Interesting Instructional Software----Scratch

Scratch is a free, engaging, and interesting piece of instructional software technology. It was created at MIT, but is available for anyone and everyone to use. In Scratch, you can create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. This program is fit for anybody to use as it is very user friendly.

I would evaluate it as very successful because of the options that one has for using it. It is a great resource for those who may not have the time, resources, or motivation to create their own project. As a teaching resource it is excellent. Teachers can use this to create programs for their students, or have their students create programs for class assignments.

Overall, Scratch is a wonderful resource and could aid many classrooms in fun, creative, and engaging learning of all kinds.

Successful Practices

I was interested in the Tom Snyder Production mathematics software. It is really interesting because students (grade 2 and up) will take a pretest, and from there, they will receive a personal math program with daily sessions. This will help students learn basic math skills and understand basic concepts. It also provides aids to teachers to create lesson plans and evaluation methods. I am not sure how good of a program it is after basic math is learned, but it can be a great way to build individual skills and help to make a concrete foundation in math.

I was most impressed by the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE ) math page because it covers all of the content standards of math and goes much deeper into more advanced mathematics. For instance, the Algebra page offers interactive programs for exploration, resources for teachers, and learning modules. This website is a fantastic resource for all mathematics topics and it is certainly worth using regularly.

Copyrighted Material in the Classroom

Copyright is "The legal right granted to an author, a composer, a playwright, a publisher, or a distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work

This definitely poses a problem for teachers to use a variety of resources in the classroom. Luckily, there is a fair use agreement for teachers that allows the use for copyrighted materials for educational purposes. Here are the four standard for determining what can be considered under fair use exemption:

Purpose of use: Using selected parts of copyrighted works for specific educational purposes.

Nature of the work: For copying paragraphs from a copyrighted source, fair use easily applies.
For copying a chapter, fair use may be questionable.

Proportion/extent of the material used: Duplicating excerpts that are short in relation to the
entire copyrighted work is usually considered fair use.

The effect on marketability: If there will be no reduction in sales because of copying or
distribution, the fair use exemption is likely to apply.

It is clear that teachers can definitely get around copyright policy, yet it is still necessary to be knowledgeable of the fair use policies.

Resources Available

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education: Being a member of AACE gives access to AACE's two electronic journals, gives discounts on a variety of resources, and will enable you to better yourself in the professional world of Educational Technology.

Association of Educational Comunications and Technology: If you are a member of AECT, you will be given a variety of benefits such as subscriptions to a variety of technology magazines, discounts to the annual conference, AECT publications, and more. You can also receive access to various list serves.

International Society for Technology in Education: ISTE provides resources in assessment (such as clicker software), curriculum advancement for all levels of schooling, equity in the classroom, ways to receive funding , professional opportunities, policies, and tech integration.

International Test and Evaluation Association: ITEA provides specific resources of contact information, listserves, and basic information to get you started.