Last Week

This last week, actually two weeks, has been awesome. We have learned a great deal involving copyright law, ethics and security to children while on the internet at school/library. These are great topics that really give teachers valuable resources to help students learn how be safe while on the internet.

Personally, I believe teachers go through copyright pretty regularly but may not understand all aspects. For example, last year we had a teacher create a power point on Black History Month and wanted to display it over our CCTV (Closed Circuit TV). She had to add music it the presentation and she wanted to simply get tracks from current CDs. Luckily we were able to help her find public domain music to add to the presentation and informed her that she needed to site the sources of her project. She had no idea about the music and was happy that we helped.

Research on Search Engines and Alerts

I found this weeks assignments to be very interesting. We have been working on search engines, Google Alerts, and the value of Wikipedia. These topics have been great to research and learn about because it is not something that I actively think about when I am on the internet or searching and doing research.

I admittedly do not use Wikipedia but after the assignment this week, I may begin using it more frequently. I think I will always be a little skeptical on the accuracy but as long as I understand that going into the site, I can be successful with my research.

I really enjoyed learning about Google Alerts. This is where you can set up a topic, say for example Milwaukee Summer Festivals. Google alerts will e-mail you news, blogs, videos, or everything based on that search topic. You can then select how frequently this alert is sent to you and how many results are sent. This is a great tool to use for finding out news in your community or school district. I have found that the larger the district, the less information is sent to staff regarding community news, happenings, or even news about the district. Google alerts will help solve that issue.

Where have you been?

Dear Blog, I am sorry I have not written in a while. Let's just say, this is a summer that will never be forgotten. I've missed you and I'm sure you have missed me, so let's move forward and I will tell you all about the summer some other time. :)

I am now onto my forth class in the program and it is called Internet Learning Resources. I am very excited about this course because I feel that I need probably the most work on this topic than any of the others we have encountered thus far. However, I say that with great reservations as I am also trying to catch up on work from the previous course, so I am working simultaneously on projects from two different courses.

As stated in one of the classes, this program is teaching so much more than I ever expected to go. I was overly confident when we started the cohort, but am now realizing that my knowledge of the internet was just scratching the surface. I know it is a little cliche to say, but feel that the more courses I take the more I realize how much I do not know about the internet and it's possibilities.