Blog 3

     Hi all, and welcome back to my 3rd blog post of the semester!

    The purpose of copyright is to protect the intellectual properties of creators work. By having a copyright of work that you create, it is exclusively yours. Any person/group that would like to use any portion of you work will need permission, must give credit, and possibly even pay to use it. This is intended to protect from the stealing of ideas and work. Fair use are the guidelines surrounding copyright laws that determine what can be used that does not violate copyright. It is typically implemented for educational reasons, and the user cannot profit off of its use. As a teacher, it is important to be wary of copyright and fair use. This applies to textbooks, online videos, and other resources. However, since teachers are likely using materials for non-proft educational purposes, it likely falls under fair use. It is still important to acknowledge because not everything falls under fair use, it depends on the situation. When having students create their own works, it's important for them to understand the reasoning behind copyright and how it pertains to plagiarism. 

    Decreased productivity and academic dishonesty are the two implementation issues i'm going to talk about. To start, decreased productivity can be a serious issue that comes with the implementation of technology. Since students have access to the internet and unlimited distractions, it can be very easy to get caught up in games, videos, and other sources that keep the student from truly focusing. It can also be much easier to procrastinate on assignments, since there will always be a reason for other things to be done on the computer, tablet, or phone. One way to address this would be to put a content blocker, as many schools do, that dont allow students to go on these sites that are distractions. Another could be to promote more personalized interactions in the classroom that stray away from over-reliance on technology. 

    The second problem, academic dishonesty, is also exacerbated by internet access. Students can easily share and copy work. This is tougher to restrict, but a plagiarism checker would likely be the best solution to overcoming academic dishonesty, because let's be honest, if theres a way for students to cheat there most likely be at least one student who tries to do it.

    I would say the skill I really learned from the newsletter design assignment is the ability to create columns. It took a while for me to get access, but i eventually figured it out and it worked well. A way to improve my newsletter would be to clear up a lot of the blank space, and add a permission slip. It was also hard to get the pictures to align, because word kept wanting to cap the top margin. However, I was eventually able to get it with enough messing around with the margins settings. So I would say that is another thing that I learned.