Blog #2

In my own personal experience, I have done a lot of assignments using MS Word. I've done anything and everything in the spectrum, from pamphlets on made up countries to ISEF research papers. I think the reason most people consider MS Word so useful is because of its versatility and the variety of things that can be done with it. Many of my teachers have used MS Word to type up rubrics and assignment sheets. Some of the more up to date teachers have also used it to add notes and edits to our papers from within MS Word.

Almost every assignment in higher level education requires that students do outside research and have sources. As soon as you introduce this new element, you also introduce the question of what is yours and what is the sources. In my opinion, you should always automatically cite and remove any doubts of copyright even if you don't think you have. As a teacher, I think the best way to deal with these concepts is to stay on top of the laws using the http://www.creativecommons.org and http://www.copyright.gov sites and always cite to set an example for the students. As far as copyrighting your own work as a teacher, I find the concept conflicting. Education, and improvements to it, should be accessible to all. However, I also understand wanting to protect your hard work. For students copyrighting their materials, that is entirely up to them, but should they choose to, I would do my utmost to help them.

We live in a time and place where technology is seen everywhere, but that isn't true for everyone. There isn't always wifi in rural areas or computers in low SES areas. Thus one problem with implementing technology is that not everyone can go home to work on an online assignment. If you are going to give an assignment that requires computer use, you should also give in-class and after-school time for your students to work on it. Cyber-bullying is another major issue but is very difficult to control. The internet and anonymity go hand in hand and with anonymity comes the opportunity to insult and offend without consequence. With older students, I feel that the best way to limit it is to show them the possible consequences of their actions, such as the Amanda Todd video. With younger students, I would recommend talking about how such comments directed at them would make them feel. If I ever caught my students cyber-bullying someone, I would have them reprimanded in the same manner that they would have been if caught physically bullying. The final issue would be ensuring the privacy of my students. Anything they did in my classroom online would be tagged with a unique student ID instead of their names, this way I know who they are but the rest of the world does not. Any in-class computer usage should also be constantly and closely monitored to ensure that the students are not going outside the bounds of what is permissible in school.