Week 14 - Article Reviews and wii

This week was a killer for me and I don't usually feel that way. I had picked out my articles to review weeks ago. The process of researching articles was an eye-opener for me. I read articles on educational technology all the time, but not necessarily from the professional peeer reviewed publications. I used the online databases and came up with so many hits on my search that I realized I had to narrow it down. Finally ended up with six articles that I thought were really interesting, read them and narrowed it to the final two I used. I enjoyed reading all of the other articles and comments.

I was later in the week than usual posting my assignment due to health issues. I tore the meniscus in my left knee and the medial ligament several weeks ago and was in the middle of x-rays, MRIs, etc. this past week. Just got word Wednesday I would need surgery, and then I slipped at work on the wet floor in the commons area and injured the same knee even more. Felt like a real idiot laying there on the floor in front of all the kids--contrary to belief middle school students will NOT walk right over you if you are down. They were so concerned and helpful it almost made it worthwhile. Almost. OK, so to tie this sad story to one of the articles from this week - the original injury to my knee came from playing tennis on the wii!

Week 13 - Group Work

I think our group did a dynamite job with the project, hope the rest of the group feels the same way. Collaborating online is difficult, but I think we worked through all the glitches and ended up with a great product. I'm really learning a lot and appreciating the reinforcement of the material being presented by the other groups. Some of this 'stuff' is finally making sense.

Selected my articles to review weeks ago, but it's time now to write the actual reviews. Found a good handout in the OWL for writing an article review so I feel more comfortable with what I should include.

Teaching an online class that started this week, and one of the students lives in Arkansas. I live in Missouri, and the class is for a college in California. I just love distance education!

Week 12 Ethics

The copyright informaiton this week was so timely. Students are doing PPT projects and want to add music. Another group wants to show a movie afterschool for entertainment and wanted to know if it was necessary to have a public performance permit. Another class is doing trading cards about medieval times, and wants to go out to the Internet and copy and paste pictures. Each teacher has a different idea as to what is allowed by Acceptable Use and what isn't. It was nice to have the refresher on this issue. A year or so ago I found a great book for use on Fair Use. It is called Tales from the Public Domain, Bound by Law?, Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkis frm the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain. It is written in comic book style. It is available for free online at: http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/.

Week 11 - Interviews

What a fascinating group of people that the class chose for interviews. I enjoyed reading the different papers, and learning about such diverse occupations individuals and occupations. Most challenging part of the week was formattiong for paper~does this ever get easy??? Had a question come up this week that deals with Week 12 readings. If we have an afterschool hangout, is it OK to show a DVD movie purchased by an instructor to students for entertainment if you don't have a public performance rights from the appropriate company? According to the guidelines at DESE the answer would be no. The copyright on YouTube using Disney clips was a great way to address the subject of copyright. I think I will show it at my next orientation for copyright, if it is not blocked through the firewall at school. Copyright is so hard to enforce when not everyone follows the same guidelines.
Looking forward to really getting into the group project this week!