Sunday, March 9, 2014

Zunal WebQuest: Snurfle Meiosis!

My WebQuest Link
Built around and supporting BIOMAN's animated game @ www.biomanbio.com (link provided within WebQuest to specific game: Snurfle Genetics)

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=233110

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Copyright Law

What's the purpose of copyright law?
Only the owner has the right to use their work- protects them
What can be copyrighted?
Original work that can be seen or heard
Books Plays Music Dance Movies & Pictures- not ideas, just the form one takes
How long can something be copyrighted for nowadays?
A lifetime + 70 years
Company over 100 yrs- like forever
How long could you copyright something for a long time ago?
14 yrs
What's the public domain?
Where anyone can use the work once the copyright has expired and is now free for anyone to use
What is fair use?
Borrowing a small amount of a copyrighted work to make a point...
What reasons can you borrow something that's been copyrighted?
You can borrow a small amount of a copyrighted work- parody, critical comment...
Certain rules
What's the guidelines of fair use?
-The nature of the work borrowed
-The amount you borrowed
-Can't change the original work's value in the marketplace
Or a legal defensible position

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Digital Natives

  The line from the Part I article that resonated with me most was "Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." What good is a system that doesn't meet the needs of its target population? I believe this singularity has been perpetuated because we are in a unique, short-lived window of time where the student were born into technology but the teachers were not. In this way, students are ahead of teachers in the technology curve- and in how they experience the world around them. I don't know a single teenager today who goes out of his/her way to read a print newspaper, but I know plenty of adults who insist upon obtaining their news in this way. 50 years from now, all teachers will also have been born into technology, and will thereby be instilled with the same technological upbringing- even if they are behind the latest app trend-- they will at least be on the same mental page. So we are in a interesting, but finite, period of time where we must push ourselves as Digital Immigrant educators to meet our Digital Native students on their level.  This does not mean that since this time will run out that we can simple do nothing and wait for it to end- we have an obligation to our students, no matter our differences.
  The parts that I disagree with is that as a general rule someone who is a Digital Immigrant is not failing to reach his/her students. I know many Digital Immigrant teachers who are more into technology like Spotify or Twitter than I am. It is about being aware of the differences between us and our Digital Native students and doing something about it that makes all the difference. 
  With regards to the second, Part II, article. I absolutely believe that brains are continuously molded and rewired by our experiences- from Depression to TV to drug use to being raised as an only child. All these things shape the way we look at the world. Therefore, no two students are alike, or have ever been alike. What has changed is the rate at which students' minds are affected- we are bombarded with media and more experiences earlier in our lives than we used to be. This can only serve to make understanding and continuing to meet the needs of a developing young adult harder and harder.