Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #10

Porter, M. (2013, October 03). How to Find Creative Commons Video Assets [Digital image]. Retrieved March 17, 2016, from http://mashable.com/2013/10/03/video-assets-creative-commons/#fdz3oczEh8qd

Week 10 focused on exploring tools associated with, what I now know as, creative commons. According to the website, "creative commons is a non-profit organization that devotes itself to expanding the range of creative works available for others that allow them to build upon their work legally and share" (Boyle, 2001). To continue, these creative commons were used to create slideshows that demonstrate our understanding of copyright as digital citizens. The tool grants public access to resources that do not contain copyright laws. As stated, the tool grants access to the public, therefore, the free resource is available for anyone to use on account of due credit given.


As I find most digital tools, in my exploration of slideshow tools, I found it to be very easy to use. The slideshow tool I chose to explore was Animoto. It is a great tool for my educational activities because it is a very fun and interactive approach to learning and presenting topics to others. It is a great way to gain useful information that will most certainly benefit us students in our everyday work. I especially like the fact that with Animoto, it is not strict. The ability to be creative with specific information will definitely help me to remember it more and enjoy learning.


In all honesty, being able to see the different uses for images and media in a digital society, I see that it kind of creates a layer of a challenge to our digital responsibilities. One thing that is really stressed in school, from secondary school especially is that after copying or pasting a photo or any type of work created by another person must be given credit where credit is due. The use of media and images without any reference is considered stealing, therefore, we must practice referencing our work properly to avoid situations such as plagiarism. However, in the case of plagiarism, students must take their time and carefully reference their work, be sure that images and media chosen for whatever reason is chosen appropriately and finally, make sure to be very specific and clear about the information being shared to  viewers/ readers.


Although this tool is a good way to be creative, I would not add it to my PLE because it is not collaborative and users are limited to 40 and 50 characters and words which is hard to minimize when you have a lot more to explain on a topic. However, the tool still is fairly cool.


This week I read an article titled Collaboration, Tools, and Add-Ons. Oh My. Using G-Docs to Improve Student Writing by Lisa Nielson. The article demonstrates how collaboration tools such as Google Docs are good tools for students in their writing. For me, writing, grammar, etc. Are very important and Google Docs, I believe, is a good tool to help with that. It is also important that as students we take it serious in our independent learning. I already use Google Docs and it really does help me with my writing, whether it be spelling mistakes, referencing, using voice text, etc. Google Docs is there to help.

Schallhorn, K. (2014, August 19). Professors plagiarize definition of plagiarism [Digital image]. Retrieved March 17, 2016, from http://campusreform.org/?ID=5841