There’s something powerful that occurs when people shift from being content consumers to content creators in the public sphere. Suddenly you’re the creator of intellectual property, you’re a digital citizen, and you have a responsibility and an accountability.

I recently had a discussion with a classmate regarding the requirement to upload Creative Commons content to WikiMedia spaces. He expressed frustration over the perception that any media uploaded to the public space of the internet is in public domain and should be freely usable. I realized that this general misconception prevails when people are primarily content-consumers rather than content-producers; that is they don’t yet understand the issues and foibles of web-presence.

I pointed out that in order to be a digital citizen and professional, I’m required and expected to post representations of my work (particularly as a designer) online. I post them on my own website that I pay for and manage myself. Search engines index the contents of my website (automated without explicit knowledge or permission) and then ‘served up’ the material to the world. We have no control over this process (logically material can’t be seen if its not indexed) however, that doesn’t mean I’ve given anyone permission to use my work as their own, to modify it, or heavens forbid to make money off of it through add supported revenue (yes, I’ve been a victim of this, forced to submit DMCA take-down notices as my only recourse). I’ve also installed several scripts to ‘tell’ search engines not to index certain directories and file types (jpeg, png, gif) but not all search engines pay heed to this. What about people that aren’t aware of how to do this or who don’t know any better? I decided to turn the tables and brought up the idea that in future he would be required to post papers, images/presentations, graphics even perhaps photos taken online, and that once one is a content-creator, he/she may feel very differently when this material shows up in some other person’s portfolio, or for sale somewhere (this happens more often than one would think). While I freely contribute creative commons photography, line-art and other materials, my designs are mine (or my clients). The way the web is currently structured, it’s up to citizens not to infringe upon people’s work. I don’t think this is a lot to ask, and corporations sue over this very thing every day. It’s individuals and self-starters who are most at risk.

Having students participate in blogs and other public means of online communication is particularly useful to help them make this shift from being content-consumers to content-producers. It also brings with it a better understanding of the many issues that surround digital participation, literacy and citizenship.

I was fairly amazed at the mature types of responses given by students with regards to the usefulness of educational blogging:

Alternate URL link here

 

Considering Boris’ situation

Boris has been teaching Chemistry 11 at a regional high school in the Bulkley Valley of northern BC for over a decade. He uses his school district’s Moodle server to disseminate lecture notes, lab forms and to answer student questions outside of class time via a discussion forum.

Over the years he’s found a distinct gap between some students’ performance in laboratory exercises and their exams. In particular they seem to have difficulty transferring what they learn about the Periodic Table in their labs (and readings) to their exam work. Some students do well, but they are those who find it manageable to memorize the entire table: students who cannot, who comprise about half his students in any given year, are the ones who struggle.

There isn’t a single hour of extra time for Boris to spend on Periodic Table review in class.  He does have some extra handouts to give students who want more practice, but knows these only scratch the surface – substantive review would require a more detailed and systematic approach.

Boris is trying to find some way to create a stand-alone, self-directed review tool for students learning the Periodic Table. It should allow students to review material, then test their knowledge. In a perfect world it would give students instant feedback that not only tells them if they’re right or wrong: it would give them formative feedback that helps them move towards the right answers.

 

When I saw this post I didn’t think I’d have enough time to address it along with all of the other things I have due this week (balancing 3 MET courses and PT work). I did have a bit of time on the bus to review the RSS feeds to read others posts regarding what Boris can do. I stumbled upon Kate’s very well thought out response and I realized that perhaps I could add to it. She suggested a plethora of really great existing Periodic Table resources so that Boris doesn’t have to ‘reinvent the wheel’.

What if he used a Moodle page and quiz tools to embed and test with some of these already existing resources to support his weekly labs and readings for extra practice? Also, if his students are having trouble applying or transferring knowledge, then perhaps the labs themselves are not adequately helping students to apply this knowledge?

Quizes and other Moodle tools can certainly be used to give instant feedback, they can also provide hints, links, and other resources to help complete tasks in practical ways. He can use the instant, general or question specific feedback boxes to direct students to very specific resources that can be used to improve their understandings. If he provides a number of these resources every week, pretty soon he will have a systematic stand-alone review method in place to help support his students. I’d also suggest that he also have a forum where students can submit links that they find helpful in relation to each week’s resources, this way he can amass a library of potential review sources.

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PS. Random creative sidebar: I found a few interesting images in my periodic table search:

Periodic table of Froot Loops

And my personal favorite, Periodic table of Typefaces (this would relate to my design course lol):