CopyRight and Fair Use Policy

I know that this is suppose to be in two paragraphs...I just couldn't see how to do that...SORRY! :)

This has really given me a different perspective on what we can use and what we can not use in our classrooms. After reading the article that The Educators' Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use by Hall Davidson, taking the Copyrighted quiz and going through the Copyright and Fair Use Guide for Teachers by the Technology & Learning.com. I realized that I was very unknowledgeable in this situation. Like the "entertainment" part. My kids have come home from school and I have ask what they did and they have said that they have watched a movie. I know that they did not watch it for educational purposes, due to the fact that the movie that they had just watched that day was not educational.

Cyberbulling, that is something we are not going to get away from. There are bullies in schools, as well as bullies on the internet. We have to be aware of what the students are doing on the internet. Children think things are funny, in which they do not really realize that it is harming another student. Some parents, (and I stress the word some, because I see parents that have just had kids because they have gotten stuck with them, and then there are others out there that pray for them every day and can not have them and would do anything for children) don't teach their children any better and they feel it is getting attention and making me feel better to make someone hurt. It is the same way with regular bullying until it gets too far. It is so very sad that it happens.

Netiquette is very important, if you feel that you have written something that may have come across wrong add some sorty of smiley, or words in order to add that up beat tone. Make sure that people know your tone even in an email or text.

There are so many rules to have to remember with all of this. They want us to intergrate so much technology into the classroom, it is really hard to keep up with the times. I think it is important that in our professional development we are taught all of these things on a regular basis to keep fresh in our classrooms and keep up with the kids. We as teachers need to stay knowledgeable as well, otherwise they will be ahead of us and we may end up losing their attention. We already have a hard enough time keeping them focused as it is.....

What Have You Learned? Assignment #4

We are talking about search engines and search techniques this weeks, and it is interesting to know that if you just experience things and take time to look into them you can learn how to maneuver around with them and manipulate your way through.  This is how I figured out how to use a search engine.  I started using a computer in the year of 1988.  I don't remember the first time that I got on the Internet but I do know that my children will never know not having the Internet.  Learning how to conduct a search while taking computer classes does help a lot.  I love to be able to do a search on the Internet.  I think it is pretty neat that you can type in a word and all of these different things pop up.  Like look at the activity we just did.  Really?  A Tree Octopus.  OK, a Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus to be exact.  Who thinks of these things?  People would really believe them though.  Especially, since most people know octopus's can not live outside of the water.

I never really thought about the things that we looked at before.  We looked at finding the author, publisher,  the reason and I never really thought about those things before unless I was really looking for a article for a research paper.  This has made me ever so more knowledgeable about looking to see if the website is legit or not.  I am definitely going to be looking into the websites for more creditability instead of just counting them as creditable.  I want to be able to use as much technology as is available to me within the schools that I teach in, I know that I am not always going to have access, depending on what the budget of the school is.  I am still about the good ole pen and paper method, since I am going to be a math teacher.  That makes a difference also since learning pen and paper style has always helped me.  I am definitely going to keep an eye out for the legitimate sites.

Keeping all these things in mind, I will keep in mind to check and double check the legitimacy of the websites that I look at for educational purposes as well as personal use, unless I know for sure that they are legit.  It is very easy to become lazy and not look and just assume that what is stated on the site is true but we all know that sites like Wikipedia can be edited by anyone to be changed.  It is very simple to do and you can put anything that you want to on that site whether it is a lie or not.  You have to be very careful in what you put into your teaching strategy's, because your students need to trust you and learn from you.

(Zapato, 2007)