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We offer a number of handouts for students and teachers. You are free to link to these handouts, print them out, and distribute them to your classes as long as copyright information remains intact and as long as you are not distributing them for profit. See our fair use policy for more information. If you would like information about reprinting OWL handouts, please visit our contact page.

"Apple has enhanced its recycling program to add a new "reuse" option that pays owners of existing iPhones, iPads, Mac or PC desktop or notebook computers a fair market value for their old equipment, paid via an Apple Gift Card. "

Best Practices in Fair Use for 21st-Century Educators Renee Hobbs, Temple University, Media Education Lab with Kristin Hokanson, Michael RobbGrieco and Joyce Valenza Sunday, 6/28/2009

"Yesterday was my last class with my 2nd grade GT students. I like them to do some sort of reflection at the end of the year, and we usually spend a lot of time reviewing the events of the past 9 months. (Otherwise, their favorite memory tends to be the very last thing we did.) This year, I decided to try something different. I showed the students how to access the categories of our class blog so they could view all of the posts for 2nd grade for this year. Then they went through the posts, and chose pictures that were meaningful to them. As they were on iPads, I taught them how to hold their finger on an image to save it to the Camera Roll (fair warning - this is a tricky skill for 2nd graders). After about 30 minutes, I showed them the Pic Collage app. They were allowed to add any pictures that they wanted to their collages. Many added text (and stickers, of course!) They loved the activity. When they were finished, each student had a personal poster to remind him or her of the year in GT. If we had more time, we would have made ThingLinks with reflections, similar to last year."

"Adam Savage took a few minutes on Sunday at the Maker Faire Bay Area to share what he feels are the 10 Commandments of Making. Braving the somewhat precarious elevated stage of the crowd-favorite Life-Sized Mousetrap, Adam addressed the audience with bits of wisdom and jewels of experience. It was obvious from the laughter that many of these insights and observations struck close to home."

"A few years back (Wow! We can't believe Edudemic has even been around that long!) we wrote about an awesome video that was recorded by a classroom of students and their iPads. The song was such a huge success that it went up for sale on iTunes! Considering that when I was a kid, music class included me banging randomly on a wooden block with a small mallet, I think it is fair to say that technology has brought music class a long, long way. Store Van Music embarked on a tour of schools in the UK and help the students create outstanding music using iPads and their minds."

"As the beginning of another school year approaches, students face the dreading reality of putting the sunny, less-stress summer days behind and preparing for the next 10 months of deadlines, papers, homework assignments, tests, grades and teachers that seem to not understand what it's like to be a student in 2014. While some students anticipate the teacher that gives less homework, is humorous, easy-going and fair, other students cross their fingers in hopes of the teacher that will understand and accept them for being quiet."

"The vinegar and baking soda volcano is a science fair classic, but making science fun for your kids can mean a lot more than making a mess of your kitchen. If science at school doesn't sit with your children, there are plenty of fun and even delicious ways to get them excited about biology chemistry and physics - without a single worksheet."

"In just a few short weeks new teachers around the world will embark upon an exciting and crazy adventure. This adventure will surely have its fair share of ups and downs. In spite of that, this adventure will allow for countless opportunities to serve and positively impact current and future generations of students. This adventure will be like no other adventure... Here are 10 pieces of advice I'd like to share with new teachers as they prepare for this adventure:"

"Today was a big day in my grade 4-5 STEM class: It was our first time to start the "Maker Studio" rotation. Maker Studio is a concept I developed this past summer attending Maker Faire Kansas City and the awesome "Create, Make and Learn" week-long #MakerEd #STEM summer institute in Vermont coordinated by Lucie deLaBruere (@techsavvygirl). Last year was my 17th as an educator but my first as an elementary STEM teacher. I enjoyed developing and sharing lessons about a wide variety of topics, but as a "STEM teacher" was uncomfortable with my predominant focus on direct instruction lessons. Some of my favorite units from last year focused on the science and technology of music and sound, kitchen chemistry, and collaborative projects in MinecraftEDU involving permiter/area building challenges, coordinate grid scavenger hunts, and more. Our projects and activities together in these units were engaging, fun, and standards-based, but still relied predominantly on direct instruction. The after-school "Makers Club" I facilitated provided many opportunities for student-directed learning, but didn't change my predominant teacher-directed instruction during STEM class. My summer PD experiences at #MakerFaireKC and #CML14 were transformative. Enter "Maker Studio.""

"Maker Faire has been a hot topic at ISTE 2014, with education leaders from across the world discussing how the maker movement has embraced education and how we can gain so much from it as educators. The democratization of learning via the Maker Ed movement has made it an extremely exciting time to be an educator. Maker Spaces in education nurture innovation, experimentation and independence. Learners are no longer consumers, but active participants and producers of content in their own right."

"Welcome to the seventh step in our free professional learning series on class and student blogging! The aim of this step is to: Discuss copyright, fair use and using images on blogs. Introduce you to Creative commons. Explain how to find and add creative commons images to posts. Discuss what are free and public domain images; and how to source them."

"Many teachers say the app helps them automate the task of recording classroom conduct, as well as allowing them to communicate directly with parents. But some parents, teachers and privacy law scholars say ClassDojo, along with other unproven technologies that record sensitive information about students, is being adopted without sufficiently considering the ramifications for data privacy and fairness, like where and how the data might eventually be used."

"Our kids learn within a system of education devised for a world that increasingly does not exist. To become a chef, a lawyer, a philosopher or an engineer, has always been a matter of learning what these professionals do, how and why they do it, and some set of general facts that more or less describe our societies and our selves. We pass from kindergarten through twelfth grade, from high school to college, from college to graduate and professional schools, ending our education at some predetermined stage to become the chef, or the engineer, equipped with a fair understanding of what being a chef, or an engineer, actually is and will be for a long time. We "learn," and after this we "do." We go to school and then we go to work. This approach does not map very well to personal and professional success in America today. Learning and doing have become inseparable in the face of conditions that invite us to discover."

"Today the buses were not running due to the early morning snow. As such we had about 40% in attendance between our four intermediate classes so we decided to conduct an impromptu maker fair. Here are some of our inventions. If you have any questions, please ask!"

"At the Denton mini-maker faire, I noticed Trey of Denton Public Library was teaching young children to solder! I was so excited about this empowering activity, I asked if he'd collaborate with me and come teach my high school students to solder during one of our makerspace lunch events. So for two days last week, Trey brought 10 soldering stations, some Makey badges, and a whole lot of knowledge.  I loved how Trey told the students, "It's tool, don't be afraid of it, just respect it.""

"I didn't think 2015 would be the year I created a teen maker space, but it was-and it turned out to be an exciting, challenging, and rewarding experience. After six months of planning, our maker space at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, Ohio, where I am the YA services coordinator, opened last month. How did it come together? Organically. It began during our teen summer reading program seven months ago, when I hosted a few extremely popular Maker Mondays. Our children's librarian, Debbie Baker, and I created a collection of circulating maker-related titles. We also assembled 20 small circulating maker kits with Snap Circuits (kits for creating objects with electronic circuitry), stop-motion animation materials, and LEGO. These were such a hit that a dedicated maker space seemed ideal for us. Ideal-until we considered our budget and space restraints. We started planning anyway. Our process began with a lot of research, online and in person, visiting libraries and maker faires. There was heavy-duty continuing ed: online workshops and webinars, many hosted by School Library Journal. We knew that a maker space would benefit our community, but we couldn't see how to make it happen. With time and goal adjustments, we reached the finish line and launched in January."

"Despite all its making potential, desktop 3D printers have a reputation of being nothing more than toys. Only suitable for creating desktop clutter. To be fair, that reputation isn't completely undeserved, as many users create little more than pot planters and smartphone cases. That's exactly why Ding Zhou, a Chinese industrial design lecturer at the Nanjing University of the Arts, recently hosted a workshop that seeks to inspire users and find handy solutions for everyday problems through 3D printing. And the results are very impressive; from plug removal aids to wire clips that prevent entanglement, this workshop is an excellent reminder of how much simpler our lives can become with a few clever 3D prints."

"As part of last month's Hack the Classroom event, we heard from some true education innovators who have hacked learning spaces around the world to provide students with transformational learning experiences. One of the innovators we were fortunate enough to hear from was Dale Dougherty. Dougherty, founder of MAKE Magazine and a Maker Faire pioneer, shared some fascinating insights on why - and how - the global Maker Movement has become so successful, so quickly."