SMART Day 8: Teaching With The Tools Kids Really, Chapter 8

In light of Chapter 8 of Teaching With The Tools Kids Really Use and the internet, accessing pictures online has been one of the most used features that I could probably take advantage of.  I mainly use pictures found on the internet for design work such as posters or cards that I create using Photoshop or InDesign. I utilize the Google Image Search for some of my pictures, but for the ones I like to use for my graphic work I usually locate them on stock photography websites. The main reason I use stock photography websites relates to the issues of copyright guidelines. Anything I use from the those websites I know I want get in trouble for, because the reason for such a site is to provide users with pictures they can use in publications.

With my own personal pictures, I usually share them online through Facebook, but most of my pictures I have on a web gallery that is provided by Apple known as MobileMe. With my web gallery I am able to upload pictures straight from iPhoto and then send emails with links to the pictures I just uploaded to those I want to share. What I like most about sharing my pictures this way is the fact that I can password protect my albums or my gallery as a whole. Also, viewers have the option of downloading different file sizes of the images. This is just a great way to share pictures without having to post them on Facebook for all to see. Most of the pictures that I upload are for use with sharing with family or my close friends. Plus it is also nice to have my photographs stored online just in case something was to happen to my hard drive; at least my pictures will be okay.

My relationship with videos on the internet is about the same as pictures. Though the features for photographs are more commonly used than those for the videos. The videos I watch online are usually news related or for pure fun on youtube. Though I do not really spend a whole lot of time watching them. I do like to watch my tv shows online as I do not have cable. Plus Hulu makes it super easy to watch shows online for free. Why pay for something when you can watch it online for nothing. Though the ads do get a little annoying, but nonetheless I get to watch my show.

In brief, Creative Commons is the legal and healthiest way to interact online with digital media. The tag line for the Creative Commons website is share, remix, reuse-legally. The idea is to help teachers legally use digital media in the classroom without getting into trouble. This is great for educators as they are provided with a resource that helps them utilize other forms of classroom instruction rather than impede them from stepping outside the traditional classroom norms. The great thing about this website is that teachers are given the correct resources and connections to get what they need to that enables their students to interact with digital media. The website seems to very helpful and contains a lot of information. This is definitely a website worth spending time reading and booking marking in my safari browser.