Overview of Technology and this Class

I can't believe this semester is almost over! SO crazy! I feel like I have learned some valuable things from this class.

1. I have used technology to help me stay connected with others. I think social networking is a great way to gain more knowledge because there are so many things that you could learn about and often the easiest way to learn is through other people. I also use technology a lot when I research, it is the easiest way to get a lot of facts and articles pertaining to the specific subject I am looking for.

2. In this class and in other classes I have had the opportunity of collaborating with other students through technology. In this class, the collaboration was through commenting on other's blogs in the beginning of the semester. I liked seeing the other people's ideas. Sometimes if I didn't understand an assignment or did not have ideas on what I should post on my blog, I would look at my groups' blogs and see what they came up with. This was more of a brainstorming process for me than a "copycat" process. I often need to be able to bounce ideas off of others before I can come up with a solid solution or response. In other classes I have used google docs a lot for collaboration on study guides and group presentations. This is a great way to see what other people have learned or have questions about without setting aside a lot of time to meet with them.

3. One major way I will personally use technology in my classroom is through videos. I will share video clips and video tape my dance students so they can watch their performances and see what they can do to improve. I also want to create class websites or a class blog so that my students can always know what they should be working on and so the parents stay informed too.

4. I learned that technology is not as hard as I thought it was. I was always a little afraid to do things with technology because I was afraid I would do it wrong or break it or something. I realized that technology is very user friendly, and if you don't know how to do something, there are many resources available to figure it out.

5. Some specific things I learned was how to embed videos, how to create a website, how to create and edit a video, and how to download youtube videos. All four of these skills will be helpful to me especially because I want to use a lot of videos in my future class.

Project #3

For Project #3 I am going to work by myself so I will not be submitting something for the contest. One thing that dance students struggle with is remembering sequences and being able to perform them after you taught them. Usually they can remember right after you teach them but if you wait a day or two they will usually forget (especially if they are still developing and all of their brain functions/ memory skills are not fully developed). I'm not sure how technology could help with this though. Another thing that I struggle with as a dancer is knowing what muscles should be initiated the movements (for example when you are executing a grand battement--aka a big kick--you should be engaging your hamstrings instead of your quads, yet many times dancers engage their quads instead and their muscles get very tired and overused). Maybe I could find an application that helps students understand and see the muscles they should be using.

Internet Safety

The internet (and mass media in general) is becoming more corrupt and our children are not safe watching TV or using the internet without being bombarded with violence, sexual messages, pornography, and drug/alcohol advertisements. As an educator I want to educate my students about the dangers of the internet and how to use it safely. I will share with them what I know about internet safety (i.e., do not put personal information online, beware of chat rooms, do not download illegal documents). I will explain to my students why it is important to use the internet safely (avoid sex predators, will not get viruses on their computers, etc.). I think that once I explain logically why internet safety is important, my students will want to be more safe.

Downloading Videos

I downloaded one of my favorite youtube videos: Boys Will Be Girls. If you have never seen it, watch it! Its hilarious! My only problem was I had a little trouble trying to figure out how to add the 1-click Youtube downloading add-on on my PC, but after some playing around I finally got it. And once the add-on was installed, downloading the video was very simple. The quality of the video was very good, I was surprised how well it looked, even when I made the video bigger (it wasn't as fuzzy and pixilated as I thought it would be). As long as I use the videos that are meant to educate my classroom, that is fair use. However, I do not think that I should download videos all the time, it will just be once in a while.

Video Assignment

Copyright Laws

First off, I loved the video we watched about copyrights with all the Disney characters! It was a little hard to follow at first but I think it really drove the point home. I learned that their are certain ways that are acceptable to borrow parts of copyrighted material: to teach, news reporting, parody (this was interesting to me, but it makes perfect sense!), and in making critical comments. I want to learn more about copyright laws because even though you can use bits of copyrighted material in certain settings, you still must be careful in how you use it. For example, part of fair use is that you use the copyright in a way that does not change its original meaning (at least I think that is true, the video says you cannot change the commercial impact) but if that is true, wouldn't parody change the meaning because it is making fun of the original work? I'll have to do some more research I guess.

Video Project Storyboard

(The end of the storyboard is cut off a bit, but it is just the credits page. Also there was an image on the back of the page I was drawing on so thats why there is a big rectangle going through my storyboard.)
The idea for my video is to help my dance students explore the cultural and historical context of dance from another country. This video is an example for my students so they can create their own videos about cultural dances. They will be required to research a traditional folk dance from another country (for my teacher example I chose Bhangra from India) and create a video to share with the class with a performance of the folk dance and images from the chosen country (including traditional dress, festivals, and historic locations in the country). This project will help the students be exposed to a lot of cultural dances in a short amount of time and have fun doing it!