Last day of Educator Bootcamp

The last day of Educator Bootcamp went very well. I had a group of teachers and administrators and the class was Music in the Classroom.
We started off with a discussion of copyright versus copyleft then an in-depth analysis of various creative commons licenses.
We then searched Jamendo and CCmixter where I helped them download and extract the albums and and discussed different ways to put it to use in the classroom such as:

• Background music
• Songs of the day
• Playlists
• Podcasts
• Movies
• Embedded Flash
• Slide show presentations
• YouTube videos
• And even shared media servers for students to use in projects

The students were so pleased that they went to my administrator and we are having a follow-up class Monday nightso there is going to be even more fun.

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Skype & Digital Media in Education

Today as part of the "Educator Bootcamp" I taught two classes, Skype in the Classroom and Digital Media in the Classroom.

Skype is an internet telephony program using
VoIP, which stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol.” It is cross-platform, multi-lingual, and free to both download and use. Skype permits users to make high-quality audio and video “phone calls” over the Internet to other Skype users for for free and audio only at a low cost to land lines or POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) phones.
We discussed ways to use Skype such as:

• Bringing sick students into the classroom
• Skype with students/families in other countries
• Interviewing
• Bringing in guest speakers
• Virtual field trips in the school
• Professional development
• Foreign language and social studies - connect with related countries
• Collaborating with VoiceThread (or other) projects
• Encouraging students to excel when work is viewable by parents and other students

In the digital media class we discussed several different types of media licenses such as:

• Creative Commons
• Copyleft
• Attribution
• Share Alike
• Non-commercial
• Non-derivative

We discussed how different licenses will dictate how the media may be used in the classroom and elsewhere.
We downloaded media such as pictures, video, and audio to use in different ways in an instructional setting. We then uploaded media from cameras, SD cards, flash drives, and camcorders and discussed different methods of storage and delivery.

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Online Social Media and Network Marketing

I have a friend in Maui who is making some moves and becoming a major player in the new wave of marketing. His name is Jason Hufalar and I have known him for several years and he is now training people in Social Media and Network Marketing. One example of what he is doing in using YouTube to teach people how to use YouTube for their business.
He is also quite a social zealot and is trying to make his community a better place and not just make a buck at the expense of others.
If you want to be entertained and learn something check out his channel, you just might get drawn into the movement...
Hoofy's YouTube
Hoofy's Blog

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Moodle

I've been using another awesome open source tool.
Moodle.org
For the last month or so at my day job I've been moving almost all of my curriculum to a Moodle server and it is great. I re-purposed an old Dell GX 240 as an Ubuntu server and it is serving about 24 or so students at any given time. One thing that is different from most Moodle instances is that it has no outward facing connection since my students in the prison aren't allowed to use the Internet at all.
A great benefit to using "on-line" curriculum is that my students get a great deal of hands on experience with an Internet browser which will help them immensely when they get out of prison in searching for employment.
I'll be posting more about the system in the next few days so keep checking back for updates.

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Student Site

For all of my students and others who may be interested, here is a link to a site for my Meridian Technology Center classes.

Jason's Classes

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