Blog Journal #3 ✨

Welcome back!

    In my opinion, copyright and fair use are terms that are commonly thrown around in conversation, but there is so much more to them than most people know. I remember watching YouTube videos as a child about the struggle with fair use and copyright for creators on that platform, but I honestly did not even consider it as a problem for normal people. Now I know that copyright is a means by which content creators can protect their work, and others can rely on it for respecting those creators. I also know now that fair use is a set of rules which allows educators and those who are creating educational content to include copyrighted work in their material, to a certain extent - a fair amount. In terms of my classroom, I think that creating our own material (both my students and myself) is highly valuable in multiple ways. We can use our own creativity to avoid copyright issues for the most part. For the elements which other creators' works are necessary, the accreditation to the owner of the content (and following the laws) is vital. 

    Two major technology implementation issues we see frequently in the US today are Academic Honesty and Cyberbullying. These are major concerns, and a lot of this concern arises due to a lack of supervision for students who desire to use bad practices or are simply uneducated on them. In my classroom, principally I want to educate my students on the dangers of these issues. I think a lot of students would not partake in either issue if only they fully understood the consequences of those actions. Additionally, I would make sure that they know that I will not tolerate either. For Academic Honesty, TurnItIn.com is an incredibly helpful source; the ability to check for plagiarism in any manner is invaluable to a teacher. For Cyberbullying or any type of bullying really, I think it would be beneficial to have a little anonymous suggestion-style box (or something similar, even possibly virtually) where students can report bad behavior. Especially if I teach high schoolers as I would like to, they appreciate anonymity when it comes to informing an adult about similar issues.

    This newsletter was simultaneously the most fun assignment I have completed this year, and the most difficult challenge I have had to complete in all of my classes thus far. Though, I can now say that I have no problems formatting in MS Word! I am able to create columns and add text blocks and everything! I think in the future I would draw it out by hand (pencil/paper) first so that I have an idea of how I want it to look rather than a guess and check style method that I unconsciously used this time. I think creating worksheets or designed papers like this one in my own future classroom one day, though, will now be a piece of cake! Overall, I had a really fun time being able to use my creativity and provide something all my own for my (fake) class!!