Legal Protection

I had an epiphany this week regarding Copyright and Fair Use. It seems there is one potential vulnerability relative to Fair Use in the pedagogy I use. When my students prepare class presentations, I have them post the presentations to Wikispaces. The wiki is a natural fit for such a function, however, the real vulnerability, relative to copyright, is that Wikispaces is completely public. The epiphany this week was that Google Docs, while providing the functionality and benefits of the wiki, also affords a level of privacy within the learning domain. Only when the presentations are shared can they be seen by others. They may be seen by the public, but only after "publishing" and then the published URL must then be forwarded to potential viewers outside the learning domain.

Sometimes One Needs to Get Their Attention First

You gotta love those adolescents. They sometimes are just so irresponsible. They want to be in charge of themselves but only if it means they get to choose how to spend their free time and what is free time and when is free time.

This week I used both the email feature along with the Announcements document to remind the students that they needed to bring some money for some tests. They all agreed that they all would take the test and pay the $15. One week passed, two weeks passed, the dead line approaches and still no money. Using email along with the Announcements document, four students finally brought their money.

Maybe it was just the deadline approaching that was the motivation but I was getting a little anxious. It was nice to be able to use two different communications tools to provide a reminder if not the motivation.

Pervasive Communication

Google's chat feature was most helpful this week. The quarter is drawing to a close so a large final exam was scheduled for Friday. As I was working on another class Thursday night, a student initiated a chat with me regarding the final for which he was evidently studying. I gave him some direction regarding study tips and he fears were relieved.

Earlier in the week, a student who was out of town reminded me that she would be gone and that I needed to cover an assignment she had accepted for a student leadership role.

I also had the opportunity to utilize the Revisions tab in Google Docs where I keep a running document called Announcements with the daily white board information. A student approached me indicating that he did not know that an assignment was expected to be turned in that day. Even though I had removed that particular line from the Announcements document, I was able to go back through the Revisions tab and show the student that in fact he should have been aware that the assignment was due.