Multimedia
The articles discussing multimedia were very broad to extremely narrow in focus. To quote Matchbox 20's song "How Far We've Come" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlqfpPf_EO0) it is amazing to see how far we've come in the avenue of technology! Just trying to fathom that in 1834 Charles Babbage first created the automatic digital computer, but it was never actually assembled until 1991! That just blows my mind to think that individuals from the past had the knowledge and capability to think about making such technological advances! As time has progressed, we now understand that we (anyone) can add our own input on the web. As writers for the web, it is important to keep the intended audience in mind. Creating an engaging and simple to use task will keep the audience's attention. I loved this quote from Writing in Multimedia, because I feel that educators can sometimes get carried away with any new concept, "don't use a piece of media just because it looks cool". Make sure that whatever you create is relevant to your standards and to your audience...simple as that!
Copyright Laws
Copyright laws have always made me squirmy! Every year our school librarian presents our rights and does a mini presentation on what is allowed and what requires permission. As I educate myself more and more on this subject, I tend to feel more comfortable with the issue. One main thing I learned through these readings is to just assume that everything we come across is protected by some means (either copyright or trademark). If we want to use something, we should do our research and try to find any agreement files that will spell out the regulations. This was very crucial for me, because in the last class, I was looking for a rubric on the Internet for one part of my Web Quest. I found one that almost fit perfectly. When I went to acknowledge who the rubric originated from, I found that PEARSON was the owner. I located the user agreement, and it required written permission to use anything from their site. This seemed far to complicated a process (especially in a 2 week class), so I just deleted what I found and created my own rubric in Rubi Star (free to educators). I knew that PEARSON was a big corporation and I was just a small fish in their ocean. Who was going to win that battle? Duh! Make wise choices, and if all else fails, try to either create what you are looking for yourself or write to the author and explain your reason to use it in your teaching. It never fails to ask for permission...isn't that what we teach our kids?
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6 comments:
Hi!
I agree with your statement that often educators get carried away with new ideas/tools. In part, I think this is what has led some to think that technology in schools is a passing fad...sometimes we get so carried away with using technology we forget we need to start at the other end-standards and student needs.
I also like that quote. Because we get so excited about learning something knew we sometimes want to use it so bad and teach it to our kids but forget to apply in to our content in a meaningful way. I know I've made that mistake and I did regret it later. I had did not have the focus defined enough for my students to be successful. I guess I learned from my mistakes.
Oh I agree, that copyright thing is tricky. Using Pearson's rubric - if you hadn't been in a two week time crunch, I bet an email to the company telling them you would give them the credit for th rubric would have gotten you the permission. I am not positive, but I think so. I have asked for the 10secind use of songs and gotten permission in the past.
I think that you will find that it is practical to just create what you need from scratch. This class, and the one before it, has given us the tools to be the content creators in our field. There are a couple of reasons to do this and the first one has just occurred to me. We set ourselves apart as leaders in our field when we create original and quality content. When we create it then it truly fits our purposes. To conclude, we totally escape any of the copyright discomfort that you referred to.
I was once like you and worried about copyright infringement with every sentence I wrote. I'm not saying that I don't follow up and research what I write now. It is more like I am now more comfortable giving proper credit to copyright owners and authors. If at times, (as you experienced), it proves difficult to quote or credit someone, then I also must become creative to convey what I am writing without violating any laws.
1I agree that we need to make sure that our use of new technology reflects teaching goals and educational standards. It's so easy to get excited about something and introduce it to students without a meaningful purpose.
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