Students and Stress

by Dr. Mickey Wircenski

CTE Project Director

 

Stress is a large part of all of our lives…including our students. At a recent conference on Learning and the Brain I came across a wonderful resource entitled Secrets of the Teenage Brain:Research-Based Strategies for Reaching and Teaching Today’s Adolescents by Sheryl Feinstein. It has some wonderful strategies for CTE teachers to use in their classes. Among the most popular are the following: 

1. Assure students that they are not expected to give “all or nothing”. Make comments like “You don’t have to be able to answer every question today correctly,” “It’s okay to review your notes in order to remember what we went over yesterday,” and “I know talking in front of a group isn’t easy.”
2. Use competition carefully: when there is competition, make sure everyone has a chance at some success.
3. Be fair and consistent with evaluation and discipline. Knowing which behaviors are expected and acceptable and believing that equal offenses receive equal consequences reduces stress.
4. Offer academic support outside of the classroom with homework helpers and tutors.
5. Have students rate and chart their personal stress on a scale of one to ten. Quantifying a level of stress can help put it in perspective. Set aside time to journal or talk about the stress in their lives.
6. Encourage students to “play” a favorite song in their heads as a relaxation technique.
7. Have students role-play appropriate behavior for handling future stress. This can act as a cue when they are in a real life anxiety-producing situation.
8. Refer students showing serious signs of stress to a counselor. Students sneed to realize they are not alone and can take advantage of the many services inside and outside the school that provide support and help.
9. Allow some choice in content or process; students want/need to do it their way once in a while.
10. Incorporate writing: Have students write a letter of frustration and then tear it up. They will love the chance to vent.

Source: Feinstein, S. (2009). Secrets of the Teenage Brain:Research-Based Strategies for Reaching and Teaching Today’s Adolescents. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, pp. 92-93.

©2014 Reminders

By Kathy Belcher

Cluster Specialist

Architecture & Construction

Manufacturing

Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

 

Copyright is based on U.S. constitutional rights and the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) that protect original works of authorship from the moment the work is created or fixed in a tangible form as a copy or a phonorecord (sounds). The original work may or may not be published and/or registered in order to have a copyright, although both have advantages. Original works protected include literature, books, drama, music, poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation are not protected. Copyright differs from a patent, which protects inventions and discoveries, and copyright differs from a trademark, which protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying the source of a product or service. 

 

Ownership rights may be transferred by an owner to another and passed down by a will or inheritance. Permission to use an owner’s work may be obtained by contacting the owner directly. The Copyright Office can conduct a search to identify an owner, but they will not provide a copy of an author’s work unless they have written authorization from the owner to do so. 

 

The term of the copyright varies. If the author is known, the term could be from the first publication date until 70 years past the life of the author. In other circumstances, the term could be as much as 95 years from first publication or 120 years after the year of creation of the work. Work that is no longer copyright- protected is said to be in the public domain and may be used without asking permission of the owner. Copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, so make sure work is in the public domain before using another’s work without permission.

 

A copyright owner has the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work, subject to a limitation found in sections 107-108 of the copyright law (title 17, U.S. Code) known as fair use. Section 107 lists purposes for which reproduction of work may be considered for comment, criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. Four factors are considered in determining if the use of another’s work falls within the fair use limitation. 

1. Is the use of commercial nature, or is it for nonprofit, educational purposes?
2.  What is the nature of the copyrighted work?
3.  What is the amount of the work used in relation to the work as a whole?
4. What is the effect of the work used upon the market?

 

“As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, or made into a derivative work without permission of the copyright owner” (2012). Refer to Title 17 of the United States Code to comply with the copyright law.

Following are 10 reminders to consider when using another’s work.

1. There are no set rules on what amount of use constitutes “fair use.”
2. Original work located on a website may be protected by copyright.
3. Website domain names are not protected by copyright.
4. Uploading and downloading copyrighted works is an infringement, and it is best to go through an authorized Internet service to purchase copyrighted works online.
5. Ownership of a copy of a photograph is not considered ownership of the work (which is intellectual property). 
6.  Architectural work, including a building, plans, and drawings, are copyright protected (with some exceptions for designs prior to 1990).
7. A copy of an original computer program may be made providing the owner is making a copy for archival (back-up) purposes and destroys or transfers the archival copy with the original copy when they sell or transfer the original copy. (See Section 117 of the Copyright Act.)
8. Teachers in a nonprofit school may show a lawful version of a movie without obtaining permission for use with teaching activities, but not for recreational or entertainment purposes.
9. An employer is considered to be the author of the work an employee is hired to prepare according to Section 101 of the copyright law. 
10. Permission to create derivative works from an original work requires permission from the owner.

For locating text, videos, or images on Google that may be fair use, set the usage rights filters on the advanced search and the advanced image search. Google Images contain copyright protected content, so it is important to know if use is fair use or infringement.   

Copyright is a constitutional right protected by the laws of the United States to the authors of original work. Refer to the U.S. Copyright Office and Title 17 of the United States Code when determining what is fair use and infringement. “The safest course is to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material” (2012). 

 

References

• United States Copyright Office (2012). Copyright basics. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from U.S. Copyright Office website: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf.
• United States Copyright Office (2012). Frequently asked questions about copyright. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from U.S. Copyright Office website: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/.

Audience Participation via the Backchannel

By Dr. Violet Dickson
Curriculum Coordinator
Arts, AV, Technology & Communication

This past weekend, a colleague and I presented at a teachers’ workshop in East Texas where participants had the opportunity to contribute to our presentation through a backchannel called, “Today’s Meet”.

What is Today’s Meet? Well, imagine that you’re teaching a class or giving a presentation, whether it’s a staff development workshop for teachers, a presentation at a PTA meeting, a parent meeting in your classroom, or a lesson with a group of students. Imagine that, during your presentation, some participants are engaged in sidebar conversations on related topics, or possibly even questions or comments that they have about the presentation. Now imagine this: What if all of the private sidebar conversations suddenly became an active and integrative part of the presentation or the lesson? That’s the beauty of Today’s Meet!

Today’s Meet is a free social media service that creates an isolated chat room, called a backchannel, that is open during a presentation but is only available for participation by the members of your audience. A backchannel uses WiFi connections to connect participants via laptop computers, tablets, or cell phones so they can participate in real-time online conversations. This allows discussions on the backchannel to be relevant to the audience but not open to the general public. Audience participants are allowed to contribute by posting comments and/or questions through a simple logon process that does not require the creation of an account or password.

This resource can be very useful for anyone interested in providing a digital forum for audience interaction. Backchannels allow members of an audience to ask questions, provide feedback, and share links relevant to the discussion or presentation. By incorporating the use of a backchannel, a presenter can encourage members of an audience to engage with one another throughout a presentation.

HISTORY

The first time the term, “back channel”, was used was by Victor Yngve in 1970, when he used it to describe conversations in which both parties were actively engaged in speaking and listening at the same time, with neither party willing to relinquish their turn to speak.

The first famous example of the use of a backchannel communication was at the PC Forum in 2002 when Qwest CEO, Joe Nacchio, made certain comments, and journalists in the audience posted accounts, in real-time, to their web blogs, challenging the comments. According to Forum host, Esther Dyson, the audience became increasingly hostile throughout Nacchio’s presentation as information was communicated and shared electronically on what she described as “parallel channels”.

In 2009, Purdue University enabled students to comment, for the first time, on course lectures using social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. The university discovered that social media could be used in the classroom as a backchannel for note taking, asking questions, posting information, and sharing resources.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE

In classrooms today, a backchannel basically provides a private chat room for the teacher and students. It can be used between a teacher and a whole class, between individual students, or between small groups of students while another activity is going on. For example, students can backchannel their comments while watching a documentary film, post comments or questions while listening to a guest speaker, record ideas during an activity or project, and even record data while conducting experiments. Students can also post questions for the teacher without waiting to be called on. The backchannel encourages timid students to participate more often and prevents other students from monopolizing the conversation.

Many different media networks have been used as a backchannel, including Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, Instant Messaging, and Google Moderator. Twitter and Skype have been used as backchannels so participants from different parts of the world could be included in conversations. They have also been combined with live videostreaming so people from different places can take part in events via “virtual” participation.

As the use of backchannels have become more popular in the classroom, more apps and resources for backchannels are becoming available. In addition to the “free” backchannel sites, there are backchannel tools for purchase that can provide a class discussion format with teacher controls, greater security, and profanity filters for the cost of a membership with an annual or monthly fee. Backchannel Chat by Learnweaver is an example of an app for purchase that is available through iTunes for both the iPad and iPhone.

Richard Byrne, a classroom teacher who maintains a website on free technology for teachers, has evaluated several resources for backchannels in the classroom, which he frequently uses for class discussions, note taking, and even movie reviews. The backchannels Byrne recommends includes TodaysMeet, Chatzy, Edmodo, Present.ly, and Neat Chat. All five of these sites provide free platforms for hosting a private chat area within the classroom.

TodaysMeet is a popular backchannel that requires a very simple set up. The teacher chooses a name for the chat room, determines how long the room will be up, and provides students with the url so they can login. TodaysMeet is my personal favorite because it’s free, it’s very user-friendly, it doesn’t have a public gallery with questionable content, and it doesn’t allow inappropriate advertising, like some backchannels do. The downside to TodaysMeet is that it is not password protected, and the teacher cannot filter what a student might post for the whole class to see. Therefore, teachers should exercise some caution using this platform. However, students should be aware that since comments are in print and can be stored for a period of time, there is a record of their comments for parents or administrators to see.

 Chatzy is a free backchannel platform that is password protected, and the teacher sends out invitations to the chat area, so access is restricted. Edmodo is one of my favorite classroom management tools that teachers can use to post assignments, quizzes, reminders, surveys, and a calendar. In addition, teachers can also use Edmodo to create a microblogging network for their classes that updates in real-time so participants can respond to each other. Present.ly is also a free backchannel platform for private micro-blogging. However, the main difference is that you create a private blogging community based on your email domain. Neat Chat is one of the newest free backchannel platforms. Teachers can set up Neat Chat quickly by selecting a nickname and clicking “start”. Once they have their assigned url, teachers can invite students or parents to participate in their “add-free” chat room via email, Twitter, or Facebook.

Three other free platforms that may have some benefit in the classroom as a backchannel include Chatterous, MisterThread, and Google Groups. Chatterous is different in that members can join a chat room via cell phone or email. With Chatterous, you can also create a public chat room that can be embedded into a blog or website. MisterThread is like a backchannel “thread”, where people join to participate in particular conversations, and Google Groups allow anyone to create a public or private discussion group with various levels of access or restrictions, depending on the nature and purpose of the discussion.

SUMMARY

Although it’s still a resource in-progress, backchanneling has the potential to stimulate a collaborative learning environment both in presentations and in the classroom. Teachers may want to experiment with a few of the free backchannel platforms before deciding on one to use with students in the classroom. Whatever backchanneling service the teacher chooses, the bottom line is that using a backchannel in the classroom engages students in learning, incorporates a greater use of technology regardless of the lesson topic or subject, encourages greater collaboration between the students and the teacher, and allows students to take greater charge of their own learning.

References:

• Atkinson, C. (2010). The backchannel: How audiences are using Twitter and social media and changing presentations forever. Berkeley, CA: New Riders Publication.
• Backchannel. Retrieved from http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backchannel
• Backchannel Chat by LearnWeaver. Retrieved from https://www.schoology.com/apps/profile/37669421
• Byrne, R. (2010). Five Platforms for a Classroom Backchannel. Retrieved from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/01/five-platforms-for-classroom-back.html#.U037gFca2So