Legal Stuff

I'm hardly one to preach from the heavens about this. In hindsight I've been guilty in the past but it's time to get a bit more serious about what we grab from the web. There is the thought from some that if it's on the web it's there for anyone to command c, command v right? Not quite. Some images, videos, audio can be reused, and some can't. So how do you know. This video explains things about as clearly as possible.

Google images: type in your search query, choose the gear icon in the top right corner then select advanced search. Scroll down to find the option to filter the search for images that suit your needs. Flickr has a similar filter.




Regarding audio there a number of sites containing music for reuse. A few examples are:
Free Music Archive
Jamendo
CCMixter
Even better, record your own.

As a user of Vimeo I am reasonably familiar with how to indentify whether cc licences have been applied to a film. Having selected a video, scroll down the page to see details about the video. If restrictions about its reuse have been applied you will see them. Youtube has similar information towards the bottom of its videos.

As this is intended only for primary teachers or students the list of legalities is fairly brief. I fully admit that there are likely to be areas that I have omitted but at least I have shed the light on some of the dos and don'ts.

Get Smart with Study Ladder

Studyladder is a highly effective, logically organised, Mathematics and Literacy program. It has been developed by experienced educators to inspire and motivate learning. It is suitable for Primary and Junior High School students and is very easy to use - students simply login with a username and password to access all the learning materials.

Having seen it in action I can highly recommend tool to enhance teaching and learning. Once you have created a class account each child will have an individual username and password. Study ladder allows you to print this out, cut the login details for each child up to take home and keep. Passwords can be easily changed by the teacher.
To make this tool easily accessible to your children via the blog click on the *NEW* - Easy class logins link. Copy the special easy logins link and paste that in the link list of your blog. To make it even more obvious take a screen shot (shift>command>4) on a mac, add it as an image gadget in the sidebar and set the link from the image to the login url.

Children then click on the image to be directed to the login page - simple. Individuals, groups, or the whole class can be given set tasks to do. These can be ongoing learning activities or assessments. Study Ladder will even mark them for you.

Speak Pipe

Sounds slightly North American Indian but this useful little widget allows readers to make a verbal comment on your blog. You can see it to the right of your post. Go on, click on it and see what you think. It'll take 2 minutes to set up on your own blog and it's a quick and easy way for children and parents to comment on the blog. Visit speakpipe.com to get started. Make sure you've thought what you're going to say first though. The message will be sent to the user's email account.