Edina Digital Age Learning

Our monthly "Key Instructional Contact" meeting had a guest speaker this month. Nancy Sims , from the University of Minnesota Library System spoke on Copyright in the K-12 Classroom. Group Meeting Notes can be found here . Sims is a lawyer and Librarian. Intellectual Property and Copyright Overview Intellectual property is a legal concept that means different things to different people. Patent lawyers deal with Intellectual property, but may not know about copyright. It deals with things that people own that are not physical objects.  Patents -In the last year, people in small business have been in trouble for using a scanner on a network. Usually not an issue for schools. Trademarks -Usually not an issue in schools. Sims used a few logos as an example. Trademarks are about use in commerce, so most of the time, educational uses are ok. Implications of sponsorship could be an issue, but not an issue in student videos/teacher materials. Doug Johnson pointed out that t...

Amazing!! This morning I saw a twitter post from Karl Fisch, the co-creator of the " Did You Know " video. He linked to a blog post he had just finished talking about a new site being released today called WolframAlpha . This is the latest project by Stephen Wolfram , the creator of Mathematica software. In a 13 minute video , Wolfram demonstrates what he describes as the early stages of a project to make " all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone ." As I watched the video, I couldn't help but think of the computer on " Star Trek " answering questions posed to it! The implications of a site like this for educators and students is startling! Do we really know what our students need to know anymore? How can we harness the power of something like WolframAlpha and the new search features that Google has just incorporated into our teaching and learning? As Fisch said in his post: "I wonder whose problem it is if our students don’t k...

Today I saw the following Tweet from Jon Tanner, an Oregon, Wisconsin educator: For how many of us, when we see a cell phone in class, is our first reaction to confiscate it? What if instead, we harnessed the tool to enhance student learning? That is the motivation behind the Cellphones in Learning Blog , created by Michigan State Graduate Student Liz Kolb . The site contains examples on using cell phones to enhance learning such as: Poll Everywhere , which turns cell phones into student response systems MuVChat , which allows students to text questions/comments to a screen while watching videos Sending pictures from cell phones to Flickr accounts Yodio -Allows students to call in and create a digital story. So what do you think? Should we ban them, and not know that students are really texting in their hoody , or should we have students use them as a learning tool? If you think the latter, Kolb's site has a wealth of resources to get started!! Photo Credit: From Mykl Roventine...

The first breakout session I attended was on Teaching with Tablet PC's , by Tami Brass from the St. Paul Academy and Summit School . The Toshiba M700 is what they use for staff and students. The school has been using tablets w/teachers for 4 years. They use carts for grade 6, piloting for students at grade 7, and at grade 8 and up have traditional PC's. She used "One Note" to ink on the screen. It is part of the Office 2007 suite, or for roughly $15 per machine individually. The reasons for tablets: A Whiteboard in your briefcase Inking Office and printable documents Reduce printing and paper use. Take advantage of specialized applications and features. She demonstrated presentations, music, flash cards with " Ink Flashcards ", Scratch , Sketch-Up , Art Rage for science projects, Snip for screen capture, and Inspiration. With all staff and students on tablets, they have been able to go paperless, and by using One Note, they stay organized and don't los...