Copyright

The tech tip this week is not a tool. Rather, it is an important component of digital citizenship--copyright. Copyright can be a bit confusing and easy to overlook, but it is something we should both reinforce with our students and practice as professional educators.

Here are a couple of general tips:

• If you or your students are creating public websites, blogs or YouTube videos, you should not use copyrighted materials without permission.
• If you or your students wish to use copyrighted materials within your classroom (and not share publicly online), you can often do this under the terms of Fair Use. Fair Use is judged based on 4 main criteria:
• Purpose (of your use) -- Education and scholarly use are often allowed.
• Amount (used) -- The less you use, the more often that use is OK.
• Nature (of the work) -- Creative works are more protected than non-fiction and scholarly works. It is generally OK to use materials for the purpose of satire or parody.
• Effect (on the market) -- If you are costing the creator money, you probably can’t use it without permission.

If you would like to learn more, check out some of these resources:

• A Short Copyright Presentation for Teachers (outlines what you can/can’t do)
• More on Fair Use from MIT Libraries
• Places to get copyright-free images (OK to use even on public websites, videos, etc.)
• Search Creative Commons – use “Find CC Licensed works”
• Use Google Advanced Image Search and look for “usage rights” limit – filter by “free to use or share”
• Use images created by the US government (.gov), which are generally, though not always, in the public domain (See e.g. http://www.nasa.gov), and read the terms of use to verify status of content. Search www.usa.gov for a great place to start.
• Use a site devoted to public domain works

For even more: Talk to your building media specialist or digital learning specialist. They can help answer questions and provide more information.

Vacation Tips (Gmail Vacation Responder and Travel Planning)

Tip 1: Setup Gmail's Vacation Responder to send automatic replies to incoming emails to notify senders that you will be out of the classroom during spring break.

Tip 2: Are you using spring break to plan your summer vacation? Google just added a new search feature to help with vacation planning! Type in the location you are visiting followed by the word "destination" to see results focused on traveling information. Classroom integration idea: Students can use this search to gather information to create travel brochures with Google Presentations or to create virtual field trips with Google Maps. Tip: If you don't get results, try a broader location (i.e. Florida instead of Miami).

Example search: Florida destination

Digital Mind Mapping

Mind Mapping tools are great for having students process their learning visually. They can use these tools in many ways. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Brainstorm topics for a paper, presentation or project.
• Organize topics to help form an outline, slideshow or steps in a process.
• Process class content and communicate relationships between topics.
• Identify main ideas and supporting details.
• Come up with applications of your own!

Here are three popular mind mapping tools to try out. They're free!

• https://www.mindomo.com
• https://bubbl.us/
• http://web.seesaw.me/

If you have any other tools you like to use, feel free to add them to this collaborative spreadsheet to share your ideas with others!

Mindomo

bubbl.us

SeeSaw

Google Slides for Desktop Publishing

Google Slides gives you more formatting options than Google Docs and can be used to create more than just presentations. You and your students can use Google Slides to create worksheets, newsletters, brochures, flyers, etc.

You can use Google Slides to create these projects by:

1.  changing the page setup to 8.5" x 11"

(on the main menu, click File--Page Setup--Custom)

2. using the textbox, image, shape, line buttons found on the toolbar

Integrate Google Slides to Support the 4 Cs

Having students create presentations and these projects is a great way for them to demonstrate their knowledge of content as well as to develop their 4 Cs:

• Creativity and Critical thinking skills as they synthesize information and design the project.
• Communication and Collaboration skills as they share and work on the same project.

Watch this tutorial for more details on how to use Google Slides to create these types of projects.

Virtual Field Trips

Virtual Field Trips are a great way to break down the walls of your classroom and allow students to explore. To be successful, however, a virtual field trip should be more than just a student clicking through interesting websites.

Strategies:

This article from eSchool News (5 ways to make the most of virtual fieldtrips) offers some great tips. Here are two highlights:

• AEIOU Strategy
• A- an adjective or two that describes what they learned
• E – emotion describing how it made them feel
• I – something they found interesting
• O – something that made them say “Oh!”
• U – write a question that you want to learn more about
• A 5 step process to planning a virtual field trip
• Prepare
• Engage and Connect
• Model
• Reflect
• Share

Student Activities:

After the field trip, transform students from consumers of information to content creators. Students can take screenshots of their virtual travels and then create something to authentically process their learning. Here are some student project options:

• Travel blogs
• Scrapbooks
• Slideshows
• Travel diaries
• Postcards
• Tweets or Instagram posts of the trip
• Create their own virtual field trips
• Virtual travel guides or promotional materials

Lists of Recommended Virtual Field Trips:

• eSchool News (10 best virtual field trips)
• Teaching monster (5 best virtual field trips)
• Education World (Get outta class with virtual field trips)
• SimpleK12 (virtual field trips every teacher ought to know about)
• Early Childhood Education Zone (Virtual Field Trips)
• Educator’s Technology (20 wonderful online museums and sites)
• Don’t stop here. Search for your own!

Professional Learning Networks

Great teachers are also great learners, and great learners are also great networkers! One way to stay connected and continue learning is to create Professional Learning Networks. Here are some ways to get connected:

Twitter: Educational Hashtags

There are hundreds of educational hashtags and thousands of educators you can follow in Twitter.  Twitter is a great tool for keeping current with educational trends and news. You can also follow and join discussions to share materials and best practice ideas. Teacher's Guide for Twitter

Schoology: School and Public Groups

Schoology Groups are an excellent way to connect with teachers within your school, across the district as well as worldwide. Your PLC can form groups in Schoology to discuss your ideas and share materials. You can also join Public Groups to connect with teachers across the nation who are using Schoology:

Google Plus: Connected Classrooms

Join this community of teachers if you would like to connect your students with other classrooms throughout the world.

Pinterest: Teachers

"A pinspiring place for teachers to find and share creative ideas. Follow these boards for lesson plans, classroom decor and lots more for lively learning."

Google Forms Updated

Google Forms Updates

Google Forms (for creating and analyzing surveys) has been changing recently, and this past week, it got another major update. Click the links below to view the updates.

4 Updates to Google Forms You’re Going to Love

• Over 20 survey templates are now available to save you time.
• Add-ons and App Scripts are now available in the new forms.
• Track survey progress and analyze results.
• Receive notifications and status updates.

Bonus (Advanced) - 2 Options to Restrict Access to Google Forms

• Create a rule based on a list of users.
• Create a password.

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