Bacon,+John

Journal Entry # 4

I was already familiar with some copyright issues with the advancement of technology in the last several years. Before the advent of the computer age copyright issues seemed to be clearer. When I was a teenager and cassette tapes became popular, we would borrow each others albums and tape them so we could have the music at just the cost of the blank tapes. We would buy different vinyl albums than each other and increase our music collection. At the time I did not think anything about it but it certainly was no less a copyright infringement than using Napster was in the 1990s. Of course commercial artists complained more about Napster and it was shut down due to the ease of access to their music. I know there are still ways to get music downloaded free but I know better now and only use the 'I Store' to download music onto my Ipod. Today it seems so complicated what copyright law covers. For instance I was unaware that teachers could only use chapters of a non-issued book for just one semester. I am currently taking a history course in which we had four books we had to buy but the professor posts on blackboard full chapters or full articles on line for us to print out and study. Does this mean he has to get permission if he wants to use the same materials a second semester? Also I took a U.S. history class here at Towson 25 years ago that used regular commercial movies and we analyzed them for historical accuracy, such as Jeremiah Johnson, Little Big Man, and A Man Called Horse. One class each weak we watched a movie and then would analyze it in our second session of the week. Again can this style of course only be offered for one semester and how did the University get around the percent of product used? We obviously watched the movie in its entirety. What I learned from the Copyright and Fair Use laws is to be very careful and when in doubt request permission to use materials. You Tube is a very confusing area. This site has almost anything that a teacher might want to use. How does one navigate these waters? Is everything on You Tube considered public domain?

Journal Entry # 3

There are almost an infinite number of Web 2.0 Tools to use and incorporate into an educational syllabus. My major is History/Secondary Education and many Web 2.0 sites can be adapted to history lessons. We used Go! Animate for our last presentation. There is a link below with cartoon movie animation samples. This would be more difficult for younger students but animation is a pretty cool way to get kids of any age engaged. A teacher could assign different important historical characters to each student and have them make a cartoon representing that person and why they are important in history. Mashface is another site where a student can upload a photo of someone from history and then using a webcam put their lips on the photo and speak. For instance the student could take a photo of Lincoln and the put their lips in to recite the Gettysburg Address. It is impossible to foresee what new technology will be available in 5-10 years the teacher will have to continue to be aware of new changes that can add to the educational experience while making it fun.

http://goanimate.com/

Journal Entry # 2

In our case study the instructor was having his class form groups and create a colonial newspaper. This lesson was for a history class in high school. The interesting part of this case study was that the instructor was obviously an older teacher. He/she had been teaching for 23 years. He/she was integrating technology at a fairly high level. The expectation might have been with such a veteran teacher there may not have been as much technology being used. Through this course I have already learned several new ways to present and involve the students in lessons. I agree with Jerome Bruner that students learn and retain at a higher level when they are involved in the discovery of the material to be taught. I can use my own learning curve as an example. Having been born before the digital age I have little to no background with using technology. I learn some of the basics of the presentation models we use in class but really only reach a level of understanding when I go home and play around with these products. It takes me longer but I feel I learn a lot more through discovery. It is an important point that I will remember when I am the teacher. Teaching with technology is so important because it opens up so many more resources and strategies for teachers to use to reach every student. The current drawback is that not all schools have budgets for enough computers and not all students have access to computers outside of class. Eventually I believe schools will be able to become fully computerized. The challenge will remain to supply access to computers outside of the classroom for lower income areas.

Journal Entry #1

I have not had a lot of experience with technology in my life unlike today's generation born with a keyboard attached to their fingers. As a junior in high school in 1975 I took typing, which turned out to be one of the more important courses I took. But even with my knowing the proper placements for my fingers my children can type faster using the hunt and peck method. Oh well I was born too early for teachnology to be second nature for me. But it is never too late to learn. I returned to school to finally finish last year and had a couple instances of being exposed to technology. The first thing that happened was that I had to write papers for my history classes. When I had bought my computer about three years ago I never downloaded Microsoft Office because I only used email. Being tight on money I did not want to download it at this time either. My techie guru, my son Brent, told me about a free office on line called Open Office, so I downloaded this version which was great. I certainly learned something from that experience when I would be at the school library and could not print out my papers. So I called the guru and he tells me to save as Microsoft Office 2007 which is still on my computer as an icon. So this process sort of uses the icon as a conduit. When I go to the school library I can now print out anything as long as I saved it to the proper format. Through writing these papers I learned to feel a little more comfortable with, not only save as, but also save to and now can move around the areas on my computer more freely. Last spring semester of course we had the biggest snowfall that I have ever seen in Maryland and that goes back fifty years here. One of my professors decided to use the blackboard to cover some of the material we missed being off all week. He posted to blackboard some articles and parts of books that coresponded to the material we had missed. The students had to read the material and write a short paragraph on each item and post it to the discussion board to show we understood the subject matter. I kind of worked my way through this on my own. Now this semester when another professor decided to have us post threads on the discussion board **bang!!** I was all over it. This got me all pumped up that I knew how to do this. I am psyched to learn other new uses for technology in the classroom.

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