Week #8 - Educational Technology Grants

We have come to the last week of class. My, how 8 weeks of class seem to fly by! This week we discussed educational technology grants. I am constantly overwhelmed by the number of individuals and organizations who are willing to give up their own money to support others in their quest for knowledge.

When looking for grants, we really have to look outside the box. I think a lot of people don't really know how to do that. We go to the search engine and type in "Language Arts" because we teach language arts and accept whatever comes up. If it doesn't include words or phrases like "language arts," "reading," or "English," it must not be for us. If we would just expand our thinking a tiny bit, our options would expand exponentially. One of the students (another Language Arts teacher) in my class found a grant from Fuji film. Most people would see that grant and think that it would only apply to photography classes or possibly journalism. However, he found a way to make it apply to poetry. Sometimes, rather than finding out what grants fit our needs, we need to find a way to make our needs fit the grant.

We hear a lot of teachers complain about what their schools and districts DON'T have or HAVEN'T provided, but are any of them are actively searching for ways to fix that problem? Or are they just looking to the school and district and no further? There are so many resources out there and I just don't think that people are taking advantage of them. I hope that as a new teacher, I will search out and take full advantage of the opportunities available to me and my students.

Week #7 - Teachers & Copyright

Teachers and copyright … what an extremely useful topic we covered this week! There are so many rules out there pertaining to this very subject. It's interesting to know what is considered "fair use" and what is not … and it's not as cut and dry as you would think. It would probably be much easier if the powers that be would just say "you can't copy anything." but instead there's a big list of how much and which parts you can legally copy and use. I think the thing I found most interesting was the fact that you can copy and use some material in class without consent, but only for one class. You can't continue to use it in ensuing courses and semesters. The premise of this is that if you plan to continue using the material, you should make an effort to get permission. I guess the first time is chalked up to needing it last minute and not having enough time to seek proper permission. This makes perfect sense to me, but makes me wonder about some of the instructors I've had. I know they've been using the same handouts for semester after semester, and although they are always careful to give credit where credit is due (they include the proper citations, etc.), I wonder how many of them have actually sought the actual permission to do so. Hmm …

Week #6 - Wikis and Virtual Field Trips

Before this week, I didn't realize that Wikipedia was a "wiki." I just thought "Wikipedia" was a weird name for that particular website. I didn't understand that "wiki" was the term given to online encyclopedias. The concept of having my class create their own wiki would probably never have come to me. I'm so glad that we are able to learn from others and that others are willing to share their knowledge. We are so lucky. One teacher called her class's wiki "authentic learning." The project allowed her students to find the way in which they (individually) learned best and empowered them to display their knowledge in a way that they felt most comfortable. I like that some teachers are finally getting over the idea that there is only one way to learn and one acceptable way of showing that you grasp the material. Virtual field are an excellent way for students to experience other places and cultures. It allows students to take field trips that they may otherwise not be able to due to budgetary constraints, safety concerns, etc. Some virtual field trip sites do a great job of making the field trip interactive so that the learning can be more personal for the student. What a wonderful idea!