Learning in a Digital World

Link to the google earth file that I created to share our trip through the Apostle Islands last summer.

Link to my notes on Lynne’s outstanding overview of Google Earth.

I certainly enjoyed our second day of the summercore experience at Castilleja. I continue to gain wonderful ideas and techniques by participating in the sessions. Near the end of the day we had a discussion on the world of copyright and ethics in the digital world. We also did a little reading and surfing of some links that Lynne posted at her delicious account on this topic. I enjoyed the discussion as this is a knotty issue and one we need to have with our students and school community on a regular basis. There are so many gray areas in the world of copyright and as a result, I highly encourage teachers and students to consider doing the following when building multimedia projects.

• When choosing digital content for a project (pictures, video, music, etc), use homegrown/original media if possible. Projects that allow students to take their own photos/video and then add their own music created with tools like garageband completely avoid the copyright issue, AND it gives students experience in building original content.
• If it isn’t possible to use original media, use content that has been licensed in the Creative Commons. Creative Commons is basically a licensing system that allows all of us to use and remix the content in our own projects for a variety of purposes. Do an advanced search for Creative Commons licensed content at flickr to find pictures and video (check the Creative Commons options at the bottom of the advanced search page in flickr). Likewise, visit sites like Jamendo or CCMixter for audio that has been published online and licensed in the Creative Commons.

Check out the YouTube below for an overview on Creative Commons:

Image Courtesy of kw111786 on Flickr (Creative Commons-Attribution)

In much the same way that the Pistons made a comeback after several disappointments against the Celtics and the Lakers in the mid-80s to win the ‘89 NBA Championships, I’m making a comeback in getting caught up with my Summercore readings!

I just wanted to leave a few comments on some of the highlights from the first day and the assigned reading on blogs, wikis, and RSS as well.

Thoughts on today’s experience:

• I was impressed with the blended approach Steve and Lynne used in facilitating the sessions. There was a great mixture of direct instruction, hands-on work, partner/individual work, etc.

• The facilitators did a wonderful job of turning glitches into learning opportunities.
• The approach to create a balance between whole group and skill based groupings is excellent.
• It was great how everyone walked away today with a blog and a delicious account
• I’m hopeful that at some point in Summercore we touch upon the powerful suite of collaboration tools know as google docs. Google form use and creation is one of the many features that I’m guessing would be of interest to this group.
• I enjoyed the Boston sports references.  Even though I’m not a sox fan, the ‘86 World Series to me was one of the most exciting that I’ve ever seen (the AL and NL championships that year were extremely exciting as well).  The references also brought back memories of the great Pistons-Celtics battles in the 80s!!

Thoughts on the reading assignments:

I thought the reading was a great overview of these powerful tools. Blogs have the potential to transform the writing process into a more lively and engaging process for students. The suggestions for starting out in the world of educational blogging were excellent as well. While I would really like to see the capacity for all students to be maintaining their own personal digital learning space in the form of a blog, I also realize that it is important for teachers to gain some background and experience before this happens.

Looking forward to day two of summercore. Time to go to bed now.

Over-and-out.

I have to admit that with all of the craziness associated with our move out to the Bay Area, I haven’t been the best summer core student thus far. But I promise to make a come back (kind of like the Celtics did against the Pistons in the ‘88 Conference finals when Bird stole Isaiah’s inbounds pass-SIDEBAR-I’m a HUGE Pistons fan!!)

We’re doing a little experimenting with the basic functionality of EduBlogs/Word Press MU.

Linking:

1. Google’s Website

Adding Images:

• Flicker Image from the web…below is an picture of my nephew Timothy who is heading off to the US Naval Academy in early July. We were recently up in Gaylord, Michigan on a golf trip with his brother Trey and their dad. We had a blast playing golf and hanging out together.

Embedding other HTML, like voicethread. This is something I’ve been struggling with in edublogs/WPMU. Here is my attempt to embed a VT below.