A Copy of a Copy

I knew that copyright laws were important, but I had no idea how serious they were. I have always been careful with anything I use whether it be in the classroom or my own school work. I make sure that I am giving credit to the proper person. The thing that blew me away the most is when they were talking about bulletin boards in the classroom and how teachers should not recreate cartoon characters. I have seen many teachers do that before. It was shocking to me that it is not allowed or accepted. If you want that certain character up in your classroom then you have to find one that you are able to purchase so you are abiding by the copyright regulations. This makes me rethink a lot of things.

              Courtesy of Tristro.net

As educators we need to know what the proper guidelines are so that we can follow them. We need to show our students that copyright laws are serious and something that should not be taken lightly. I do not think that people realize how serious of an issue it really is. When we are copying something we are taking credit for someone’s idea or creation. In school we are teaching students that plagiarism is wrong. This is a form of plagiarism. We need to instill in them that you can receive serious consequences for breaking the copyright laws. I think that it is something that people are not aware of and they have not been properly instructed on. Now that I have read over the different articles in this module I am definitely going to share my knowledge with others.

              Courtesy of memeburn.com

Social Media

I believe that social media is a wonderful tool. My first use of social media was when I was in high school and I created my very own Myspace account. I instantly loved it because I was able to reconnect with old friends and family members who lived out of state. As we all know technology is always changing. As I became older I realized there are more social media sites that were becoming popular. I now have a facebook, instagram, snapchat, twitter, and countless other accounts that I am constantly updating. Social media has become apart of our daily lives. I even have the ENews app on my phone. An alert is sent to me when there is breaking Hollywood celebrity news. I mean there really is an app for everything. Social media is booming and I believe it is only going to continue to grow bigger than it already it.

          Courtesy of social-media

     Social media can play a huge role in education. I think that it would be awesome to have a twitter account for the class. Parents could be notified of any school projects or activities that are taking place. I know from experience from coaching that information does not always get delivered to the parents from the student. The more parent communication you have the happier everyone is. It would also be a great way to post due dates and deadlines for assignments. There would be no more surprises to parents about a science project being due the next morning when it is 9:00pm the night before. I definitely plan on using social media in my future classroom to help parent/teacher communication. For more information and opinions about social media use in the classroom here is an article.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/using-social-media-classroom/

Cool Tools in the Classroom

As we all know technology is growing at a rapid rate. As educators we are constantly trying to keep up with the advancements that are being made. I have recently been long term subbing in a first grade classroom and they use a program called Class Dojo. This system is new to me, but it seems to be incredibly effective. Class Dojo is a program that helps parents and teachers stay in contact. It also helps with behavior management. If the student is acting out in class the teacher can click on an icon and it immediately contacts the parents. If I mention Class Dojo to the class I sub in the students know that they need to be on task or their parents will know if they are not following directions the way they should be.

                Courtesy of blogspot

The advantages of Class Dojo

• immediate parent contact
• students are aware of their behavior
• class participation points are easily tracked

Disadvantages of Class Dojo

• parents may be notified multiple times if student’s behavior changes throughout the day.
• can become a distraction for some students
• the internet is unreliable at times and Class Dojo is inaccessible at times

I have only used this program a couple of times. I have a lot more to learn and I need to do more research on it myself. From what I have seen this program has many more advantages than disadvantages. The students are well aware of what the program is capable of and they want their Dojo points for the day. Below is a link that will take you to more information about Class Dojo.

https://www.classdojo.com/#LearnMore

The Power of the Cloud

As this class continues I find myself learning more and more about technology and what it offers. There is so much technology in the world and as educators it is important for us to learn how to apply it in the classroom. Right now chromebooks are being used in public school classrooms all over the world. Elementary school students are becoming more familiar with computers than adults are. In this day in age children are brought up in a world based around technology.  With the technology being more advanced than it ever has been lessons in the classroom are much different. Teachers are having to put their own twist on classic lessons. With technology such as Cloudware, group projects will never be the same.

             Courtesy of Christian Ray

When I think of group projects from high school, I think of spending a whole weekend at a classmate’s house trying to compare ideas and finally settling on a final product. With Cloudware, students are able to stay in the comfort of their own home and work efficiently together. Students can log onto a single document and they all have the ability to add or edit the same one. It allows group work to become much more convenient than ever before. I think that teachers should introduce these types of programs much earlier so students are familiar with them before college. I considered myself to be fairly tech savy, until I started this class. I am reminded every week how much I actually do not know how to do. This class has opened my eyes to incredible programs such as Cloudware, that allow students to work together while not having to actually be with each other.  It allows students to work as a team and be able to allow proper collaboration. I am looking forward to introducing new and improved group assignments in my future classes.

        Courtesy of cloudware- inc.com