Blog #3

Microsoft Word in My Educational Experience

Microsoft Word has been an extremely helpful technological tool throughout my educational experience, and it is therefore the software that I am most comfortable with. In elementary school, I did not use Microsoft Word myself for, but my teachers certainly used it to create assignments, quizzes, tests, notes, etc. for my peers and me. In middle school I began typing essays and other assignments using Microsoft Word which continued into high school and college becoming more frequent over the years. I began to learn different formatting styles such as MLA and APA starting in middle school, but especially in high school. At FSU, my use of Microsoft Word has expanded as I have been pushed to use more design features rather than just typing an essay. Throughout the later years of education, teachers continued to use Microsoft Word for similar purposes as in my earlier years. I expect to learn even more throughout this class about how teachers can use this software in a beneficial way such as the newsletters we are currently designing.

Copyright & Fair Use

When I was younger, I understood that I should never plagiarize someone else’s work because we were constantly reminded of the honor code in school. However, I was confused as to how to properly use the information I had researched when writing papers. Over the years, I learned how to paraphrase, quote, and cite sources. I also learned much more extensive information about fair use while studying for my degree in Editing, Writing, & Media. Fair use laws do make it much easier for students to use various sources so long as it pertains to their educations. All of these are skills that I would strive to teach my students so that they are knowledgeable of what they can and cannot do. I would, of course, adjust these lessons according to the age group of my students.

Technology Implementation Issues

Academic Dishonesty:

Unfortunately, I feel that academic dishonesty is rather common. A potential solution to this problem is using websites such as Turnitin which check students’ work to ensure that it is not plagiarized. I would use a website like this for typed assignments such as research papers and essays. If a student did not pass the Turnitin standards, I would have a discussion with them and allow them the opportunity to fix and resubmit the assignment while ensuring that they fully understand how to properly use sources while adding their own ideas to write a strong paper. I would also try to encourage students to want to do their own work by instilling a passion for learning and explaining that they will only learn from an assignment by doing the work themselves.

Cyberbullying:

Technology in the classroom can help immensely by making both teaching and learning more effective. However, it can potentially have some downfalls such as cyberbullying. I think the most important solution to this problem is to stop it before it starts. I believe that as a teacher, it is extremely important to set standards and expectations for netiquette before students begin using online platforms. If a student disregards these expectations, I believe it is necessary to have a zero tolerance policy since no student should have to feel bullied or insecure in their learning environment.

Comments
I commented on Liz's blog post. In this comment, I focussed on copy right and fair use and recommended a video that really helped me when I was first learning about this. I also commented on Mallory's post. For this comment, I focussed more on the technology implantation issues, especially her comment on lack of funding.