Archive for May, 2008
Class Review
Now that it is all said and done…I’m going to tell you how I REALLY feel….haha.
When this class first started I had no idea how any professor could fill up an entire semester with technology. Ransom has proved me wrong. I have learned things I never even knew existed and I approached things that I have always avoided simply because I have had so much going on in my life that trying to learn something new would send me over the edge. My main example being pod casts. I have i-tunes and was given a Nano as soon as they hit the shelves back in the day…I was hip…now I’m outdated…and I’m 23…so, for all of you older students….it takes effort from everyone to stay up to date. I avoided pod casts on my i-tunes because I figured it was just some extra that I do not really need…now, because of this class, I have a tool I never knew I had for my future classroom.
There are some things that I am still nervous about, but, now have the tools to give to my students to make sure disaster doesn’t strike my classroom. It sounds stupid, I know, but my biggest “DUHH” moment came when Ransom said, “Give them the resources they need, educate them.” This blew my mind because I was so caught up with, “How am I going to catch this stuff? What do I do when I catch them? What if I over look something?” It never occurred to me to provide them with materials…this made me feel really dumb and unprepared. But, it also made me feel better about preparing my students. I feel that is the overall theme I gathered from this class for me…preparation.
When I say “preparation” I don’t just mean for a unit test, next class, or the state tests, but for life. Technology is unavoidable and is constatnly changing. The longer I avoid it the worse off I will be with my students. If I can take something they are passionate about and find a way to incorporated it into my lesson then I not only have their attention, but, I am teaching the content they need to know. Also, technology is all over the place. The more exposed my students are to it, the better off they will be after high school when they go to college or enter the work force. I do not want them to end up like me…not learning what blogging is until my final semester at Geneseo…with my peers staring at me like I lived under a rock. Rocks are bad…and I am happy that this class brought me out from under mine and made me more open to technology and working it into my classroom.
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When it comes to Thursday’s class the one thing that really stuck in my mind was Disney and how we need to pay $25.00 rights in order to show a movie we already purchased to a large group. I am pretty sure that every single summer camp I attended when I was younger showed Disney movies on rainy days and I am pretty sure the the summer camp I work at today does not pay $25.00 when we bring in movies to watch. It is interesting all of the details in the fine print. Now, I know the likely hood of anyone really suing anyone is slim…but- one can’t be too careful today. If Disney ever went around and collected from everyone who has every broken this law…summer camps around the world would be bankrupt and Disney would have enough money to build and employ a whole new park…
Also, the video at the end of the Power Point was neat simply because Disney is so creative to start, but to take those movies and twist them into a “tale” on copyrights on a business who has the most ridiculous fine print ever. Either way, I still love the movies and I love the one we watched in class (I watched Beauty and the Beast today-it touched me that much).
Anyways, I do believe that it is important to understand the copyright laws as a teacher because if we are not teaching our students properly then they’ll never learn until they are caught. Thinking back I do not think I ever had a teacher say, “Did you ask permission to use this?” “You may want to be careful about copyrights here.” But, if I ever some multi-media project I did on-line…I think I would be in trouble. Can we be in violation when we embed a video from You-tube? Or are they giving away rights as soon as they post them on line? Now, I feel like I should never touch anything….I can only use things that are on the sight Ransom showed in class…this is the sad thing about learning and growing up…you start to be held responsible….
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