Tag: copyright

Blabberize the Blubber

[qt:/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Orca-by-CB.mpg 413 323]

Recently, I have been attempting to incorporate the 2nd grade’s study of arctic animals into computer lab time.  The first attempt was helping the students find images of their assigned animal- polar bear, wolverine, lemming, orca, artic fox, etc. and I quickly found myself drowning in the rather deep waters of fair use and copyright law.   A huge part of digital citizenship is learning to use online content appropriately, so we took a detour into the land of fair use- hopefully coming out more educated about appropriate use of images from the web.  (I know I now have a rather nebulous understanding of fair use as it relates to educators and students.)  Our original photo hunt evolved into a Powerpoint presentation with an image, facts, a Blabberize video clip, and a teacher-generated Works Cited slide.  I am thankful for the opportunity to teach and model digital citizenship with these young ones.

The video clip above was created by a 2nd grade student (who also happens to be my son 🙂 ) and embedded into the Powerpoint presentation below.  (I cannot find a way to export the .ppt as a movie in a way that allows the embedded .mpg to play- if you know a work-around, please share!)  The image was created with TuxPaint and then uploaded to Blabberize.  A major shout-out to the creators of Blabberize!  That is one cool web 2.0 tool!!!

This child is a very reluctant writer, but was ecstatic about the idea of recording his own voice and sharing the knowledge he has gained about killer whales, or orcas.  He happily wrote a full page of dialogue, and then confidently recorded it.  I’m very proud of his work, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the 2nd graders as a whole complete these.  They are embedding these in a Powerpoint slideshow, which creates a pretty impressive product- especially for an 8 year-old. (Granted, I’ll be giving them the 4 slide template… but still cool, nonetheless!)

“Teaching with Primary Sources: Essentials Exploration”

Today, I attended an incredible 8-hour professional development course presented by the Library of Congress in conjunction with the University of Northern Colorado.  Due to a number of pressing circumstances, there was great temptation to stay home.  I am so glad I didn’t!  My mind is pleasantly full, my heart is ready to approach another week of students, and my hands will certainly be busy for weeks navigating through the digital catacombs of the Library of Congress.

Migrant Mother

Erin Hunt, the instructor, did an wonderful job sharing the vast Library of Congress website, introducing teaching ideas using primary sources, and exploring copyright issues.  My favorite part of the class was exploring the “American Memory” Exhibition.  One valuable thing I learned was that you can view a photograph, and then display images with neighboring call numbers.  This will often show other photos taken in the same town or of the same family, which help to give context to photographic images.  It was interesting to see the images surrounding the famous “Migrant Mother” photo by Dorthea Lange.  I also learned about the availability of maps and high resolution images which can be printed from the Library of Congress to use on classroom walls, etc.  Additionally, there was information on inquiry-based teaching and the 21st Century learner.

I’m looking forward to completing one of the three projects assigned in order to receive graduate credit, and to incorporating the lesson ideas with 3rd-5th graders in the computer lab over the coming months.

“Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California..” Library of Congress. Web. 24 Jan 2010. <http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b40000/3b41000/3b4

"Teaching with Primary Sources: Essentials Exploration"

Today, I attended an incredible 8-hour professional development course presented by the Library of Congress in conjunction with the University of Northern Colorado.  Due to a number of pressing circumstances, there was great temptation to stay home.  I am so glad I didn’t!  My mind is pleasantly full, my heart is ready to approach another week of students, and my hands will certainly be busy for weeks navigating through the digital catacombs of the Library of Congress.

Migrant Mother

Erin Hunt, the instructor, did an wonderful job sharing the vast Library of Congress website, introducing teaching ideas using primary sources, and exploring copyright issues.  My favorite part of the class was exploring the “American Memory” Exhibition.  One valuable thing I learned was that you can view a photograph, and then display images with neighboring call numbers.  This will often show other photos taken in the same town or of the same family, which help to give context to photographic images.  It was interesting to see the images surrounding the famous “Migrant Mother” photo by Dorthea Lange.  I also learned about the availability of maps and high resolution images which can be printed from the Library of Congress to use on classroom walls, etc.  Additionally, there was information on inquiry-based teaching and the 21st Century learner.

I’m looking forward to completing one of the three projects assigned in order to receive graduate credit, and to incorporating the lesson ideas with 3rd-5th graders in the computer lab over the coming months.

“Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California..” Library of Congress. Web. 24 Jan 2010. <http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b40000/3b41000/3b4