My assignment this week for grad school was to create a video of anything This was pretty easy for me to do. All I needed to do was use my digital camera, upload to my computer and edit with Windows Movie Maker. I loved using Movie Maker – very user friendly I also became a member of the YouTube community, my video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1sMUh9Gbek. It’s about 3min long and it shows the elementary school where I work at and the inside of my classroom. I didn’t take any video of the students because I did not have time to get parental permission, so all you will see is an empty classroom and me giving an introduction. I loved creating this short quick and will definitely make more videos from my classroom.

This chart can be found at http://www.mediafestival.org/copyrightchart.html 

The topic of copyrights came up in my class on Monday night…some of us were very confused by what we can and can not use in our classrooms and in our video/audio projects. I thought this chart was very clear and easy to read. Some of this is surprising to me! Especially about playing 10% of music in projects, using only 5 images from an artist, and no more than nine instances per class per term when using printed material. From reading this chart, I feel like I’ve violated copyright laws many times :O I think teachers, should be able to use whatever they want in the classroom – as many pictures, songs, videos, and what not without worrying about copyrights. If it’s for an educational purpose and they aren’t passing it off as their own stuff, what’s the big deal? There are people downloading music everyday from BearShare and LimeWire and using material on Myspace…why can’t it be used in the classroom and in school projects without worrying about legal issues?

Two articles about copyrights and fair use:
http://www.edutopia.org/copyright-rules-teachers
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/copywes.php

Website giving quick facts about copyrights and examples that happen in classrooms: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/start/cpyrt/

I came across a great 2 and a half minute video on Alexander Russo’s Blog hosted by Scholastic about how kids are tech savvy these days with posting information online. However, they do not realize that this information can be traced back to them years later after they have gotten about making that video or posting those inappropriate pictures. The video shows that kids are posting videos on You Tube about ways to cheat on tests. I actually went to You Tube and searched “ways to cheat on a test” and got a ton of videos. There are really some creative/desperate/pathetic people out there.
Coke Bottle Cheating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUkeiqom_s4 

Notes under your shirt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSLJMVQFoXo

Notes on/in a pen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixVHBv654_U

Anyways, who is responsible for teaching our kids these online ethics, I guess that’s what we would call them? Is it the parents that need to be monitoring their children and explaining the effect of their online “footprint”? Or is it just another thing to be added to our teachers’ plates? Is it really going to come down to high schools offering an Internet ethics class? Kids are getting very creative/bold with what they are posting from ways to cheat, to binge drinking, drug usage, and fighting. Someone needs to inform them that they are ruining their online identity and possibly and future career options – who is going to be? 

Please watch the video:
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2008/11/web-tests-kids.html

My assignment this week for grad school was to create a podcast and upload to your blog. Sounded simple enough, right? WRONG. This assignment started out as a nightmare! I first had to find a microphone, which I ended up borrowing from my boyfriend, then I had to download Audacity. Never heard of this program and had no clue how to use it. So I take the laptop into school on Friday with my microphone ready to have my kids create a “Morning Annoucement”. Well, this was interesting and entertaining. I couldn’t  write a script for them because they can’t read (they are special needs kids) and I was trying to explain to them what we were going to do but all they wanted to do was “rock out” with the microphone. After several attempts, and I do mean several attempts we finally created a 3min announcement that makes a little bit of sense if you listen closely!
I ended up not using Audacity, instead I used Acid Pro instead which seemed to be much easier for me to use. The kids had a great time playing with the microphone and listening to themselves talking, singing, and laughing. They asked if we could do this every week and I just might do that, now that I know what I’m doing. Overall, I really liked this assignment and think podcasts can have a vareity of uses in the classroom!

Please click below to listen to our podcast…I promise you will enjoy it

http://aliciaj.podomatic.com/entry/2008-11-23T16_18_59-08_00

I was at a faculty meeting on Friday and the topic of having creating a pre-school program in the district, free of cost to qualifying families, was brought up. This caught my attention because
1.) I need a job and
2.) I believe early childhood education is very important

I was reading up on PA’s Pre-K Counts program http://www.prekcounts.org/ and then I found an article from Associated Content at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/396213/pennsylvaina_preschool_prek_counts.html?cat=9

According to this article only 31% of the children aged 3 and 4 in the state have access to quality preschool programs, and that was an interesting statistic. I really thought more children attended preschool than that. In undergrad, we learned alot about the benefits of preschool for children and for school districts. When children attend preschool they are taught skills they need to be successful in kindergarten and special needs are identified earlier. I would love to see my district start a program, we definitely need one!

I read an article at http://www.azcentral.com/families/articles/0316kidspodcast0316.html entitled, Podcasting craze spreads to children’s programming.
This artilce discussed how more and more parents are becoming aware of how to use their kid’s iPods for educational uses. A growing number of parents are looking for podcasts for their children that are educational, age appropriate and fun, but parents don’t where to look. The article offered a few suggestions for parents: http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting  www.familyfriendlypodcast.com  and thesugarmonster.com . I just wonder, how many parents in my area (Westmoreland County, PA) are familiar with podcasts? I would love to send home a survey at my school and just see how technologically advanced my parents are. I know my school district doesn’t use podcasts at all, and now that I see what is out there, I wish we would!

Podcast. Another new word for me…well, I shouldn’t say “new” because I have heard of them before and had a slight idea of what they were. I mean, I’m 24 years old and don’t even own a iPod, yes pathetic I know. I just never had an interest in them. Anyways, back to podcasts, I never knew how many of them exsisted and how popular they are!
I used iTunes to search for podcasts for personal uses and found CNN, pilates, Grammer Girl and VH1’s best week ever – which was by far my favorite with over 300 episodes! Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to watch every episode yet, but I’m working on it!  :)  As far as podcasts for children, I think Story Nory was awesome. This has so many uses for the classroom! Sesame Street is also great for the pre-school and Kindergarten. Radio Disney was fun and so was Nickelodean!

At http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11531 there is a list of Scholastic’s Top 10 Podcasts for Teachers and Students. Do check it out

I came across the article E-Palling Around http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23557_1 by Jennifer Demski that discussed how teachers around the world are trying out SchoolMail (an application fromEpals) that allows students all over the world to connect via email. SchoolMail is designed to be used as email for students and follows the acts about children’s privacy and FERPA. The teachers can control the setting and if they want to allow attachments and who the children are emailing.

I think a program like this is awesome to use at all grade levels. Even the kindergarten kids can meet “friends” in other countries. Older students can talk to others about their country’s cultures, world issues, and relevant current events. STudents will benefit from this by being exposed to more cultures, practicing their writing and typing skills and reading skills. I don’t think teachers could go wrong by setting up virtual ePals for their students.

As I was browsing through my classmates’ blogs the other day, I came across a blog post about the amount of rainfall linked as a possible cause of Autism and was very interested in this. I read some more articles about it, and I don’t know if I’m buying it or not.

About the Study:
The research from Cornell University compared the rates rainfall between 1987 and 1999 in Oregon, California and Washington, with rates of autism in children who grew up in that period. The relationship between autism and rainfall rates can be explained by the chemical effects of the rain, the experts speculated.

According to researchers, the rain can affect the chemicals to which children are exposed. Besides, the aging process in enclosed environments can affect children’s development, whether through increased exposure to tv or chemicals from the house, or by lack of vitamin D produced by exposure to sun.

The study was published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27536036/

I also found a video newscast about the article here:
http://www.nypost.com/video/?vxSiteId=0db7b365-a288-4708-857b-8bdb545cbd0f&vxChannel=PostHealthFeed&vxClipId=1198_081106-11547_110608_an_VINOCUR_B1200&vxBitrate=300

 
Sharing photos online – finally something I’m familiar with and love to do! Ever since I got my first digital camera back in 2003 for my high school graduation present, I’ve been uploading photos to the web. The first photo sharing website I used was Webshots and I thought it was the coolest thing for everyone to be able to see my pics simply by emailing a link or placing it in my Instant Messenger profile.
Then Facebook came along and I think that’s when my obsession with taking pictures to document my college years really began. You could “tag” people and leave ridiculous comments and embarrass your friends with those horrible photos to no end. Until we realized that, one day all these pictures just might come back to haunt to us. Before this realization my friends and I didn’t care what pictures were on there – doing a keg stand…puking in the toilet, chugging drinks on top of the bar, whatever, it was all in good spirit. Now, as young adults trying to get our first real job, we’re a little hesitant about what photos go on Facebook and Myspace. But, believe me I still post pictures
I have a photobucket account that I constantly use to find images on to use on Myspace but I decided to set up a Flickr account for something new.

Through Flickr, you can create photo sets, which are online photo albums, so others can easily browse your pictures. Or, view the photos as a slide show. You can also develop a personal profile and even create groups.I thought it was annoying that you have to sign up for a yahoo account…why can’t you use your email address you have now? The Flickr account set up was really easy though. The pics were a little slow to upload but that could just be due to the large file sizes or my Internet connection. I loved how you organize photos into sets and you can give huge descriptions of the photos. The map feature was awesome and I really want to start using that
I think this would be a great site to use in the classroom, if our school’s filter didn’t block the site…

Final thoughts: Don’t post pictures that will come prevent you from getting a job in the future or get you fired from your current one Use common sense people!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lishaj/
check out my pics ^