Understanding and Respecting Copyright a Problem for Many

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Last week I made my ‘Additional Language Learners’ a simple game to help frontload vocabulary for an upcoming unit. I used the definitions for the text and then searched the internet for images. The game was a hit and I am sure the images I used helped to make concrete some of the new concepts. Not once did I think of copyright of the images that I used.  I am by no means careless about acknowledging the intellectual property of others; however my knowledge and practices have not kept up with the access and tools that internet and www. have put within my reach. So now, just as we teach to use bibliographies, understanding Creative Commons as the guide for the next generation of re-users and re-mixers is essential.

 

I think of the images I use on my teaching website and now I remind myself to check and double check and to get explicit permission form parents even though I make sure that the kids I photograph or video tape are those whose parents have signed the forms giving the school permission to use their kids’ images. As a parent, when I give permission for the school to use my child’s image , does that really extend to teachers’ webpages?

 

Laws that Choke Creativity

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It would be exceedingly difficult to create in today’s world without having been influenced by someone else’s ideas or experiences. Modern communications has made it possible to live vicariously on the internet and so it would virtually be impossible to have shaped ones ideas in a vacuum. Therefore just as important as reshaping, remixing, refining and expanding what already exists, is acknowledging the people who may have      influenced your creativity.

As educators we have been coaching our students in the protocols of acknowledging the work of writers to avoid plagiarism. Our roles need to expand to include help our students when they use all forms of digital media.

 

As important as it is to protect the free exchange of information there is also a need to protect and pay artist for their time, creativity and energy. Probably the answer lies in the original owner having the right to control his intellectual property as he sees fit. Once again the issue is complicated by the earning potential of such creative works.

Beware of the Internet

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BEWARE the Internet could own your future.

 

In the words of Justice Ann Beeson, the internet offers an unprecedented ability for individuals with common interests to associate regardless of physical location.  And as much as “cyberspace “ is without doubt the richest source of creative, diverse, empowering and democratizing communication ever to connect people across the globe, it’s power to permanently  chance one’s future, positively or negatively, is just as unprecedented.

Our task as educators, parents and global citizens is too help educate on the upsides and pitfalls of this amazing tool.  We need to teach our ‘charges’ to be vigilant about sly moves (like this one made by a well-used social networking company) that undermines reasonable guidelines for privacy without inculcating a fear of the unknown.  Let us not fall in the trap of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Digital privacy will continue to bring new challenges and the public will be hard pressed to refrain from extreme reactions, but to still take action where appropriate.

 

Reflection On Puurquoi Tales Unit

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As an Elementary EAL Specialist (English as an Additional Language), much of my time is spent supporting students as they adjust to expressing their ideas in English.  And as gentle and as supportive as I am, I know at times my students wish that they did not need me so much. One of my students copes by teaching me new word in his mother tongue as I teach him in English. This way we have been able to build up a rapport that makes him feel that he too has much to share with me.

This is what I love most about the additional technology elements of this writing project.   This project has an element that allows my students to fly. That is,  the support that I provide for the writing elements and the tedious nature of that process for second language learners is counter balanced by the freedom they are experiencing learning to use such technology as Google Doc, Weebly, Blogster, and Power Point. Since they can use these products in their mother tongue, the learning curve is the same for all of our students. Best of all, I am the one who needs the coaching and so my students are happy to be the experts this time.

I close by saying; I have seen and been part of this Pourquoi Tales unit over the last four years. It is a well thought out unit that the fourth graders at our school really enjoy. The Enduring Understanding and Essential Questions are the same for all students. We do differentiate our rubric for writing elements however. No differentiation is needed for visual literacy or copyright .The addition of the digital media portion has expanded the learning experience for all our students. The synergy created by the combination is amazing. I am pleased to be part of this work in progress.

Final Project Draft

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Lesson Plan by Britt Thorpe and Paula Peters-Frampton
Lesson Topic: Media Choices for Publishing Pourquoi Tale
Length of lesson: Five 90 minute Language Arts blocks and homework time
Grade level: 4

Stage 1-Desired Results

Standards Met:

NETS:
1. Creativity and Innovation
b. Create original works as a means of personal
or group expression

2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to
communicate and work collaboratively, including
at a distance, to support individual learning and
contribute to the learning of others
a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers,
experts, or others employing a variety of digital
environments and media
b. Communicate information and ideas effectively
to multiple audiences using a variety of media
and formats

5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal
issues related to technology and practice legal and
ethical behavior
d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship

6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding
of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
a. Understand and use technology systems
b. Select and use applications effectively
and productively

DAIS uses the Common Core Standards for Language Arts
http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards/writing/grade-4/

 

Enduring Understanding:

Communicating narrative stories through visual media can enhance the story.

There is a legal and ethical way to use information from the Internet. (Copyright issues and Common Core license)

Being part of a learning community can help a writer refine his/her craft.

Commenting on other’s work broadens your perspectives about your own writing.

Digital media creates a more widely accessible platform for sharing published work.

Media is a bridge for the language divide: one can use media in their native language even when one publishes in English.

Essential Questions:

How does using digital media to publish a pourquoi tale enhance the story?

How do we legally create a bank of pictures to use for our personal digital  publishing?

Students will do the following:

1. Create a digital portfolio of pictures

2. Publish a pourquoi tale using digital media of their choice

3. Reflect on the effectiveness of media as a visual literacy tool
Stage 2- Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s):
Digitally published story
Digital portfolio of pictures
Each student must share/presenting their pourquoi tales
Each student must reflect on their puorquoi tale using a Google Docs reflection sheet
Each student must comment on two others pourquoi tales via email copied to the teacherOther Evidence:
Teacher observation of students working with writing buddies and in small groups as we move through the writing process

 

Stage 3 – Learning Plan
This unit is only about the digital publishing of our pourqoi tales. Students have already been through days of reading and analyzing pourquoi tales and moving through writing workshop to create drafts of stories. (We use Lucy Calkin’s style units of study for writing.) Students have been able to search the Internet for pourquoi tales as well.With drafts in hand, this technology integration unit begins with the point of enhancing stories through media and creating a student learning community to propel our writing skills. We believe in choice: Students select which media tool to use from the list below. Students who select Word, Power Point, and Windows Movie Maker will save their work to a public drive on our server, so that we can create a professional learning community with access to all.Note on possible EAL differntiation/modification during reading/writing workshop:
1. EAL students read pourqoi tales that are Just Right for them (typically below grade 4 level)
2. EAL students have more one-on-one writing and write a less complex story
3. EAL students may use a writing frame (created by teacher)
4. If necessary, EAL students may write story orally in a group setting and teacher will use dictation method for writing up story.
There is no need to differentiate the media portion of this project since students are allowed to use native language to navigate digital media.

Choices:
1. Word document: pictures and text (PDF and save on S drive)
2. Google Docs: pictures and text (save copy and share)
3. Weebly: pictures and text (email URL)
4. Blogster: pictures and text (email URL)
5. Power Point: pictures and text (save on S drive)
6. Windows Movie Maker: using pictures and student recordings of their story. (save on S drive)

Day 1: Computer Lab
Students cruise through pictures to create their digital picture portfolio. The pictures that students find relate to their already drafted pourquoi tale. For example, “How Tiger got Stripes” needs pictures of tigers and tiger habitats. We have already modeled finding pictures with Common Core licensing and created a sample digital portfolio. These are possible sites for use. My favorite site so far is http://photopin.com/ but others might be as follows: Flickr, Pics4learning.com, morguefile, ookaboo, Photobucket, Freedigital.net, Freefoto

Day 2: Computer Lab
Students decide which media they will use and create a story board of text only. Word doc, Google Doc, Weebly, Blogster, and Power Point now have text and pages. For the audio file, students will type up a final story in Word before recording the Audio file. Text of story is now complete.

Day 3: Computer Lab
Students insert pictures into their media and work on formatting for visual literacy. Buddies complete first peer conversations. At the end of this class, all work is published finished or not. This way we can begin commenting on each other’s work so that students have time to make changes. Self reflection is critical too. Note: EAL students are working with media tool in their own language, but their story is in English.

Day 4: Computer Lab
Students have one more language arts period to revise and edit and re-publish now that they have all been working as a community to comment on each other’s work.

Day 5: Celebrate and Share
Note: a 1:1 laptop school would allow easy sharing. In fact, a student could share a tale written by a classmate with their grade one reading buddy. In our case, we need to share one at a time using the multimedia projector. If all of our grade 4 students have laptops or IPads, they could bring their own equipment to school and access our wireless as a means of sharing.
Rubrics
#1 class rubric
#2 EAL differentiated rubric

Pourquoi Tale#1

4

3

2

1

Elements

Explains a natural phenomenon (something real about nature) using animals or a force of nature or both as the characters.  Story is mythical.

Attempts to explain something real about nature using animals and/or a force as the characters, but the explanation is not clear. Story is mythical.

Explains well, but not something real in nature.

Does not explain anything related to something real or unreal in nature.

Figurative Language/Descriptive Adjectives (See boxes)

All characters are personified. Three additional uses of figurative language are used well: simile, onomatopoeia, idioms, rhyme, alliteration and the like. *Used many Descriptive Adjectives (from your resource sheet).

Characters are personified and two other uses of figurative language exist: simile must be one of them. *Used some Descriptive Adjectives.

Very little attempt at personification and/or other forms of figurative language. There is no attempt at writing similes. *Very few to no descriptive adjectives are used: cold is used.

No attempt to use figurative language and/or descriptive adjectives at all.

Writing Mechanics

All writing is in paragraph form; sentences are complete; dialogue is used correctly and most elements are present; no spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors exist (conventions are excellent).

Most writing is in paragraph form; most sentences are complete; dialogue is nearly correct and some elements are used; only one or two spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors (conventions are reasonably good because they do not interfere with meaning).

Some writing is in paragraph form, but many sentences are run-ons or fragments. Dialogue is not included much or written poorly. Many errors exist even though the story still makes sense. Meaning is sometimes confused by conventions.

Errors interfere with the ability to read the story. There is no dialogue or hardly any. Conventions create confusing errors.

Writing Quality

Writing is very well organized and flows smoothly. Most sentences begin with different words, hence sentence fluency is excellent. Some compound and/or complex sentences exist. Word choice is excellent (no SAID) Overall quality of writing is excellent.

Writing is organized and flows. Some repetition of sentence beginnings exist, but variety exists too. Compound and/or complex sentences exist. There are no run-ons or fragments. Overall quality of writing is very good. here is an attempt to use some $100 words, but words like said are infrequently used.

Writing organization needs improvement, sentences are not complete or varied, vocabulary is basic and relatively common. Overall quality of writing is below grade level.

Writing lacks organization, sentences are very simple or incomplete, word usage is below a 4th grade level. Overall quality needs much improvement and seems like a rough draft.

Writing Process

Evidence of rehearsing (brainstorming/prewriting) drafting, editing and revising.  Significant improvement throughout the process. Piece is publishable.

Made many noticeable changes throughout the process, and piece is close to publishable, but it still has room for improvement.

Made few noticeable changes throughout the process. Piece is not publishable.

Made little or no changes throughout the process. Piece is rough draft quality.
Visual Literacy The purpose and idea of the images is obvious and enhance the narrative. There are some connections between the narrative and the images, but further thought in selecting images would be useful. Images fit narrative, but story, but do not enhance story and may confuse story plot. The images do not fit the narrative.
Copyright 100% of images used follow copyright More than 50%of images follow copyright. Less than 50% of images follow copyright. Copyright laws ignored.

EAL:Pourquoi Tale#1

4

3

2

1

Elements

Explains a natural phenomenon (something real about nature) using animals or a force of nature or both as the characters.  Story is mythical.

Attempts to explain something real about nature using animals and/or a force as the characters, but the explanation is not clear. Story is mythical.

Explains well, but not something real in nature.

Does not explain anything related to something real or unreal in nature.

Figurative Language/Descriptive Adjectives (See boxes)

All characters are personified. Two additional uses of figurative language are used well: simile, onomatopoeia, rhyme, alliteration and the like. *Used many Descriptive Adjectives (from your resource sheet).

Characters are personified and one other uses of figurative language exist: simile must be one of them. *Used some Descriptive Adjectives.

Very little attempt at personification and/or other forms of figurative language. There is no attempt at writing similes. *Very few to no descriptive adjectives are used: cold is used.

No attempt to use figurative language and/or descriptive adjectives at all.

Writing Mechanics*with teacher assistance

After conferencing, all writing is in paragraph form; sentences are complete; dialogue is used correctly and most elements are present; no spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors exist (conventions are excellent).

After conferencing, most writing is in paragraph form; most sentences are complete; dialogue is nearly correct and some elements are used; only one or two spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors (conventions are reasonably good because they do not interfere with meaning).

After conferencing,some writing is in paragraph form, but many sentences are run-ons or fragments. Dialogue is not included much or written poorly. Many errors exist even though the story still makes sense. Meaning is sometimes confused by conventions.

Errors interfere with the ability to read the story. No attempt was made to correct errors after conferencing. There is no dialogue or hardly any. Conventions create confusing errors.

Writing Quality

After conferencing, writing is very well organized and flows smoothly. Most sentences begin with different words, hence sentence fluency is excellent. Word choice is excellent (no SAID) Overall quality of writing is excellent.

After conferencing, writing is organized and flows. Some repetition of sentence beginnings exist, but variety exists too. Overall quality of writing matches  student’s developmental level

After conferencing, writing lacks organization. More evidence of sentence fluency: simple and compound sentence. Word usage and overall quality of writing is below student’s developmental level.

After conferencing,writing lacks organization. No sentence variety: all simple sentences. Word usage is below student’s developmental level.

Writing Process

Evidence of rehearsing (brainstorming/prewriting) drafting, editing and revising.  Significant improvement throughout the process. Piece is publishable.

Made many noticeable changes throughout the process, and piece is close to publishable, but it still has room for improvement.

Made few noticeable changes throughout the process. Piece is not publishable.

Made little or no changes throughout the process. Piece is rough draft quality.
Visual Literacy The purpose and idea of the images is obvious and enhance the narrative. There are some connections between the narrative and the images, but further thought in selecting images would be useful. Images fit narrative, but story, but do not enhance story and may confuse story plot. The images do not fit the narrative.
Copyright 100% of images used follow copyright More than 50%of images follow copyright. Less than 50% of images follow copyright. Copyright laws ignored.

Pourquoi Tale

4

3

2

1

Elements

Explains a natural phenomenon (something real about nature) using animals or a force of nature or both as the characters.  Story is mythical.

Attempts to explain something real about nature using animals and/or a force as the characters, but the explanation is not clear. Story is mythical.

Explains well, but not something real in nature.

Does not explain anything related to something real or unreal in nature.

Figurative Language/Descriptive Adjectives (See boxes)

All characters are personified. Three additional uses of figurative language are used well: simile, onomatopoeia, idioms, rhyme, alliteration and the like. *Used many Descriptive Adjectives (from your resource sheet).

Characters are personified and two other uses of figurative language exist: simile must be one of them. *Used some Descriptive Adjectives.

Very little attempt at personification and/or other forms of figurative language. There is no attempt at writing similes. *Very few to no descriptive adjectives are used: cold is used.

No attempt to use figurative language and/or descriptive adjectives at all.

Writing Mechanics

All writing is in paragraph form; sentences are complete; dialogue is used correctly and most elements are present; no spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors exist (conventions are excellent).

Most writing is in paragraph form; most sentences are complete; dialogue is nearly correct and most elements are used; only one or two spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors (conventions are reasonably good because they do not interfere with meaning).

Some writing is in paragraph form, but many sentences are run-ons or fragments. Dialogue is not included much or written poorly. Many errors exist even though the story still makes sense. Meaning is sometimes confused by conventions.

Errors interfere with the ability to read the story. There is no dialogue or hardly any. Conventions create confusing errors.

Writing Quality

Writing is very well organized and flows. Most sentences begin with different words, hence fluency is excellent. Some compound and/or complex sentences exist. Word choice is excellent (no SAID) Overall quality of writing is excellent.

Writing is organized and flows. Some repetition of sentence beginnings exist, but variety exists too. Compound and/or complex sentences exist. There are no run-ons or fragments. Overall quality of writing is very good. here is an attempt to use some $100 words, but words like said are infrequently used.

Writing organization needs improvement, sentences are not complete or varied, vocabulary is basic and relatively common. Overall quality of writing is below grade level.

Writing lacks organization, sentences are very simple or incomplete, word usage is below a 4th grade level. Overall quality needs much improvement and seems like a rough draft.

Writing Process

Evidence of rehearsing (brainstorming/prewriting) drafting, editing and revising.  Significant improvement throughout the process. Piece is publishable.

Made many noticeable changes throughout the process, and piece is close to publishable, but it still has room for improvement.

Made few noticeable changes throughout the process. Piece is not publishable.

Made little or no changes throughout the process. Piece is rough draft quality.

Comments:
Parent Signature:

Resources for developing a UbD Unit Planner: http://www.diigo.com/user/mscofino/ubd
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccalader/3083971962/”>Rebecca Lader</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>

Geeking Out -Thinking aloud

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Education is not the great equalizer that Horace Mann and other once thought it might be.  I believe education is the great divide between the successful and the struggling. Unfortunately, the more I read about the wonderful advances in the technologies that enhance learning, the more I worry that these technologies will only widen the gap, increasing the success of the privilege and acting as yet another obstacle for the underexposed.

There is a however, solution. We can help close the divide. If we put the technology in the hands of the learning underprivileged then we give them a real change to bridge the gap. The question remains however, is our economic and class based society willing to change the socio- economic structure that it is built on in order to grant underprivileged kids the opportunity to gain access to vital technology.

Geeking Out- Personal Reflection

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Most teachers would agree that there is real value in peer learning and teaching. We see this almost on a daily basis. Geeking out illuminates the point that maybe we don’t use that hidden resources effectively.  Last year my son and his classmates formed a little rock band. After months of ‘jam’ sessions they played at a school event and made an amateur video which they posted on Youtube , mainly because they were proud of their achievement and wanted to share it with members of their families based all over the world. My protective instincts kicked in from the time that my son told me they planned to post the video. I focused on the negative feedback that  I had seen on other videos. My son however was not in the least bit worried. He felt that they were not trying to gain any popularity, or launch a career but just wanted to share with family. Well, not surprisingly they did get some of those negative type comments. However, they took them as constructive criticism, using the information to improve rather than despairing over the opinions of random strangers.

Maybe I am characterizing the world more rough and tumble than it really is.  Not because I do not have a personal relationship with the other person viewing my work does it mean that that person would not have a genuine interest  in my success.

Messing Around- Personal Reflection

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I appreciate The MacArthur Foundation for giving a name to the very thing that my 12 year son spends so much time doing. He lives on a different planet than I do. When he was about 4years old he produced a powerpoint presentation to ask for a ‘big boy’ bicycle. This was my first indication that he would be the one to use the tech based tools to the fullest advantages. I am pleased to say much good has come out of his ’Messing around”. He is using Youtube to teach himself to play the guitar. He has set up all his agendas on his tablet and keeps track of all his assignments. He has also added me to his google calendars so that I do not have to keep asking him what are his assignments and when he plans to complete them. He has taught me to use Movie Maker to enhance my teaching. My students love making moving books.

This daring, to experiment with technology is however, the reason that we have had no internet connection at home for the last week!

 

 

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others

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While I was reading the previous article, the question ‘What is education today?’ continually re-entered. I think the following eloquently expresses my own view on the matter.

“ As teachers, we must begin to model our own editorial skills – how we locate and discern good information and good partners at every turn, in every class, reflecting with students our successes and failures. The complexities of editing information online cannot be sequestered and taught in a six week unit.”

We need to model this new type of learning every day and all day and therefore we have to become users of the tools that our students are using.

Personally, the challenge is to overcome the fear that prevents me from posting my own work to be vetted by others. More and more I recognize that I can share incomplete projects,and in that way gain access a seamlessly infinite amount of different perspectives,   feedback, that can I then vet to re-create, re-evaluate and refine my original idea.

 

 

A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

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A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

Over the last few years I have modeled active reading to my middle school classes, yet the familiar material never required me fully apply my own active reading skills. This course, and these readings, with their unfamiliar jargon and new concepts, necessitate that I once again actively read.  In many ways is it great for a teacher to actively be on the other side of the learning experience.

So dictionary in hand, sticky notes by my side. I will delve into new material.

The concluding paragraph of this article states “ The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of the new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn”.

I disagree. I would argue that in many in the field did recognize the impact of this changes but lacked the know how to adapt and respond to them. Furthermore, to me the overarching change is not in what it means to learn but instead what we do with our knowledge.

For many generations knowledge was a commodity to keep to yourself because your “expertise” in a subject made you more marketable. Now, due to the wide and open accessibility of information the ability to continue, changing, learning and re-evaluating and responding to information is what increases your marketability.

For sometime now I have recognized that I am unable to impart most of the knowledge that my students will need for their futures upon them, simply because the world doesn’t currently possess it. I am convinced then, that what I need to teach is not the content but the skills that will make all information accessible.  Our students are going to function in a world that has not yet been created, only imagined.

As much as the instructional environments in which we exist have changed and despite the need to employ a theory that better embodies what it means to be a learner in the 21 century and beyond we must not loose sight of the fact that  the new theories are built on the foundations of students having the skills needed to learn. As teachers we still need to expose students to content that will help then learn to evaluate knowledge.

My colleague, Britt, reminds me that there is certain information that is vital to their emotional, ethical, and social development.  And yes, I agree. However, I still believe that the skills to access, analyze, evaluate and respond to all content is and will continue to increase in value.