Last Chance to See

I know I'm a bit late but I've just discovered this fantastic BBC site dedicated to animals on the brink of extinction. With the gallant Stephen Fry as host, there is a wonderful collection of blogs, video posts and archive radio to pick through and enjoy. I don't remember the original radio series of 20 years ago but I love the way the blogs and video diaries have been used as a work in progress, allowing viewers to get excited by and be remotely part of the programme team. I think this is a great model which shows simply and clearly how blogs could be used to record a project that a class are studying. More importantly than that, it's lots of fun!!

Glow...

... worms








... in the dark.

Attribution






... sticks








After leaving another twilight session to introduce Glow to the staff, I am very tempted to be cynical about Glow, but I am countering my urges by focusing of the benefits of online content for enhancing teaching and learning.
I have already covered some places I find useful for finding and editing photos here. In this post I would like to cover the topic of copyrighted images and possible ways for schools to avoid getting themselves in a pickle once staff and pupils start uploading loads of photos to their Glow groups. This was an issue that arose in the twilight session.

There are many options for using images and resources in education that would cost you money in the commercial sector.

Creative Commons is a global licensing project. The various licenses you can choose to label the resources you create are explained here.

If you click on the symbol beside each license then that links to a page where you can download html to add a badge to your web page or glow page. Probably the best option for schools is the 'Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike' license. Quite a tongue twister! Basically, it allows you share content with others as long as they acknowledge where it came from. They can also do what they want with the content as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Perhaps where there are pictures of children it would be more suitable to choose a less flexible license.

If you use flickr, then flickr allows you to add Creative Common licenses to your photos. Here is an example of one of my photos with a Creative Commons license attached.

The Creative Commons search tool is a great way to find suitable pictures and videos that come under the correct license. You can choose various search engines from Google to flickr, and by selecting 'Search for works I can modify, adapt, or build upon', you are provided with a selection of resources it is safe to use in the classroom, or share on a Glow group.

I think that because we are using resources for educational purposes, then we can stretch the law a little bit, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Check if there are any copyright issues with resources, and if in doubt email the person to ask their permission.

VIDEO RESOURCES
Sites like youtube and blip.tv make it very easy to embed content directly onto your Glow site, therefore getting round problems of downloading and copyright. Teachertube and Schooltube are alternatives where filters block access to youtube. But I have found Teachertube to be quite slow. Hopefully, this will improve in the future because it is a great resource.

If you want to download video resources, then there lots of great resources available through the Creative Archive. The BBC led the way initially with a wonderful selection of clips to download and edit for educational purposes. I have them all! But since have pulled all the clips and seemed to have changed focus to streaming content such as this. Unfortunately, the Creative Archive seems to have lost its steam, but their are lots of downloadable clips available under the license from Teachers TV, the BFI, ITN Source (which allows you to download clips in Quicktime)pick n mix (channel 4) Channel 4 and the Open University.

You can access streamed clips through school computers of the BFI's extensive ScreenOnline resource. There are some excellent history packages for streaming to be found here. Scottish Screen are developing a similar resource for Scottish film clips in their archive.

You can use your school computer to access clips and download free clips (for educational purposes) from the British Pathe website. This is lots of fun for old fashioned newsreel soundbites!
The Internet Archive is an American project similar to the Creative Archive and full of goodies to use.
This NASA site has a fantastic collection of interesting, if sometimes very hazy, Apollo Lunar clips to download.

SOUND RESOURCES
This link for the Audio Network Library, if accessed at school, allows you to listen to and download its clips for free. Teachers (and pupils) can listen and browse the selection outside of school hours here.

Information about using copyrighted songs can be found here.

There are many other sites too, but I think this entry is already too long. I am too tired and I am writing this after watching the famous Aberdeen go down 4-1 to Dundee United. Gutted. Good night.

Tartan tearaways... Social collaboration...

Today at school we were designing our clan tartan, so just wanted to share a couple of fun and easy sites for doing this online. The first one is from the House of Tartan, and the second slightly 'way out' design is from Tartanmaker.com. The class really enjoyed it, even though the laptops were being more grumpy and frustrating than normal. Grrrrrr... computers - it's a love / hate thing. And relax.
After closer inspection of the tartanmaker site (one of those internet episodes where you get dragged into an endless whirlpool of clicking on link after link until you forget what it was that made you log on in the first place - is there a name for this? surely there must be by now!) I came across two other sites by the same site designers - stripe generator that does a nice line in everything stripey and image reflection generator, which is what it is. Will I ever use these tools? Probably not. Did I bookmark them anyway? Of course I did! The second one is actually quite fun.
Just feeling very conscious of my habit of bookmarking every new website I find, but then forgetting about them.
Another new site I discovered via techcrunch today is Kerproof, where kids can create their own stories, pictures and movies. It has an element of social collaboration about it in that you can edit other people's stories too. Will look at this further. Problem is that the majority of computers in our ICT suite don't like this kind of website, and our tech guy never seems to be able to fix it. Hey ho.

Burns audio resources

A link to some Robert Burns audio resources on teachertube that teachers and pupils may find helpful for pronunciation and delivery of the sangs and clatter.

Glasgow Schools Film Festival

A quick post to say thank you to john@sandaig for writing my first comment. An honour and a privilege, ! And for the grand total of 9 people who have found my blog so far. Go me!!

But also to highlight the very exciting Glasgow Schools Film Festival that is taking place next month at the Glasgow Film Theatre. Some very exciting films and workshops taking place for pupils and teachers alike. You can book from Monday 14th July. Will try to persuade the boss on Monday to let the class go, but we're already booked up for loads this term already. Here's hoping!!!

Moving Image Education is a subject very close to my heart. So will be blogging lots about this in the future. Used to be a projectionist at the mighty Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh, and have enjoyed many great animation and film making experiences with my classes. More of that later too!

On a final note to self - need to be more careful of what pictures I post. One or two of the Burns Tam O Shanter paintings I posted previously had just a wee bit of female nudity in them, which for some reason I just hadn't noticed. Some interesting discussions with the class though...
And that, not long after visiting the GFT last term to watch the Japanese anime film Princess Mononoke, as part of National Schools Film Week, when there were 3 moments of choice swearing that delivered a hefty "OOOOOOOOO, SWEARING!" response from the P6 audience.
And the guilty character was a monk! (Great film though, if you've not seen it. By the same studio who made 'Spirited Away'.)