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The 2012 Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is now open! This national sustainability challenge empowers K-12 students to develop and share environmental solutions that may just change the world. Students from kindergarten to high school develop environmental solutions for their schools, homes, and communities for a chance to win prizes for themselves and grants for their schools. Teams of students work and compete with other students across the United States. The challenge is open August 24, 2011 through March 15, 2012. Prizes include scholarships and school grants – up to $50,000 for the first place team! For more information go to the contest website: WeCanChange.com

Introduction to copyright, fair use and using images in blog posts You can’t just use any image you like in a blog post. Why?  Because unless stated otherwise, the law automatically grants full “copyright” over any creative work a person makes.

I’m sure you’re probably thinking it is okay because as educators, we have a few more flexible rules, called “Fair Use”, to play by.  Fair use, in some cases, if an image, text, video, etc. is being used for educational purposes, means you may have more flexible copyright rules. The trouble is, most of the laws and rules that cover fair use and education were written well before the invention of the web.  They don’t apply to use of copyright material on the Internet.  Using copyright material leaves you open to copyright infringement. So what does this mean? You need to: Learn what images you are and aren’t allowed to use, and why. Learn how to attribute images you are allowed to use. Educate your students that you can’t just use any images off the Internet in their blog posts, show them how to source and attribute images they are allowed to use. Understanding digital copyright is an essential skill we need to understand and teach our students.  This post focuses on use of images.

Using an iPod Touch in the Primary Classroom Posted by Mrs Kathleen Morris on Monday, August 8th 2011      2011 is the fourth year I’ve been using an iPod Touch in my classroom. My students enjoy using these hand held devices and they can be used to enhance student learning in many different areas. In this post I will describe how we set up our iPod Touches and how we use them. Funding In 2008, I was successful in applying for a DEECD Emerging Technologies Trial Grant. We purchase 8 iPod Touches and some professional development time. Since then, our school has budgeted to purchase a small number of iPod Touches. We generally buy our iPod Touches from BigW and get the lowest memory model. More than half of the classes at our large primary school now have an iPod Touch in their room (we also have a small number of iPads that we’re beginning to trial). Equipment A headphone splitter was purchased for each iPod Touch which allow the device to be used by a group of five students at one time.

A headphone splitter was purchased for each iPod Touch which allow the device to be used by a group of five students at one time.

While our headphone splitter works well to share one iPod between 5 students when they are listening to stories, podcast or videos, activities that involve apps are better in a 1:1 or 1:2 situation. We have found one way to get around this. If a group of students were playing an app, they might take it in turns to have a go with the app while also engaged in another related activity. For example, students could be taking it in turns to play the app Wurdle, while other students play the Boggle board game.