Blog Journal #3

        Copyright and fair use both play an important role in classroom settings. Many assignments require students to do outside research in order to provide sufficient information about any certain topic. It is important that teachers show their students how to do this without essentially stealing from the original creator. Copyright is a legal way of protecting one's work from being used by another person and claimed as their own. As a teacher, it is common to create lesson plans around sources found on the Internet, which is where fair use comes into play. Fair use allows some copyright information to be used for purposes such as teaching and education without having to pay credit to the original author. Knowing where and when this is allowed helps teachers to legally pull information that enhances their ability to teach a lesson.

        Technology implementation issues need to be considered by teachers when using technology in the classroom. Whether these issues are social, ethical, or legal, they need to be addressed. Academic dishonesty has presented itself more commonly as technology has been used more in education. Students may copy information from the Internet without even knowing that it is not allowed. It is important for the educator to conduct a lesson on copyright, how to properly give credit to a source, and the consequences of not doing so. If after this a student still plagiarizes, repercussions such as not getting credit for the assignment will follow. Another technology implementation issue is decreased productivity. For example, if tablets are given out during class in order to complete an assignment, it is possible that students will use the devices to do other off- task things like play games or go on inappropriate websites. To prevent this, it would be useful to put restrictions on what websites and applications can be visited on the tablets or the school's wifi in general. 

        Completing this weeks newsletter design assignment introduced me to many tools on Microsoft Word that I had never used before. Creating a banner, using the column function, and inserting a shaded order form are all things I have never been required to do. At first it took me a bit of time to navigate these tools, but once I did they proved to be very useful. I enjoyed organizing the newsletter and coming up with the different articles to include in it. I believe I can improve future newsletters by familiarizing myself even more with these functions in addition to learning new ones. Knowing how to use a wide variety of tools on Word is definitely useful in the future in situations like making a resume, creating lesson plans for a class, organizing worksheets, etc. I look forward to furthering my skills throughout the semester in this class.