#2 Microsoft word and copyright

Microsoft Word has become very commonplace in my educational experience for both teachers and students. I regularly use Word for typing papers, which makes formatting and citations streamline, as well as taking notes during lectures. My teachers often use Word for creating a syllabus, course calendar, or assignment instructions. This program has become the base for sharing written material electronically in the classroom.

Copyrighted and fair use materials continually appear in classrooms for me. Professors use both written and digital copyrighted material at their discretion to improve student learning. I had a professor last semester upload a chapter of a textbook to blackboard as a part of our assigned readings for his class. I have another professor who showed clips of documentaries in class to help us understand artistic concepts. Students will use copyrighted material in their own works and it is never too early to teach them about citing work that is not their own, even if they are using it for their own research purposes. As the students get older, a teacher can go more in depth into copyright ideas, intellectual property, and profit versus non for profit organizations. As a teacher, you can incorporate copyrighted material into instructional materials under fair use. Some considerations need to be made though including the necessity of the material for leaving versus entertainment, the necessity of the amount of the source (which often can reduce a material to clips or excerpts rather than the whole work), attributing copyrighted material when used, and meet professional standards of curriculum development.

The first implementation issue proposed in the textbook is academic honesty. This is one of the most important issues that needs a solutions in the classroom because it sets students up creating unique thought but also the underlying importance of crediting others for their work. As a solution in my classroom I would verbally go over the schools academic honesty policy and have them sign a document saying they would uphold this policy. I would also teach my students one of the citation methods so they would know how to properly give credit to someone's intellectual property within their own work. I would also use one of the plagiarism check sites such as Turnitin.com when students turn in papers to check for plagiarism in their work.

Another implementation issue is privacy. I would want students to be able to feel a sense of security in the classroom when it comes to their grades and personal information. I would want to go over the characteristics of a good password with my students to help them maintain privacy online. I also would post students grades to their accounts individually to help maintain academic privacy of their grades.

The last implementation issue is cyber bullying. This issue is very important to propose a solution to because of its prevalence in the current school climate. I would go over with my students the districts policies on bullying and cyber bullying. I would also describe the negative effects that this behavior can have on someone and offer students a safe environment where they can discuss with me any problems they are having with this issue. I think also sharing testimonials or video clips from victims of cyber bullying could be helpful because it can show the real life implications that this behavior can have.