Thing #22, Copyright and Creative Commons

The laws on copyright are fairly difficult to understand, but students still need some knowledge of the subject. Even the comic book (from Duke University) is not especially easy. The site on Cyberethics for Kids has some good examples, written in language that students can understand. I would probably make use of that site, and keep coming back to the subject during the year in an effort to give students an awareness of this important (but neglected) topic.

Thing #21, Games

The games on Fun Brain are a little easy for high school English, but some of them could be fun and practical if played at the most difficult level: Plural Girls, Grammar Gorilla, Rooting Out Words, Word Turtle, and Spell Check.

Thing #20, Digital Storytelling

The Library of Congress has many stories on "Experiencing War" from the Veterans History Project. These stories are told by the persons who experienced them at http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/alphalist.html.

Thing #19, Video and Audio Tools

I've been listening to Pandora on a regular basis (daily) for the past couple of years and loving it. Recently, Pandora inaugurated a monthly limit (40 hours, I think) on free listening. After 40 hours, you pay 99 cents for the rest of the month. Quite a good deal. The only flaw on Pandora was that there was no station for Broadway musicals. Hurray! AccuRadio has Broadway musicals! However, I just e-mailed AccuRadio to complain that they had no musicals starting with the letter "Z." No "Zombie Prom." What a rip-off.

Thing #18, Podcasts

I don't own an IPod, but my wife does - and we often listen to podcasts while in the car. My favorite is "This American Life." We also listen to "Leo LaPorte: The Tech Guy," "New Life Live," and various other technology, book review, and current events podcasts. In the Educational Podcast Directory (under English Language Arts) I found quite a few that could potentially be used for an online classroom. A show called "Grammar Grater" from Minnesota Public Radio was especially intriguing. I listed to a fairly entertaining episode called "Misnomers and Malapropisms."

Thing #17, YouTube and Downloading Videos

I got really bogged down on Things 15 and 16, so I'll try to get back to those later. In the meantime: Like everybody else, I often use YouTube. I check out cultural oddities ("meme" is the word, I believe), musical performances (Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, Merle Haggard, and everything in between), replays of sporting events, TV cartoons from my childhood (Clutch Cargo, Beanie and Cecil, Mighty Mouse), and so on. Today, on Yahoo Video, I found the amazing "Nirvana vs. Rich Astley" clip. On Google video, I found a Harry Potter parody that was funny for the first few seconds. As for this embedded video, I have no idea why we're seeing a bullfighter while listening to the voice of Rootie Kazootie.

Thing #14, Online Resources

Although Curriki did not seem to be working, I found plenty of other online resources.
1) From Thinkfinity, Hands-on Science Activities from Science NetLinks.
2) From Kathy Schrock's Guide, "Cool Quotes," with quotations in many categories.
3) From Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence, a site on ""Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916"
4) From Google U.S. Government Search, Quick Facts form the U.S. Census.
5) From PBS Teacher Network, a site on Great American Authors,
6) From the Smithsonian's "Encyclopedia Smithsonian," a site on the invention of the electric guitar.
7) From the Library of Congress site for Kids and Families, American Memory, "millions of digital items" including one on "The 19th Century in Print."
8) From the National Archives' online exhibits, a site on the "Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918."
9) From Calisiphere (the University of California), many primary sources about California, including topics such as the Gold Rush and missions.
10) From CLRN, "California" in "America's Story" from "America's Library."