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Engage your students in the Great Thanksgiving Listen

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StoryCorps is launching an ambitious program over Thanksgiving. To record interviews between students and their grandparent or another elder using the StoryCorps app. The goal is to “record as many interviews over that one weekend than we’ve recorded over the last 12 years combined.”

Check out the StoryCorps website to learn more about the Great Thanksgiving Listen, or you can view the teacher toolkit which has a lesson planning guide, follow-up activities, and questions that students can ask their elders.

Have a little more time? Check out this great NPR interview about the program.

 

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Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Small town educators stick together through blogging

IMG_8460A recent post by Jasmine Garsd of NPR (National Public Radio) highlights Small Town USA – finally!  Live From Small Town America: Teachers Who Blog To Stay In Touch is about how educators from small towns stay connected to each other.  Katie Morrow, a technology integration specialist and middle-school English teacher, expresses one of the frustrations many small town educators face: a sense of isolation.

When Morrow became and Apple Distinguished Educator, she had the opportunity to meet with other educators from around the world.  The experience sparked a desire to show off the achievements of her school, recognizing that small town schools don’t receive as much attention.  Like many other rural educators, she started a blog.

Sarah Hagan, another small town educator-blogger, says, “most of the blogs I read are either people teaching in the suburbs or teaching in the inner city.”  Small town schools often have different problems and circumstances than other schools.  This is where blogging comes in handy – small town educators can meet on the blogosphere to vent, discuss, and problem-solve.  Finding others that share their struggle helps them to realize they’re not alone.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/l798x27, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Copyright Continues: Copyright in the Digital Age

iStock_000014864782Large“In his new book, Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free: Laws For The Internet Age, author Cory Doctorow argues that creators can make money even when their content is available online free of charge. For creators to succeed in the digital age, he says, copyright law must be reformed to reflect an age in which tech platforms control content.”

This quote leads an interview by NPR with Doctorow about those very same copyright laws. Like many before him, he argues that copyright law hasn’t kept up with the changing technological landscape. He also points out how the practice of placing “digital locks” on materials is actually “adding censorship and surveillance to the Internet.” These digital locks are like the DRM that publishers put on eBooks.

Want more? Read an excerpt of Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free

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