To use WikiPedia or Not?

To my surprise, I recently discovered that there seems to be great divide between those that support and those that do not support the use of Wikipedia. I become concerned when I see students using only one source such as Wikipedia or when I hear teachers tell their students not to use it. Wouldn't a practical approach teach our students to use multiple sources and evaluate each source for relevancy and accuracy? Isn't that what we did before we had a great wealth of information at our fingertips via the web? Further, when a student identifies an example of an inaccurate source is that not a powerful learning experience?

The web makes it easier to conduct research and provides our students with a great deal more of information than if they were physically confined to a library or classroom without the internet. Now, more than ever it is important to teach students the skills of evaluating sources of information. That is why information literacy is a 21st Century skill (see http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/infolit.htm). I think we need to get past hyping or discouraging the use of any one site or source and leave it up to the students to decide what is best, provided we do our job and teach them them the skills that they need.

Thanks to many Maine East teachers who have expressed their opinions on this topic during recent discussions and also to Scott Mcleod who writes about this topic in his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant (see http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/11/just-say-no-to.html).

Baseball and Copyright (Fair Use)

Hmmm. I can think of two topics that could possibly be more boring to many folks out there. I love baseball. I am watching the World Series as I type. Which is one reason I love baseball because I can totally get into it, calculating the countless possible outcomes before each pitch or have it on in the background looking up whenever I sense there is a big play happening so I can work, play or take a nap between the action. Most of all, I love baseball because no matter how much I think I know about the game or how long I have been watching, I can always see something new or perhaps that has never happened in the 150 +/- years the game has been played.

So what does baseball have to do with copyright law and Fair Use? Well, if you think that copyright law is boring, doesnt affect you and/or nothing new is happening then you might want to read on. Now, I am no expert but the issue comes up again from time to time. Like it did today (thanks Kyle) so in my typical non-linear fashion I researched the topic with the focus of how this impacts education.

Recently, the Center for Social Media conducted a study and reported in The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy that due to the confusion regarding copyright, "teachers use less effective teaching techniques, teach and transmit erroneous copyright information, fail to share innovative instructional approaches, and do not take advantage of new digital platforms." The report concludes that teachers need to better educate themselves to about Fair Use so they and their students can more confidently use (more) copyrighted materials for educational purposes. That sounds good to me but dont tell the lawyers.

Perhaps there is a better way. Sure we need to employ Fair Use but there is an alternative or a "modification" to copyright. Its called Creative Commons. Creative Commons allows a creator to license their work as they see fit to users. It protects the creator and users. A license can eliminate the need to for the user to obtain permission, pay to use it or rely on the confusing "rules" of Fair Use. Watch this video to see how it works.





Want more information on Copyright in Education? There is a good presentation and resources on Karen Richardson's Wiki page. Well, the game is over and its time for bed. Perhaps I'll explore this more in another blog. Tell me what you thing and feel free to use any of the information using Fair Use or Creative Commons (see my license at the bottom of this page).

K12 Online Conference - Must see

There is a FREE online conference dealing with technology and specifically web/classroom 2.0. Below is their intro. Sit back, relax and check it out! http://www.k12onlineconference.org/

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2007 conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations. More information about podcast channels and conference web feeds is available!

Tiny URL

Did you ever try to email a long web address (URL) and find out it didnt work for your recipient? How about linking a long URL on your web site?

Well, there is a solution to this problem. Its called Tiny URL. You can go to the web site and paste your long URL into a simple form and get a short URL to email or post. You can also download a button for your browser's tool bar, click the button from any web page and get a tiny url . The tiny url never expires. So if you need to email the same link, such as directions, you can keep reusing it. There is even a plug-in for Firefox that helps you make, save and manage URLs.

Here is an example from a link giving directions. Long: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&
;geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&
saddr=Chicago,+IL,+usa&daddr=Boston,+MA&a
mp;sll=42.043174,-87.632446&sspn=0.887264
,1.867676&ie=UTF8&z=5&om=1

Short: http://tinyurl.com/38kj9m

Here is were you can find what you need.
Web site: http://tinyurl.com/
Tiny URL Creator: http://tinyurl.com/2pb7f8

Why did I choose this blog title?

See one; Do one; Teach one...I cant recall exactly when I heard it but it has stuck with me all these years. I heard it from an episode of M*A*S*H, my favorite TV show when I was a kid. One of the shows doctors was performing a new procedure and it impressed a doctor observing the technique. One of the doctors then mentioned this principle and it struck me profoundly.

Ever since I heard it, it has been my "motto" and a principle I have followed. I grew up thinking that if I learn some thing (see one), I use it (do one) and then I should teach someone else what I have learned (teach one).

While my calling may not be as a doctor or classroom teacher, I hope to teach other people what I know about technology. I think the most important thing to know about technology is that it is not a means to an end, technology is a tool or a system of tools that can be employed by people to make doing something easier, better or faster. Technology is not the most important thing, people are and we shouldn't loose sight on that.

So read on. I'll keep on learning and doing new things, then I hope I can teach you something new about technology. Maybe you'll do it and teach someone how. Its a never ending cycle and that is the simple beauty of See one, Do one, Teach one.