Blog Post 2
Microsoft Word has been integral part in my student career at FSU and TCC. As an English major student, I have used Word to create several documents and papers for the benefit of my education. I have written papers in Word, created Bibliographies and Annotated Bibliographies, and have used Word to create responses or Journal posts that I would later copy and paste and put into the proper online former. With using Microsoft Word to create these drafts, I have been able to back these assignments in Word in order for safety measures in case something went wrong with the online forum. Mostly, when it comes to my educators I have seen them predominantly use Word in order to deliver a syllabus to students or to address and assignment for students. I have even seen them use it for study guides for tests. Microsoft Word is a beneficial tool for both student and educator because it allows them to deliver information in a clear and concise manner.
In one of my English classes, we had to remix a song or movie for educational purposes and therefore had to get a better understanding of Fair Use and what was or wasn't protected under the Fair Use doctrine. Personally, I remixed John Lennon's song Imagine and therefore didn't take the lyrics but rather incorporated it into a digital picture made up of images from the song creating a photo mosaic and images of the individuals from the UNICEF video with the song. I created their faces out of major words in the song and in languages that were native to their heritage. Therefore, I was of course worried about copyright issues but due to its educational uses, I knew that it was protected under the Fair Use doctrine. I have also had experience with copyright worries from a teacher who scanned chapters or material from books and the concern to not do too much of the book or work because they did not want to exceed an allowed amount. I have also had teachers use clips from movies or music as well as myself for educational purposes within a lesson. As the Fair Use doctrine does not have a direct set of rules, I would use materials in order to back the lesson I am attempting to teach and not for my personal interest. I would also advise my student's to do likewise. To think about the things that are required for the desire of the message they are trying to deliver and what is just extra stuff they want to add. When using something for the use of educational purpose, it is important to still pay homage to the original document and acknowledge where it comes from through citing the source or hyperlinking to the original.
First and foremost, trying to implement anything with an array of individuals who come from different backgrounds and have different personalities and viewpoints is going to make it hard to make implementing solutions to these issues a universal solution for all. However, remembering this is important because I can do my best to attempt to implement these solutions in different ways for each student despite the fact that I am not able to control my students as individuals. Although the use of computers is critical for the benefit of students that does not mean that what they are doing can't be blocked and monitored. For one, in order to have students follow under the acceptable use of technology I would have them use school computers in the classroom setting and therefore many of the inappropriate websites they would normally attempt to access would be blocked.That way students would not be able to be subjected to inappropriate materials. Another thing that I would utilize is to keep my students from academic dishonesty. Therefore, I would have my students upload their papers onto Turnitin in order to ensure plagiarism was not being used by these individuals. I would also make sure that during tests or graded assignments that require their own knowledge that they did not have the access to the internet in order to use their phones or computers to cheat on the assignment. Lastly, to implement a solution to cyberbullying or cyberstalking, I would have a strict rule about that in my classroom. There would be a zero tolerance for these in the classroom and I would make sure my classroom is a welcoming environment where my students feel they can talk to me about these issues. Also, I would attempt to control the use of cell phones in my classroom setting, not only to avoid these issues, but to stop students from outside distractions while in the the classroom. I would do my best to protect all students and know that they can always come to me with issues they are facing from other students. I would encourage students to learn self-awareness and how to deal with their emotions in order to help them understand and not take it out on others.
In one of my English classes, we had to remix a song or movie for educational purposes and therefore had to get a better understanding of Fair Use and what was or wasn't protected under the Fair Use doctrine. Personally, I remixed John Lennon's song Imagine and therefore didn't take the lyrics but rather incorporated it into a digital picture made up of images from the song creating a photo mosaic and images of the individuals from the UNICEF video with the song. I created their faces out of major words in the song and in languages that were native to their heritage. Therefore, I was of course worried about copyright issues but due to its educational uses, I knew that it was protected under the Fair Use doctrine. I have also had experience with copyright worries from a teacher who scanned chapters or material from books and the concern to not do too much of the book or work because they did not want to exceed an allowed amount. I have also had teachers use clips from movies or music as well as myself for educational purposes within a lesson. As the Fair Use doctrine does not have a direct set of rules, I would use materials in order to back the lesson I am attempting to teach and not for my personal interest. I would also advise my student's to do likewise. To think about the things that are required for the desire of the message they are trying to deliver and what is just extra stuff they want to add. When using something for the use of educational purpose, it is important to still pay homage to the original document and acknowledge where it comes from through citing the source or hyperlinking to the original.
First and foremost, trying to implement anything with an array of individuals who come from different backgrounds and have different personalities and viewpoints is going to make it hard to make implementing solutions to these issues a universal solution for all. However, remembering this is important because I can do my best to attempt to implement these solutions in different ways for each student despite the fact that I am not able to control my students as individuals. Although the use of computers is critical for the benefit of students that does not mean that what they are doing can't be blocked and monitored. For one, in order to have students follow under the acceptable use of technology I would have them use school computers in the classroom setting and therefore many of the inappropriate websites they would normally attempt to access would be blocked.That way students would not be able to be subjected to inappropriate materials. Another thing that I would utilize is to keep my students from academic dishonesty. Therefore, I would have my students upload their papers onto Turnitin in order to ensure plagiarism was not being used by these individuals. I would also make sure that during tests or graded assignments that require their own knowledge that they did not have the access to the internet in order to use their phones or computers to cheat on the assignment. Lastly, to implement a solution to cyberbullying or cyberstalking, I would have a strict rule about that in my classroom. There would be a zero tolerance for these in the classroom and I would make sure my classroom is a welcoming environment where my students feel they can talk to me about these issues. Also, I would attempt to control the use of cell phones in my classroom setting, not only to avoid these issues, but to stop students from outside distractions while in the the classroom. I would do my best to protect all students and know that they can always come to me with issues they are facing from other students. I would encourage students to learn self-awareness and how to deal with their emotions in order to help them understand and not take it out on others.
I really liked it when you said that although trying to implement a set of universal rules to people of different backgrounds and different personalities is hard, you would use this to your advantage to implement solutions in different ways for different students. I think sometimes teachers do not take into account that each student is different and may learn and interpret information differently and they sometimes look at their class as a whole. I agree that as a teacher, you need to look at each student as an individual. It is definitely true that the websites students go on need to be monitored and blocked because I believe this is the first step to prevent issues relating to the Internet from happening.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you brought up the no phones rule. I have often been frustrated with educators who implement these rules because they are not realistic. We live in a world where phones are everywhere and they are a requirement for day to day life for most people. In my opinion, we need to be teaching kids to be able to work with the distractions of phones and computers because that is what is expected of us in the outside world. I can't imagine how difficult this is for educators who are trying to teach subject matter. It is definitely an important topic to figure out where phones belong in education.
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