Blog #3

This week in class we learned about the concepts of copyright and fair use. Copyright means that the original creator of something (music, art, literature, etc.) has the exclusive right to that thing and if someone else wants to use it, they must get permission from the creator. It is a legal right of ownership. Fair use is the ability to use a small portion of copyrighted material without needing to seek permission from the original creator. In my classroom, I would introduce my students early on to services like NoodleTools (so that they can cite their sources in essays and projects) and Flickr (so that they can use images with more relaxed copyright rules). 

One of the biggest issues I think has come from technology implementation in the classroom is how much easier academic dishonesty has become. If students are given quizzes and exams online, and the ability to take them at home, than there is no way to regulate if they are using the internet or other means of looking up answers. I think one way to combat this would be to still use a laptop to take the quiz but do it in class where it is easier for the teacher to proctor the exam. Another huge issue is student privacy. There is nothing wrong with students wanting to share photos, videos, etc for their friends and family online but in order to keep their privacy safe I would encourge students to create separate accounts (email for example) to use specifically for school related purposes. 

I really enjoyed the newsletter assignment. I remeber when my teachers used to send them home when I was growing up! I have definitely played around with Word alot in both lower and middle school so this assignment was more of a refesher for me. I learned how to use the column function, which made the text and the organization of the newsletter look so much more fluid and I really like that function. I think to improve my news letter I would play around more with the formatting. This assignment will help me make sure to always add creative flair to my projects.