Journal Entry #3

Copyright and Fair Use

    Copyright is the legal grounds on which an individual can claim the rights to intellectual property (IP). Copyrights can be granted and retracted as an owner sees fit. Copyright is essentially an owner's claim on content that they've created, curated, or contributed to. Fair use is the practice of utilizing copyrighted IP in a manner that is in accordance with the copyright holder's wishes. As a teacher, I will be sure to set a good example in my classroom by making every effort to reference and/or give credit to material that is borrowed and not of my own original thought. When seeking relevant course material I will be sure to browse the public domain first for content. If I am unable to find content in the public domain I will then seek to find content elsewhere that will allow me to appropriately attribute credit to the original author. I will additionally make it my goal to ensure that my students know the importance of copyright and fair use in and outside of the classroom. I will dedicate a lesson during class time to thoroughly explain the importance of these topics in addition to the legal consequences that can result if not appropriately followed. Ultimately I would like to create a classroom space where students can understand the value of creating their own material and the power that lies within their own minds and become greater believers in themselves and less dependent on the thoughts of others.

Technology Implementation Issues

    In my personal opinion, two of the biggest areas that are currently affecting the quality of education for today's generation of students stem from decreased productivity and lack of funding as it relates to technological utilization in the classroom. With more and more technological advancements come more and more distractions for students. During times when pupils should be focused on getting a quality education often time, the opposite is the reality of what is happening. In today's age, there are so many ways that technology can be leveraged to ensure that students are able to stay engaged and focus in the classroom during instructional time. However, there must be a massive shift in the pedagogy utilized when teaching today's digital natives. I feel one of the best ways to solve decreased productivity is to simply meet students where they are. In today's world, social media seems to have a stronghold on today's youth. It is imperative that instructors understand the practices and methods that they were taught using will not have the same impact on the students of today. Teachers must understand that if their desire is to retain student attention they must have multifaceted aspects to a traditional classroom lesson that will allow students to stay engaged. One of the benefits of technology is that we are now afforded new ways of connecting with each other even if we are in the same room. Games such as Kahoot allow us to Play live-action trivia games all while sitting right next to each other. It is essential that teachers utilize all technical resources made available to them to captivate the short attention span of students once this is done then students will really be vested in the lesson and have a desire to learn more and more about the material being presented. 

    Another aspect of technology implementation is simply that a lack of funding generates a very large barrier to access for those in underserved communities. Due to various different factors such as systematic oppression and racism, this is a very challenging issue to resolve nor do I think it can be resolved in one sitting. From a governmental approach, there must be plans in place to restructure how students are able to access technology to enter the digital world while being responsible individuals and also developing a sense of ownership in this space. For a student who may stand from a low socioeconomic background having access to a safe and reliable device may be hard however if the student were to have access to transportation to a local library where they can have access to a computer to complete school work and do casual browsing this is one way that students can become invested more and more into technology. More needs to be done from the government to ensure that first rural communities have access to broadband high-speed reliable Internet and that when funding is being considered for schools and school districts at large there are considerations taking it into place to provide take-home devices for students that request them. I personally do not believe it should be the responsibility of the student or the student's family members to provide a device to access schoolwork especially with increasing technological advancements that allow schooling to be done 100% remotely. In my opinion, I feel that there should be adequate resources allocated for every student that allows them to have access to devices to complete their schoolwork as needed. In full transparency, this is a large problem and I do not believe I could personally solve it or offer a solution however these are just a few of my thoughts as I too wish for equal access for all. 

"Day 223 - Learning to use computers" by LShave is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Newsletter 

    From working on the newsletter design assignment I have learned so much more about the vast suite of features in the Microsoft Word application. While I was made privy to the ability of creation that Microsoft Word provides I did not know that it would be so beneficial in the overall creation of a newsletter. While I did have many challenges in the beginning with the formatting of the newsletter once I was able to fully understand how to navigate the windows and aligned my tools correctly I was able to be successful in the newsletter creation process. In the future, I would love to improve the newsletter by implementing and adding some sort of area for engagement whether it be a crossword or a word search puzzle that will allow my students to interact further with my newsletter and ultimately build a sense of longing in which they look forward to these monthly newsletters. In my future career, the skills that I've gained from this assignment can be beneficial because I now know how I can write a form of mass communication that can be shared with a team of individuals outlining various topics and relevant information.