Why not tune into our two Microsoft Partners in Learning short webinars on Weds 22nd and Weds 29th May

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We invite you to join two Microsoft Partners in Learning webinars to be held on the next two Wednesday afternoons. These will be of special interest to those who are entering Microsoft’s Innovative Educator Expert competition in South Africa where the first closing date is 3 June if you would like to be chosen as one of the 15 finalists who will be completely sponsored to the SchoolNet Conference in Bloemfontein in July 2013. (The final closing date for the Microsoft’s Innovative Educator Expert competition is on 30 September). Find out more here.

Navigating the Partners in Learning Network
Name: Navigating the Partners in Learning Network
Summary: The Partners in Learning Network is a great portal for teachers who are interested in ICT in education who want to find like-minded colleagues, free downloadable tools that they can use to enhance lessons and a place to discuss hot topics. In this webinar you will learn more about how to find free tools, search for learning activities and complete your profile so that other teachers will be able to find you!
Presenter: Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet
Start Time: 05/22/2013 3:30 PM
Duration: 15 – 30 mins
URL:http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/piln1/
Access: Anyone who has the URL for the meeting can enter the room

Sharing a Learning Activity on the Partners in Learning Network
Name: Sharing a Learning Activity on the PIL-Network
Summary: Are you using technology in a creative and engaging way to enhance a lesson? Have you developed a project that makes use of technology to build knowledge or solve a real world problem? If so - share your learning activity on the Partners in Learning Network and you could win a trip to the Global Partners in Learning Forum. In this webinar you will learn about the requirements for the competiton and tips for developing an impressive learning activity.Presenter: Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet 
Start Time: 05/29/2013 3:30 PM
Duration: 00:15
URL:http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/r1do1h6omuo/
Access:Anyone who has the URL for the meeting can enter the room

See you there!

Creative Writing #7: Use YouTube stories to inspire your class to write...

There are many ways to get your class to write stories. This idea is to use YouTube videos to inspire writing. You could use these in different ways such as:

• Talk about the structure of a story in terms that your age group understands
• Show a video and then discuss the structure of the story or analyse the stages of a story
• Watch the story and ask your class to rewrite it and change it. 

1. Owl Stories by Martin Waddell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJe0WupukAw




2. Handa’s Surprise by Eileene Browne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyIV_xYi0as



3. Handa’s Hen by Eileen Browne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyIV_xYi0as




An example of how to use these videos

Let's make a start by watching ‘Owl Stories’ by Martin Waddell and then let's analyse it. Let’s see how a problem was brought in and resolved to make this beautiful story so appealing. I’ll use the following story structure idea, namely the idea of asking 'What If' and to keep asking 'What if?' until a plot emerges. 

What if question? 'What if the mother of new baby owls didn't come back from hunting for food?'  Keep asking related 'What if' questions and slowly a plot emerges as follows

1. Beginning: The babies are in their nest
2. Middle. A problem is introduced
    a) Mother Owl doesn’t come back.
    b) The baby owls start searching in the dark woods
    c) They discuss where they think Mommy could be
3. The end: The problem is resolved – Mommy comes back and finds them. 

A task
Why not take one of the other stories and see if you can analyse them to see if there was a problem or conflict introduced and resolved and how it impacted the story

Have you booked for the Inspired Teachers’ Conference in Johannesburg on 31st May?

 


Read more and download the brochure here.

Creative writing #6: Have you explored using Little Bird Tales for writing?

Little Bird Tales (http://littlebirdtales.com) has quickly become a favourite web 2.0 tool of mine for writing in the primary school, mostly because it’s so easy to create a high-quality product and you can draw your own pictures online plus add narration. The web site allows users to create podcasts with images — basically, narrated slideshows — in just three steps:

1. Users can upload photos to their Bird Tale or they can use an embedded drawing tool to draw images. Older students can add text to their images.
2. Users then record narration to go with each image if they wish.
3. Finally, users share their Bird Tales, by sending a URL via e-mail.

The name has a babyish sound but I have fund that this does not deter primary school age children. This video shows how Little Bird got his name: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnNCe5OD8k&feature=player_embedded

Watch this demo from Little bird tales

Here is a demo from YouTube showing how easy it is to us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P3CcWUtOiBk

An instruction video from Little Bird Tales


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEnhabCzrvo

Example of how a teacher created a story using Little Bird Tales
This comes from Juanit Oosthuizen from Elkanah House Cape Tiwn's lovely Foundation Phase blog  http://technoboffins.wordpress.com 

• Click to view my tale.
• 

http://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/21440/



Example of a story made with Little Bird Tales
This comes from the blog http://berryart.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/a-little-bird-told-me/

• Click to view my tale.
• http://littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/17927/ 

How Little Bird Tales is accessed

1. Teachers can easily create a FREE account and begin creating tales. They can have all their students create tales under a single account, but the site also allows teachers to create separate FREE accounts for each student. These accounts are always connected to the teachers’ account, and the website is built to ensure student privacy since so many younger kids use it.
2. The website asks users to create and use a “school code” so teachers and students from the same school can be grouped together. Teachers can’t access Bird Tales from another class unless it’s been shared with them, but it allows teachers to see who else in their school is using the tool and how often. This is helpful in terms of finding on-site teachers who can offer support.License

Try Little Bird Tales today and see what you think. 

Four resource sites every South African teacher should join

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As the digital age and technology integration with lessons becomes more and more part of our daily lives, teachers look for web resources and new online materials as part of their preparation to help them with their teaching. This is definitely not an easy task for one needs to ‘live’ online in order to be able to keep up with what is available online. So I thought I would mention four very useful resource sites that teachers in South Africa should consider joining.

Microsoft Partners in Learning Network
http://www.pil-network.com/

1. I’ll mention Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Network first since they are having a competition for joining that closes in June. Apart from that this is an incredible resource for teachers with lesson plans, topics, for discussion, opportunities for you to better your digital understanding, tutorials, and opportunities to network with teachers from around the world etc.. Currently they have four million users world wide.
2. Secondly Microsoft has introduced the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert programme this year  – entries close on two dates for South African teachers (3 June if you would like to be considered as a finalist in the South African Global Forum and ponsored to the Bloemfontein SchoolNet Conference, and the 31 July if you missed the first date. For this competition one needs to upload a learning activity to the Partners in Learning Network. Find out more at this URL http://www.pil-network.com/Educators/Expert. Join today!   

SchoolNetSA
http://www.schoolnet.org.za/

SchoolNet SA is considered South Africa’s leading innovator in professional development programmes in ICT integration and school ICT leadership. We are the national agency for two multi-national teacher development programmes, Intel* Teach to the Future and Microsoft* Partners in Learning. Please join us. Joining SchoolNet as a member brings unique opportunities to teachers. Currently we have two Conferences on the horizon

• Schoolnet Conference in Bloemfontein in July 2013
• We are hosting the first Google in Education summit along with Parklands College at Parklands College in September.

Twitter
https://twitter.com/

This is an international resource site but it is mentioned in this list of four because it is something a South African teacher cannot do without. There are thouands of educators from around the world on Twitter who network, chat, share ideas and resources, collaborate and support each other so why not join them!

Vodacom’s Digital Classroom
http://digitalclassroom.co.za/digitalclassroom/

The Vodacom Mobile Education Programme is a nationwide teacher development initiative to improve the quality of instruction in all subjects, with particular emphasis on Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy and Physical Science at Grade 10 to 12 level. The project focuses on ICT Literacy, as well as the effective use and integration of digital content in the classroom. Join today.

Wondering how to join these sites?

I have added a Slideshare below showing how to join these four resource sites and  have listed some of the benefits of joining each one.

Four resource sites for South African educators to join from Schoolnet SA

There are other lovely South African sites that are also full of useful, free resources for teachers and that you don't actually need to join as such. e-classroom comes to mind. Have you seen their lovely free CAPS-aligned downloadable worksheets that can form the written part of a lesson? They are starting to branch out into other languages and I see that many of their worksheets are now translated to Afrikaans. 

Don't delay - join today!

Google #22 Discover the potential of YouTube to motivate you as a teacher

There are so many really amazing, educational videos available on YouTube that can really motivate a teacher. These are often brief but powerful in the message expressed. Take a look at these few examples.

1) Connecting classrooms (1min 53secs)
Cathy Cassidy a Grade 1 teacher from Canada Gr 1 teacher gives 'A brief description of my journey to connect my classroom of 6 and 7 year olds'



2) What most schools don’t teach (5min 46secs)
These famous names in technology such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Tony Hsieh, Drew Houston, Gabe Newell, Ruchi Sanghvi, Elena Silenok, Vanessa Hurst, and Hadi Partovi.  express their viewpoints on knowing how to code a computer.



3) The Future of Learning, Networked Society - Ericsson (20 min 16secs)
We’re living in a networked society – a great way to learn anything new. Watch this video as world renowned experts and educators talk about a networked society’s potential to shift away from traditional methods of learning based on memorization and repetition to more holistic approaches that focus on individual students' needs and self expression.



4) What is 21st century learning?(2min 11secs)


These are just a few of the many many offerings that can inspire teachers on YouTube. Do you know of any others to recommend?

Join a free Western Cape Innovation workshop on Sat 11th or Sat 18th May

Microsoft is currently holding free workshops around the country to prepare teachers for the Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Educator Forum this year, and we are holding two in the Cape Town region over the next two Saturdays.  We would love you to attend one of them (the presenter at both workshops will be Fiona Beal).

Dates

Saturday 11th May 2013 – Somerset House Preparatory School,  Drama Street, Somerset West from 8:30 – 4pm
Saturday 18th May 2013 – St Cyprians School, Gorge Road, Oranjezicht, 8001 from 8:30 – 4pm

Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert programme

The format and requirements for the Microsoft Partners in Learning Forum have changed quite radically this year compared to previous years. Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert programme recognising 250 innovative teachers from around the world (much like the Apple Distinguished Educator and the Google Certified Teacher) The Global Forum for this will take place in March 2014 (destination still to be announced), but entries still have to be in this year. There are two entry dates for this competition:

•        By 3 June 2013 to win a trip to the SchoolNet Conference in Bloemfontein and be selected as a finalist at the South African Global Forum

•        By 31 July 2013 for another chance to be a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert

(The reason for  the two dates  is that teachers can still apply for the Microsoft Expert Educator programme up till the closing date at the end of July but would miss being recognised at the local forum in Bloemfontein.)

Teachers are now asked to upload a Learning Activity to the Partners in Learning Network (including a two-minute video) and they need to apply to be a Microsoft Innovative Educator: Expert. This is not as daunting as it sounds! How to apply is covered in the workshop, but attention is also paid to making sound use of digital tools, using social media for professional development and looking at examples of how other teachers have used digital tools in engaging or creative ways.

Workshop sessions

The current Innovation Workshop is quite different from previous versions and feedback from sessions that have already been run has been very positive. Below are the session titles and what is covered:

Session 1: Teaching and Learning in a connected world

Using Social Media for educational purposes and your own professional development

Session 2: Learning Activities that use Digital Tools

See how other teachers have created or enhanced a lesson by incorporating free, easy-to-use tools

Session 3: Getting ideas, mastering tools, creating Learning Activities

Devise a Learning Activity that would teach a new concept to a group using a tool or technique

Session 4: 21st Century Learning Dimensions

Learn about six dimensions that 21st Century teachers should aim towards and how to include them in your learning activities

Session 5: Creating your own Learning Activity

Brainstorm ways of creating or enhancing a learning activity that you can use to develop 21st century skills

Session 6: Applying to be a Microsoft Innovative Educator: Expert

Show your passion for using technology for education and you stand a chance of winning a spot at the SchoolNet ICT in the Classroom conference to present your Learning Activity and being selected to attend the Partners in Learning Global Forum

We know that many teachers are creating creative and engaging learning activities and we would love to see these entries. It would be great if you could encourage colleagues to enter and could perhaps run a few sessions with them as part of your staff development programmes. More information about the Forum as well as the resources for the sessions can be found at the following link: 2013 South Africa and Lesotho Partners in Learning Discussion on the PiL Network at  http://www.pil-network.com/Discussion/488ae828-fa68-4ef5-83a0-faa249c866c4

Contact fiona(at)schoolnet.org.za for further details. 

A Google in Education Summit in SA–hosted by SchoolNet and Parklands College! Join us!

What, where and when?
SchoolNet is pleased to announce another very exciting event that is not to be missed - the first of its kind on the African continent!  On September 26th & 27th SchoolNet and Parklands College will be hosting a Google in Education Summit in Cape Town at Parklands College –  This type of summit is very popular overseas so we are thrilled to be able to bring it to South Africa. 

This not-to-be-missed two day event focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education and other Google Tools to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education.

The Google in Education South Africa Summit brings together world-class educational technology leaders. All presenters are Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, Google Employees, and teachers with local success stories!  The first five international presenters have been announced. Read more information about these presenters at http://za.gafesummit.com/presenters. More will be added to the conference website in the coming days so check back often for more presenters from the Google Apps for Education Team... and more Google engineers! Local educators are invited to submit conference presentations. 

Special early bird rate
We have negotiated a special rate with the conference organisers - the EdTech Team from the USA. Early registrants pay only US$199 as long as they register before July 26. 
Please keep visiting http://za.gafesummit.com/ for more information.
We would love you to join us at this event and also make it known to your education contacts.

Presenters to date (Keep visiting http://za.gafesummit.com/ for more)
Mark Wagner
Formerly a high school English teacher, Dr. Mark Wagner has since served as an educational technology coordinator at the site, district, and county levels. He now serves as President and CEO of the EdTechTeam, which provides professional development and consulting services to learning institutions, non-profits, and for-profit entities around the world.

In this capacity, Dr. Wagner leads a series of Google Apps for Education Summits around the globe in partnership with Google in Education. He was the director of the Google Teacher Academy and the Google Workshops for Educators by Computer Using Educators (CUE) from 2008-2012. He has also been the professional development coordinator for CUE, the educational technology 

coordinator for the California League of Schools (CLS), the director of professional development for California Vision Technologies (CVT), and the provider of the technology module for Orange County’s Administrator Training Program. In addition, he works directly with school districts, independent schools, and other organisations that provide educational products and services. Mark Wagner has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology and a master’s degree in cross-cultural education. His doctoral research focused on the use of video games in education, and specifically on the potential applications of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) as constructivist learning environments.

Chris Bell
Chris Bell currently serves as the District Coordinator of Instructional Technology for Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Southern California. In this capacity, he oversees the instructional technology implementations in the district including mobile device initiatives, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classrooms, and online learning.
He currently teaches computer programming for middle/high school students, Leading Edge Certification courses for the online teacher, and is adjunct faculty for the University of La Verne School of Teaching and Educational Leadership.

Chris is a Google Certified Teacher, Google Apps EDU Certified Trainer, a Lead Learner for the CUEtoYOU Speakers Bureau, Orange County CUE Board President, and co-chair of CUE/iNACOL's e-Learning SIG (eLSIG). He is also a sitting member of several advisory boards with a focus towards online & blended learning. Chris is a core member of EdTechTeam and serves as the Director of Online Learning.
 
Jim Sill

After almost a decade in the video and television industry, Jim Sill hung up his producer hat and embarked on a career in education. Using his industry experience, he created an award winning video production program at El Diamante High Schoolin Visalia, CA. By involving students in real world video projects, they garnered awards and recognition at the local, state, and national level. With experience producing local television and industrial videos for non-profit organizations, many of his former students now work in the industry.

As a Google Certified Teacher, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Apps Certified Trainer and Apple Certified Trainer, Jim leads professional development workshops on Google’s collaborative tools, social media, and video production. In 2012, Jim was featured in Edutopia and their Teach2Learn series for his work in Building Career Skills in Video Production. He was also awarded The Computer Using Educator (CUE) Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and nominated for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Outstanding Teacher Award. 

Wendy Gorten

Wendy Gorton is an enthusiastic Google Certified Teacher, Google Apps EDU Certified Trainer, and lifelong learner. Currently, she is a 5th grade social studies teacher and technology developer in New York City. She has taught 4th graders in Los Angeles, and has been an elementary technology coordinator, a university technology specialist, an online teacher, a curriculum developer, and a research assistant. She is passionate about project-based learning and using technology like Google Apps to open her students up to collaboration and to the world! She is particularly passionate about international education, and was recently based out of India as a secondary technology integrator at an American school. She loves working with international teachers to find out how technology can make learning come alive for their students. She has been a conference and webinar presenter for ISTE and CUE, and she has lead  educational workshops in Canada, the US, Jamaica, Austria, and the Czech Republic - on topics such as Google Apps, iPad applications in the classroom, professional development, curriculum development, project-based learning, grant-writing, and global collaboration. Her Master's degree is in educational technology. Jamaica and Nepal.


Molly Shroeder
Molly Schroeder is an Elementary Technology Integration Specialist for Edina Public Schools. She previously taught 5th grade for 10 years prior to being the Technology Integration Specialist.  She is responsible for training elementary teachers in how to better integrate technology into the classroom and curriculum.  She is also owner of a Technology Consulting company, Flipped Education.  Flipped Education produces unique, personalized professional development in technology integration for school districts around the country.  In 2011, Molly helped to create and produce Flipped Education's first conference Superhero.  Superhero is designed to match technology-education minded attendees with innovative and engaging presenters to change education through technology. Superhero is built to expand personal learning networks with a weekend of socialization, learning and fun in northern Minnesota.
She is a Google Certified Teacher and Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer.  She has presented at the Google Teacher's Academy and she presents at conferences, workshops and National Conventions on how to integrate Google Apps and other emerging and engaging technologies into the classroom. Her background is in elementary education and she also holds a certificate in Educational Technology and Gifted Education.

You don’t want to miss our SchoolNet conference early bird registration fee – three international speakers

SchoolNet is very excited about their upcoming Conference in Bloemfontein 2-4 July 2013. We invite you to register and also submit a proposal for a presentation  on our SchoolNet website Conference page http://schoolnet.org.za/conference_2013/ Our early bird reduced registration fee ends at the end of April (tomorrow at midnight) so there’s a need to hurry and register! (Thank you very much to those who have already registered and submitted a presentation proposal). 

We are delighted to introduce to you our three invited international speakers:

Baldev Singh
Baldev Singh is from Bristol in the UK. He is the Director for Imagine Education and he will be speaking about trends in technology and their impact in the classroom, connecting classrooms and also 21st Century Learning Design through a Technology Lens. (http://www.imagineeducation.net/)  Baldev along with Adrian Blight has started a Hot topic on the Partners in Learning Network on Building Teacher Capacity if you would like to contribute to the conversation.The Imagine Education ‘Connected Learning’ blog can be viewed at http://www.imagineeducation.net/whatshappening/. 

Naomi Harm
Naomi Harm is from Minnesota, USA. She is a well-known education consultant who will be speaking about Global Classroom Collaboration, Learning with Tablets and Designing blended learning for the classroom. Her blog can be viewed at http://blog.innovativeeducator.us/ Naomi is very active in social networking and has presented a number of very interesting webinars for Simple K (see the on-demand section). She also runs the new weekly online Intel Teachers Engage radio talk show titled Digital Buzz Radio Talk Show.  Naomi says about this talk show "I will be broadcasting live and offering prerecorded shows from our recording studio out of Brownsville, MN. A very special thank you to our show’s sponsor of Intel Teachers Engage, an online community for educators dedicated to transforming the K-12 classroom teaching and learning environment!  You can find Intel Teachers Engage online at http://engage.intel.com." 


Frederick Kastner
Frédéric Kastner is from from London, UK. He is the programme manager at The Virtual School and will be speaking on how teachers can make their own educational videos;  he'll also give a global view of what is happening in the world of digital subject content. The Virtual School aims to provide access to comprehensive world-class education, free of charge, around the world. The Virtual School videos can be accessed on YouTube. Their blog can be viewed at http://thevirtualschool.wordpress.com.  



The Opening Address
This will be given by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Enver Surty who is very well-known to South African educators.

Themes
Local educators can also submit a presentation on one of the following Themes

 

• Connecting classrooms - learning activities that use technology to connect classrooms beyond the school's boundaries.
• Learning with tablets - learning activities that are unique to the use of tablets in and beyond the classroom.
• Learning with mobile phones - learning activities that are unique to the use of mobile phones in and beyond the classroom.
• Innovative teaching - any teaching with technology that you feel is innovative, especially if you have entered the Microsoft Innovative Education Forum now and in the past, but not reserved for that group of teachers.
• ICT leadership in the school - ways in which you have shown successful leadership of ICT integration activities in your school generally.
• Curriculum delivery through digital content - how the inclusion of digital content in the curriculum has enhanced your teaching and student learning.
• Technologies for the Foundation Phase - ways in which technology is used successfully in the Foundation Phase.

Partners in Learning Forum recognising Innovative teachers in South Africa
 The finals of this fantastic competition recognising Microsoft Expert Educators in South Africa will be held at the Conference - you will get to view them presenting winning learning activities. Why not considering entering the Forum? More information is available here. 

Register today and get our early bird registration fee - closes tomorrow
As you can see this has the potential of an amazing conference! So please get your early bird registration completed before the end of April (reminder - Tuesday midnight!). The URL again: http://schoolnet.org.za/conference_2013/

30 days of writing #5: What is Creative Commons Licensing?

How much do you know about the ins and outs of posting something you have created on the Internet? Can anyone use it and share it? Can you use and share anything someone else has posted?

Introducing Copyright on the web
The African Storybook team felt that it was important to learn about free licensing on the web right at the beginning of this course. Licensing tells others what they can and can't do with anything you put on the web. Basically, when you put something on the web it is copyright and officially no-one should use it. But if you want people to use your work in any way it you need to say something to give permission.  This applies to the stories we'll be donating to the African Storybook Project. We need to put a specific free license on them (very simple to do) to give other teachers and Grades 1-3 children in Africa permission to create a new story from them, translate them, make them easier or more difficult etc. But the original story will still be there on the web in its entirety. You will be the only one who can actually sell your story if you should want to.

Creative Commons Licensing
The licensing we are talking about is called Creative Commons licensing.  This video gives a great introduction to licensing on the web and shows six Creative Commons licenses one could choose from.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAk9H1N8beU

These are the six licenses. .

This is how they look in their official form – the license choice can just be copied and pasted on to something one creates and it’s done. It is as simple as that. 

An example - Using images on the web
Let’s take the example of using images on the web. Can we simply just find a picture in Google and use it as if it was our own on the web?

Generally, permission to use images ranges from pictures that are in the public domain (anyone can use them) to images that are copyright and require permission to use. Creative Commons licenses grant permission in advance. All Creative Commons licenses require 'attribution' (meaning you have to credit the person who created the item). Most images copyright online are covered by Creative Commons licensing. This means that some sites allow you to use their images but you need to give attribution to them.


How do you find out which creative works are covered by this licensing?

• This website shows you how to use Creative Commons to find free images, audio and video for your website etc: http://search.creativecommons.org/
• Take a look at the video below – it explains really well how to go about searching for something with a Creative Commons license. This video explains the website mentioned above - http://search.creativecommons.org/. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvsbJaJeFGY

How do you add a license to your own work?
If you open http://creativecommons.org/ you will see a link to start the process of putting one of the licenses on to your work. As the website says, "There is no registration to use the Creative Commons licenses. Licensing a work is as simple as selecting which of the six licenses best meets your goals, and then marking your work in some way so that others know that you have chosen to release the work under the terms of that license. Our license-choosing tool can help you select the right license."

What is the public domain?
Sometimes people wish for a piece of their own work to be freely available to everyone to use with no strings attached, and put the work in the public domain. This isn't very hard to do — the copyright holder merely has to make a statement that they release all rights to the work. Once this irrevocable act is complete they no longer have any power over how the work is used since it is then owned by the public as a whole. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Granting_work_into_the_public_domain

When it comes to the public domain, there is no catch. If a book, song, movie, or artwork is in the public domain, then it is not protected by intellectual property laws (copyright, trademark, or patent laws)—which means it’s free for you to use without permission. · This would include works and inventions whose copyright has expired due to age or lack of renewal.

Saide’s guide to using copyright
Saide (South African Institute of Distance Education) who is adminstering this project has a very good guide to licensing which they call ‘The OER Africa Copyright and licensing toolkit’. It can be found here":
http://www.oerafrica.org/copyright/CopyrightandLicencingToolkit/tabid/1781/Default.aspx
 
Explore royalty free resources
Fortunately for us there are loads of resources that are freely available to us. Here are just a few.

• Larry Ferlazzo - The Best Places To Get Royalty-Free Music & Sound Effects from Larry FerlazzoPhotl.com has 160,000 copyright-free images available.Larry Ferlazzo Best online sources for imagesFree clipart Phil Martin’s collection
• Wikimedia Commons (4 million images in the public domain)
• Free Images (6000 stock photos, and they require you to credit them as the source)
• World Images (80,000 photos from the California State University IMAGE project, under a non-commercial  CC license)
• ELT Pics (Images taken by teachers for teachers, collected via Twitter and stored on Flickr, under a non-commercial CC license)
• PhotoPin (a search engine that finds Creative Commons images)
• Wylio- Search engine for CC images for bloggers
• PhotoeXpress- lengthy registration process but you get 10 free quality stock images a day with a search engine and you don't have to attribute.
• CCMixter.org- Great songs, music that is Creative Commons! Just give attribution
• FreeSound- Free sound files and clips for use!
• Soundzabound- royalty free music library

30 days of writing #4: Have you spoken to your students about Online Safety/Digital Citizenship?

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When practising online digital writing or digital storytelling it is useful to consider issues around online safety (or Digital Citizenship as it is called) especially when working with students. 

Digital Writing: the art and practice of preparing documents primarily by computer and often for online delivery.
Digital Storytelling: Digital Storytelling refers to using digital tools for writing stories

A consideration of online safety is always good place to start now that the world is becoming increasingly digital, and connectedness with others via social media grows.  The Internet is an incredible resource – one of the greatest inventions of mankind in my opinion -  but the main thing for anyone to realise is that once one starts working online they develop a digital footprint and an online reputation. Best is to keep it good right from the start.

So it is a good idea to now and again chat to your students about the significance of a ‘digital footprint’, including what things are appropriate to post online, how to protect your identity and ways to interact with others in an online space. 

Useful informative blog posts about online safety
1) Jacqui Murray has a whole list of useful sites for teaching Digital Citizenship to students of all ages.

2) For older students this post from Lisa Nielson has a useful infographic to look at 4 things you need to know to help your students manage their online reputation

This is really just an information post, but I would love it if you added any comments about this subject in the comment box below. 

30 days of writing #4: Have you spoken to your students about Online Safety/Digital Citizenship?

Logo Design by FlamingText.com

When practising online digital writing or digital storytelling it is useful to consider issues around online safety (or Digital Citizenship as it is called) especially when working with students. 

Digital Writing: the art and practice of preparing documents primarily by computer and often for online delivery.
Digital Storytelling: Digital Storytelling refers to using digital tools for writing stories

A consideration of online safety is always good place to start now that the world is becoming increasingly digital, and connectedness with others via social media grows.  The Internet is an incredible resource – one of the greatest inventions of mankind in my opinion -  but the main thing for anyone to realise is that once one starts working online they develop a digital footprint and an online reputation. Best is to keep it good right from the start.

So it is a good idea to now and again chat to your students about the significance of a ‘digital footprint’, including what things are appropriate to post online, how to protect your identity and ways to interact with others in an online space. 

Useful informative blog posts about online safety
1) Jacqui Murray has a whole list of useful sites for teaching Digital Citizenship to students of all ages.

2) For older students this post from Lisa Nielson has a useful infographic to look at 4 things you need to know to help your students manage their online reputation

This is really just an information post, but I would love it if you added any comments about this subject in the comment box below. 

30 Days of Writing #3: A prompt a day from Plinky.com

If you have access to 1:1 computers, or if your students have computers and Internet access at home, you could introduce them to daily writing exercise using a website called Plinky (http://www.plinky.com/)

How does Plinky work?
This is what the website says:
“Every day we provide a new prompt (like a question, or a challenge), and everyone gets a chance to answer. It's simple to add photos, maps, playlists and more. You can easily share your Plinky answers on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, and most major blogging services. We know you've got something interesting to say. Plinky is here to help you say it in a fun and compelling way. Sign up below to get started!”

What happens when you sign up?
There is a fairly lengthy form to fill in

Whew! At last. This is quite a mission and it makes me wonder about involving younger primary school students. The daily prompt is shown as in my first illustration above, but there are a number of prompts to choose from if you don’t like the one displayed.

My conclusion
This could be a site for an older student. If one could get past the sign up process the site could be quite useful just for spontaneous writing.