The issue of Copyright

                                    
   
                   COPYRIGHT ,FAIR USE   and    PUBLIC DOMAIN



 In February I worked on line about this important issue : COPYRIGHTS and FAIR USE as I did the  EVO SESSION  2016 that dealt about it.

I have already  described about the  interesting sessions which   were presented, I also  took part in some of them and  I felt that the  topic about   COPYRIGHT  is a bit  complicated for us. Educators have a great responsability as  most of our life as educators and the life of our  learners  are online-
see my post  in the other blog where I  described the tasks we did - it is vitual to learn how to work when we work online:

http://educationalandissue.blogspot.it/2016/02/evo-2016-educators-and-copyrights.html

 More and more we work by using Youtube, search the web and we use materials ,pictures and videos but  we  do  not know how to give  attribution and if we can use them.
Often our students carry out  researches on line and they do not work correctly as they do not respect the rights of  creators, writers and  people who took the pictures.
I continued my research online and could find interesting materials about the way we can search pictures, videos and also how to give  attribution if the  materials have  have been shared. When materials, music and  documents  are  under copyright we cannot use them in our work as they belong to owners.

We have Creative Commons  which can help us  share  materials by  providing attribution to the creators and to  the titles and weblinks but we do need to respect their rights.

We can also use our own pictures and decide to look for images or documents which are in the Public  Domain, But we must know what these words refer to.

Here you  can find interesting  documents which have been shared online to explain the complexity  of what happens when we want to use materials which have been  created by others and what is copyright:

                                                                            CC

OER and Education 

Here is the link to an   interesting presentation which was presented in  a webinar on  August 6 2016                                                                                                                                                 

by  Lyn Hilton   and which  was about   Copyrights and  Creative Commons     - SimpleK12   special session                                                                                                                                      

        https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KUA6B1dmIy3PxcWGOr3bp_1EjdD3VVO-MZfhvTJOkPQ/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.g35f391192_00          

More links about  the issue about  Copyrights can be  found in the  LIVEBINDERS of  April  2016  in the Saturday webinars run by CLASSROOM 2.0 Live   where you can  find an interesting   session  with the  presentation which was made  on line by  Royce  Kimmons   - title of the presentation :  Copyrights, Fair Use, Open Licensing                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                              

Classroom 2.0 LIVE April 2016

http://k12techintegration.pressbooks.com/           ( link shared by Royce Kimmons)


For educators: how to teach  FAIR USE  and  COPYRIGHT  - a video

How to cite pictures in a blog, in an article and online: 

http://writtent.com/blog/the-honor-code-of-a-noble-blogger-how-to-cite-pictures/

Here is an interesting article about copyright and what learners and teachers should know : 

http://ditchthattextbook.com/2016/04/04/14-copyright-essentials-teachers-and-students-must-know/

Useful guide online for educators by  Kathy  Schrock and  Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

http://www.schrockguide.net/intellectual-property.html

And finally  I am presenting the collection which I have  made so far as regards the topic : I am bookmarking more information as I feel that with most of the works we do now we really need to teach them how to use documents, pictures and photos. Attribution is important when we talk about CC. Hopefully we can find a lot of material which is not copyright.


OER, by italianteacher

 More information about  pictures and free photos can be found here - free pictures are the ideal ones for students' work so we do need to know where to find them : sometimes it is easy to use pictures which are shared and do not need attribution!!


IMAGES AND VIDEOS, by italianteacher

MMVC16 Vance Stevens and Teacher Professional Development

7th  August  2016
Day 3
Webinar  by   Vance  Stevens

Abundance in Teacher Professional Development: More than meets the eye

I could see the webinar online this Sunday: Vance Stevens -like many other important educators who were online this weekend-  is someone who works hard and he presented an interesting list of conferences and events online which are worth checking.

I was sure that the presentation would be useful and  engaging - I was not wrong as I have followed  him  in his events online -   you can find them on his  website :  https://learning2gether.net/ .  Lots of opportunities for discussing online on Sunday  and  many interesting people we can meet online and become  important in our life as educators. I cannot but say that my list of interesting web pages  has become longer and longer and I have bookmarked so many so far.  My Pocket is now full but  I am adding more !!
When I saw his presentation I could not but think about the many changes which have taken place in education: yes , I must admit that I am pleased to be living in this century and to be offered so many opportunities for learning thanks to the use of modern technology.  An event like  MMVC16 would not have been possible thirty years ago!!

When I first entered the world of education I could only fly abroad in the summer or take part in conferences which were held in other cities in my country. I am a teacher of English and I wanted to learn more and be more updated.  But our life is also long hours spent at school and planning and  sometimes  you cannot leave  school to take part in conferences. The costs can be high: webinars and conferences online can really make a difference. What we have been offered can sometimes be cheaper than going abroad.

Today we have plenty of opportunities, most of them are also  free and we just  sit in front of our  tablet, smartphone or computer and then we become   part of a learning  community that shares and discusses ideas about  education, the use of  modern technologies and new projects.

This is fantastic as we learn together and can enrich our way of working and sometimes we can find solutions to our difficulties.

What was really interesting was his list of events which he  had collected for the next weeks and months:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/187pdWJxImKvaNoRTUjGw3dU78AXDCzWFtXAWhOBGWss/edit?usp=sharing

I have entered some of them in my  Google Calendar and I am going to check more and share any I have  found interesting and are worth  watching. It is sometimes hard to follow such events as speakers are in the USA, Canada or in the far East while I live in Europe  but what is really good is the opportunity of meeting  virtually and we can share lessons, ideas, and tips. Materials are uploaded online and sometimes we are given the opportunity to choose and to see  the recording!!

I cannot but say that  Vance  Stevens is doing a great job as he is providing us with the " tools" to get access to knowledge and to learn more.

After watching live the webinar  I wrote down some important events in my agenda:  one will be in September  - it is  a new event  EduPassions free web conference  on 3rd September 
weblink http://www.edupassions.org/

Don't miss the #EduPassions free web conference, 9.3.2016 https://t.co/hScjHzu2TG #edtech #edchat #pretchat #tesol pic.twitter.com/JPzDpfS42N

— EduPassions (@edupassionscon) 23 luglio 2016

I am also going to follow more  Tweets  and follow important educators as the web is an important source of information about free events  which are  run by  people  like  Nellie  Deutsch  , Vance Stevens or groups of  teachers who are interested in sharing their projects and support other learners.

The future for me  

I would like to work on projects in education so  I feel that working and learning online can support me by providing ideas. Among the chats we were suggested in the webinar we were given ELT CHATS , I checked online and found not much but then I googled the word and I could find this interesting article by  Shelly Terrell  about  hashtags for  ELT teachers:

http://blog.esllibrary.com/2016/02/02/the-ultimate-hashtag-guide-for-english-language-teachers/


What would I like to research now?

I will see what other educators have already published and I will start writing too about the new
 " motorways" that can help us develop as learners and teachers.


You can find here the slides which  Vance Stevens has  shared online with us.  A precious  document which I have shared online too.

Abundance in teacher professional development: More than meets the eye from Vance Stevens

MMVC16 Flocking birds of different feathers

7th  August 2016
Day 3 MMVC16
I could see the presentation online by  Azmira Amran : the title was " symbolic"  and I feel "catching" for the educators who were following her online while she was speaking about the world of
education today and what we are expected to do or rather what we should do:

"Flocking   Birds  of  different  Feathers"

The presenter is a young educator but has acquired a lot of  experience by learning and studying about educational issues. She is currently studying in Europe and has interesting ideas.

               The presenter worked on an engaging topic: educators working in the XXI century. What she focussed on were ideas related to Dewey and the complexity of approaches to the world of education by underlining the importance of  collaboration.

Educators should not work on their own but they should rely on a network of educators and work together.  Professional Development is today  a must for everybody who is involved in the profession. But the world of educators should be a network of different people who work in different  fields and share ideas about the complexity of teaching and working and  know what should be taken into consideration as the real world is part of education. 
I found the link to Dewey was great: his ways of thinking is still important today!!   

Monodisciplinary collaboration has  some limits :

I really  appreciated the approach to the links among educators, society , social media and technology in today's reality: we can study  Shakespeare or  the cells but we do need to find the best ways for teaching and working on collaboration by helping our learners to develop critical thinking skills, working online and collaborating with their schoolmates. 

Going beyond collaborations with educators:

There is a need for different tasks and she underlined the importance of  collaboration in education and in activities based on problem-solving. 

We must learn how to create  more engaging and meaningful activities in class and I agree with what she said in her presentation.More tasks should enhance collaboration and should based on PBL . I feel that  a lot of projects and CLIL activities are now popular among educators who are trying to follow new ideas about education. The approach is complex but this is similar to the complexity of the world in which we  live and work .Our students are expected to be working in their life after they leave school and we should never forget this.  

        An interesting point she covered was about  collaboration : a new model involving different   " participants": the real world is now part of our world of educators.


I feel that it is a new approach as  it implies  inter-collaboration and new ways of learning and working.

These are the main ideas which she underlined in the webinar online.
When I was online I felt really engaged in the discussion as what she was saying was based on the changes that education is facing in the XXI century.
Personally I think that the issue needs a lot of reflections and as educators we are involved in re-shaping our activities.
However, I must admit that in my country a lot of teachers in the secondary  school  system do not have any connections with the outside world. Teachers of Latin or Maths sometimes lose the contact with the real world and continue working in the same old way.
As a teacher of  Foreign Languages I feel that we are in some ways ready to start collaborations and we often rely on the support of the IT teachers. A lot of projects are now presented in English or other foreign languages in Europe and also abroad . I am sure that  most of  language teachers have already started working in a different way.
I was pleased to learn that other educators are re-thinking the way we can collaborate and work together to better our teaching. Good examples have been presented also in this conference online.

Any challanges?  Not for me, but  maybe I will have to work with my friends and suggest them more formal and informal meetings :  we should all be aware that the old system in education is going to end and it is up to us to choose how to change our systems. 
Meanwhile ,we have online virtual conferences where we can interact and learn from the others. Hopefully the UE has many projects that can support our teaching and my great hope is to start working for some of them. I live in Europe and although we are facing a lot problems due to the bad financial situations we can enhance our best practices by connecting and working together. The community is growing and we are learning together!!
I have also found an engaging community online and sharing ideas and following the great thinkers can help me develop in terms of  self- professional development.

If I could ask a question to the speaker of this presentation, I would like to ask her this simple question:

           How  can we spread these ideas among politicians?
Educators are ready to learn and start a new way of working.

It seems to me that educators are now working and are aware of the steps we do need to follow but we need to rely on world wide events which can reach more people. I wish we could all have more events like this where we discuss, share ideas and try to connect to learn more.


Link to the presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBWqO_o1894

MMVC Using QR codes in education

6th  August 2016
  
Day 2
Webinar by Sibel Taskin Simsek

       "  Using   QR codes in education "

An interesting presentation was made by  Sibel Taskin Simsek and I could see it online.
She presented the use of QR codes in education. I had the opportunity to see  QR codes in a seminar in Italy this spring but I did not think that they could be so helpful. This webinar made me realize that education has really changed and more and more new technologies and apps can help us reach any learner. 

Sibel is an expert in the use of modern technology and she explained to us  how she could use QR codes with her students, who are older than mine ,while learning online and sharing materials for studying. Tablets and smartphones are now a reality and  she teaches at university, so she has to face fewer problems than us in secondary schools.
Here you can find a short introduction to the biography of the presenter who is  a modern teacher of  English while she is also an expert in technology. 

The webinar focussed on the use of  QR codes  and how people   started to use them in the auto industry in Japan:

http://www.qrcode.com/en/history/


Today  QR codes can be used in different  fields, not only in education and industry.

She made a nice presentation of  what we need to have installed in our browsers or in our  devices, mainly  smartphones  and tablets today :
we do need some apps that can scan and read  QR codes and we do need to have  a tool online that helps us create the QR code:

Online we can find easily  a service that enables us to create  a   QR code:  it is a free service  and we can  easily  share documents and links:  http://goqr.me/


 Why  should we use   QR codes?  Because they are simple and they  enable us to provide  links to materials which we cannot  upload in emails and which can be  easily  read online thanks to the apps which we have in our devices.


They can also facilitate the task of the teacher who will share the bar code with all the links that might be useful for homework, tasks to be carried out from home and in groups.

  Here are some useful tips for  ESL/EFL teachers which we were given online:

This webinar was really challenging for me: I thought I had  learnt a lot before I did this online conference and that QR codes would not be necessary in my teaching situations. I was wrong : most of my students have smartphones and use the new apps so they will facilitate my teaching too.
I felt interested and I must say that I have no words  how to thank
Sibel as she was a really good speaker and made a lovely presentation with clear ideas about the best practices she wanted to share with us!! 
The challenges for me
I need to use bar codes, they are so easy and simple and they can meet my students' needs who are looking for new ways of learning and working.
I have already downloaded the apps for scanning and reading bar codes in my browser - Chrome- in my desktop and in the notebooks which I have. I will see what to do  with my smartphone as I have a simple one, a Windows phone - just need to check if I can find the apps.

The future? I will try to work with the new devices and create  new activities. I really loved what I saw online.

Further research about  QR codes and  education

I have already started searching online and it seems that abroad more  and more   teachers are working with them:

http://nikpeachey.blogspot.it/2015/09/20-things-you-can-do-with-qr-codes-in.html

https://educationqrcodes.wikispaces.com/QR+Code+Generator

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/QR-codes-teaching-andrew-miller


http://www.schrockguide.net/qr-codes-in-the-classroom.html


http://www.emergingedtech.com/2014/12/25-ways-to-use-qr-codes-for-teaching-learning/


http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/qrcodes2



Useful videos  to share with other teachers:

To conclude, I would suggest using them to teachers and learners as they are very useful and do not require any special training- just some tutorials and then a lot of practice  :

MMVC16 Proverbs brought to life in an integrated classroom

 6th August 2016

DAY 2

Webinar by Judy Wong :

                                     " Proverbs  brought to life
           in an integrated  classroom "

I could watch online the webinar by Judy Wong. I must confess that I had been looking forward to the event as I had had the opportunity of watching other presentations she had made online and I had appreciated the great competence and the tips she had provided.
Today I was not disappointed as she made a " cool" introduction to the best ways for using technology while introducing idioms and proverbs in an integrated skills classroom. 
Here is a short presentation about her. I could not but check also her blog online as she is a great master in ELT and I would say also in creativity.   See her blog :http://judysworld.edublogs.org/

The key ideas  for teaching by using proverbs:she shared this simple way for introducing and also practising proverbs in our classes: using pictures and writing a story based on a proverb.

She  showed us some examples of works which had been done by her students and they were good as students used web tools for making their presentations but they also created a text while using the idioms.
She also suggested some apps : some are known to me as I have tried them and I think that they could provide interesting ways for enhancing also the students' creativity in the process of writing.

Finally we were given resources for finding proverbs:

This is the video online which was posted later :

I was connected and found her presentation really inspiring for teaching and learning proverbs in English and other  foreign languages.

I could see that it is possible to find and to teach some proverbs as today we are given a list of idioms and we can see what others have tried to do.
Powtoons and  Storybird are very popular now and I might try to use them in my classes. I really love the first tool while Storybird is more aimed at children's stories but I might check online and see what we can do. 
As a learner I have always loved learning proverbs and the first thoughts that came to my mind when watching the webinar were how to find some videos and see what had already been done by others.
I searched online and found these videos: they were made by educators but they were not the students' works.

I must say that teaching idioms is a bit difficult for me as I am  not a mother tongue speaker, I am a teacher of English and I have learnt some idioms but idioms can vary from one country to the other.
As a result I felt that teaching simple proverbs can be easy for me and I could use them with my lower level students and help them write some stories where they use them.

The challenges

It would be more difficult to teach them at an advanced level:  I might try to see what idioms are more likely to be used and try to introduce them.  As a teacher I am still learning now so I will have something new to learn too.

I have found this interesting video online which might explain what I mean by  difficulties in teaching upper-intermediate or advanced learners:

In the future I would like to collect some interesting proverbs and idioms based on topics- I feel that it might be a sort of  dictionary of idioms which I could use with my advanced students.

I have already researched online and my next question is :  can I find more shared resources online which can help me teach idioms in English?  

Here are some interesting links which I have just found:

http://blog.tesol.org/using-proverbs-in-a-writing-class/

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/English_proverbs#Cup        (   a list of English  proverbs)

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/sites/default/files/proverbs.pdf

http://www.manythings.org/proverbs/

http://www.lingolex.com/proverbs.html

http://www.phrasemix.com/collections/the-50-most-important-english-proverbs

A free dictionary online :

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39281/39281-h/39281-h.htm

Idioms in English from  the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms and the Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms:

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/

MMVC16 Together we learn more

Friday 5th August  2016

Day 1  Webinar by  Professor Ludmila Smirnova 
" Together  We learn More: Creating Learning Communities in F-2-F and Blended Moodle courses"  

I watched the webinar online and it was a great presentation!!
It was focussed on the idea of learning together, a sort of a slogan while learning also online. It was really " engaging" as she described her activities and what to do while teaching to get the students interested. She wanted her students to become active learners while working in groups too. 

Who is the Presenter?

It was a presentation which focussed on the features of creating a good collaborating learning environment while the tutor online cared and thought about the best ways for running the course online.

I really liked the video which she shared with us online: a great metaphor of what students can achieve while working in projects or collaborative tasks. It focussed on the necessity of helping other students to achieve the same objective. This is the best way for learning online:

The key ideas which were presented were aimed to an educator who works online but they  are similar to what we do in class: we start lessons by introducing ourselves and by asking our students to tell us something about themselves when we first meet them in class. The same happened online as the tutor wanted to focus on course interaction and to create activities that would motivate the learners online. It is more difficult or it could be more difficult but if we care, we can manage.

From the beginning she had to create a community of learners, so she presented tools which could be used by the learners to introduce themselves. They had to socialize online and she was really great as she created a friendly learning environment. To begin with, she used ice-breakers  to get them enter the new learning environment and she also provided a lot of help online - course orientation - from the beginning. Socialization online was crucial as learners had to work and interact online and later they would present their project work online.  

I really liked the idea of self-presentations made by the students by using modern tools : see some examples

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/gkWiu7WU3LY/?mode=movie

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bxlk0twlCY3/?mode=movie

Ludmila had created the setting- the framework- for them : they could work on the web tools and she had introduced some tools and the students  used them to work in the first stages of the course.

She had to establish rules about the best ways for working online and I really liked the idea of writing a self-reflection after the students had finished their  group projects online.

I cannot but appreciate what she reached at the end of the course online: she had been successful as the learners had worked online and had worked together!! They had learnt a lot and relied on collaboration.

I connected online and really understood what the presenter wanted us to realize. She could establish relationships with the learners and among the learners who worked together.

I think that the content is not similar to what I have experienced so far- I have always worked in class with face to face lessons and I have only started some flipped learning  but what has been presented in the conference might provide me ideas for helping my learners when working with PBL. 

I do not work on any  LMS right now but I am thinking of starting something new so I might rely on the way the presenter has faced blended learning.

How I felt while watching and chatting online

I felt engaged and really liked what I saw but I also thought that  teachers and educators are required to work hard in order to meet the learners' needs.

The challenges

I would like to underline that  professional development and new approaches to learning and  working in the cloud require a lot of training. Teachers need to learn and I am aware that more and more web 2.0 tools and new LMS are now offered to educators.

Next steps

Learning more about  Moodle  and other LMS so that I can find the ideal learning environment where I could start my first experience. I might be interested to start it in my next n a new, so  I will have to check what I can do.

What I am going to do   

I am going to start working more in the cloud and I will think about ways for getting my students more engaged, I am also worried as some students might not be interested and might decide to  be less active. I might use  Padlet or Google tools for creating online activities where my students can work online and share their tasks.   

Now I am going to search more about other LMS or  Virtual Learning Environments so that I can see which ones might best suit my classes in September.

  Link to the video: 

https://youtu.be/WR3Bo5aiT84

MMVC 16 Day 1

Friday 5th August 2016
Day1

                    Beginning the journey into MMVC16

We are going to start our trip into this  VIRTUAL CONFERENCE. Here you can see a  detailed
 list of  the  activities online - some will be  later found on the Youtube.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MNsMz8M68eGdNK4UjYoRIyHjKtDkkyZ4pRv_JUIr0w8/edit?usp=sharing


 

MMVC16 Opening Ceremony from Dr. Nellie Deutsch (Ed.D)

The Conference is run by  Nellie  Deutsch -  a lover of online learning and great supporter for teachers who love to enhance their  learning by using technology.

How Nellie has guided us as regards the reflections online  which we are required to write at the end of the conference.

Reflective practice from Dr. Nellie Deutsch (Ed.D)


I will write my reflections on what I have  seen  and  learnt and  I will try to reflect on  what has provided food for thought......  for my  CPD and for  my  development as regards best  practices.
It will be  a great opportunity for learning this  summer!!