Freedom!

Hello fellow classmates. This week as far as I understood we had the freedom to blog about whatever we want! Yah happy day! I can say of all the things that we have used so far in the class, using and posting things on a blog is probably the one resource I will definitely use further on in my life and career. Overall it is a simple way to keep people updated and informed about many things. As well as it is not too dificult to put post videos or links. Not going to lie, I have never been one for blogs or things like that.. But I am starting to develop a real like for them. I can see that they can be very beneficial and also just fun! I could easily see myself making a blog for my future family! So I'm glad to report that I am gaining a better appreciation for technology!

As far as our internet communication project goes, I have decided to create a class website. This is something I have always thought would be fun. But of course I have never known how to do it. So this will be a wonderful opportunity to make a website. Not only make a website, but be able to do whatever I want with it! To make if fun and colorful and of course about dance!!! I am looking forward to leaning how to do this in this up coming week! Well besides that I don't really have much else to say. I hope all is going well for everyone else and I guess I'll see ya in class on Tuesday!!

Dance Out!
Alissa

Links for my DanceTeaching Blogs

Upon request for our teacher Rick, here are the links to the Dance Teaching Blogs that I am following:

CFPCA- Department of Dance:
http://www.dance.wayne.edu/

Great Dance Weblog- Dancing into the Future:
http://greatdance.com/danceblog/

History of Dance:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all-products

Online Solutions for Dance Education:
http://www.xplanazine.com/

This is the site to one part of the blog, but hey it's a link to the blog and now its posted!

Peace Out!
Alissa

Copyright is NO Joke!

So this week we learned about copyright. This is something that we think we know a lot about, but in fact there are a lot more rules about copyright than I thought. From watching the three videos about copyright, I learned that you really have to be careful with what and how much material you are using in your classroom unless you have purchased it. The thing about the public school systems is probably more often than not people are not going to think much about the material you are using as a teaching aid. So in reality you probably would be able to get away with a lot of things. Although this is dishonest. We need to be honest in all our doings, so understanding where your limitations are in regards to using multimedia is a smart thing!

I watched two videos of my own from TeacherTube, and analyzed if they were following by the copyright laws and this is what I saw:

SMS Teacher Evolution of Dance:
The first video I watch was actually very entertaining! It was four teachers reenacting the Evolutions of Dance video on YouTube. Some of the good things about this video, is while this was mostly for a humorous talent show act it really does show the history and the Evolution of Dance. Most of the students probably don't understand or don't follow the progression of the dances that well, but the skit does provide a historical progression of music and the dancing that came with it. As far as abiding by copyright laws they did a good job. The did not use the same song for more than 30sec. Which is the limit on how long you can use a song unless you have purchased it or come upon by other legal means. Although a problem with this skit is even though most people are familiar with the songs being used, they do not give proper citation to the songs at any point in the skit, which in fact was a problem with the first video made as well. But other than that, these teachers were able to provide an entertaining but yet educational progression and evolution of dance as we "have experienced"

9 Multiplication Tables HipHop Music Video:
Now this is an awesome way to teach if I have ever seen one! This teacher put together this hip hop routine and rap in a way to teach the 9 multiplication tables! Now for some students math can be very difficult to understand. So putting it into a song and dance is a great way to teach. So first off the video was definitely used for educational purposes, because hello, they are teaching math! As far as the music goes they follow the copyright laws I feel because the song was obviously original, so it was their to use as they wish because they wrote it. So it did not matter how much they used or how long it was because it did not belong to anyone else. I think this is a great way to teach difficult concepts in school! I think this is definitely something to consider!!!

This was actually quite an entertaining assignment, and TeacherTube is a great resource to have for my future years as a teacher. But I guess that's all for now. Until next week!!

Keep Dancing!
Alissa

Never Thought I Would Twitter...

Well here we are on week two and I already feel a bit overwhelmed because there just seems like so many things to do.. and I do them but I don't quite understand them yet.. But I guess I just need to give it a bit more time and then I am sure I will get it. (fingers crossed).

Well we had to search blogs that corresponded with our field of study. I am studying Dance Education. This is interesting because dance is dance.. so to think about using technology is just kind of a new concept for me. But luckily I was able to find some blogs that had something to do with using technology in Dance Education.

CFPCA- Department of Dance: I chose this because this specific Department of Dance is one of the oldest and most respected dance departments in the US. Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD). So I figured they could have some helpful tools as far as teaching tactics and how to run things go!

Great Dance Weblog- Dancing into the Future: I feel this is kind of self explanatory. This blog is going to be helpful because it is things about the future. Times are changing and dance is evolving, this blog will be able to keep people updated as we are in these changing times.

History of Dance: This one looked great because I feel if you are going to teach dance you have to know where it comes from. This blog will be beneficial as I continue to broaden and deepen my knowledge of Dance History and where it all began!

Online Solutions for Dance Education: This talks about textbooks, and stating some of the problems with textbooks in general. Now this is an interesting battle because does dance really need texts books? Yes, for teaching history and background you need books.. but you don't need to a book to teach someone how to dance. So this will be beneficial to decided whether or not the problems are worth it. Or are we better of finding other means of teaching other than books.

Lastly I joined a social network. I already have facebook and use it often, so I joined twitter. Now I am not going to lie I feel pretty stupid joining twitter because I haven't heard much about it other than people updating random and unimportant things. I guess I am just going to have to learn more about it, and give it a fair chance. I am sure there is a good way and a bad way to use twitter I am just going to have to figure that out.

Well that's about it for now.. I guess see everyone is class!
Peace out!

Alissa

My First Blog Post!

Well here I am, I never thought I would be one to have a blog.. But better late then never I guess! As far as my background in technology goes, that list is rather short. I really have no knowledge in technology other than the basic skills you learn in your high school computer tech class. It's been so long since then I can hardly remember that stuff either! The hard part is they are always coming up with new and more technological advances it's hard to keep up, so I don't... I have never been one to really care about technology that much, so I have just made do with what small skills I know and that seems to have worked so far!

I am looking forward to this semester to finally be able to learn about the new technology out there and how to use it. I am still not totally positive what this class will consist of this semester. But I guess some of my goals for this class are to understand and follow what we are doing in class, gain a better knowledge of what technological tools will be useful for my area of teaching, and just feel more confident in my skills when it comes to using or teaching technological principles.

Well I guess that's it for now. See you guys in class!

Alissa