Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Where I Am Now

Right now I have just started researching the needs of Quebec/English Canada today.  I am not finished researching all the amendments that were a result of the Constitutional Act of 1791, as I have switched my approach to my question.

Where I Plan to Be at 2:45 pm

At about 2:45 pm, I hope to have a substantial amount of information researched about the needs of Quebec/English Canada today.  I’m not sure exactly how much I will be able to gather in the time provided, but hopefully I will make some good headway, if not gather enough information to conclude that piece of my research.

Where I Am at 2:45 pm

During today’s inquiry time, I found some information on both the needs of Quebec/English Canada today and amendments that occurred after the Constitutional Act of 1791.  I have not completely finished either aspect of research fully; however, I have made progress in both and now have a better idea of where to find some information.  I have some work laid out for myself regarding acts and amendments, and now need to dig deeper and find resources that express people’s opinions on what changes need to be made.  Today I also worked on my website, putting the information I have gathered into it.

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Over the weekend, as I was researching about the Constitutional Act of 1791, and looking up the amendments that followed, I realized that there were tons and tons of amendments that came after it.  Since then, I have been thinking about how I may be able to approach my question differently.  My plan was to research about the act and all the amendments that came after it, then look at the needs of Quebec and Canada today, then come to a conclusion after gathering all that information.  However, today I started going at it from a different perspective: I am researching what the needs of Canada and Quebec are today, then I plan to go back and see what needs to be changed in previous acts to account for that.

October Scavenger Hunt

1. Hyperlinking and Quoting

a) Learning to cite and source – Scavenger hunt

b)

“It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

(WorldofQuotes.com, Oct. 12, 2012)

 

2. Using photos

a) “by-nc-sa“:

  1. “by“: You have to comply with the authors wishes about how to use the photo, and give them credit for it.
  2. “nc“: You must only use the photo for personal use, you cannot use it commercially and make money off it.
  3. “sa“: You must use a similar license if you change the picture.

b) pixabay.com

Using Flickr Creative Commons and Compfight.com, you can search different licenses – Pixabay.com  appears to only contain Public Domain Images.  I find Flickr Creative Commons, Compfight.com and Pixabay.com more user-friendly than MorgueFile.  I like how flickr gives you options as to what license you want before searching.  Compfight.com and Pixabay.com are similar in that you search what you want before choosing a category.

 

3.

 

 

4. Am I free to copy facts and ideas?

“Yes. You are free to report the facts and ideas embodied in another person’s article or web page. Copyright only protects the expression — the combination of words and structure that expresses the factual information — not the facts themselves.”

Source: Bloggers’ Legal Guide

 

You can copy other people’s ideas and facts that they have shared in an online document, but you cannot copy the way they express those ideas and facts – you cannot simply copy-paste something someone else has said.  You can only get facts and ideas – then you have to come up with your own way of relating the information.  The way people express things is copyrighted.

 

 

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

Today during Inquiry time I worked on my research about the Constitutional Act of 1791.  I have compiled a list of what the Act did and did not do, based on information I have collected.  I still need to figure out what amendments came after the Constitutional Act of 1791, so I can research those as well.  Hopefully I can accomplish this next time, though I’m finding it a bit hard to determine which amendments came after that were related.

Tuesday, October 9th, 2012

Today I finished my planning sheet and started researching background information for my inquiry.  I looked up information about the Constitutional Act of 1791 and started highlighting and picking out key pieces that should help me come to a reasonable conclusion about what changes to the amendments would help the new needs of Quebec / English Canada.  Next Inquiry Session I plan to continue my research into the Constitutional Act, and hopefully I can determine what other amendments where connected to the Act.  I hope to make my deadline of Thursday for finishing this part of the research, but I may have to adjust my deadlines as I go.

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Today decided on an inquiry question!  It took a while, but here’s what I finally came up with:

How can the Constitutional Act of 1791 and subsequent amendments be revised so they better fit the needs of Quebec / English Canada today?

Most of the Inquiry time I had today I spent figuring out a question.  First I changed the subject I was inquiring about, then I had to pick another topic, then I proceeded to make countless revisions to my question.  I spent the remainder of my inquiry time doing my own planning and working on the planning sheet provided.  Next inquiry session I plan to finish the planning sheet, and hopefully get started on researching my question.

Feedback and Reflection

  October 1st, 2012

 

1. Feedback

 

     a.        What was the best suggestion or feedback that you got from classmates that commented in the forum? Who posted the comment?

I think that pretty much all the suggestions were equal.  Everyone had good suggestions, though none of them really stood out to me in particular.  Some people liked the same things that others didn’t like, and some liked or disliked the same things as each other.  A lot of people suggested more music/sound at the beginning of the presentation, which I think was a good suggestion because I thought the same thing, and, since a lot of people thought the same thing, that reveals that it is a prominent issue.  Those who suggested this included:  Cassidy, Nico, Shandra, Jay, Alannah, Calli, Meghan and Max.

 

 http://sd43.bcln.ca/mod/forum/view.php?id=7214

 

     b.        Was the feedback useful? Why or why not?

Yes, I think that the feedback was useful, because it gives ways to improve the presentation for the future.  However, one thing that I did notice was that because people had to write one thing they learned, liked, and suggested, there may have been some inaccurate feedback.  I find it hard myself if I can’t fill one of the categories accurately, because it forces me to come up with something, even if I don’t believe it to be true.  I wonder how many of the comments were inaccurate because of this.

 

2.       Reflection

 

     a.      What is a key thing that you learned about inquiry learning? (the process of your inquiry)

I learned that not all information is equal as to how easy it is to find on the internet, and that sometimes if you try to add something to your presentation near the end of your time limit, it can actually hinder the presentation if it doesn’t work out exactly the way you want it to or if you don’t have enough time to finish it the way you had planned.

 

     b.      What do you need help with in order to improve?

In order to improve my presentation, I think I would simply need time to make a few tweaks and incorporate suggestions.

Looking Back

Looking back on my presentation, and considering the comments of those who saw it, I would have liked to add more music to the beginning of the presentation, and gotten rid of most of the transition sounds.  I would also not have so many of the animations moving around quite as much, because I think some people found it distracting.

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

Today as I was trying to improve my presentation, I decided to try adding sounds.  It got complicated because when I added sounds to certain slides, it messed up the timing of everything else on the slide.  Because I was running out of time, I used mostly transition sounds as they didn’t interfere with the animations, etc. on each slide.