Fair Use/Copyright Issues

While copyright laws are essential to promote innovation, they can be quite frustrating to teachers who have no desire to profit off of the copyrighted material, only to use the material to teach their students more effectively. However, there are limitations on copyright, that fall under the concept of fair use. Using only portions of the material can be allowed under certain circumstances. By being aware of how much can be used, teachers need not avoid using potentially useful material.

Sample Interview Questions

3. Tell me a lesson you taught and why it went well. In using a story to teach German vocabulary, I was able to make a simple but entertaining story that involved usage of key German verbs. The lesson went well since the words could be repeated (necessary for retention) without the students becoming bored. I was able to do this by providing multiple types of questions that did not become tiring to the students.

4. Name a specific method or strategy that you have used to teach in the past and why it is one you will continue to use.
In language teaching, the usage of games has been both a highly motivating and highly effective method for me. For example, with vocab teaching, matching games allow great repetition of words while being fun at the same time.

8. While a lesson is ongoing, how can you tell is students are "getting" the material?
The best way I have found to assess learning in the middle of a lesson is questioning. By asking questions to several students I can gauge how well the class is following along with the material, and then adjust the lesson accordingly, either proceeding or going back to review and reinforce.

Technology and Persuasive Videos

Video technology can be a great asset to students giving a persuasive presentation. The recent political advertisements on television are an example of how effective video statements can be. Although I personally do not believe that we should teach our students to stretch the truth as far as possible for their own ends as is done in the political advertisements, the usage of visual and auditory can be effective ways to communicate ideas to other people.

Multimedia Technology

The ability of students to combine images, music, and video effects to a video presentation allow for a much higher quality of work with relatively easy tools. Video presentations can be an excellent way to share information since they appeal to multiple senses and can be entertaining. Additionally, these skills can be used on a variety of topics, making video production a skill that can be useful in nearly any class for any teacher. Video presentations lend themselves to almost infinite variety and can be fun for students produce. Therefore, they are a learning tool very worthy of consideration.

Webquesting

In the webquest shown in the video, students were asked to find a location in the solar system a human colony might best be established. The students were asked to rank the importance of the characteristics of the potential sites, and students had to work out disagreements. The students also simulated different roles in the founding of the colony. Such roleplaying provides the opportunity for learning in a real-world context, which allows the material to be more successfully related to the students. The webquest makes the situations more realisitic and envisionable, which allows for greater applicability to students.

Visions of the Students of Today and K-12 Students

The groups of students in both clips have much in common. Both state they live in a digital age. Because of this, much of the student's time is taken up by TV, video games, and computer activities. Both groups presented that the jobs they will have in their adult lives are likely to be jobs that don't currently exist. Both videos state the current education system is lacking in hands-on, learn-by-doing activities.
The older students, however, feel more "lost in the crowd" than the K-12 students. Their class sizes are immense and their instructors seldom know the students' names. The K-12 students also seemed to have parents who were more tech-savvy, although the older kids might be as well. This could potentially show that parents of today's young children are products of the information revolution, while older parents might still be out of the "loop"

Web 2.0

The changes to the world facilitated by the internet has raised many issues. Legal issues will arise that have never been considered, such as ramifications for copyright and privacy laws. The advent of xml has allowed much greater flexibility in transportation of information, allowing previous issues of compatibility and format trouble to be problems of the past.