Collect and Create

This text innovation is based on The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka, which extends the story of the original Frog Prince fairy tale in a twisted and funny way. The question is intended to elicit students' prior knowledge about fairy tales. There are a few images on the slide to prompt students. After the story is read, students can revisit their answers and compare these characteristics about fairy tales with the story they just read. Since this book is suited for students who have some understanding of typical fairy tales, this exercise would be appropriate for late Stage 1 or Stage 2.

Literacy Insruction with Digital & Media Technologies

Interesting ideas or activities from the Barone & Wright (2008) article.

1. In a wireless 1-1 laptop classroom, students can access and save files on the server, check the class blog daily, synchronise homework with the teacher's calendar, share ideas with classmates via instant messaging (IM). This environment also seems to be conducive to organising differentiated learning activities in the classroom by asking students to use different websites or applications.
2. Allowing children to stay in the classroom or access the computer lab during recess breaks for them to engage in noninstructional activities is an interesting idea. It may allow children who don't have internet access at home to access e-mail, send IMs and play kid-friendly games.
3. Some useful websites for primary school students:

• Flashcard Exchange - www.flashcardexchange.com - teachers can customise flashcards
• Inspiration graphic organizer software - www.inspiration.com - can be used before writing or reading a story
• KidBiz - www.kidbiz3000.com - helps integrate technology into the classroom & curriculum
• netTrekker - www.nettrekker.com - school-friendly search engine, all sites have been previewed by educators
• WritingFix - www.writingfix.com - used to teach writing traits, contains interactive prompts that kids enjoy

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

Happily Blogging

The following are educational blogs that could be used to model to Stage 2 or 3 classes as examples of effective blogs.

4OQ's Blog - http://4oqblog.wordpress.com/
Class 5's Blog - http://class5jd.posterous.com/
Grade 3/4 Spring Gully PS - http://sgps.globalstudent.org.au/

These blogs provide opportunity for students and teachers to contribute and comment on posts, photos, videos and more. They also contain blog guidelines, links to other websites, interactive games and model the use of other web applications, such as Wordle. One blog contains different web pages for categorising content.

Copyright at university and school

I used the links from the Australian Copyright council to help me answer the following questions.

http://www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/infosheets_pdf/g053.pdf/download

http://www.copyright.org.au/g038.pdf 

Can I copy material from the internet for research?

It is important to initially check the website for any copyright information. Some sites will explicitly give permission to download, print or save material for research use. However, this use must always be 'fair'. This will be outlined in the next question.

What constitutes research and fair use?

'Fair use' of copyright material is dependent on various circumstances. However, as a general rule in working out what is 'fair', the Copyright Act allows reproduction of a "reasonable portion" of text or notated material, that is 10% of the number of pages/words or one chapter, if the work is divided into chapters.

The Act also sets out five factors to consider when reproducing copyright material for research purposes. These can be found on the website - http://www.copyright.org.au/information/cit028/wp0059

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

Students are allowed to dub music in videos that they make that are purely for educational purposes. However, it is not permitted for public viewing, entering competitions or for broadcast on TV. In these cases, permission may need to be granted from the copyright owners, usually the music publishers. Furthermore, if it is 70 years or more since the death of the creator, the music may be used free from copyright restrictions.

Australian Copyright Council. (2010). Australian Copyright Council. Retrieved August 2010, from Using copyright material for research or study: http://www.copyright.org.au/information/cit028/wp0059

Teacher Tube

Teacher Tube is a useful site for teachers and pre-service teachers. It contains videos, animations, lessons, resources and tips for teaching.
www.teachertube.com

Octopus Video

This video highlights the importance of teaching critical literacy skills to students and teachers. It used a hoax website about an made-up endangered tree octopus that many students believed was an authentic website containing all the information required to write an information report. The video acknowledged that in some countries, ICT and evaluating digital resources is taught in schools and teacher education courses. However, there is still a need for support for critical literacy skills in many skills both for teachers and students.

'New Literacies' - a definition

'New literacies' are recent forms of literacies that have been made available by technological advancements, particularly Web 2.0. Since Web 2.0, the Internet has focussed more on the sharing of information and ideas. This has allowed for such collaborative practices as podcasting, wiki sites, fanfiction, blogging, online chatting and social networking. The rules and procedures of these literacies allow for more flexibility, self-expression and communication throughout the world.