Video, Lawrence Lessig, How creativity is being strangled by the law: I really enjoyed watching and listening to this. Very informative and even funny at times when two topics were shown to the audience featuring politics and religion in a more “controversial” fashion. I appreciated the fact that the emphasis was also on children and creativity, on how it is important to let children use their imagination.

Learning about web accessibility via the sites given on Pedagogy First!: I never gave a thought about the Web and people with disabilities. It obviously makes sense to give access to anyone, regardless of disability or not.

As far as copyright, I have in the past used some information from others from the Web to show some interesting facts (mainly pictures and some passages from articles; always quote on quote and citing the person’s name; I never say “I” if it does not come from me ) to my students in my on site class. It has always been temporary  for the duration of an assignment (sometimes just for one day) and that’s about it. The aim is education, not to sell an idea to the world as far as I am concerned. And some copyright information online is for sale after asking permission to use it so I don’t “touch” that and I go elsewhere to find free information so I won’t get in trouble by using it.

I actually had a similar “copyright” problem several years ago when one person used my ideas to write a book and the latter never mentioned my name. I saw the book quite by accident in a bookstore in Boulder, CO. On top of that I met shortly after, by accident too, the student who wrote the book. She said to me that I was a true inspiration to her when she wrote it.  Without my ideas, she would have never been able to write it so she said….

Ah, I would say “yes!!!” Because when I browse the book everything came from me…I was somewhat shocked and disappointed not to see my name in the preface for acknowledgment.

• I viewed Lisa’s slidecast on blogging  and Jim Sullivan’s  Elluminate session: it all makes sense to me. I started blogging with my students about 1 year and half ago only via my cultural blog but I do need more involvement from my students. Next semester, I will make it mandatory by asking to make a certain number of comments and the rest can be an option for extra credit. Right now, it is only an extra credit but few students are willing to participate. They might be too busy to participate?! I don’t know but some semesters the participation was fantastic. All the posts are very relevant to the class I teach but the interest is not “100%” yet.

Grade center, assignments, etc.

• Engrade, an online gradebook: I liked it for what I have seen so far but I did not registered as I don’t need to do this yet. I already use Blackboard but it looked very enticing to me when I saw the format and what it had to offer.  I will have to check their grade center to compare it with Blackboard. Especially in regards to weight and straight pts. How they handle that compared to Blackboard (running total).

I like it!

• I had much fun creating my own mini-website last night at Google Sites. I put some basic course information and other things and, in fact, I wanted to keep going by adding more and more but I had to stop at some point… Addicting! I first watched Pilar’s tutorial to make sure I knew how to start on the right path. Basic template. Nothing fancy yet and I still need to make some revisions but at least it is okay for the time being. Here it is. Any types of comments are welcomed, of course. I don’t mind receiving advice at all because I don’t know everything:

https://sites.google.com/site/francais101miracosta2013/

This week’s topics ☟

• What might be the advantages and disadvantages of using a class blog or student blogs for your class? : I could see some disadvantages if the students get carried away with making negative comments about someone else’s opinion if they disagree…?! Other than that, it is definitely a good community sharing of thoughts to enrich the class. It gives a better idea of whom the students are by talking about different subjects pertaining to the class. Just like we can see on Yahoo chat (I am not sure if it called chat or not, sorry…), which is basically like a blog where people share their opinion (but here it can be anonymous). The teacher as the moderator has the power to leave or take away the comments if not appropriate. Nothing wrong with online debates as stated in Teaching online a practical guide.

• Could a Google Site or web page make a good welcome for students?: Definitely!!!!!!! It goes without saying and it is even better. Students want to know whom their teacher is. I had students in the past who would go on the Internet to see who I was besides being a teacher. In a way, nothing is private anymore but it can be used in a positive way by sharing what can only be shared so I prefer making the first step to tell them about my interests and other types of things while not saying everything….. Just the best about me, ah, ah!

• I am impressed by Ko and Rossen, Teaching online a practical guide. The more I read this book, the more pertinent I find it . The information on general and specific subjects is very well explained with a simple and easy approach.
• I registered on  MERLOT and I like it very much. I checked some very useful information, namely the animation part. I now need to get hold of a Canadian instructor, who came up with some very good animations in foreign languages. But I , so far and for the time being, have used for 2 semesters the website goanimate.com for short 2 minute animations for 1 month free trial. Very basic for languages but still a lot of fun for beginners in foreign languages. My students like it very much.
• I also registered on Diigo, and I joined  “mccpot“.
• Bookmarked Terry Anderson and Jon Dron’s Three Generations of Distance Education Pedagogy using Diigo, and made a couple of  notes  onto the mccpot group.
• I already tried Second Life in the past and I already made some comments about it in previous posts.
• Second Life / Diigo: How could either be used for education? What are the pitfalls?: Yes, Second Life can be used for education but just like “Teaching online  a practical guide” says, it does require lots of planning and training on behalf of the teacher and the student also (mainly training for the latter). There is so much to do already with blogging, preparing an online class, corrections and so on. This is really a question of  training but planning as well and I mean by that hours to set aside in front of the computer just to be proficient at one thing. I am not sure yet how to use it for education purposes unless I can find a special subject to implement within Second Life: imagining an avatar student writing on a board and making a teacher avatar explaining how to find the answer to a set of questions ? Something like that….I just don’t know yet.
• On that note, there was an interesting program several weeks ago on KPBS t.v. channel about Second Life showing someone who became a millionaire by using Second Life. This gentleman invented a fantasy game via Second Life for adults only. Very consuming: He basically spends about 12 hours a day on Second Life and he has clients all over the world. Just to let you: he is not teaching foreign languages, maths and other disciplines but selling you fantasy about something else….
• Diigo: I posted a couple of comments and there is the advantage of seeing other people’comments. It is a plus, of course but I am not proficient at it yet. It does remind me a little bit of Evernote, which I use.