This week we learned about digital citizenship, open educational resources, copyrights, fair use and creative commons licensing. I have to admit, I had given very little thought to these topics in the past. I get very immersed and caught up with the topics I am teaching that I for the most part do not even pay attention to what obligations I have to ensure that I have permission or the right to use digital content that I may find on the internet.

Now, I do not want you to get the wrong idea. I am not out blatantly using content illegally but the point is that I need to do a better job of making sure what I use is being used properly. It is my obligation however to ensure that I make use of good digital citizenship. I am going to think twice now before I copy something to a PowerPoint, make copies of anything for my students, or use music and video in class.

Creative Commons is one great solution to this issue. I have been using Tony Kuphaldt’s website, http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/socratic/ for some time and knew that it was available to use but did not really have an understanding of Creative Commons, the licensing and that so many other items were available. The ibiblio website in their words is “Home to one of the largest free information databases online, ibiblio.org has something for everyone. Visitors can browse through our eclectic collections catalog and contributors can host and share their unique collections with millions worldwide.”  If you get a chance surf over and give it a look. I was surprised at all of the different posts that are contained in this database.

At The Electrical Trades Center we use a program called PowerVista RollCall. This is our database that we use to track applicants, students and completers of the apprenticeship. RollCall can be viewed at http://www.powervista.com/. Prior to migrating to RollCall we used a program designed for apprenticeships called NTAS. It was a great program but the company that produced it quit supporting it and it became irrelevant. The great thing about RollCall is that it is a comprehensive administration solution that was designed for adult education training facilities in mind. Some of the great benefits are that it allows our instructors a one stop shop for attendance and grade reporting. It work seamlessly with Quickbooks which allows our students to pay for textbooks and materials and any other outstanding debts that they may have incurred. It also provides the students with instantaneous progress reports which they can access from the web. The Powervista team is also extremely responsive to support needs, report writing, form writing and uploading the initial data. Apprenticeship includes both on the job training and related technical instruction and RollCall allows us to generate contractor referrals and upload student’s monthly OJT or On the Job Training data. We can view monthly reports or specify time ranges or cumulative. RollCall is very customize-able whether it be adding complex drop down lists so that you can find the data you need, or adding or deleting data that is shown in a window. We are extremely excited about the ease of use and value that this program has proved to be.