Teaching students about copyright and ensuring that compliance happens in the classroom is a difficult task. Much of the difficulty arises because traditional copyright laws were written long before the digital age in which sharing educational resources has become so easy. In recent weeks, I have heard about a resource called Creative Commons. However, the best summary I have seen is this article, “The New Rules of Copyright” written by Judy Salpeter (Tech & Learning, October 2008 issue). In addition to the overview of Creative Commons, it also includes a chart on what is appropriate and what needs to be avoided when it comes to copyright issues. Check it out.
Photo Credit: www.creativecommons.org

ISTE has made some changes to its December webinar offerings, including the addition of a new session by Hall Davidson. Here are the new dates and topics:

• Wednesday, December 3 – Dr. Z’s Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication (Dr. Leigh Zeitz)

Join Dr. Z as he takes you on a tasty tour of on-line gadgets and gizmos to spice-up your learning and working environments through collaboration. We will explore the Web 2.0 tools that can be used to make your online world of learning and work more creative and productive. The collaborative tools of Google Docs, Forms and Presenter will be used to share and access information as well as provide an interactive chat forum for audience members during the presentation. Our menu will also include a variety of exotic-sounding entrees including Skype, Ning, Jing, and Twitter. This culinary cruise is designed to whet your appetite for new opportunities and stimulate your imagination about what is possible in today’s Web 2.0 kitchen.

• Thursday, December 4 – Copyright – From Nuts and Bolts to Web 2.0 (Hall Davidson)

The amount of intellectual property on the Web has exploded but the rules have remained the same since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) and the TEACH Act (2002). In this Webinar we will discuss the underlying fundamentals of Fair Use, copyright policy, and the classroom, and their application to digital content and the manipulation of tools in a Web 2.0 world. We’ll cover tips on copyright-safe searching (unavailable until recently), implications for content creation, and an exploration of what this means to wired classrooms. Classroom practitioners have both responsibilities and freedoms they are generally not aware of. Learn how these apply to the digital classroom. Also, hear the latest in copyright pro-active advocacy in the educational media from policy announcements on November 11, 2008. The webinar is hosted by Hall Davidson, whose published copyright guidelines hang on many classroom walls. Guests will include policy advocates and intellectual property experts.

• Tuesday, December 9 – Digital Citizenship for Parents (Mike Ribble)

How can parents keep up with all the new and ever-changing technologies that children take for granted? Parents often feel overwhelmed with the challenges and risks of this digital culture in children’s lives. They want their children to take advantage of all technology has to offer, however they also want them to stay safe and act responsibly. This webinar is an overview of the new and popular technologies that includes a discussion on how to help children become good digital citizens. This webinar is important for anyone with children at home or wants to understand more about the issues that are affecting them today.

• Tuesday, December 16 – From Toy to Tech Tool: Cell Phones in Learning (Liz Kolb)

How can parents keep up with all the new and ever-changing technologies that children take for granted? Parents often feel overwhelmed with the challenges and risks of this digital culture in children’s lives. They want their children to take advantage of all technology has to offer, however they also want them to stay safe and act responsibly. This webinar is an overview of the new and popular technologies that includes a discussion on how to help children become good digital citizens. This webinar is important for anyone with children at home or wants to understand more about the issues that are affecting them today.

All webinars are at 4:00 p.m. at Muskegon ISD and are free to all educators. You must register however on the ISD web site. Go to http://www.muskegonisd.org/development.

For more information about the ISTE webinars, click here.

Hi! Diane asked me to share a bit about the Constructivist Consortium, so here goes!

Back in 2007, Gary (Stager) came up to David and I at an educational technology conference lamenting the lack of exciting, engaging, and constructivist tools. After thanking us for doing good things we kids, we started talking about getting together with a small group of publishers to support each other and promote open-ended, creative, student-centered work with technology. He talked the Peter (Reynolds) at Fablevision and a few other vendors, and the Constructivist Consortium was started.

Members of the Consortium include Tech4Learning, Generation YES, LCSI, SchoolKit, Inspiration, and Fablevision. We have been working as a team to raise awareness about constructivist uses of technology and have sponsored events like the Constructivist Celebration and Constructing Modern Knowledge to foster this type of learning environment.

Constructivist Consortium companies believe:

• the learner should be at the center of the educational process
• students need to be empowered to succeed
• computers and technology provide new ways for children to learn
• educational technology should be creative, open-ended, and flexible
• students must be given opportunities to collaborate, communicate, create, and publish

To get a feel for the learning environment the Consortium is trying to foster, I encourage you to join us at a Constructivist Celebration. We will once again have a Celebration the Sunday before NECC in Washington DC. Last year, the event sold out in less than 35 hours, so be sure to get on the mailing list, so that you are one of the first to hear about the event and register! The cost is usually minimal and you get lots of free software that more than makes up for your registration cost.

You can find out more about the Constructivist Consortium at our website: www.constructivistconsortium.org

To sign up for our mailing list, visit:
http://constructivistconsortium.org/signup

Have a great week! Lindie
 

Jerry Weissman, in his book Presenting To Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, shares seven ways to capture the attention of your audience. While not specifically mentioning using PowerPoint, many of his suggestions can be incorporating into the opening slide of a PowerPoint presentation. The author identifies these ideas for engaging your audience (in our case, students): 

The Question
A well-written and relevant question involves the audience, and gets the audience thinking about how the topic applies to them. Because you are using the question to engage students, think primarily of open-ended questions that are not easily answered with yes or no, true or false. 

The Factoid
A simple, impressive statistic or factual statement that most in the audience would not yet know. The more unusual, striking and surprising, the more effective it will be. And it can be more than just words. Consider using a picture, or graph to illustrate the fact. 
 
Retrospective/Prospective
Think of this approach as “that was then, this is now”. One example would be sharing how something used to be done, the way it is currently done, and perhaps how it may be done in the future. This empowers you to move someone from one point to another.
 
Anecdote
A very short story coming from the human interest angle. The bottom line is, people like stories about other people. Obviously, you don’t want to print the story word-for-word on a PowerPoint screen, but you could include pictures and key quotes. A digital story may be an effective way to telling an anecdote. 
 
Quotation
If you can find a source that is recognized as authoritative to students, a quote can leave a lasting impression. Keep in mind that the goal of the quote is to bring credibility to what you are presenting.
 
Aphorism
A familiar saying – also known as a aphorism, can capture attention because people can relate to it. Putting a twist on a familiar saying can capture attention. Consider these ideas: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” (working together to accomplish goal); “Seeing is believing.” (pictures telling a story); or “Easier said than done.” (explaining a difficult concept).Analogy
An analogy is a comparison between two seemingly unrelated items. A well-designed analogy is a fantastic way of explaining anything that may be confusing or unclear.Just keep in mind that the purpose of the first slide is to draw your students into the topic! The opening slide is designed to be a means to the end. Use it to engage your students.

A company called Custom Guide provides several training options primarily on software applications, but they have also included on their web site free quick reference guides on a variety of topics. Most of the QRG’s focus on Microsoft products such as Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Internet Explorer 7. However, you can also find quick reference guides on Adobe products (including former Macromedia applications), Firefox web browser, and QuickBooks. The QRG they created for basic file management and understanding Windows XP is one of the best I’ve personally seen. To obtain the free QRG’s, go to the Custom Guides (qr.customguide.com) web site. On the left, you will find a large button (see illustration to the left) promoting their product. Click once on the name of the reference guide you want. When the PDF file opens, click on the Save button in the upper left corner. Indicate where you want to save the file, and click OK.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Student Technology Showcase at the Michigan State Capitol Building in Lansing. First of all, the building is beautiful – I love it. Every time I visit I just stare up at the inside of the dome. Here’s a shot for you…

The students’ projects were just as awe-inspiring as the building. All grade levels were represented and the students were quite proud to show the adults what they were doing with technology in their classrooms. This is a great way for MI legislators to see just how schools are integrating technology. Then, when educators ask the state for technology funding, legislators have concrete, visual examples of what can be done. Some of the students were even invited up on the floor of the House for a quick photo shoot.

One of the teams was from our area – Drew Morris brought students from Reeths-Puffer Intermediate School. They showed everyone how they created underwater robots.

Seriously, you really SHOULD go do this yourself. But, if you don’t have the time, here are the ideas for the first ten days of Steve’s challenge:

Day 1 – Your “About” Page – who are you and what is the purpose of your blog

Day 2 – Taking a look at your blog statistics

Day 3 – Thank another blogger

Day 4 – License your work, establish a Creative Common license

Day 5 – Clustermaps AND creating a way to translate your blog into other languages

Day 6 – Get another person’s perspective on your blog

Day 7 – Invite someone else to post on your blog

Day 8 – Comment, Comment, Comment

Day 9 – Upgrade your RSS to Feedburner

Day 10 – Check out what your blog looks like using other browsers and operating systems

30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

http://www.labnol.org/internet/free-microsoft-onenote-2007-for-teachers/5300
Microsoft is hosting a webinar tomorrow (November 11) for teachers on how they can incorporate Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 in the classroom.

Anyone can view this Microsoft OneNote webcast but if you are a teacher or faculty member at any of the educational institutions in US, you’ll also get a free copy of Microsoft OneNote 2007.
The process is simple – watch the webinar, send proof that you are a
teacher to teachtec@microsoft.com and Microsoft will ship you the OneNote 2007 box.
Sign-up at Teach Tech Tuesdays (http://www.educationwebcasts.com/Webcast.aspx?i=3688 ). The webinar will be presented by Mike Tholfsen of the OneNote team at Microsoft. Teachers may also want to check this video demo on OneNote 2007 for education. http://www.microsoft.com/education/OneNote2007/Demos/app.swf

30 Days to being a Better Blogger – Steve Dembo had a great idea. Actually, Steve has a lot of great ideas AND, btw, he’s a Featured Speaker at the MACUL 2009 Conference in Detroit.

So, Steve has launched a project on his Teach42 blog to help us in the education blogging world that he is calling 30 Days to being a Better Blogger – 30D2BBB. I decided to participate and am already a few days behind.

My goal is to actually catch up and participate in a timely manner – and SHARE. More on that topic later.

Check out Steve’s blog at http://www.teach42.com.