Act 6 - Rindercella.mp4

I didn't know that I was on YouTube! So just had to share, I'm kind of excited. And I don't sound too bad, if I do say so myself!

Copyright

I had never heard of fair use laws before. At least, I don't remember having learned about them. It is very nice that the government recognized the importance of teaching. For one of my video critiques I chose a funny video put together by someone who knows Buffy the Vampire and Twilight very well, a clip where they remixed parts of the two shows to create their own little mock show. They do show more than thirty seconds of each show as they remixed this video, so that could be against copyright laws. Also, they are using the clips to make fun of Twilight primarily, so this could possibly hurt the retail of the series (though that is unlikely). However, I believe that this is a legal use of copyrighted materials since at the end the person gives credit to who owns the copyright of everything that they used as well as stating that "this transformative work constitutes a 'fair use' of any copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law." By citing the copyrighted materials and acknowledging that this work was not all their own, this video is a legal video. Buffy vs. Edward

The other video clip I chose was Potter Puppet Pals video of The Mysterious Ticking Noise. As a huge Harry Potter fan I love these videos. As the clip was posted by the creator, he is not infringing on copyright laws because he created it and is sharing. However, he is also using characters who are copyrighted belonging to both JK Rowling and Warner Bros. so this could be a violation of copyright because he is using characters that he does not have rights to.

Internet Safety

So after doing some research on internet safety I learned some new things about it as well as reaffirming some advice that I already knew but had forgotten about. I shared these with some people and we were able to discuss some things that are good to remember about being safe on the internet and we realized some of the things we need to make sure to do.

• Don't include personal information online, particularly addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, or anything that would give away details about you or your family.
• Review your comments on your blogs or websites to make sure that they are appropriate and that they aren't giving away personal information.
• One that I hadn't thought of much is that you need to be careful what photos you put online. Photos can give a lot of information about a person.
• I also liked the point that said to "assume that what you post on your blog is permanent." This is good because sometimes we just thing that we will put it on there for a while until we decide if we really want it online. We can always delete things, but you never know who will see them before you do delete them.
• Which leads to another point: anyone can read what you post online.
• Another good point I liked was to respect what others have written. Just because it is online doesn't mean that you have to be rude. Don't take those things they have written and just paste them onto your pages.
• Use bookmarks to get to your favorite web pages because "some operators of pornographic Web sites use common misspellings of popular sites or searches in their URLs--their Web page addresses."
• Be careful what you open from the internet. You never know what might be hiding behind an innocent looking pop-up.
• Don't try to unsubscribe from spam, because you'll likely receive more since the spam senders will realize they've reached a valid e-mail address.

The most important point of all of the things I studied and discussed was simply to be careful what you do and put on the internet. You never know who might see it or how they might use it. Just be careful online!

Sources: Fighting Internet Filth, Top 5 Ways Teens Are Compromising Their Identities, Better Blogging, Growing Up Online, and Let Our Voices Be Heard

My Class Website

So I've created a website for the classes that I will hopefully be teaching. It has some good resources to help the students know what's going on. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Class website!

Resource Blogs

Emerging America
This blog will be a good resource in finding ways to teach U.S. History. There are some interesting ideas as well as good information.








History News Network
Another good resource to help me keep up to date with what is going on in the field of history. This way I can be a better teacher because, hopefully, I'll know what's going on.

NHEC

This blog about teaching history has other interesting ideas on how to teach parts of history that are either confusing or are not easily taught. It can look at different views of the subject and how to teach them effectively. This is valuable for a history teacher.

Suite 101
This is another valuable blog that focuses on how to effectively use technology in teaching, which is something that every teacher needs to know now. This blog will be helpful for me to keep up to date on this as well as giving me good ideas.

Technology and Me

As to my experience with technology, I have learned as I have needed things. My dad is an IT guy so he has been able to teach me some of the basics about computers, but I don't always understand what he says. A lot of what I know about technology I have learned on my own through practice and research. I'm fairly proficient at using the internet, as well as other computer programs. Other things about computers I just figure out as I go. As to other aspects of technology, it is much the same. I have learned and figured things out as I needed them and with experimentation.

For this class I hope to be able to learn how to use technology to become a better teacher. Because technology is such a large aspect of modern life, students will be able to relate to it and understand better. They also have more access to technology than ever before. Using technology will help me to keep things organized and, hopefully, to keep students interested. Thus I need to learn how to use these things that are available, such as blogging and creating websites, that will help me. I hope to be able to make things that look professional and other things that are just fun. I want to figure these things out now, so that when I am teaching I can quickly and easily utilize them.

Here is an interesting article on the connection between teaching and technology: "Teaching with Technology"

My Blog Page

So now that I've got my computer finally working, I can start! I have added some fun gadgets to my sidebar. I added a slideshow of cool pictures because I thought that they would look nice and would add a little something to the page. I really like looking at pictures of interesting scenes, so I figured that others would too. I also added a search bar because I know that whatever website I am on I always want to be able to search for something on that page or on the web quickly. I've got my followers list so that people can know who is following my page, and so that I can know quickly and easily as well. Finally, there's the about me. It's just a short piece that tells a little about me so that I don't seem like some mysterious entity. It gives the page a personal bit. So here is the introduction of my blog, complete with gadgets and everything.