Blog Journal 3: Copyright, Technology Issues, and Newsletters.

  Copyright is when a piece of intellectual work is protected from use without the express permission of the creator. Fair use is similar to copyright; the only difference is that it allows users to copy intellectual copy if it is being used for educational purposes. In both instances, credit must be given to the creator. Educators especially have to be careful when it comes to obeying copyright and fair use laws because they frequently use the intellectual property of others to aid in class, like photocopying textbook pages or playing videos. Teachers must lead by example when it comes to obeying these laws so that their students will be aware of them and follow them as well. What I would do is lead a lesson about these laws at the beginning of the school year, and then have students create bibliographies whenever they submit an assignment that requires the use of outside sources. I will also hold myself accountable to these rules and cite my sources with any presentation or assignment I create.

At least in my school, there was a heavy emphasis on curving academic dishonesty and educating on student privacy, and I learned from a young age that I should be careful what I copy from or post online. However, there is a large amount of apathy present on the internet, especially from teenagers, and I believe that this is not being properly addressed. Many of the cyberbullying lessons, however, are ineffective and outdated, and many of the videos come off as cringey. As a teacher, I would solve this by encouraging positive feedback from one student to another through group activities and requiring that a student or two comment about what they liked most after another's presentation. Learning positive habits in the classroom is important, as it can carry over into other aspects of a person's life. I would do a brief unit on cyberbullying, but nothing too in depth as many students are already informed on the issue but just don’t act properly, and end it with saying that students can always come to me if they are experiencing anything. Another issue that I believe is never talked about in an open classroom setting is a lack of funding. Until I enrolled in the ‘Intro to Education’ course here at FSU, I had no idea the extent of underfunding of schools, especially in poorer neighborhoods. My family has raised me on the misconception that it is up to the person to decide if they want to be educated or not, and while it is a little on the student, a lot of the issues rise from the system that traps them in the ‘pedagogy of poverty’. In my class, I would like to be more open about funding and money, as these are considered taboo subjects in American culture. If there are funds being cut, whether it is from my salary or from different programs, I will tell my students. Society oftentimes forgets how much power students carry, and by informing my students maybe they will take this with them throughout their life or start a movement. You never know.

I learned a surprising amount of new skills with the newsletter design that I did. I never knew that making columns and boxes around text could be so easy! I looked at many newsletters while creating my own for inspiration and I thought that it would be impossible for me to do anything like experienced teachers have done, but it is not that hard to do. The thing that took the most time was probably writing the articles! One thing that I could do to improve my newsletter in the future is to shorten the articles and make the letter more interesting to look at. I was afraid of over-decorating it with unnecessary graphics and fronts, so I might have gone too simplistic with the design. I will be able to use these skills that I have learned in my future classroom by creating electronic newsletters to send to my student’s guardians, and by creating posters to sponsor school events.