Discovering Something New.

For my discovering something new assignment, I decided to go with  http://edutecher.com/.  It is a site that has been recommended to me by another teacher.  I haven't had the chance to look into it so I think this is the perfect time to explore the site. I will be reviewing three new sites for use in the classroom from edutecher.com. I reviewed the discussion my classmates and I had about criteria for new sites and I chose several that I will be using to review the sites.

#1 Site: InfuseLearning.com
This site is used as a response device between teachers and students.  All the students need is a mobile device with a web browser. They go to the Infuselearning website and enter a classroom code.  They are then linked to the site.  The teacher can create quizzes and use interactive tools to use with their students. I had no trouble moving through this site. It is not at all challenging to use. This site has a great potential to be used in the classroom. If I had a classroom set of laptops or iPads, I would be using this site all of the time. It would be great to use in conjunction with a Promethean Board. It can be used as a creative tool to use with all students, or as a classroom response system.  This site can be extremely useful to students and teachers.

Criteria to be Reviewed:

Ease of Use:

• Layout: The layout is extremely easy to use. When you log on, it tells you exactly how to connect student devices.  These student devices can be a mobile phone, tablet or a laptop.  Any device with internet access and a browser can use this site.  It is very easy to create a quiz and find all the features.  The main page allows you to create a quiz assessment, access the interactive tools and manage your classroom.  

• Interactive/engaging: The whole purpose of this site is to be interactive.  The quizzes, instead of being a hand out, complete and turn in type of quiz. Can be completely interactive.  The students will get instant evaluations of the assessment and this program allows also for two interactive tools.  

• One of them is the 'infuse draw' feature. This allows for mindmapping and hand written interactions between the students and the teacher.  If a mindmap or a timeline is created by the class, it can be downloaded for later use.  THis feature allows all students to interact with the medium.  If there is a promethean board in the classroom, this feature could have even more use.  The students could edit the mindmap and also see the creation on the promethean board. 
• The next interactive feature is the Publish Link. This feature allows the teacher to publish links for the students viewing.  This could make sharing a URL much easier.  Instead of reading it aloud or writing it on the board, it can be instantly shared. 

• Log in Required: There is a required log-in and the teacher must provide an email address. The students are also required to register. 

• User Friendly: This site is extremely easy to use for both teachers  and students.  When navigating this site, I was never confused. It would be extremely easy to use for both students and teachers. I think the hardest part would be getting the student devices connected to the website and the room ID.  That would be the most difficult thing to do, and that wouldn't be that hard.  
• Ads- NO ADS! The site is not cluttered with Ads or pop-ups. 

Academic Benefits:

• Content: This site is not content driven.  There is no content specific material.  It is a site that is designed as an interactive and assessment tool for the teacher and the students to use.  It allows teachers to create quizzes with different types of questions. From Draw Response, true/false, multiple choice, sort and order, open ended, numeric and likert scale questions. This will vary the types of questions in an assessment. 
• Interactiveness: VERY! The purpose of the site is to create interactive assessments. With the InfuseDraw and InfuseLink features, it allows all students to interact with each other and the teacher. 
• Age Appropriate: I believe that this site and be used with all ages and grade levels.
• Validity: Not an issue with this site, the content is added by the teacher and students.
• Creative: While this site doesn't provide the creative outlet that glogster or prezi does, the Infuse Draw and the Draw Response allows a bit of creativity to emerge from this site.  
• Security: This is a site designed for teachers and students.  The students need the Room ID # in order to enter the site. 

Cost: Free!

CIPA: No issue or conflict seen with CIPA. 


#2 Site: http://www.atlapedia.com/
This site is a resource for political and physical maps. This site also has important statistics for various countries around the world.  The site also has a school resource section that allows for reproduction of the maps and other materials for a fee. The site is easy to use and navigate. The only major challenge is that the site is copyright protected and requires a payment to print and reproduce the materials for classroom use. The material can be accessed on the web, but must be paid for to reproduce. I think this site has potential for classroom use, especially for social studies teachers. It can be used to teach the various regions of the world, and it provides a valuable resource for those researching specific countries.  

Criteria to be Reviewed:

Ease of Use:

• Layout: The layout is very easy to navigate. There are three sections to the website. Countries A-Z, World Maps, and Classroom Resources. 

The Countries A-Z has a list of the countries of the world from A-Z. You select the first letter of the country and it brings you to a list of countries beginning with that letter.  After you find your country, you click on the country and it brings up the countries important information and statistics.  There is a ton of information for each country listed.  It could be a great resource to students doing projects or writing assignments.  There is also a link to world maps. These maps come in both physical and political versions.  You may also select a region of the country if it exists.  The maps have the website watermarked on them.  This brings me to the next section: Classroom resources.  This part of the site allows for the purchase of the classroom resources.  This removes the watermarks and allows for the download and reproduction of all the materials on the site. 

• Interactive/engaging: This site doesn't provide for any interactivity amongst the students and teacher.  It would be up to the teacher to make the maps and materials interactive.  They could by using a Promethean Board to project the map and then they can use the Promethean pen to circle important regions etc.  The site itself isn't interactive.

• Log in Required: There is no log in required for the site. If you sign up to have reproducible classroom resources, there is a log in to that part of the website. 

• User Friendly: The site is very easy and straight forward to use. 
• Ads: The site is littered with Ads. There are up to five or six on each page of the website.  I am not sure if the Ads go away with the paid portion of the site. 

Academic Benefits:

• Content: This website provides a great deal of information on each country in the world. The content is Geography/Social Studies specific and would be beneficial to their classes. This content includes:
• System of Governments
• Area
• Population
• Location and Geography
• Climate
• Demographic statistics
• Languages
• Education
• And much more.

• Interactiveness: Site does not provide any interactive resources.
• Age Appropriate: The site can be used from middle and upper levels. 
• Validity: There are no resources provided for their information. If there is, I can't find it.  I don't know where they got their information and maps.  The copy right date is 1993-2011.  The information is at least 2 years old. I don't know which information is older.  The population information is from 2000.  The information could be outdated. 
• Creative:   The site does not allow for any creative uses. It would be up to the teacher to create a creative activity using the resources. 
• Security: N/A- The site isn't interactive or require a student or teacher log in

Cost: Student Resource site costs $14.95.  I don't know if I would pay for this site with the validity of the site in question.  The information could be older and I don't know their sources to the material. 

CIPA: No Issues. The site has geographical information only. 


#3 Site: http://www.amap.org.uk/
aMap is a very interesting site.  This site helps people understand complex issues and also promotes critical thinking.  The tagline of this site is "causing arguments since 2008." I believe that this could be a great resources in the classroom. It promotes "informal logic".  This allows people to discuss issues and to be able to state their opinions, reasons why they they have this opinion, supporting arguments that back up the propositions and evidence to support the opinion.  This could be a great resource that could be used in education.  This could develop critical reasoning skills for middle and high school level students. It would promote student thinking and develop skills that allow students to develop their arguments and support them using evidence. The site has critical thinking worksheets and various guides to help teachers use this program in their classroom. 

Criteria to be Reviewed:

Ease of Use:

• Layout: The layout if the site is average.  There are a ton of options on the title page and it took me a few seconds to find the education page of the site.  I immediately understood the purpose of the page but it might take a few second to find what you are looking for. You can immediately participate in the arguments that have been posted by other people.  There are options along the top of the page and along the right side of the page.
  
   

• Interactive/engaging: The purpose of the site is to have interactive debates on issues posed by the user. This site is meant to have multiple people participate in the argument.  It promotes the people to provide evidence that supports their argument.

• Log in Required: Yes, a log-in and email address are required

• User Friendly: It was fairly easy for me to move about the site.  The purpose of the site is to start an argument, and you click on that link and it takes you step by step from there.  It took me about 5 minutes to create my aMap!
• Ads: No Ads! There are no advertisements littering the site

Academic Benefits:

• Content: The content provided by this website are critical thinking skills. The students can create "I think.." statements, "because" statements (reasons that support your position) , "as in" statements (supporting arguments that back up each of your propositions), and "Supported by..." statements" (supporting evidence). This skill can be placed and used in any subject areas. English teachers can use this to discuss important themes and characters in books, and history teachers can use this to debate important issues in history, and also allows history teachers to explain the importance of specific events.  I would show the aMap I created, and have them create one on a different battle.  This is a tremendous website to use with any subject area to create critical thinking skills.  This site would be great to use in conjunction with the new Common Core standards. They  also provide classroom resources and a classroom site that illustrates how the site could be used in the classroom. 
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• Interactiveness: This site allows students and other people to reply and interact with each other's arguments and aMaps. The purpose of the site is to debate on a critical thinking level. Without the interactive features, the site wouldn't be able to promote the critical thinking skills as well.
• Age Appropriate: I believe this site could be used at all levels. It would be helpful to begin this early on to start develop the skills. The higher in grade level, the more complex the argument can be. 
• Validity: There is no way to post sources on this site, as far as I can see. One would have to include them in their aMap on their own. It opens it up for people to post false evidence. 
• Creative:   This site presents arguments in a creative way! Almost like mind maps, hence the name, aMap!
• Security: Might be an issue.  The site is open to everyone around the world and the students could get distracted by other's arguments, and others could interact with the student's arguments. I would want only my students to see their arguments. I wouldn't want someone from Japan or anywhere else intruding on my lesson. I emailed the developer to see if they had any plans to make a classroom aMap site that would prevent these issues. I will post if they respond. I would recommend a classroom ID similar to the infuselearning site. 
• Cost: No cost- but guides and some resources require a purchase. 

CIPA: The students will have access to other's arguments and visa versa.  I haven't seen any obscene posts but it could happen.  I wouldn't have a major issue using this in class but the student's access to unknown material could happen.

My New Toolbox..

I loved this assignment! I learned so much and I can't wait to use these tools in my classroom.  I see myself using the bookmarkets and URL shortening tools the most.  QR codes definitely can be beneficial, but the mobile policy might get in the way of using this in the classroom. I could use QR Codes for home use. 


Bookmarklets:
I absolutely love the Printliminator. I print a ton of articles and recipes and hate when I can't find a 'printer friendly' version.  This allows me to select what I want to print.  It is fabulous.  I will use this browser add on. I can't wait to install it on my work computer. (Hopefully I am allowed to) Instead of wasting 8 pages printing a recipe, I can just select the recipe without any of the other stuff on the page.  Prior to this add on, I would have to open a word document, and copy/paste the information into the word document.  Then I would usually have to format the recipe so that it looks OK.  This not only goes for recipes, but also for readings I find on the Internet for my class. I wouldn't have to reformat in word. This is probably one of the best things I have found. I am excited to use this.

I use youtube videos frequently in class.  I have to download them because youtube is blocked in my district. Prior to learning about KeepIt, I used a website called savevid.com.  Sometimes the site didn't work, and it was unreliable.  This add on is absolutely fabulous. I had a hard time finding a program that was compatible with a MAC and/or was reasonably priced.  This is also one of hte best things I have learned about so far. I use short clips all the time in my 8th grade history class.  This downloader will be ideal to help me vary the media in my classroom.  I am excited to use this as well.

I have bookmarked both of these sites, and will do so on both my laptop and my desktop.  I don't think KeepIt will work on my school computer, but having access at home will be extremely beneficial. I can't wait to use them!

URL Shortening:
This is a great idea.  I had only seen this before when using twitter.  I can definitely see now how this can be valuable in the classroom.  I can post URLs that are much easier to remember and to type in.  I will use them when posting my classroom edmodo sites.  My Period 1 site looks like this without the shortening: http://www.edmodo.com/home#/join/e8f314e69361eb634035e93af687b91a this would be hard to post and the chance of me or the students writing this down incorrectly in very high.  After I created the shortened URL, the link looked like this http://bit.ly/16jStyf. It is much shorter and easy to remember or write down. I see myself using this when I am giving specific websites to my students for projects and research materials.  It will be much easier then having them write down a long URL.  If they write the URL wrong, it will be hard for them to find the site. Also, I like bitly because it also saves all of the URLs I make.  That way if I have to share a website again, I can just log into my site.

QR Codes: 
I have seen QR Codes all over the place, but I really didn't understand what they were or why they were beneficial.  From this class, I realized how they could be used with education.  I got to thinking that I would love to put QR codes on my syllabus linking important sites for my students and my parents.  I could link to my edmodo site or various online resources that will help them in my class. When I create projects, I could put QR codes on my rubrics to guide them to appropriate research sites.  All of this hinges upon the technology policy of my school.  Currently, students are not allowed to use their cell phones in class.  They are, however, allowed to use ipads and kindles.  They could possibly use those to read the codes. If mobile phones were allowed, it would prove to be a great tool to use in the classroom.  If I used them now, most  students will only be able to use the codes at home.  I wanted to use a site for school, but unfortunately I am on Spring break, so I cannot post in my classroom.  Instead I created a code that I can place on my fridge.

This site posts paleo and gluten free recipes. I use these sites frequently so this would be helpful in the kitchen to look up recipes.  See picture below

Information Overload

I use at least 20 different sites in my classroom and I have the most commonly used ones on my bookmark bar in my browser.  I use a handful other sporadically. I am able to memorize my passwords for these, I use only a few slightly different passwords, and if I get it wrong, I just try another.

Add those to my personal account log-ins, it can easily reach 50.  Between my bank account, loans, credit cards and social networking sites, it is extremely hard to keep track.  For some of my rarely used sites, I do have a password protected word document where I keep these. (yup I another password to remember... a password to protect passwords..) I know people say not to do this, but there are so many there is no way for me to remember.  I don't  want to have to reset my password every time I need to check the balance of my retirement account or try 23412341234 million different passwords only to have my account locked. (its happened before, I had to call my bank to unlock it.  They thought someone was trying to get into my account). For my social networking sites, I usually have the same password for all.   I have my personal sites bookmarked in my browser. 

I have a hard time managing all these sites, and it gets more difficult when I try to add more.  There is so much out there today, it can definitely be overwhelming to try to manage all of these sites.  People recommend sites to me and sometimes I just don't have the time to try to use them all. When I return to these sites, I usually do forget my user name and password. There is just so much out there, it is very hard to learn and master every site.  I have to be picky to the sites I choose to join.  I wish I didn't but I would be even more overwhelmed. 

Dig Deeper into the Mainstays

        For the Social topic, I chose Edmodo.  I chose Edmodo because both Twitter and Facebook are very familiar to me and they are both also blocked at my school. I also don't believe they offer security features that would make me feel comfortable using it.  I discovered Edmodo a few years ago when I was had a long term substitute position at another district.  The teacher I was in for used it extensively with her class and I just joined right in to continue to use it.  The students were 11th graders. I recently developed a project for my current 8th graders.  They were assigned groups, and as a group, were to create a Revolutionary War newsletter. I was able to secure the laptop cart for 4 days to work on this project.  I spent part of the first day of the day signing them up for edmodo.  I figured I would give the site a try here.  The kids absolutely loved the site.  Each class described the site as being "facebook for school."  Prior to me introducing it to the class, I did evaluate the security of the website.  They use class or group codes in order to join each class. You can refresh the code and lock the code so it keeps the class secure. I also signed up for a fake student account so I could see the site from the student's perspective. Within the class period, I also created a sub group for each group within the class.  Because of this site, the kids could upload pictures and resources and share them with their group.  There was one person in charge of putting together all the articles and pictures in publisher.  Edmodo made it easy for the students to collaborate and create the newspaper.  Edmodo also has a backpack feature. This allowed the students to save the work to their profile in order to work on it at home. Another feature that I love is that the students could submit the project via edmodo as well.  Once concern that I did have about this site was students posting inappropriate posts. Edmodo has a feature that allows you to moderate each post that is posted.  That way if any off topic or inappropriate post came up, I could not approve its posting. This genre can enhance learning because it allows students to collaborate together on a digital front.  They can edit the same document, and gather all of their resources digitally.  It really worked well with my students.  I continue to use edmodo. It allows electronic submission of projects and essays.  

     For the creative genre, I chose Glogster.  I chose Glogster because it was mentioned in this week's discussion thread and I wanted to learn more about it.  I went to the glogster education site, but I didn't realize that it is a paid site.  I would have to sign up for a free trial, which was extremely disappointing.  I would have to see if my district has an account.  I am not sure that they do. I don't want to sign up for a free trial at the moment because I would like to use the trial as a project in my class, and I don't have an upcoming project I can use this with. I like what I see from the glogster education site.  It promotes creative learning under a secure account. I think the students would absolutely love creating these digital posters.  I like they have an education secure site, I am just disappointed it is a paid site at $30 a year.  I am going to sign up for the regular glogster site to see how it runs.  From what I see of the normal glogster site, it would be great to use to create projects for my history class.  The students could map out historical events and important people. Instead of writing an essay, they could create a visual representation of the event.  It would enhance student learning because it would benefit those visual learners.  I think they would also enjoy using technology in this way.  Students today are very visual and very motivated by the use of technology. I would definitely use this in my class if I could get the secure teacher site.  I like the fact that they offer a secure, education based service, I just don't feel justified in paying for it right now.  I don't know if I would use it often enough in a year to pay that much. Chris Roach states that glogster can be used for history to create visual timelines of events, profile famous people, times or era. They can illustrate arguments for and against a topic and illustrate specific information on an historical episode (2011).  Glogster can also allow interactions from the creator of the glog to the viewer of the glog. "In summary, Glogster is a very easy to use tool which will allow students to your students a creative to way to express themselves and demonstrate their learning. As I have witnessed, they will enjoy using it" (Roach, 2011).

     For the curation genre, I chose Scoop it. I chose this mainly because I have never heard of it! I looked at the site and it looks like it is a curation tool that allows you to gather resources for a single topic.  It is very similar to pinterest.  There is a free version and two levels of paid membership.  I can see this being very beneficial in a classroom.  I could ask the students to create a Scoop It for a single historical event, person or topic.  I could also use it to collect teaching material and resources for my own lesson planning.  All of the blogs and websites I use  could be in one place.  This would save me time! Leslie Nielsen states that "All this work just got a lot easier with Scoop.it.  It allows a teacher, or groups of teachers, or teachers and students to be the curator of any topic by collecting gems for publication into your own site that can be shared with others" (2011). I am not sure I would use this a great deal in the classroom, but I think I would use it to gather resources for my graduate classes, and for lesson planning. It would make life a lot easier to gather all the best resources in one places.  

Nielsen , L. (2011, July13). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/07/scoopit-

Roche, C. (2011, May 28). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://techmeetsed.com/2011/05/28/glogster-in-the-classroom/

New Web 2.0 Technologies

"Seek out an educator that is using new technologies (Web 2.0 sites) with students in the classroom currently. Reach out to them (via phone/skype/im/email etc)"

I decided to intervew another teacher in my school.  She is a remedial math teacher and also helps others in the school integrate technology into their classrooms. She is known in our school as the technology guru. 

1)How they decided which tools to use with their students?
Ms. R searches various education blogs, websites and social networking sites to find new ideas.  She uses the social networking sites (Pinterest, edudemic!, edutopia, and facebook). She first tries the sites herself and if she thinks her students might like it, she introduces it into her class. She says it is really trial and error.  Some tools work better with some students, and you as a teacher must know your students strengths and weaknesses. She also said to take some risks when it comes to new sites.  She has said that some sites that she thought was useless, the students really enjoyed.


2)What obstacles they needed to overcome to obtain permission to do such a project?
She said she always has to make sure the site is accessible. She always looks for free websites and she always signs up for free trials. That way she knows what sites are worth a cost. She said that she has made friends with the technology department and the administrator that runs the department.  She has earned his trust.  She said to make sure if you are going to be using new technology, you should know the tool/website inside and out that way you can properly sell the website to your technology department. Make sure you know how to use your districts monitoring software like vision.  That way if you use a computer lab, you can see all the student's screens to make sure they are on task and using the website properly. You also have to make sure the website is appropriate for the age and grade level. She is also a teacher that takes risks.  She said it is sometimes ok to ask forgiveness.

3)What advice they would give to a teacher seeking to replicate their efforts.
She said to make sure you familiarize yourself with the technology.  She also said observing another teacher that uses similar websites can help you become familiar with the website/technology.  She said after you become familiar, you should start small and manageable. Don't overwhelm yourself! You will get frustrated and it will become a lot of work.  After you mastered one small step, go bigger! She said it is also helpful to introduce websites that the students can use at home. She also said not to make the project about the technology.  Technology is only a tool in your toolbox, it isn't your curriculum   Don't lose focus on what you are teaching!

Ms. R is a very well known teacher in the building and she loves trying new things.   I am not an ask for forgiveness kind of person, I would probably just ask first. I would be too paranoid that I am going to break some kind of rule. She is a little more risker than me! She has helped me learn how to use my promethean board and is constantly sending me new things to try.  I usually just follow her lead! She has helped me integrate edmodo and she has helped me develop lesson plans that integrate technology.  I really use the same techniques that she does, except she is willing to take more risks then I am.  I like the whole start small and grow technique.  The promethean board overwhelmed me at first, but now I can completely comfortable!

New Technology in the Classroom

One of the things I look for in new technologies is the ease of use. If the site is too complicated, I won't be as likely to use the site. The better destined the website is, the more likely I am going to be able to use it. I also am willing to pay for sites that are more user friendly. The paid sites usually have less advertising and are easy to use. I look for this especially in teacher resource sites like Discovery Education, lesson planet and edhelper.com. Another site I love to use is Promethean Planet. They are collections of resources that help teachers in the classroom. I use these sites because they are very easy to use and provide key resources that allow me to bring new ideas to my classroom. If a site will take a great deal of time to learn, I am less likely to use it. These classroom resource sites allow teachers to collaborate to create great resources and lesson plans.

Along with teacher resource sites, I also am always on the lookout for new technologies to use with my students. One site I evaluated and used recently was edmodo. I learned about the site a while ago when I was long term subbing in another district. When I was checking out the site, I found it extremely easy to use. Another question I have to answer is how secure and safe is the site for use with my 8th grade students. Can they access inappropriate material? Can they themselves post inappropriate material? If I feel at all a site isn't secure, and if it would be easy for students to abuse the website for non academic purposes, I won't use it. Edmodo has a moderation feature that allows me to approve every post on edmodo. If a student gets off topic, I can deny the post. I also have to make sure the website provides a strong educational value to the project. One of the common themes in Web 2.0 is collaboration and the ability of the students to be interactive. I believe that is important to creating new student centered activities so I always look for ways for new technology to be interactive. Edmodo is also social site. The students loved the social aspect of it and they love any website that allows them to interact and collaborate on ideas. With any new website, I also have to see if I am allowed to use it. I always ask the head of technology in my district first to see if the site is allowed. I also have to evaluate the educational value of the website and if the students will use the website to learn and not just purely to have fun.

Ease of use, easy streamlined design, educational value, security features and interactive features are the factors I evaluate the most when looking a new site to use in my classroom.

youtube??? blocked??

To be completely honest, I dislike the fact that my school district blocks youtube. I can understand that my district wants to prevent the students from accessing inappropriate material through youtube (to be in compliance with CIPA), but they are also missing out on great posts and channels that would aid in their learning. That being said, I wish they would unlock youtube for the teachers to use. That way they are allowing the site to be used for educational purposes, but also preventing the students from having the opportunity from listening to or watching anything inappropriate. There are many history teachers that post great videos that would be beneficial to my class. There is one channel that takes popular music songs and creates videos to explain historical events. I would love to use this in my class.

I understand the concern that my district has over youtube and staying in compliance with CIPA. THere are many videos on youtube that are inappropriate and might violate CIPA. The district does not want to take the risk that students will view pornographic/inappropriate materials and be faced with a lawsuit or other sanctions for violating CIPA. There is also the risk of viewing copyrighted material.

The best solution in my opinion is to leave youtube unblocked for teachers, but leave it blocked for students. I teach 8th graders and I definitely think some of my students would try to look up inappropriate/obscene material. "Epic Rap Battles" is an example. They can be graphic and may fit some people's definition of obscene. Maybe there is a way for our IT department to unblock specific videos, if needed, for the students.This way the students are protected from viewing obscene/pornographic material, but they aren't losing the educational value that youtube can bring to the classroom.

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I have to admit, this is the first time I have heard of Creative Commons. After reading about the Creative Commons, I believe it is a great idea that can easily help teachers create and protect their lessons/ideas. As a teacher, you have to be constantly aware of copyrights, and not stealing people's work. On the other hand, as teachers, it is important to share the unique plans and lessons that we come up with. When I was hired, I had a number of people give me all of their unit plans and materials. It definitely made my life easier and allowed me to have the basis of their materials and add my own flair. I have heard of some teacher's being very protective of their work and I have heard of some saying, "Why reinvent the wheel? Here ya go!" It is the right of every teacher to decide how and if their work gets shared.

I believe that Creative Commons is a great compromise between strict copyright laws and not being able to protect one's intellectual property. It allows people the choice on how they would like their property shared. Some people might feel that someone else profiting from their ideas as wrong, and some might not care! The different licenses allow the author of works to share as they see fit. And that is exactly what should be happening.

I have taken lessons from the internet and adapted them to fit my students, teaching style and classroom. I always give the author credit on my rubrics but I never know if I am doing that right, or if I am violating the wishes of that teacher. This system would clear this up!

Creative Commons allows teachers to share ideas, but sets boundaries. I really like Creative Commons and I hope that more people use it in future.

I picked the Attribution, Non-Commerical Share Alike license.

I picked this license because I am a believer that, as educators, we should share the great lessons and ideas that we come up with. We are teachers to provide the best education we can to our students. If I created a lesson that can help an educator do the best job they can, then why not share? On that note, I don't believe that other people should profit from my work. Because of this belief, I picked the non-commerical aspect to the licensing. I really like the share alike portion of the licensing. This insures that the work that was derived from my work also holds the same licensing. They can share the work, just as long as nobody profits of their work (that was based on my work). I don't think its right for someone to be willing to take my work and adapt it to themselves, but not share the ideas they came up with. This is the license that is right for me and my intellectual property.