I got this video from youtube. This video attempts to explain why we can use certain images and information because of fair use. It is hard to understand due to all the changing of voices and such but I believe it presents the argument in a unique and effective manner. It is explaining that it is ok as long as that image or information is not the entire argument but rather you use it to support a much larger argument.

Week 5: Tech Tools

In this lesson we learned how to make mind-mapping tools. These tools help to better organize ideas and also can be made in class to help work together to learn about something (as seen in the first video of the lady who worked with 3rd graders).

I experimented around with the program a little and learned some very cool things, like how to make shapes with the program and how to change around the colors.

We were asked to make our own about social tools that we would use in our field. I found a couple online to use as a reference. One I found particularly interesting was this one:  These tools would all work well in an elementary school class in my opinion. Young children need things like this in order to be organized and it will help to convey ideas and to send information to them.

Week 4: Copyright

This week we learned about Copyright laws. This lesson contained information on what it means to copyright something, including what that means to the person with the rights to it and those who want to use it. It explained what we can and can not use without the owners permission.

Copyright is a very sticky subject to me. It's always hard for me to determine what's written too similar to something or whether I can or cannot use an image for a project. It was nice to have the rules put in simple terms for once. I looked it up on a few other websites to get a bit more clarification, but they all basically said the same thing.

This is probably one of the most important lessons so far in my opinion. If we don't know what we can and can't legally use we can get into a lot of trouble. As I mentioned in my last post, I plan to use a blog in my future career and I therefore must know what I can and cannot put in it.

Week 3: Blogs

This week we learned how to make a blog. First we learned how to set up an account on blogger. From there we learned what we should put in a blog and how. We also learned little tricks like how to add in a link or a video.

Fortunately, working as a moderator on an online forum I'm used to the input format for these kinds of things. The buttons above where we input the text are really not very different from what I currently use there. I did find the quote button very interesting to see and experiment with because we don't have something like that on the forum I moderate. We also don't have a text background option, which I also find great.

In my future career I see this information being very useful. Blogs are definitely very useful for teachers. It gives them a way to access their students or parents about the class. It is an easy way to involve both parents and students outside of the classroom. I definitely think that I will use one in my classroom.

Week 2 - Learning Macs

This week we learned the basic operations of a mac computer. We learned the different parts on the desktop and learned how to make files and folders. The lesson also contained information about the different shortcuts that are available on a Mac to help make things run smoother.

Additionally, outside of our lesson I learned some other little fun facts about macs. this website has a bunch of little facts about Macintosh computers. For example, it claims that: "On average, the cost to develop and support Windows applications is 50% higher per dollar of revenue than the cost to develop for Macintosh." I find this really interesting and am wondering how true it really is.

I plan to become an elementary school teacher and in this field this knowledge is very important. In my elementary school we only used Mac computers and therefore as a teacher at that school I would need to understand them to help my students. Seeing as I have never owned a mac myself I think that this lesson was really very useful to me and I will most definitely take it with me in my career.