Blog Journal #3

For me, copyright and fair use are about integrity and giving credit where credit is due. As a teacher, it is important to teach the importance of intellectual property to your students. Teach them how to cite their sources. But we also have to be role models for them. Teaching can be a stressful job and some days it might seem easier to find a lesson plan or worksheet online, but if you do so you need to make sure you've given whoever created the lesson plan credit. As a student, what helped me learn about when to cite sources the most was the idea that if I didn't come up with it, I needed to cite it, even things that may be general knowledge.

With technology and social media there comes risks such as academic dishonesty and cyberbullying. with academic dishonesty, using resources such as Turnitin can help teachers detect academic dishonesty, but I believe that might not be enough. I don't think we should teach academic honesty based on fear but on principle. Maybe putting together an activity where students may get to experience what it feels like when someone doesn't give them credit might help make them more empathetic to the situation. For cyberbullying, I believe that we need to make sure that students aren't using school devices to harm other students in any way and I think we should encourage students to make their accounts private, giving them the ability to keep their information safe and be able to monitor who sees their accounts. I also think encouraging parents to keep a good eye on what their children are posting can help detect cyberbullying.

Before the Newsletter assignment, I thought I knew a good amount about MS Word. I was surprised at some of the things I didn't know how to do. I learned how to create columns, more about adding word art and images to documents, and visual designs. These are all things that I will definitely be using as a teacher to possibly create actual newsletters and assignments.