Educational Blog Review

Class 3/4 D Blog

The 3/4D class at Berwick Fields Primary School has their own blog ( http://34dbfps.globalstudent.org.au/ ) where there are links to what the class has been doing in school lately, homework and ideas for things to do at home, as well as the childrens' latest posts. This creates an important link between home and school life and gets the students' families and parents involved in their school work. Instead of asking 'what did you do at school today, Johnny?', a parent can log on to the class blog and see for themselves, as well as engage in the interactive homework tasks with their children. What a great way to make their learning significant. The blog also has a class calendar, as well as news and events in the wider school community. This enables parents to be updated at all times about what is going on in the school and encourages parent participation.




Signora Loredana's Italian classes blog

An Italian language teacher (Signora Loredana), who teaches at two primary schools, has her own blog (http://loredana-year7italianclasses.blogspot.com/) designed for students and parents to view the acitivities students do in their Italian classes. She posts information about the work students have completed, including photos and videos and descriptions about the purposes of the activities. She also posts quizzes in Italian such as "Hai un animale? / Do you have a pet ?", where students click on the corresponding answers. This again, provides an important link between school and home, enabling the children to share their experiences with their parents in a different way. It also enables students to see what their peers from other schools have been doing, and provides them with a sense of achievement, seeing their work or photos published on the website.

© Copyright ©

Some questions about ©opyright:

Can I copy material from the internet for research? What constitutes research and fair use?

As stated by the Australian Copyright council you can copy material from the internet for research provided your use is 'fair'. The following are key circumstances to identify 'fair' use:

- 10% of the number of pages OR

- one chapter if the work is divided into chapters.

Research is defined as by the Maquarie dictionary and thus quoted by the ACC:

- “diligent and systematic enquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover facts or 

principles..."

It is important to note that an individual does not need to be enrolled in a course of study, they can be researching something out their own self interest.

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

Musical works, literacy works (including lyrics) and sound recordings are all protected by the Copyright Act 1968. Generally, if someone wants to use or copy information that is copyrighted, they will need permission unless a special exception applies. Many schools have a joint licence agreement, allowing students to make certain video and audio recordings of music. 

It may be legal to use material without permission where a) copyright has expired, and b), for research or study purposes. For example, students may be able to use music in a film that is going to be submitted for assessment at school or university. This is so long as the material is not shown outside the classroom or distributing it further.

References:

http://www.copyright.org.au/g038.pdf

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

Key Ideas from Week 4

From the Pericles (2008) article: 

In discussing blogging in the classroom, many implications for learning are identified.

• One example was where students are shown to be using blogging to re-explain a science experiment they had posted about on their blog, to another primary classroom across the world who wanted to replicate the experiment and thus needed more details. This meant that the students then essentially had to 'teach' these other students how they should do it. When students teach others, this is a very powerful form of learning and increased understanding.

• Another highlight was that by blogging on the internet, children have instant access to the global community. This is a great way to broaden their experiences and global perspective through real (digital) interactions. The children in this case can integrate what they learn in class to construct meaningful and relevant ways to share their learning with new audiences. There is an added benefit where students feel proud to be able to share their work with family and friends with whom they might otherwise have difficulty sharing this with due to physical proximity.

• Also, when blogging, students self-edit their work, and can focus on their interests. This gives students ownership of their learning, leading to increased intrinsic motivation. The blogging also provides the students with a real purpose for the lessons they take, by reflecting on them and sharing them on the blog. In this way students are connected to their learning, which is purposeful and relevant.
  

From the Barone and Wright (2008) article:

• One of the highlights here was that students gained practice in reading for a variety of purposes such as interpreting the textual and visual elements in a document, and knowing how to navigate and find information, as a result of the integration of computers into the classroom (Barone & Wright, 2008). 

• The program also allows for individualisation of lessons, and catering to students' different learning styles and abilities. For example, KidBiz is a web-based, individualised reading and writing program where the whole class can read similar articles on the same topic but at different reading levels (Barone & Wright, 2008).

• Another benefit was having student experts, or 'Wright's Techies' in the article (Barone & Wright, 2008) as a group of students who have a little training, experience and the expertise to be able to assist their peers and teacher in all technical areas of using the laptops in class. 

References:

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

Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6 http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

Digital and Critical Literacy

The Digital and Critical Literacy video emphasises the importance of being critical when viewing digital media. To the untrained viewer, or 'tourist' in this digital space, it is easy to view what we see in digital media as authentic, authoritative information. 

Club Penguin - 'safe fun'

This site (www.clubpenguin.com) provides an opportunity for primary-aged children (or older if you're so inclined) to create their own penguin avatar, interact with other 'penguins' by chatting and playing games. There is always a live moderator, and the site is filtered to protect its young members. 

iLiteracies

New Literacies - a definition

A new term has been put forward in the literature by Hunt (2009) - 'iLiteracies'. This encompasses the skills and understandings that are required of us in order to navigate and use the vast array of evolving technologies. Hunt (2009) uses the example of someone being 'iLiterate' (not illiterate) as being literate in these iLiteracies. So what would we call someone who is not iLiterate? iliLiterate? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Hunt, J. 2009. Personal Communication, 28 July, 2009.