Blog reviews

My Personal Healthy Eating

A typical blog students would find as a useful model before creating their own. Some of the information is slightly advanced, however the blog offers a range of different postings - long ones, short ones, posts with lots of information, and some with handy hints. It also incorporates links in the posts.

Thinkulti

A blog about Ultimate Frisbee tactics, coaching and fun. This blog is by a qualified Ultimate coach, and provides expert advice on a range of issues. It references other blogs, links to pictures and websites, and has research based opinion as well as personal thoughts. It link to a range of relevant blogs, and focusses soley on the sport of ultimate frisbee.

Children would be able to use this blog as a guide if they wished to create a blog to discuss a specific idea or thing. The blog demonstrates its ability to promote discussion by the many comments on all the posts, and the students can learn how this is one of the main strengths of a good blog.

I'm a busy teacher

A great blog that offers support for primary school teachers. Although it is still relatively new, it has potential to be a resource for young or new teachers. It has basic advice about classroom organisation and helpful documents.

The Knowledge Tree

The Knowledge Tree is an e-journal generated by members of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system to enable the sharing of research and learning innovation in national and global e-learning practice. Teachers can visit the site to gain insight into current research surrounding e-learning, which the blog has many articles and interviews.

Can I copy material from the internet for research?

As a result of special provisions in the Copyright Act, if you use copyright material for the purpose of research or study, you do not infringe copyright, provided your use is “fair”. Whether or not your use is fair will depend on all the circumstances.

What constitutes research and fair use?

The Act sets out two situations deemed fair when dealing with copyright material for research or study and sets out guidelines which should be applied in other cases. 

A “reasonable portion” of text or notated music 

If you are reproducing text or printed music from a hard copy edition of 10 or more pages, the Act deems that it is fair to copy: 

• 10% of the number of pages; or 

• one chapter, if the work is divided into chapters. 

For text material published in electronic form, it is deemed to be fair to copy: 

• 10% of the number of words; or 

• one chapter, if the work is divided into chapters. 

If the material is available in hardcopy and separately in electronic form, you can choose which form to use, and 

apply the relevant test to work out what is deemed to be fair.)

Can students ( university or school ) use music in videos that they make?

• Generally, you will need permission to use someone else’s music in a film or video. 

• There are a number of narrow and limited situations that may allow you to use someone else’s music without their permission. 

• You should get permission to record and use a person’s live performance in your film. 

Week 4 Key ideas

Blogging can be used in alignment with the Quality Teaching framework in a number of ways. It allows students to reflect upon their own work, and identify their own areas of weakness. Students are motivated and engaged to work towards a real purpose.

Blogging can be used throughout most KLAs, providing an method of connecting learners to each other by commenting on posts and facilitating discussion

Blogging is able to transform classrooms such as those at Belmore South into quality learning environments by incorporating the use of computers and blogs in different ways to give students more control over their work, and make it a collaborative experience.

These ideas are explored in the following reading:

Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

Laptops and classroom internet connections have the potential to provide scaffolding for students, even when their work is not centered around digital literacy. The internet can provide background knowledge on a subject and support teacher instruction

Assessment of new (digital) literacies

The reading explores the problems surrounding assessment of new literacies when traditional assessment evaluates traditional, ie. What can students do with new literacties that is not measured by current assumptions

Schools cannot simply purchase digital technology and expect it both to work, and improve student outcomes. Professional support, as well as professional learning for the teachers is required to properly teach digital literacies in an ICT classroom.

These ideas are explored in the following reading:

Barone, D., & Wright, T. E. (2008). Literacy instruction with digital and media technologies. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-302

Review of ToonDoo

ToonDoo allows anyone to draw and post their own comics. These could be simple stick figure drawings or something more complex involving clipart and effects.

This website could be effective at getting students to visually depict an event or idea, using ICT tools, enabling them to share their work with the rest of the class. Comics can then be compiled in a 'ToonBook', giving students something to add to and claim ownership of.

Some digital literacy would be required in order to draw the comics, so this site would be well suited for ages that have the mouse skills to illustrate their work.

www.toondoo.com

Techknowledge

Review of TechKnowledge

Who else, in the first thirty seconds or so of the video, actually believed that there was such thing as the Pacific North-West Tree Octopus?

Even as a uni student, for a split second in the back of my head I believed that such an animal existed. This shows the power of digital information technology, and it's ability to mislead web-browsers; it also demonstrates the importance of teaching Digital Critical Literacy. This will ensure that students are not only proficient at obtaining information from the internet, but aware of and adept at filtering unreliable information.

What are Digital Literacies?

It is possible for the social construction of knowledge to use technology in a way that allows new and different forms of gathering and presenting information.

Digital Literacies are the educational skills that involve using technological tools to reach a wider audience.