Computer Mediated Communication

What a hot topic. A recent comment by a classmate stated that there is very little research on this topic. Usually, when there is new technology and the speed with which technology is moving it creates a vacum as it relates to research. However, isn't this how research is derived? An observation is made, an hypotesis is made, a decision to test that hypothesis, data gathered from the experiment, a conclusion is drawn to validate or refute the hypothesis.

That said as teachers, creating lessons to include the various forms of CMC such as blogging, email for students and listservs and newsgroups for other teachers is a way to produce research. What an exciting opportunity to not only engage students but to be engaged ourselves in teaching and learning new technologies, skills and being a researcher.

Web 2.0 Professional Develpment

This has been a busy week, researching Professional Development sites, technincal and personal is really mind boggling. There is so much info to sift through until you really don't know if it will be beneficial or not. This creates a dilemma because you must first read through the other parts of the wiki to make sure that you are not repeating information that has already been placed in another area of the wiki.

Well, onward and upward keeping the reading and research at an all time high in attemptiing to disover which sites would be the most beneficial for Web 2.0 professional development.

Copyright Infringement

Copyright laws are not clear cut where you know exactly what is "Fair Use". The fair use policy is considered in various areas such as: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research (per U.S. Copyright Office - Sec. 107).

There are 4 factors to be considered when determining whether there is "fair use".
1. Whether use is commercial or non profit use
2. Nature of the copyrighted work
3. Amount of portion used in relation to work as a whole
4. Eeffect of use on potential market or value of copyrighted work

So, all these factors are to be considered, however, when used for educational purposes what about the chapter being copied because there are not enough to go around in the class room. What about video and internet, how can "fair use" be determined. Who can determine as to what has been copied and what has been used without getting permission from the author. So many things to consider and so little time to do the work of teaching. What do you think?

Computers & Education

The week has been extremely busy. Presenlty working on Issue 3 which is due on Tuesday. I have been doing research the pros and cons of using laptops vs textbooks. there are a great deal of information for both sides. I am learning toward the laptops, but with printed text to be used when the computers quit working, or there is no internet connection. Obviously that is an issue we all must deal with especially with the storms that have knocked out our phone lines and cable access for over a week or more. What happens when this occurs and students only have laptops to do their work? Well, that's a question to ponder. Students in grades K-12 will be at a disadvantage because they aren't able to drive to the local library or coffee shop for connectivity as readily as adult. If anyone has an opinion on this please respond.