Check out these educational blogs...

The following blogs are good models for students and teachers.
I chose them, because they all:
- have great layouts – are visually interesting
- are engaging and encourage collaboration and comment
- provide access to fun (and educational) games, homework and school activities
- list links to other school blogs from around the world

Mr. Hancock’s Class Blog (Canada):
Grade 2/3 - http://mrhclassblog.edublogs.org/

Belmore South Public School (Sydney):
Grade 3/4 class blog - http://clevercookies.edublogs.org/
Blog linked to Unit of Work - http://astrokids.edublogs.org/

Marybank Primary Senior Blog (Scotland):
Grades 4-7 (senior students blog) - http://marybankseniors.edublogs.org/


Here are some more that are useful resources for Teachers...

MY PICK... educating alice (this blog is a great source of ideas for using Web 2.0 in the classroom) - http://medinger.wordpress.com/

Education Blog (Nation Museum of Australia, Canberra) - http://ednma.blogspot.com/

Blogs in Education (DET, Western Australia) - http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
Includes:
- classroom and teacher applications
- how to get started on your blog
- a link to a collaborative student blog (although the target audience is high school students)

education.au blog - http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/
Contains up-to-date information on the use of digital technologies in education.

Copyright in the Classroom

The following information was obtained from the Australian Copyright Council (2007 & 2008). For more information on copyright laws in Australia, check out… http://www.copyright.org.au/

Can I copy material from the internet for research?
Yes. Provided that your use is fair, you can use material from the internet for the purposes of research or study (including your own private study).

What constitutes research and fair use?
Research is defined by the Macquarie dictionary as the “diligent and systematic enquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover facts or principles...”

Fair use (Australian Copyright Council, 2007) includes copying:
• 10% of the number of pages, if you are reproducing text or printed music from a hard copy edition of 10 or more pages
• 10% of the number of words, for text material published in electronic form
• one chapter, if the work is divided into chapters

It is also considered fair to reproduce an article from a periodical publication (such as a newspaper, magazine or journal) or more than one article if each article is for the same research or course of study.

In most cases, you also need to acknowledge the author of material you copy and properly cite.

Can students (university or school) use music in videos that they make?
Yes, if the copyright has expired, or if the video is used for the purposes of research or study and provided that the use is fair. However, permission is required if the video is intended for public screening.

“An example of fair dealing for research or study may be using music in a film which is to be submitted for a school or university project, but which you do not intend to show outside the classroom or distribute further.” (Australian Copyright Council, 2008). This exception does not necessarily apply to the person making a home video or movie of a wedding or school concert.

References

Australian Copyright Council. (2007). Research or study. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from http://www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/infosheets_pdf/g053.pdf/download

Australian Copyright Council. (2008). Music: use in student films and home videos. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from http://www.copyright.org.au/g038.pdf

Key Ideas For The Digital Classroom

The following articles contain exemplars of integrated and engaging use of digital technologies in the classroom. These articles demostrate quality teaching principles and the development of new literacies:

1. Barone, D., & Wright, T. E. (2008). Literacy instruction with digital and media technologies. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-302.
2. Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6 http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

The article by Pericles (2008) identifies some great ideas for classroom blogs. Including:

• Sharing and collaborating with classes in other countries
• Posting videos of class plays and artworks
• Viewing, reviewing and giving feedback to other students (in the same class, in other classes, in other schools and in other countries)
  

Barone and Wright (2008) describe the use of laptops in a grade 4 class. The students use their laptops to:

• Check the class webpage for quizzes, activities and events
• Download files from the school server
• Syncronize with the school calender to retrieve class and homework activities and the updated schedule of events
• Pair-share with a partner via instant messaging
• Send and receive emails
• Visit kid-friendly virtual worlds

The use of the laptops also allows the teacher to develop differentiated instruction for individual students.

Voices in the Park - Text Innovation

One of the key features of the book Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne is the use of different fonts for the voices of the four different characters. This text innovation was designed to assist students to visually interpret the fonts and explain why a particular font has been chosen for each character. The first part of the activity would involve input from the whole class to describe each font, then the students individually identify and/or draw characters that fit their description.

After describing the fonts the students would be asked to try and match the fonts to the pictures of the characters in the story.
This would involve a class discussion where students would give their reasons for their choices.

Finally the students would get a chance to find their own font and make up a character to match it. This would be an individual task and the work of each student would be posted on the class blog.

The Endangered Tree Octopus

It is important to be critically literate when it comes to researching using Web 2.0. Many websites contain information that is incorrect or has a biased agenda. The "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus" website (http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/) is a good resource for teachers to assist students with the development of these critical literacy skills, so that they are more able to judge the credibility of their sources.

Check Out Animoto!

Animoto automatically creates a short video with your photos and music. This would be a great tool for students to display their school project research and discoveries. It could also be a fun way for students to share information about what they have done on their holidays.
Click here > animoto

What are New Literacies?

New literacies are the skills required to construct and appraise the wide range of mulitmodal texts (McDougall, 2007, p.130) that exist in the digital environment of Web 2.0 (Callow, 2008, p.13). These skills can be used to navigate and share information quickly and easily across cyberspace. Developing these new literacies is as important in education today as the traditional literacies of reading and writing.

References

Callow, J. (2008). New literacies, New York & Web 2.0: a little insider knowledge is a helpful thing! SCAN, 27(4), 13-16.

McDougall, J. (2007). Engaging the visual generation: some Queensland teachers come to terms with changing literacies. Screen Education(46), 130-137.

Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2006). Discussing New Literacies. Language Arts, 84(1), 78-86.