Sometimes I can get a bit overwhelmed with all of the technology being introduced to me. With that being said, if I can just figure out a way to organize it all, it could make my life easier and more functional as a teacher. I tried three different tools this week: The Survey Monkey, Whyville, and picture and video sharing. I will outline my experience with them in the following paragraphs.
First I visited the world of Survey Monkey. This was a very useful activity as it is a simple and quick way to get feedback from students, staff and parents. I found Survey Monkey to be pretty user friendly but I feel that the Google Docs survey that I created (and have been using) was more user friendly and easier to work with. In general these survey tools are great not only because of the feedback you get, but also how the feedback is organized for you. This makes it much easier to utilize the data that you gather, rather than just stuffing it away into a file cabinet.
I was skeptical about Whyville before I visited the site. My first thoughts were reassured as I played with this tool. I do not doubt that there is educational value with this immersive world website; I just do not enjoy using these and do not think my student population (9-12 alternative school) would enjoy these activities. Although it was fairly easy to navigate through, it was a bit confusing as to where to go and what to do next. Faces kept on popping up in front of mine and it became a little frustrating. With all of that negativity, I do see that there could be educational value in a tool like this. With younger students and more time to play with it, I can see this tool engaging students in an educational activity in a creative and technological way.
Last I chose picture and video sharing. I did choose it because I am addicted to YouTube. No, not just to watch entertaining videos of people making fools of themselves; rather I have found that YouTube has endless information and references on it. I do understand there can be copyright issues with using the videos in class (at least that is what our library tech told me); but if I need quick information about a certain topic, I can find it on YouTube. Also, having students post videos on YouTube for a project has been successful for me in the past. The kids really seem to enjoy making a movie and then posting it for the world to see.
Overall, I have added a few more tools to my tool box by participating in this activity. Now I just need to find a way to better organize all of this information.
2 years ago
I do think Whyville is a little young for your audience. I've seen it used largely in upper elementary school. I find things like Whyville and Second Life a little creepy (I don't want to talk to strangers) but I have been in a room where we were all listening to a speaker and asking questions and it actually worked quite well. In something like Second Life, the learning curve is pretty high for people like me, but I think if you are a gamer, it would take no time at all to learn to navigate.
ReplyDeleteYouTube and copyright is an interesting issue. If you go to the YouTube site, they talk about posting materials that don't infringe on copyright (http://www.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright). This is a big issue as much of what is on YouTube includes copyrighted material.
If you go to their Terms of Service (http://www.youtube.com/t/terms), it lists the following conditions. There are many more, so look at the link for full details. Also think about Fair Use provision in non-profit educational institutions. It would be interesting to get a legal opinion on this. I've not heard of copyright issues with embedding a video from YouTube in a webpage as the tool itself is set up to do that.
Excerpts from Terms of Service:
# You agree not to use the Website, including the YouTube Embeddable Player for any commercial use, without the prior written authorization of YouTube. ...
# If you use the YouTube Embeddable Player on your website, you must include a prominent link back to the YouTube website on the pages containing the Embeddable Player and you may not modify, build upon, or block any portion of the Embeddable Player in any way.
# The content on the YouTube Website, except all User Submissions (as defined below), including without limitation, the text, software, scripts, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos, interactive features and the like ("Content") and the trademarks, service marks and logos contained therein ("Marks"), are owned by or licensed to YouTube, subject to copyright and other intellectual property rights under the law. Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only and may not be downloaded, copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any other purposes whatsoever without the prior written consent of the respective owners. YouTube reserves all rights not expressly granted in and to the Website and the Content.
# You may access User Submissions for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the YouTube Website. You shall not copy or download any User Submission unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the YouTube Website for that User Submission.