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Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Blog Post #2
I've used MS Word almost constantly as a student. I've used it for essays, drafts, notes, viewing/editing documents, and many other things. Office in general has been used a lot throughout my career as a student, but I'd argue that Word has been used most often. I've seen my teachers use it to create documents with instructions, creating a syllabus, editing our work, or making handouts to aid in a lesson.
In an educational environment, I have only regularly encountered copyright and fair use in terms of avoiding plagiarism through proper citations. Of course, I have also taken classes in the music business field that have educated me on copyright and fair use in terms of the music industry, but that isn't something I'd consider deeply part of my educational experience. Since middle school, I have learned how to properly cite pictures and information in my essays or projects. Even before then, I at least had a bibliography with links at the end of anything I turned in. As I teacher, I would regularly stress the importance of proper citations as my teachers have for me at the beginning of class and before things are turned in, especially for middle and high school students who are still getting the hang of things to an extent. I would also never use someone else's work in my materials without proper citations and would do my best to make sure most of my materials are my own in the first place to avoid complications.
The implementation issues addressed are all valid issues that need to be discussed. Some may be hard or impossible to avoid, but I feel like preparation can help students to avoid them to the best of their ability. An example of a legal issue would be software piracy. In this day and age, piracy is a widespread issue because it is incredibly easy to do. I think the important thing to do with students is to explain the legal repercussions of pirating so that they are aware of the risk. As a teacher, I cannot control what my students do in their spare time, but I can educate them. A social issue that is addressed is Cyberbullying, and I feel that this cannot be discussed enough. At this point, everyone part of the technological age has probably experienced or witnessed Cyberbullying at some point to some degree. This is so much harder to prevent and control as a teacher, so I think it would be best to simply have a no-tolerance policy and to make it easy to report it anonymously to me if someone witnesses it so no one feels to afraid to "rat" people out. Lastly, an ethical issue would be academic dishonesty. It is absolutely unacceptable for a student to copy work from another student or from the internet. This inhibits their learning and presents work from someone else as their own. To avoid this, I would explain to my students how to properly cite and also put parameters in place in terms of what amount of direct quotes is acceptable in an assignment.
In an educational environment, I have only regularly encountered copyright and fair use in terms of avoiding plagiarism through proper citations. Of course, I have also taken classes in the music business field that have educated me on copyright and fair use in terms of the music industry, but that isn't something I'd consider deeply part of my educational experience. Since middle school, I have learned how to properly cite pictures and information in my essays or projects. Even before then, I at least had a bibliography with links at the end of anything I turned in. As I teacher, I would regularly stress the importance of proper citations as my teachers have for me at the beginning of class and before things are turned in, especially for middle and high school students who are still getting the hang of things to an extent. I would also never use someone else's work in my materials without proper citations and would do my best to make sure most of my materials are my own in the first place to avoid complications.
The implementation issues addressed are all valid issues that need to be discussed. Some may be hard or impossible to avoid, but I feel like preparation can help students to avoid them to the best of their ability. An example of a legal issue would be software piracy. In this day and age, piracy is a widespread issue because it is incredibly easy to do. I think the important thing to do with students is to explain the legal repercussions of pirating so that they are aware of the risk. As a teacher, I cannot control what my students do in their spare time, but I can educate them. A social issue that is addressed is Cyberbullying, and I feel that this cannot be discussed enough. At this point, everyone part of the technological age has probably experienced or witnessed Cyberbullying at some point to some degree. This is so much harder to prevent and control as a teacher, so I think it would be best to simply have a no-tolerance policy and to make it easy to report it anonymously to me if someone witnesses it so no one feels to afraid to "rat" people out. Lastly, an ethical issue would be academic dishonesty. It is absolutely unacceptable for a student to copy work from another student or from the internet. This inhibits their learning and presents work from someone else as their own. To avoid this, I would explain to my students how to properly cite and also put parameters in place in terms of what amount of direct quotes is acceptable in an assignment.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Blog Post #1
Considering the era we live in, technology can be viewed as crucial in the classroom for both teachers and students for a variety of reasons. Starting with teachers, technology can make teaching both easier and more impactful overall. This is because a lot of the more menial tasks a teacher may have to take care of (recording/calculating grades, taking attendance, etc.) can be done much more easily with technology which saves both time and energy. Additionally, the teacher can use technology to provide visual aid such as pictures and video that otherwise may have been harder for them to provide. This makes explanation easier and helps the teacher get through the curriculum more effectively. In terms of the student, the benefits are somewhat connected because they are the ones who will truly gain from the teacher's ability to do their job more effectively. Additionally, they will be able to research things more efficiently and will also be able to use programs and visual aids themselves to aid their own education. Even seemingly simple things like Microsoft Office eliminate issues such as sloppy presentations, illegible handwriting, or unnecessary hours being spent on putting projects together (whether it be an essay or a presentation or really anything else). The synthesis can be seen in how these benefits help both the teacher and student, even if a certain aspect clearly affects one more directly.
Overall, I find the ISTE standards fair and encouraging because it sets a bar for both teachers and students. One that particularly gladdens my heart would be the standard for teachers that emphasizes inspiring student creativity because that is something so crucial to a child that can often be overlooked, especially in terms of self-expression. Not all students are the same, so they should have their creativity and differences encouraged rather than stifled. One that seems out of my skillset would be designing and developing digital age experiences and assessments due to my own personal lack of technological knowledge (for now). As an individual, I tend to use pen and paper whenever possible, so I feel that it would be difficult to center a curriculum around technology successfully, despite how beneficial it would be.
I would agree with the label "digital native" to an extent. In other words, I find the term "today's youth" to be rather broad when thinking about digital literacy. This is because I was born before Google and when Dial-Up was still a thing, but someone merely a few years younger than me cannot relate. So much change has happened in the past decade that it is hard to compare me to someone seemingly in the same generation (this also applies to the differences between myself and people only a few years older than me). To be a digital native means to have grown up familiar with the Internet and modern technology, which is something I do feel applies to youths. I feel that we are more likely to understand it quickly because we don't know life without it like digital immigrants do. The differences between natives and immigrants tend to lie most heavily in efficiency rather than competency. In other words, immigrants are more than able to learn how to use digital tools, but they tend to be more awkward or clumsy, or they use methods that take longer than necessary (right-click and copy-paste rather than control+C, just to give an example). I don't see that as terribly impactful on my learning experience except when a teacher is particularly resistant to technology which has hindered my ability to gain experience. I anticipate a similar proportional difference between myself and my students because so much more will probably have been developed that I will be an immigrant to, and they will also have a much harder time grasping a time without this technology.
Overall, I find the ISTE standards fair and encouraging because it sets a bar for both teachers and students. One that particularly gladdens my heart would be the standard for teachers that emphasizes inspiring student creativity because that is something so crucial to a child that can often be overlooked, especially in terms of self-expression. Not all students are the same, so they should have their creativity and differences encouraged rather than stifled. One that seems out of my skillset would be designing and developing digital age experiences and assessments due to my own personal lack of technological knowledge (for now). As an individual, I tend to use pen and paper whenever possible, so I feel that it would be difficult to center a curriculum around technology successfully, despite how beneficial it would be.
I would agree with the label "digital native" to an extent. In other words, I find the term "today's youth" to be rather broad when thinking about digital literacy. This is because I was born before Google and when Dial-Up was still a thing, but someone merely a few years younger than me cannot relate. So much change has happened in the past decade that it is hard to compare me to someone seemingly in the same generation (this also applies to the differences between myself and people only a few years older than me). To be a digital native means to have grown up familiar with the Internet and modern technology, which is something I do feel applies to youths. I feel that we are more likely to understand it quickly because we don't know life without it like digital immigrants do. The differences between natives and immigrants tend to lie most heavily in efficiency rather than competency. In other words, immigrants are more than able to learn how to use digital tools, but they tend to be more awkward or clumsy, or they use methods that take longer than necessary (right-click and copy-paste rather than control+C, just to give an example). I don't see that as terribly impactful on my learning experience except when a teacher is particularly resistant to technology which has hindered my ability to gain experience. I anticipate a similar proportional difference between myself and my students because so much more will probably have been developed that I will be an immigrant to, and they will also have a much harder time grasping a time without this technology.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Blog Post #0
My prior experiences using technology are fairly limited mainly due to the fact that I tend to avoid using technology if at all possible. In other words, if I can take my notes by hand, I do. If I can accomplish something with minimal use of technology successfully, I do. If I can read a physical paper or book rather than a screen, I do. This is because I've never been a fan of screens for the most part and I also do not have the best technological ability overall. I understand basic things in terms of social media, my phone, and my computer, but any troubleshooting or more complex aspects are fairly lost to me and I hate asking for help so they are often avoided. I do however have to use technology for many of my classes, so I do have inevitable experience with most Microsoft Office programs, social media, and basic computer/phone functions.
In this class, I hope to expand my knowledge with technology so that I can be more comfortable with it. I know that in the professional world, it is fairly difficult to advance and move forward without experience and knowledge in this field, so I would hate to hinder myself based on this stubbornness. I hope to make myself comfortable with the overview of technology and to apply these skills to many different programs or technological elements in the future.
Something that I learned about my own learning style from the questionnaire results is that I am both an active and reflective learner (I landed pretty close to the middle) so I work well with both types of learning and often benefit from using both methods in the same subject. This makes sense to me because I love visual aids, but I'm also a writer and love to think things through on my own with written instructions as well. I also learned that I am more intuitive and verbal, both of which also make sense to me. As a writer, I can see that verbal communication would definitely make a great deal of sense to me because that is my main source of communication personally. Words make sense to me. I also consider myself creative and imaginative, so I'm not surprised to see that I am more intuitive as well. Lastly, I learned that I am in the middle for sequential and global learning as well. This is probably not because I have a great deal of strength or weakness in both, but rather that I don't particularly have a noticeable affinity for either. I'll use this information to better aid my study habits and help myself achieve my potential.
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