_{Photo Credit: Photo of Crying Eye on flickr}

As many of you know, I have been doing web site/activity reviews for Instructify, which is part of Learn NC out of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Budget times being what they are, they have frozen any further spending for contract workers, like myself. There is the possibility of a “return” so let’s say it’s an extended sabbatical (funny, I always wanted to take one of those in the past). It wasn’t a big paycheck that I got from Bill Ferris at LearnNC, but the job was great for a couple of reasons. Bill was the sweetest, most patient editor a writer could hope to work with, and was so gentle in his “cuts”, he made it seem like a favor (and it was). It was also nice to be paid, even modestly, for my writing. It made me take a more professional approach to my writing in general (although the results may not have been obvious).

Thanks Bill, thanks Learn NC, I hope we’ll be able to work together in the future!

In response to suggestions from  Nancy, Dan , and  Lesley at Thanks Tom!, here are some initial shots I took today…

Thoughts and feedback appreciated.

Since voting is over, I noticed that while some, like Mr. K, had a very different look this year, my look/feel was very similar to what I had last year. I even used the same basic color template (although I always tweak that).

1. I either have shown no growth in my design sense, or…

2. I discovered my “look” during last year’s contest, and have stuck with it for good or ill.

I could be wrong about how similar this year’s and last year’s were, it’s hard to be objective, but I think they are really similar.

for reference:

Last Year’s Entry

My Latest Entry

I found this really great video that explains the economic meltdown from Jonathan Jarvis (by way of Planet Money Blog at NPR, one of my current favorites for easy to understand info on the economy):

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
I think this is superior to the video Larry Ferlazzo recommended from dot.sub which had what I would regard as an inaccuracy by listing the end of Glass-Stegall as a cause. This one is almost as simple, has better graphics, and is pretty accurate.

This is my second entry in Sue Water’s First Anniversary at The Edublogger Challenge.

There is a lot of attention given to text on blogs, but when you are writing with and for students, visuals can make a crucial difference, just like in the rest of your instruction. I’m not always as good about doing this as I should be, but let me make the case for why you should do this, AND talk about copyright issues with using images. Rather than go on about this, let’s take a look at this post I did with sixth graders…

First, let’s talk about the visuals. The students were in the middle of a unit called, taking a stand. I was asking them to write about issues in their neighborhood. This picture was a powerful way to tie what they were learning about stands that had been taken in history with taking a stand, and voicing their own concerns. It contextualized what they were doing in both history, and what they were studying.

Next, let’s talk about the legal mumbo jumbo. You’ll notice there is a very long photo credit with a link about fair use. Here is what I wrote below the photo:

Photograph of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff D. H. Lackey during her indictment on charges of organizing a boycott. Montgomery, Alabama on February 22, 1956. Associated Press photo by Gene Harrick this images is used under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law.

You’ll see it’s a copyrighted photo. You’ve probably read a lot about using creative commons photos to avoid violating copyright (Sue had some great suggestions on finding them here), but there are going to be times when using copyright images is necessary. There is a part of U.S. copyright law called Fair Use doctrine. The bad news is that it is vague, subject to judicial interpretation, and handled on a case-by-case basis. The good news is that there are parts of it that allow for educational or journalistic use. Because I am sometimes using images like this on the blog, I wrote a page with a fair use statement. Here is the wording I used to make this claim:

This blog occasionally makes use of copyrighted materials. All copyrighted materials are used under fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law.

Materials are used either:

1. Because they represent a unique historic image, or

2. The material has been transformed substantially in a way that changes its original intent, purpose, and/ or meaning.

All materials are used for educational purposes in a K-6 school.

If you are a copyright holder for materials that appear on this blog and object to this use, please contact Ms. Mercer by leaving a comment. Thank you!

The photo of Mrs. Parks above is being used because it is a unique historic image. Think of how many images out there are that you might want to use that are historical, unique, and copyrighted.  Now, since fair use is not a right, but a claim, the last part says if the copyright holder disagrees, they can ask for the image to be removed. If I received such a request, I would of course comply.

Some of the best information on this is from Kristen Hokanson, who I met at NECC.