Blog Journal #2- MS Word & Copyright

Hi and welcome back!

Today, I want to talk about the earliest form of technology I used in education- Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is an application that helps its user to create and edit documents. This is also the form of technology I have used the most in my education. I have found it to be an easy thing to navigate and use for many different tasks such as taking notes, creating a project and writing an essay. Even though I have recently used similar applications, like Google Docs, I will continue to use Microsoft Word for probably the rest of my life. As a future teacher, I can also see this to be a useful tool to help my students develop writing skills while still using technology.

In school, it has also been required of me to be careful of what I would use in Microsoft Word in relation to plagiarism. Plagiarism is the misuse of work by means of not giving the source its credit. In order to not plagiarize, one must know of copyrights. When something is copyrighted, it means that you must attribute credit to the source when you personally use it. This is important in education as a student and as a teacher. As a teacher, you must teach and encourage your students to create their own work while correctly crediting sources that are not their own. You must also insure that you do the same when you use any materials for instruction. I would specifically insure that these practises would be used in my classroom by teaching my students early on the importance of being honest when it comes to your work.

Teaching students honesty goes along with discussing academic honesty and dishonesty in the classroom. Academic dishonesty is especially trivial in high school and college but, teaching students about it at a young age can set them up for success. An activity an elementary school teacher could do with their students is to sort through different examples of academic dishonesty and have them explain why it is not ok. Another more serious issue with technology in the classroom is student privacy. Minors and young adults are especially susceptible to have their personal lives exposed via the internet. A good way to combat this is to have students set up all of their online accounts with privacy settings. Therefore, they are used to doing this before they make more accounts outside of school.

Blog Journal #1- ISTE & Digital Natives

Welcome back to my blog! In EME2040, we constantly discuss and learn about the connections between education and technology. Why do we use technology in school? Simply put-it is almost impossible not to. As time has gone on and technology has kept evolving, the realm of education has tried to keep up by implementing new technology into classrooms. One example of this is set in the early 2000's. Around this time, smart boards were available to some teachers. Now, smart boards are used widely in classrooms and continue to be improved upon, all because technology is evolving.

As technology has evolved, many organizations have come together to bridge the gap between education and technology. The ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, is a collaborative effort for educators to encourage technology use in the classroom. They created a set of standards for teachers and students to follow to encourage this in a positive and productive way. The standard that means the most to me is "leader". This standard states that teachers must lead their students to personal and educational growth, especially by the means of technology. This standard is important because we need teachers to be more active than passive. Active teachers create healthy environments for students to learn in.

As technology has evolved, my generation has also kept up. Some might refer to my generation as "digital natives". This could be an accurate description for my generation because we grew up with technology that no one has ever experienced or grown up with before. Technology is ingrained in our every day lives. However, generations before ours could be referred to as digital immigrants because they have to learn how to use the technology that comes so easily to us. The technological differences between my teachers that could be considered digital immigrants and I never largely affected my education. Although, I can anticipate as a teacher that I will have to keep up with the current technology in order to keep up with my students.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Savanna McCabe and this is my blog for EME2040. I am currently a sophomore at Florida State University studying psychology and intending to apply to the elementary education program. I also work part time and am involved in my campus ministry- the Catholic Student Union at FSU, TCC and FAMU. Some things I am passionate about are the influence of family life on a child's development, mental health, the Catholic faith and the environment.

Through this blog, I will be expressing myself and fulfilling the requirements for EME2040. EME2040 is about the influence of technology in education. My generation had the unique privilege of growing up in a time where we were on the verge of the technological and social media boom that is the early 2000's. Consequently, I experienced the frequent use of technology during my education. Halfway through my elementary education, we started to use smart boards during class instead of white boards. Going into middle and high school, the use of platforms like turnitin.com, Edmodo and social media marked the way I would complete assignments and develop personally. Now as a college student, the use of Canvas is at the center of the way I function as a student.

Although I have and still do use technology for my education, I also use it outside of my education. I frequently use things like Google Docs as a means for my involvement as a student leader in the Catholic Student Union. So, during this class, I would like to learn more about technology so I can use it appropriately and to my advantage in and outside of the classroom.