Ruffing ITInformation Tech and Education…Tryin’ it, Lovin’ it, but sometimes just Ruffin’ IT.

Thanks to a link posted on Twitter this morning (sorry I can’t find who it was to give credit) I was able to search the NECC program of sessions. By clicking on a session you have access to presenter handouts. Wonderful! Like not being seated in the dining room but at least being able to order take-out. Didn’t have time to explore much yet but I did start with  Best Practices in Fair Use for 21st Century Educators presented by Renee Hobbs of Temple University, along with Katie Donnelly, Kristin Hokanson, Michael RobbGrieco and Joyce Valenza. 

It has always been troublesome trying to make sure that we do not infringe on anyone’s copyright in our teaching or with student projects, but with the November 2008 publication of new guidelines regarding Fair Use in education, things seem to make more sense, and yet there is still so much to think about, especially the idea that a work must be transformative in nature. I hope to make use of the documents and videos they have provided at their wikispace on Copyright Confusion for their NECC presentation in order to help my teachers better understand what we really can do in our projects. Not as great as being in the room and hearing them first hand, but I am grateful for the sharing of this to the entire education community.

And that is just one topic. I will never run out of things to read about this summer.

I just finished listening to Steve Dembo’s presentation at the DEN Leadership Council session on blogging at 1DP. (Though the image is not from his actual presentation. Practicing my image insertion.) I longed to be there but alas, could not be. Nevertheless I learned some things via the stream from the conference session. He was talking to the LC blogging teams and I actually did not feel so bad hearing questions asked by them on things I already know how to do. But boy do I have a lot to learn!

Thanks to these virtual opportunities, my learning does not have to stop just because I cannot be there in person. I can even do a physical workout in front of the computer while my mind is being exercised as well. I am going to explore more of the options in WordPress, although Steve did mention the format would be changing this summer.  I will keep writing and hopefully improving. And isn’t that what I want my students to do?