As a student Microsoft Word has been useful when writing essays in my English classes. English classes are heavily research based and analyzing pieces of literature, Microsoft Word is an easy tool to use in order to get our thoughts across in essay form. I have seen teachers use Microsoft Word to help them create study guides, tests and quizzes, worksheets and assignment guidelines to help their students succeed in class.
My experiences with copyright has been mostly with citing author's work when using their words to advance my arguments in my papers. I use the words of another and quote them in order to attribute their work as not my own. Another experience I have with fair use of materials in an educational environment is when teachers show use videos during their lectures to help show a different light on the same subject. While the teacher may have not made the video it is for educational purposes and it is used for the purpose of teaching others and nothing is being used from the video for money. As a teacher who has to deal with these concepts in my own classroom and when creating my own instructional materials I will make sure that when I make PowerPoints and use videos or images that I do not own I will cite the place where I got them from and the author's name. Also, if I have students who use sources to create their own work I will make sure I teach them the correct way to cite sources as well as use programs such as Turnitin.com to catch students who are not creating their own work.
A new skill I acquired through the use of personal learning networks and specifically Twitter is that we can have access to a variety of credible news and learning companies and organizations right at our fingertips. Twitter is a microblogging website that allows users to post short posts of up to 140 characters, this allows users to have access to news and information quickly as some people "live tweet" at events. What I have learned about personal learning networks that can benefit myself as well as my students in my future teaching career is to be more creative with assigning work for my students and allow them to publish their work that allows their peers to review and give positive feedback on.
Great post! I think educating your future students about citing their work is so important. Turnitin.com is a great way to help students understand how to correctly paraphrase and cite their work.
ReplyDeleteI have had similar experiences with Word, using it mainly for essays in English class. I agree that Word can definitely be a tool in helping students succeed in class. There are so many different templates and formatting tools on word that I still have yet to discover and try out! We can use it to make lesson plans, study guides, and more than we can imagine. Awesome post!
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