Changed Views

I will use technology in my classroom to promote higher order thinking, and to enhance the quality of educative opportunities for the students. Technology can be extremely beneficial if integrated delicately. In other words, it is the responsibility of the educator to incorporate the use of technology, whether it be a webquest, powerpoint, podcast, blog-in such ways that stimulate, encourage, and engage the students. Technology can be a useful medium through which both students and teachers can interact and communicate to each other.

My views on technology have completely changed over the past seven weeks. I was initially against using technology in the classroom beacause it is rarely integrated in useful, beneficial, and interesting ways. However, from taking this course, I have realized that as the world is advancing so quickly, it is our job as educators to prepare and instruct students how to use this technology to their advantages, but also use it to our advantage.

I now see technology as an integral part of education because it has the ability to push student's learning even further, as it allows the students to create extensions of their internal thoughts and ideas. Podcasts, webquests, and scavenger hunts for example, allow students to enjoy what they are creating, and what their classmates are creating. Ultimately, my feelings have changed completely in regards to technology, in that I respect it being used in the classroom if done so effectively and interestingly, and plan to incorporate it into my classroom in the future.

Invoke Appreciation, For Creation

I think the most important way to deal with copyright issues is to first explain to the students what those issues are and how to avoid them. I would first explain to them that copyright is a form of protection, in that it protects the creators work when that work is being used without permission. I would then explain the importance of crediting an idea.

I would go on to tell them about the fair use policy, but then personalize the information, relate it directly to the students, so that they may come to terms with having a great idea taken from them without being credited. Most importantly, I would want to evoke the students to feel a sense of respect for an individual's creation, and their own creations, so that those ideas do not become detached from its creator in an unfair and unjust way.