EME2040 Blog Post #3

     Copyright is a protection on intellectual property. The purpose of copyright laws is to promote the spreading of knowledge and creativity without worrying about someone stealing your personal work. In order for something to be copyrighted, the work must be original and fixed. This means that the work must demonstrate that it's something new and that it is tangible in the sense that it can be seen or heard. In the education field there are many exemptions, meaning that these works can be used without obtaining permission and it will not violate copyright laws. These exemptions include face-to-face teaching activities, materials that are not copyrightable (ideas, facts, concepts, etc.), materials in the public domain, and fair use. When first learning about copyrighting it can seem overwhelming but once I learned about the exceptions it felt much more bearable. I am planning on developing a lot of my own teaching ideas but I can also use other people's ideas without having to worry about it being against the law. 

    Academic dishonesty is a huge issue in classrooms today. More and more students are using resources like ChatGPT or other forms of A.I. to write whole papers for them. Or using technology like smart watches and phones to cheat on a test. I feel that I am at an advantage compared to my teachers when I was a K-12 student because I grew up around these types of technologies and I am very familiar with how my peers used to be academically dishonest. In my future classroom I will be using applications such as turnitin which checks student's papers to see if it is plagiarized from sources on google. I don't think of cheating using devices as being a huge problem in my future classroom since I do want to be an elementary school teacher, hopefully in younger age groups. However, just in case it is I plan to have many talks and lessons with my students on academic dishonesty and the way it can negatively impact learning. 

    Implementing A.I. in classrooms is a very touchy subject within the education community. Some teachers find it to be a good resource when used the right ways, but some teachers don't want it anywhere near their classrooms since they feel it can encourage cheating and academic dishonesty. In my opinion, I don't like A.I. resources such as ChatGPT as a student and I don't think I will like it as a teacher. I find ChatGPT to be incorrect a lot and it's easier to find credible sources on Google. As a teacher I think it is important to teach students good researching techniques and how to find credible sources, rather than just typing a question into an A.I. resource. 

    I do not consider myself good at Microsoft Word, I am much better at Google Docs but I am not an expert at either. The newsletter assignment opened my eyes to so many resources on Microsoft Word that I had no idea even existed. For example, I had no idea that you could shade a section, or make two columns. I think in the future if I implemented a newsletter in my own classroom I would either use a premed template or make one template and reuse it for future newsletters. While I do feel that this assignment showed me many good tools on Microsoft Word, it was very time consuming and I don't know if I could do it every month along with all my other responsibilities as a teacher.