.

I am glad to be exposed to so many new sources that I can draw from individually and as a teacher!

Lifelong Learning

I really enjoyed discussing lifelong learning in class this week. Not only is lifelong learning important for people in general, I think it is especially important for us as Latter-Day Saints. We have an expanded perspective of this life and the knowledge that life continues after death, so we should be even more encouraged to learn all that we can.

My favorite part of the readings we did was a quote by President Monson: “Your talents will expand as you study and learn. You will be able to better assist your families in their learning, and you will have peace of mind in knowing that you have prepared yourself for the eventualities that you may encounter in life” I think it is so important to realize that what we learn, both spiritually and secularly, carries over into all aspects of our lives. What we learn not only influences our carreers, but also our relationships with others and our influence as parents and teachers in the Gospel.

I thought it was interesting to see how RSS feeds can contribute to staying up to date and educated. By using something like googlereader, it is easy to keep up on websites and be learning every day in an organized way.

Project Proposal

For my projects, I plan to stick to the deadlines originally given in the syllabus. I had already entered them into my planner and so it just seemed easier that way.


The dates are as follows:

Project #1	February 10th
Project #2	March 17th
Project #3	April 7th

Hope everyone is having a great week!

First Post!

First of all, I thought I'd take five minutes and set this up, but I ended up spending over an hour having fun with templates and trying to figure out how to add widgets and stuff. I had to try downloading this template over and over again because the format wasn't right. But, after looking up some help online, I figured out how make it work and voila, I had a beautiful blog.

The widgets are still evading me somewhat, but I'm determined to find some cool ones and add them. I used the blogger layout tab to add some things like the search bar and my profile. As soon as I have a little more time, I'm going to find some cooler ones to make it more interesting.

For now, I'm just glad that I got my beloved template to work and that I'm making this first post!

ps Saw a science related Chuck Norris joke today:
"There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live."