Being the History lover I claim to be, I found it very useful to look through most of these apps located under the Social Studies tab. I reviewed a couple of them and saw how I will and will not be able to use these apps in the classroom.
Google Earth:
This is one of my favorite apps for a couple of reasons. I have quite the fascination of maps and really enjoy the subject of geography. Another reason I love this app is because it is such a good tool to use in the classroom. One way Google Earth can be used in the History classroom, or other classes as desired is for comparison purposes. It provides great opportunity to compare urban and rural life. For example, I grew up in very rural Southern Indiana, the google earth image of my hometown compared to Knoxville is tremendously different. I know it is a standard to be used in upper elementary grades, but this comparison activity can also be used in middle school and even high school! Another use for this app could be for the learning of longitude and latitude. This is a concept taught at the middle school grade level and would be easy to incorporate into a lesson.
Stack the States:
I have personally used this application as a study tool, and just to use for fun, because I get so much enjoyment out of geography games. I used this in a fifth grade classroom during one of their TCAP study days. The students rotated at stations and I remember using and watching students play this game to learn their states. This app allows for many different games to be played along with quizzes to take. I think the graphics are wonderful and appealing to specifically 4-8 students. Sure there will be some students who think they are too cool for games, but this game in particular is a great way to learn the states and there is even an app for the all the countries! That is a way to incorporate this game for the older middle school grades. It does cost to purchase the game, but I believe it is well worth the $1.99.
http://youtu.be/UhBJHcJ7sW0
http://youtu.be/FZzzw4ohq-o
Civil War Today:
This application for the iPad is a little more expensive than most apps. It is 7.99, and I have not had a lot of experience with it, but it is put on by the History Channel, which is a wonderful educational source. Their other resources and applications are great and from what I have been able to mess around with, this application looks just as good! It is very applicable to a unit on the Civil War and it can be used for more than one aspect of it. That is what I love about it. The application really lets the student get a good understanding of what it was like in the mid 1800's. It is great for older middle school students, I probably wouldn't use it in 4th or 5th grade but definitely 7th or 8th.
USA Factbook:
I love love love this application! And it's free! This application provided so many learning tools. It offered states facts, meaning of important documents, maps, quizzes, and quite possibly my favorite part... The National Anthem! You would be surprised at how many Americans don't know the National Anthem. I'm a huge advocate of patriotism and I think everyone should know what our country stands for. I would definitely get this application for my students to use. Especially since in every state, US History is offered as a social studies class in middle school. Each state differs as to which grade it is, but I have a good feeling this app could be applied to 4th through 8th grade!
History Today/ This day in History:
This is a really cool app that recognizes what the current day is that the application is viewed and tells the viewer what happened on that specific day whenever it may be in history. This can easily be incorporated into the classroom for any grade 4th through 8th. There is just something fascinating about what happened on this day years ago, For this same reason the application TimeHop was created in order for social media users to see what they posted on that exact day several years ago. This app could be used as an opening activity and doesn't necessarily just need to be viewed on the application. Say the teacher looked on it every morning and was able to open class with letting the students know what happened on this day in history. I think that is a pretty cool way to A.) start off the class period noting the date to the class B.) learning parts off history that don't have to be tied to the lesson or unit and provides a chance to branch out and talk about something else for five minutes.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Movies All Day
The school's movie day was definitely in violation of copyright laws. From trying to plan movie events, I have ran into movie viewing rules myself. It is to my understanding from discussion in class and through experience that a license is required to view movies in large quantities of people.
1. The first issue is that I don't think this case has to do with stealing business from movie theaters, it has to do with what I mentioned above, that there will probably be viewing violations depending on how many students view the movies.
2. In this situation, I do not think the students will be using these movies for another purpose. As said in the description, the purpose was for lounging and viewing the movie, as movies are intended.
3. Using these movies in an educational setting, there needs to be something taught from the viewing of the movie. The titles of the movies were not given, maybe they were provided with some sort of educational basis, but I am unsure given the context.
I can't think of any more specifics, but I'm sure there are some.
Pooh's News
I personally don't think this was in copyright violation. There are a couple of reasons in which I have drawn this conclusion.
1. The radio showed used the name "Pooh's News." Sure the name Pooh is to be affiliated with Winnie the Pooh, however Winnie The Pooh was not the name that was given to the news report.
2. This news show was clearly used for a different use. Winnie the Pooh is about a bear in One Hundred Acre Woods with his friends and their journey in life. This school used it for a summary or teaser session on the radio show, which is clearly not what the book or TV show, Winnie the Pooh, is about.
3. There was no graphic or attempt to mimic the bear's voice. There is really nothing that is saying that this Pooh used in the segment is stealing the character of Winnie the Pooh.
4. Copyright Laws state that something can be used if there is a new use intended with it. The students may have used the name Pooh, but there was a new use tagged along with that name.
5. Because they only received a cease-and-desist letter, or a scare tactic, the copyright holders did push any further measures towards copyright violation, probably because it was not really all that in violation.
2. This news show was clearly used for a different use. Winnie the Pooh is about a bear in One Hundred Acre Woods with his friends and their journey in life. This school used it for a summary or teaser session on the radio show, which is clearly not what the book or TV show, Winnie the Pooh, is about.
3. There was no graphic or attempt to mimic the bear's voice. There is really nothing that is saying that this Pooh used in the segment is stealing the character of Winnie the Pooh.
4. Copyright Laws state that something can be used if there is a new use intended with it. The students may have used the name Pooh, but there was a new use tagged along with that name.
5. Because they only received a cease-and-desist letter, or a scare tactic, the copyright holders did push any further measures towards copyright violation, probably because it was not really all that in violation.
Gap Steal?
Another example of how hilariously small this world is. So funny how people think they can get away with things without realizing, hmm this is a small world and this could come back to bight me. I view this situation a little different than the previous, however. According to the picture comparison, it does seem the be the same car from the picture on the onesie. Where I am getting hung up, is that the picture as transferred on the onesie is much different than that of the original picture. For instance, on the baby's outfit it is green and not a solid object, sure the line marks are there as noted by the friend.\, but Gap has made that image their own through the use of technology and editing. I think that the owner of the image should have been contacted first, but I do not think Gap is crossing any lines by producing this t-shirt.
My automatic connection with this issue to education is the use of music in assignments, projects, whatever it may be. As discussed in class the use of garage band is a great tool and app for students to use in the classroom. This allows the student to create their own music and provide their own tools for something they may be working on. In class the idea of using music through garage band was suggested through the avoidance of copyright laws in music. For the same reason of using garage band verses youtube, I can see how The Gap would change this picture from the original. Students are suggested to use garage band to create something, it could be similar to the original, but they are making it themselves and have the proof. The Gap took this picture from Flickr and made it their own.
My automatic connection with this issue to education is the use of music in assignments, projects, whatever it may be. As discussed in class the use of garage band is a great tool and app for students to use in the classroom. This allows the student to create their own music and provide their own tools for something they may be working on. In class the idea of using music through garage band was suggested through the avoidance of copyright laws in music. For the same reason of using garage band verses youtube, I can see how The Gap would change this picture from the original. Students are suggested to use garage band to create something, it could be similar to the original, but they are making it themselves and have the proof. The Gap took this picture from Flickr and made it their own.
A Family Christmas Card
While this situation is super strange and almost imaginable, I gave a few chuckles to the situation. My initial reaction from reading the article is that the grocery store owner just thought he could get away with it. I don't think he was really too concerned with copyright laws or if that was a real family even. It seems kind of strange to me that the picture, as mentioned in the article was just posted to a blog website. I am not really sure how someone stumbles across and blog post and then mistakes it for a computer generated image. Regardless, no one was harmed in the situation and the store owner did seem genuine. I also laughed at the fact that if they were locals, he would have bought them wine to make up for the incident.
Technically since there was no watermark on the picture, there is not much copyright violation happening. Sure someone has the rights to that picture, but with something uploaded to the internet, like a picture without a watermark, what is saying permission to use must be granted by the owner? People use pictures found on the internet for personal use all of the time. If the picture would have been watermarked from the beginning, that is a different story.
In an educational setting, I think it just adds to the message to give credit where credit is due. If a student uses a picture from the internet, they need to be aware of what pictures are ok to use and what are not. Teaching students the meaning of watermarks on pictures and a short copyright lesson to follow would not be a bad idea. Even with this in mind, students should understand the importance of siting sources and providing links to where images are found. This will eliminate the surprise of placing someone else's face in a grocery store in Prague.
Technically since there was no watermark on the picture, there is not much copyright violation happening. Sure someone has the rights to that picture, but with something uploaded to the internet, like a picture without a watermark, what is saying permission to use must be granted by the owner? People use pictures found on the internet for personal use all of the time. If the picture would have been watermarked from the beginning, that is a different story.
In an educational setting, I think it just adds to the message to give credit where credit is due. If a student uses a picture from the internet, they need to be aware of what pictures are ok to use and what are not. Teaching students the meaning of watermarks on pictures and a short copyright lesson to follow would not be a bad idea. Even with this in mind, students should understand the importance of siting sources and providing links to where images are found. This will eliminate the surprise of placing someone else's face in a grocery store in Prague.
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