2016-17 Digital Citizenship - Assignments/Blog archive

Special Superhero Project

Tue, 24 May 2016 19:15:56 GMT

Good Afternoon! Like a superhero would do, it's time to channel our newfound power over the internet to do good and destroy evil!

This is why we are going to be planting subliminal messages and links into our webpages from this day on. Cyberbullying is becoming a greater and greater problem as the world grows more and more reliant on technology to communicate. One recent study found that nearly 33% of all teens have received cyber threats online or on their cellphones. As you know from Ignition (last year and this year), cyberbullying can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide. So, what can you do? Well, you have a unique opportunity to educate hundreds of students here at Camino Nuevo and beyond at the other school sites. You already have a web site. It's time to capitalize on that and add an important anti-cyberbullying message to every page on your website.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "But my page is about Celebrity Gossip not Cyberbullying!" Of course it is. That's why we are not going to shove an anti-cyberbullying message in the face of your visitors. It's going to be present everywhere they go, but your normal website content will still be the focus.

We are going to start small. The first thing I want you to do today is place this image (below) on the bottom of your homepage and on the bottom of the sidebar of your blogs. (right-click and "save image as" to your personal folder in StudentTHI)

Now, I want you to create a brand new page on your website that is NOT included in the menu bar (select the "hide from navigation bar" checkbox). This is your new Cyberbullying research and education page. Your assignment on this page is to scour the internet for research about cyberbullying and to create a kid-friendly page about what it is, how it hurts, and how to stop it. This one page is going to be worth the same number of points as the rest of your entire website. So, it's very important, and I will be evaluating is rigorously. I am purposefully NOT including website resources for your to use. I want you to find those on your own. Extra points for using statistics, graphs, videos, and photos on this page. Extra-Extra! points for making sure that is is grammatically correct and makes sense.

Alright, 21st century bloggers! A-Hoy! Let's make sure the young little 4th through 7th graders on our campus aren't ignorant of the effects of cyberbullies.

Friday, March 18th, 2016

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 15:50:07 GMT

Good Afternoon! We've spent some time this week working on our blogs with a focus on creating really interesting content with multiple viewpoints and sources. I spent some time the morning visiting of your websites. A couple of the our sites are still pretty messy when it comes to broken links, or no links.

I had planned on having you spend time today visiting each others sites and leaving some comments. However, I am going to push that back to Monday in order to give you some time to fix links and get your homepage in order. If your homepage is already looking spiffy and all of your links work, please focus your efforts into creating a new blog post or finishing up the last post you drafted.

Also, please click an answer on the poll above. We will talk about the correct answer in a few minutes.

Lastly, I will be calling all of you over to my desk to one at a time to discuss your layout and touch base about your progress.

Wednesday, March 16th - New Posts!

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 17:45:32 GMT

You've spent the last two days coming to grips with your new understanding of Fair Use Law and Copyright Law. You started working on a new post after our rug discussion yesterday. Continue it. Read back over my post about the Dodgers as a reminder of formatting. You have until the end of the period to get your post finished.

Also, some of you have not submitted answers to the questions I asked on Monday. If you have not yet done that, it is HOMEWORK. You no longer have time to submit that during class (unless you are ALL caught up).

A Fair Use and Copyright Safe Blog Post

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 18:35:23 GMT

Please read this article I posted a few years ago and be prepared to point out why it is copyright safe and my quotations and photos are considered "Fair Use."

If there is one thing people know for sure about how the Dodgers will do this year, it's that we really don't know anything about how the Dodgers will do this year. After an extensive web search I found articles all over the internet explaining that the Dodgers are going to be the same team they were last year (no better, and hopefully no worse). It's hard to even know what the 40-man roster will look like once April rolls around because the team itself is up for sale. Frank McCourt (the current owner) is supposed to select the highest bidder by the end of the month. Once the new owner takes the helm we could see huge changes to the team. After all, this is the underachieving team of Frank McCourt that T.J. Simers of the LA Times thinks we should be darn mad about. Simers thinks that if we can sustain being mad about how bad the team is for long enough, we can at least "send a messgae to the new owner that he best do a better job." Keep in mind that Simers is one of the most pessimistic sports writers on the LA Times staff. But, he is not alone in thinking the Dodgers are going to find themselves in the lower part of the division this year.

According to Cappers Picks, the Dodgers are going to be in "rebuilding mode" again this year. That's code for: they are going to be bad.

Grant Brisbee of SBNation had this to say: "The reinforcements brought in to help that team are completely underwhelming. Considering that the Dodgers lost Hiroki Kuroda and Jamey Carroll, it's not too much of a stretch to suggest that they got worse this winter." Not a great prediction if you ask me. You can read his full article here, which includes how much the Dodger's starting rotation is going to be receiving in 2012.

But, not everyone thinks the dodgers are going to be bad this year. Jim McLennan of AZ Snakepit thinks the NL West is up for grabs this year and that the Dodgers have a good chance of winning it. He does point out that a win in the west is predicated on how well both Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp do, so maybe not. Of course, McLennan is an Arizona Diamondbacks fan, so what does he know.

In the end, maybe we know one thing for sure: The Dodgers are going to be either better, or worse, or the same as they were last year. Yeah, I think we can at least say that...

Fair Use and Copyright

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 17:45:27 GMT

Today I want to talk about Copyright. If you use someone else's words, images, or videos on your website blog, you might be breaking the law. You last thing I want for you is a "Cease and Desist" letter in the mail from a lawyer about copyrighted work on your website. However, there are times when it is perfectly okay to use someone else's words on your blog.

By then end of today you should be able to answer the following two questions:

1. What is "Fair Use? and what is "Copyright?"
2. What do you need to make sure you do if you are using the words, images, or videos of other people on your blog?

Before you answer those two questions though, I want you to gain some knowledge. See below.

1. Watch This to Learn about Copyright and pay particular attention to the Fair Use section. Click the link below. The video cannot be embedded so you will have to watch this one on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiq42O6rhW4

2. Now, check this video out. The person who made this did not get permission to use the Disney clips. Shouldn't he get in trouble for it? Don't those clips belong to Disney under copyright law?

3. Before answering the question below, check out this information page about fair use.

Shift Happens

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 20:40:41 GMT

Today we start the real curriculum of this course. The world began an information revolution when the internet was created. You, for better or for worse, will grow up in this world. I hope to teach you some of the ways you can thrive in a digital world. Watch the YouTube video above. Ask yourself: are you ready to grow up in a world like this? Tell me in the comments section below what you thought about this video. After you have posted your thoughts, read the rest of this post and then come to the rug.

THE HOMEPAGE

The homepage is critical. It's where people first drop into your websites and it's where they decide whether or not they are going to hang around or not. Take a look at my example homepage once more to be sure yours is up to speed. Remember how I said you would be getting points for your site traffic? Today I will show you how we will track this using the site statistics module.

Also, your websites are online already, but they are NOT PUBLIC YET. You can think of what we are doing right now as being the development phase of the website launch. You are slowly accumulating content and testing out new features. Once your sites are a bit more full of stuff, we will disable the site password requirement, and begin advertising that your website exists.

One more thing, this is our third day of Digital Citizenship this week. Have you posted at least three new blog entries?? If not, you aren't meeting the requirements of this course. Work efficiently and with purpose. Post quality news. Make your site as interesting as you can.

CURATE THE INTERNET (select, organize, and look after news and information from the internet the same way a museum director would select art and create exhibits around them).

Redesign Time!

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 20:49:25 GMT

Good Afternoon!

FIRST: come to the rug today. DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS UNTIL YOU RETURN FROM THE RUG!

Part of your grade for this class will come from your ability to generate page views for your site. You need people to visit your page and read your stuff regularly. If you want people to actually visit your website and read your work, you have to make it easy for them. Today I am going to have you research some important information about web design and layout. I am having you do this because a poorly designed website will not get visited by people.

ANSWER THIS QUESTION BELOW IN THE COMMENTS BOX: What did you learn about the design and layout of good web sites? What did you learn about the design and layout of bad websites?

Today's Links:

This site has some great basic information on what you should, and should not do when designing your webpage.
This page is one of my favorite simple lists of good and bad design. Read both.

In other words, you need to make your work easy to read and quick to access. Otherwise people will not visit your site. There is a fine line between making your webpage unique, and making it impossible to navigate or read easily.

After you have answered my question in the comments box below, post something on your blog today related to your new web theme (20 points). Respond to things people wrote as comments on your blog yesterday. In other words, maintain your website today. Things are going to get really busy this week and next.

Set up and Comments

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:39:23 GMT

Last Friday we discussed how tagging your blog posts will become crucial to organizing your webpage. Additionally, we talked about how comments will initially be marked as "pending approval" for your review before they are posted on your blogs. Today we are going to do two things with this new info.

First, you will notice that when you click "class pages" in the menu, there are links to all seven of your websites. You are going to visit each class mates web site today and leave a thoughtful comment on something they have posted to their blog. You earn 5 points for each blog comment you leave. Don't forget to return to your blog editor today and click the comments section so that you can review and approve everything that was commented on.

Next, you are going to complete another quick summary blog post like we did on Friday. Visit the Los Angeles Times website, quickly read an article and create a new blog post on your website providing both summary and personal thoughts about what you read. (25 points). Don't forget to tag your blog post.

WORK FAST!

Let's get those posts done!

Tue, 09 Feb 2016 20:37:13 GMT

One more day working on those classic TV show posts. I will be sharing some best practices with you like I did yesterday with the youtube embed.

Classic TV SHOW POST (Cont'd)

Mon, 08 Feb 2016 19:54:16 GMT

Welcome back everyone. It's been almost a week since you last worked on your classic TV show post. I am going to give you the period today to keep working on it. You have until the end of the period tomorrow to get the text all finished. Don't forget to cite your sources by using links.

I do want to clarify one thing: This assignment is a lead-in to a complete web-site transition to the topics you asked for on that sticky-note. Once this assignment is complete we will share your posts with one another and try out some cross-commenting!

Don't worry too much about pictures and videos until you have the complete bulk of your text written out. It is more important that your post be readable and easy to understand.