Need to better explain to your students how and when to  credit the source of an image, particularly on the web? Try this:

Source:  pia jane bijkerk

[via [Flowchart] Can I Use This Image On My Website? on Digital Inspiration]

via Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has continued to develop material sets to assist teachers in utilizing the library’s resources. One such collection is their Primary Sources section.

Newly added sets in this collection include political cartoons and sources on children’s lives at the turn of the 20th century.

via Library of Congress

Guides for teachers and students offer some excellent questions to encourage the reader to think critically about the resource. You may note that these are very similar to the critical questions in yesterday’s post on validating resources.

From the LOC Teachers’ Resources on Primary Documents:

Encourage students to speculate about each source, its creator, and its context.

• What was happening during this time period?
• What was the creator’s purpose in making this primary source?
• What does the creator do to get his or her point across?
• What was this primary source’s audience?
• What biases or stereotypes do you see?

Ask if this source agrees with other primary sources, or with what the students already know.

• Ask students to test their assumptions about the past.
• Ask students to find other primary or secondary sources that offer support or contradiction.

[via Library of Congress]

• Friday: Updates to Adobe Reader and introducing Evernote [Productivity tools]
• Today: A different perspective on validating resources [Information Literacy]
• Tuesday: Primary source political cartoons and resources for understanding bias  and perspective [Information Literacy]
• Wednesday:  When to credit an image source [Intellectual Property and Ethics]

Whenever I’ve discussed criteria for evaluating resources I’ve always approached that with 5 basic areas, each being a potential red flag source:

1. Accuracy – Is the material free of both grammatical or content errors?
2. Authority – What do we know about this author’s level of expertise on the topic?
3. Objectivity/Bias – What potential biases may the author(s) hold? Is this particular topic prone to bias?
4. Currency – Is the information current enough for the topic/purpose studied? A 30 year-old resource covering our 1st president might be sufficient while a 3 year-old resource would be insufficient for a study of our current president.
5. Coverage – Is the depth of coverage appropriate for the research to be conducted?

Teacher Chris Betcher has a similar list of criteria. On two of the points he describes, our criteria are similar. After that, however, the two groups begin to diverge. Betcher’s list shifts toward a focus on the website itself and its interaction with the user, and in doing so raises some additional good points for both the author and the consumer.

What I most enjoyed about Betcher’s list are the guiding questions that accompany each point. These are great questions for you or your students to ask yourselves when evaluating content.

Jump directly to Betcher’s notes on SlideShare.com

[via What Do You Believe? on The Thinking Stick]

This forum, which is part of the Tri-County Olweus Bullying Prevention Project, is free to the community.

The Forum is supported by the Tri-County Educational Service Center; Ashland, Holmes, and Wayne County Sheriffs; and Graphic Publications, Inc.

[Promotional Flyer: 11-2-10 Aftab CyberBullying]

WVIZ/PBS TeacherLine
(http://www.wviz.org/edsvcs/teacherline/TriCountyModules.asp)

• Spring HQT session begins April 7. $300
• Summer/Summer HQT Session I begins June 10. $200/$300
• Summer/Summer HQT Session II begins July 1. $200/$300
• Registration for TeacherLine courses available up until the course begins

eTech Ohio eLearning
(http://www.etech.ohio.gov/programs/elearning/)

• Summer registration deadline: April 23. Courses begin June 15. $50

Invitation for Guest Authors

If you’re planning to attend the conference and have some notes and highlights you’d like to share, I’d like to invite you to guest author a post for the Instructional Tech blog. Contact me for details.

Focal topics include age-appropriate search strategies and resource validation, communications and publication tools, and classroom resources. The target group is approximately grades 2-6, although anyone interested in these topics is welcome to attend. The full course is offered at each of three sites and is open to teachers from throughout the area.

Dates and locations:

Montgomery Elementary, Ashland City Schools
Mondays, 1/28, 2/11, 2/25, & 3/10. 4:00-6:00

Smithville High School, Green Local Schools
Wednesdays, 1/30, 2/13, 2/27, & 3/12. 4:00-6:00

Holmesville Elementary, Southeast Local Schools
Thursdays, 1/31, 2/14, 2/28, & 3/13. 4:00-6:00

8 hours of seat time (0.8 CEUs) are available for in-class participation. An additional 6 seat hours, for a total of 1.4 CEU’s, can be earned through participation in online extension activities (recommended). No prior experience with online coursework is necessary for success in this class.

Arrangements are underway with Ashland University to make credit available to those who are interested (both in-class and online participation are necessary to earn graduate credit).

To register, call Chad Lemon (x. 238) or Paula Berry (x. 257) at 330-345-6771, or send email to tesc_lemon or tesc_berry.

Image citation: Shareski, “Preparing for podcasts.” Shareski’s Photostream. 14 Aug 2007. 19 Dec 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/shareski/1143901914>.

Basic computer skills and internet access are really all that are necessary for taking part in an online course. One of my favorite features of online course is the ability to work at the time of day that best meets my family’s schedule. Please contact me at the ESC if you have any questions or concerns about whether online learning is a good fit for you.

TeacherLine

Deadline: January 1, 2008 for $20 “Early Bird” discount (promotional code: Early Bird)

Winter I Session begins: January 21, 2008
Winter II Session begins: Feburary 11, 2008

Teacherline is a series of facilitated online courses produced by leading educators, education institutions and companies in alignment with national standards. The video-rich, learn-by-doing courses are a combination of content and methodology and are accessible via the Internet. They are individualized, self-paced and sequential at various skill levels.

Courses are available from each of these categories:

• Science
• Technology
• Instructional Strategies
• Reading/Language Arts
• Math

Visit the TeacherLine site for more details.

eTech Ohio

Deadline: December 18, 2007

Winter Session begins: January 27, 2008.

See my earlier post on this for more details.

Options are available in number of subject areas. A broad range of technology any non-technology class options are included. I’ve heard generally good things from folks who’ve taken the courses, particularly the Autism Spectrum Disorders topic.

Courses run 4 – 10 weeks in length. The course fee is $50. Graduate credit is available for an additional cost. Prior experience with online coursework is not necessary.

The course categories include:

• 21st Century Skills (1)
• Assistive Technology (5)
• Education and Academic Content Standards (4)
• Education and Technology Integration (3)
• Educational Management Tools (2)
• Mathematics (including the OMAP series) (3)
• Science (including the OSCI series) (3)
• Social Studies (including the SSIO series) (2)

The deadline for registration is December 18, 2007.

“eTech Ohio is seeking applications for competitive professional development grants in the amount of $20,000 each to teachers in grades 9-12. These grants will support the creation and use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) in Open Source Portfolio (OSP).

As part of this two-year grant, school building(s) within a district may apply for up to $20,000 with a plan for utilizing ePortfolios to integrate technology and support state academic content standards. At most, one building per district may be awarded a grant.

Grant information, including the Request for Proposals, is available online at http://www.etech.ohio.gov/go/CompPD. For questions or more information, please contact Sandra Paxton.

There are a handful of qualification requirements and applicants must have the support of several individuals in the district (specific roles).

I encourage interested teachers to consider applying. Keep in mind, that $20K is bound to attract several applicants. You’ll need to think creatively and follow the RFP guidelines to the letter in order to stand out to the grant readers.

If you’re interested, contact your tech coordinator and/or district’s curriculum specialist to begin setting the wheels in motion – this is also helpful to avoid competing applications from the same building. As always, I’m glad to assist in this process as well, so contact me too!