Week+6+-+February+22nd+-+28th,+2010

Cool things today:


 * My Thoughts on Prezi**
 * Very cool program. This program would be useful to use as a teacher if you're a fan of concept maps. Prezi is practically a concept map generator, complete with the ability to easily move, roll, and zoom around it.
 * Personally, I don't actually use concept maps unless I'm asked to, but my career has plenty of time left to include them.
 * Since you can use many features of Prezi free, I could see using this in the classroom.


 * My Thoughts on explorelearning.com and Gizmos**
 * This website was born for classes with easy computer access. The science department at Sacred Heart, where I had my first practicum, used Gizmos extensively. It puts the student in control of their learning and gives them some decent games and practice with problems.
 * I can see some misuse of Gizmos. Gizmos were great for the students at Sacred Heart, but using them a lot meant the students were good at doing **Gizmos**, this didn't make them good at pencil and paper tests, which Sacred Heart still clung to.
 * I had to design and implement the Optics unit during my first practicum and I regret not utilizing a few Gizmos. They have optics Gizmos! Do you know how difficult it was to find really engaging optics material?


 * My Thoughts on use of Wikipedia vs. Not

**
 * I seem to have a bit of a radical perspective on Wikipedia amongst the teachers in the program (according to hearsay, anyway). I think Wikipedia is a great asset to the class.
 * There are scarcely any articles on Wikipedia that actually have subpar information when you consider the K-12 level you're dealing with. There may be some specialty subjects unavailable, but that's offset by most subjects having **way** more information than is actually required.
 * Talking to your students about how Wikipedia works (how it can be used as a 'jumping platform' for research, how articles could be subpar and warning signs) is a perfect teachable moment about Internet research in general. At the end of the day, even peer-reviewed literature is flawed and requires scrutiny.


 * My Thoughts on our presentation**
 * I had a good time! Speaking of time, was that actually 20 minutes?
 * Lisa and I could have used a bit more preparation time, and we had a little too much stuff to show the class. I think that ended up being a positive point though, because **on that day only** the Celestia download page at SourceForge was dysfunctional. Go figure!
 * Count me in on the group of people that were a bit confused on the format/objective of the lesson in general. "Student-centred, tech-driven lesson" sounded like we would actually **give a lesson**, and that's what we planned for by preparing a Google Form with a super-condensed Grade 9 lesson. Then, the entire class seemed to be doing a more traditional (for this program) presentation of educational tools. Lisa and I spent about 10 minutes trying to modify the lesson to more of a presentation-style. Peer pressure, I guess, but no one said that was the **wrong** way to present until the end. I was a little disappointed by that, since I wanted everyone to try out my second ever Google Form.


 * My Thoughts on Creative Commons and Copyright**
 * I like the Creative Commons mission. While not anti-copyright per se, it is at least giving people options for opening rights to their work with ease. Not everyone is well-versed in copyright law, nor is everyone a lawyer.
 * I'm generally anti-copyright. Though, as an "employee" of the state (a teacher), I would grudgingly follow Canada's copyright laws. Following laws is good, most of the time.
 * Copyright laws are grossly outdated or even obsolete in the 21st century. Technology, the Internet, and Web 2.0 now allow near-instantaneous sharing of various media (books, music, movies, software, etc). My biggest issue with copyright is that it is basically just protecting profits. Not a company's survival, just it's profits. Even if 21st century information sharing were to make certain companies obsolete, for instance, a video rental store, so what? There is no immorality to that end. I will support the companies or people I want to support (for instance, I rarely pirate video games).
 * The other problem I have with copyright are laws that control how I am to use whatever I've purchased. Movies or games "for personal use only." I disagree with this fundamentally.
 * Copyright is starting to enter dangerous territory, as companies are now capable of copyrighting things like seeds, hybrids, or variants of **living organisms.** Copyright should be about protecting theft (almost a fallacy within itself, copyright infringement is not theft), but some copyright is **effectively theft** by monopolizing certain industries and products.

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 * Comments? I insist!**