Copyright Wiki

An experiment I started a few semesters ago with my Intro to Ed Tech course has really blossomed.  I began to do more with Fair Use in education and asked students to create and edit cases on a Copyright in Education Wiki 

Each student has to write a case in which they feel that a teacher stays within or violated fair use and then they have to comment on it.   They also have to edit/revise two other cases and commentaries.  My only growing reservation regards the focus of the whole project.  I am beginning to believe that I should focus our time on what and how they can use media, i.e. focus on creative commons materials in teaching. 

Blogged with Flock

NCTE in Nashville

Here are my handouts for iBard--using audio and performance to work with soliloquies. I'll be presenting with several others in a demonstration called There's Magic in the Web.

Here's the beginning of my activity's description.

When many students turn the page of a Shakespeare play and come to a soliloquy, they hit the invisible wall of reading—a frustratingly full page of uninterrupted text in dense and unfamiliar language, usually during an already challenging reading process. Understanding the soliloquies can be a turnkey experience for students in the comprehension of plot, character, and Shakespeare’s language.

This activity uses audio technology to build on performance-based approaches to teach the soliloquies. Students begin by slowing down the language and exploring its meaning and nuance through selected dramatic and choral reading techniques. Many movies and some live performances enhance the dramatic effects of a soliloquy or speech with a voiceover or a disembodied voice. These spoken interpretations are further enhanced with music, sound effects, and audio techniques such as reverberation and echo. Film productions of Branaugh’s Hamlet and Polanski’s Macbeth offer examples of this technique...

Fanfiction

The chapter in the book that I've become the most excited about is the one on fanfiction.  I posted a overview of the idea to fanfictrants and got some great advice and overwhelming support from the fanfiction community, including teachers and students.

I also posted a draft of the beginning of the chapter to my livejournal account--LiveJournal is great for working in communities, especially the fanfic community.

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The Mary Sue Project

I've been doing some work with the Internet, teaching writing and fanfiction. I came across this fantastic article on using a technique of fanfiction in the language arts class.


The Mary Sue Project: "The students quickly discover that fitting a new character into the story means dismantling the original prose to see how it works."

The introductory techniques and the thoughtfulness of the teacher, Lelac Almagor, make this a model of innovation.