Blog 3! Copyright in the Classroom

Though I've always known about copyright laws and licensing, I never really thought it about how I much I would need to know just to conduct lessons in my own classroom. After this class, I realize now that I really should brush up on my copyright knowledge, not only for my future classroom but for my life in general.

I think it is important to introduct students to copyright from the get-go - to show them the importance of crediting someone for their work. I might do this by having everyone submit something and then making a copy of them. I will then put it on the overhead and act as if they were my own. I expect the students to take ownership of their work. This will put them in the position of people that they could potentially be "stealing" from. (That's how I see copyright infringement, as stealing...)

Overall, I believe that copyright is something that needs to be more emphasized and made to be more important in schools. I feel that it is not priority in schools and needs to be - especially in an environment where plagarism and copying from others is strictly prohibited.

Blog #2 - The Flipped Classroom

Well, the Flipped Classroom is an interesting idea. I think that it would be beneficial for students to be able to learn at their own pace at home - listen to the lesson as much as they want, rewind, etc. and be able to get directed attention from the teacher while doing the work in class. I also think that there would be downfalls. For example, the lessons would have to be designed so that they did not include some technologies that teachers could present in the classroom. For example, in science, you can SHOW a student in a video the parts of a microscope but usually its more beneficial to explore it with them. Although I so understand that you could just as well have a lesson about microscopes and show the microscope as a review in class the next day. In addition, I personally believe it limits students because they cannot ask questions to clarify the point as the lecture is going on. Although it could be possible to have the teacher available each night for a certain time so that some students that do ask more questions could watch it and ask the teachers questions live.

There also leaves no room for improv in the classroom, which I think is important also. Like I said before, these things could be addressed the next day, but for example if a student asks a question in a "normal" lesson, the teacher could incorporate details during the rest of the lesson that continually answer the questions that the students had. If it's prerecorded, it leaves no room for that.


I do understand the concept and the logic behind the Flipped Classroom, and it would be good for some lessons, but I just don't think it appropriate for ALL of my lessons as a biology teacher.