Blog Post #2

            As far back as I can remember I have used Microsoft Word, whether it be in class, for homework, or for personal things. As a student, I have used Word to take notes during lectures, to write papers, to do homework assignments, and to complete group projects. Almost all of the courses I have taken in college, and many if not most in high school required that I use a word processor, and I always used Microsoft Word. I have seen my teachers use word in class to teach. For example, my Spanish teacher would use word to type our answers to questions as we said them aloud, and would project them on the board so that we could get the spelling correct. Also, many of my teachers used word to create worksheets and handouts for us.

            As a student, I have never had severe restrictions regarding where I got information for research projects, papers, or assignments. It was only ingrained in my mind that “not citing your sources is plagiarism”. For any assignment, I had to cite where I got information because of copyright. However, I was allowed to use information that I learned from sources because of fair use. As the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use” stated, fair use allows for creative activity and an advancement of knowledge (Media Education Lab). My teachers would print off handouts from books, or upload PDF versions of a chapter of a book for us to read, and would cite where they got the information from. Other teachers would take graphs from a textbook in order to further explain it. These things are legal under fair use, because according to the podcast on Copyright and Fair Use, they are considered non-profit educational purposes for using material that is not yours. As a teacher, I would use materials in the same way that I have experienced my teachers use them under fair use, blending handouts and lessons I create myself with other materials that will supplement the lesson. I would ensure that my students understand copyright and fair use and I would teach them how to cite their sources when gathering their own information for assignments. I will stress the importance that they should only be using a little bit of information found in copyright sources and that most of their work should come from themselves, as a lesser amount of information taken from a source is more likely to be legal under fair use (Lever-Duffy 266).

            In class we discussed ways that Twitter can be used by teachers and as educational technology. I knew that Twitter was a great source of information outside of the classroom, but I have learned that teachers and students can use it to learn new techniques of teaching, new assignments or projects, or new technologies that they can use in their own classroom. I also learned that as a social networking tool, teachers can use Twitter to connect parents to their children while they are at school through tweeting about projects going on or tweeting pictures. Twitter can be a way to keep parents involved with their child’s progress in school, and using social networking sites in this way is a new skill I have learned through this class. I would probably use a social media site to keep parents aware of classroom happenings, as well as to keep the students up to date on assignments and test dates. I would like to use a program that allows the students to sign up for alerts via text message, because I found those very helpful in high school. I would post things like clarifications on assignments, reminders about due dates, and reminders about what to bring to class the next day.