Creative Commons

Oh hey there,

Today I learned some stuff about copyright laws and the Creative Commons. In regards to the classroom a teacher is not allowed to show a video without getting the proper "public performance rights". This means that if you'd like to show a YouTube video or something similar, you have to be sure that is has a Creative Commons license, or a CC, that allows that type of distribution; the standard YouTube license will not do. The six licenses that the Creative Commons outline allows content producers to declare how their products are used by others. The four licenses I learned about are: attribution, non-commercial use, share alike, and no derivatives.

Here is an example of a piece of content that requires "attribution" in order to be used.

Ash, Crestfelt. (July 20, 2009). Science (Online Image). Retrieved from. 

And here is an example of an image that does not require attribution as it is licensed under the "public domain".

Retrieved from.

If you have questions about licensing and copyright laws click here!

See you next time.

Genius Hour: Post #1

Hello!

Hallo!

Bonjour!
Ciao!

My last post talked about Genius Hour; spending an hour a day on a passion project. Today I would like to share with you my Genius Hour project proposal! I'm currently at Brock U in the Teacher Education program and my teachable is French as a Second Language. So, why not kill two birds with one stone here and look into ways of improving my spoken French? Sounds like a good idea, yeah? It wasn't my idea, but I'm taking it. The project will span over five weeks and I have certain weekly goals. Here they are:

Week 1: Research useful strategies, books, and applications. Record a spontaneous sample video or audio clip of my spoken French

Week 2: Begin using these resources to develop my spoken French

Week 3: Continue using resources, find a practice partner

Week 4: Continue practicing and using resources

Week 5: Record a spontaneous sample video or audio clip of my spoken French on a random topic and compare to Week 1

So, my goals are to research various tools and strategies that'll help me on my journey. Next, practice, practice, practice. Did I mention practice? On week one I plan to record myself speaking French on a random topic. I want it to be as spontaneous as possible. On week five I will do the same thing and compare the results. I am hoping the my ability to convert my ideas into speech will quicken in pace. Additionally, I am hoping that my accent will improve.

Kevin Olden. 19/08/2015. Calling All French Speaking Candidates. Image. Retrieved from.

What do you think? What should I change, add, or remove? Do you speak French (fluently or not) and want to help me on my journey? Or do you speak French and want to improve your English? Feel free to respond to this post and maybe you can be my week 3!

Bye for now

Auf Wiedersehen
Au revoir
Ciao

Hello world, I've awaken from my nap.

Hello world,

My name is Raffaele, like the ninja turtle, the arch angel or the tennis player. Have you heard of this "Genius Hour" phenomenon going on in classes today? I haven't. But now, I have! It's a very cool concept that deeply resonates with me. Basically, you devote class time to developing a project that the students come up with their selves. It's brilliant. The students get to work on their own passion project and learn along with way. The entire time they are developing skills and learning about what's important to them. Here's a quick video on Genius Hour by Chris Kesler.




How was it? Does it get you excited? It gets me excited. I didn't really get to have this experience in school. You probably remember the days of sitting in class sifting through the seemingly endless pages of a dusty textbook. I never liked how they smelled.. This sort of project really breaks from the mundane routine that I remember growing up. It gets me excited because as a Teacher Candidate I will eventually be able to implement this in the classroom. I feel like it's a great way for the teacher to get acquainted with the student, to find out what really interests them and be able to develop a positive relationship based on what's important to them.

This whole Genius Hour concept was brought up in our tech class here at Brock. Along with Genius Hour we learned that social media is actually useful for more than posting pictures of your fabulous meal or sharing minimal thoughts. I must admit I judged various forms of social media before exploring them and that was wrong. I think it is an important lesson to learn from; no matter how old we get we should avoid taking things for their face value.