Review of Blogs

I have discovered the following two blogs to share:

http://slav.globalteacher.org.au/


This blog, titled Bright Ideas, has been set up by SLAV - School Library Association of Victoria. The site offers school library staff the opportunity to contribute posts to share information, advice and recommendations for the use of web 2.0 tools in schools and libraries. The blog displays links to relevant information sources including cyber safety information and literature reviews.

The second blog of interest is the Ballarat Grammar Resource Centre Blog. This was discovered through a link on the SLAV blog mentioned above. The blog can be located at:

http://bgresourcecentre.edublogs.org/

This blog promotes school library news, book and author reviews and encourages students to comment on work and books. Additionally it provides the opportunity for teachers at the school to display student work.

I went walking

Week #4 Copyright

Can I copy material from the internet research?

The answer to this question is Yes. The Australian Copyright Council outlines that ' if you use copyright material for the purpose of research or study, you do no infringe copyright, provided use is 'fair'. (Australian Copyright Council, 2007)

What however constitutes research and fair use?

Referring to the Australian Copyright website (Australian Copyright Council, 2007),  'fair use' can be determined as follows:

1. When re-producing text or printed music from a hard copy edition of 10 or more pages, the Act deems that it fair to copy:

• 10% of the number of pages; or 
  
• one chapter, if the work is divided into chapters.
  

2. For text material published in electronic form, it is deemed to be fair to copy;

• 10% of the number of words; or
• one chapter, if the work is divided into chapters.

Further details of the act can be found through this link:

http://www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/infosheets_pdf/g053.pdf/download

Can students (university or school) use music in videos that they can make?

The answer to this question is yes. Again, 'fair use' is cited in the Australian Copyright Council's guidelines (Australian Copyright Council, 2007).   Specific details of 'fair use' can be found at 

http://www.copyright.org.au/g038.pdf

Week #4 New Ideas

From the following readings I have identified 3 key ideas which teachers may find useful:

Article 1

Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

• A negotiated set of guidelines displayed in classroom. This enables high quality work on the blog through the display of explicit instruction. This then allows the students to check their work against a detailed criteria.
  
• Photographic montages are useful to display student's progress over a given period of time.
• The idea of a relationship building with an international school provides not only cross cultural exchanges but valuable resources in terms of information sharing.

Article 2

Barone, D., & Wright, T. E. (2008). Literacy instruction with digital and media technologies. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-302

• The development of a class website allows students to check in each morning to look at the day's schedule and any class updates and news

• Using a single document which may be focussed around vocabulary for example) could draw on a number of resources such as music, drawing and word processing.

• Developing a blog which focuses on a text, that all students are reading allows students to contribute and comment on each others comments and thoughts.

Video Review

This video highlights the need for critical evaluation of the reliability of content presented through the internet.   The video highlights specific questions that teachers need to introduce to their classrooms when evaluating such a resource. Questions such as who is the intended audience, how is the content constructed and what are the values that underlie the content. The video also addresses technology training for teachers

Review of www.kigose.com

Kigose is a terrific and more importantly SAFE website for kids aged 7-15 years of age. Once a topic is entered into the engine, the results delivered are specifically selected for this age group.

Take a look for yourself!!!! 

 

What is new literacy?

My interpretation of this new concept is as follows:

New literacies enable users to share and build knowledge through the participation in new communities which are enabled through technology. These modes includ text (e.g.sms, IM,) visual aides (e.g. youtube) and audio contexts (e.g.mp3 files).