Journal 3

Copyright + Fair Use

    Copyright and fair use are two terms that I usually don't think very much about. They're the kind of words you hear prefacing a YouTube video that talks about someone else's content, or a strange law that prevents you from using a song in a TikTok. However, after learning about copyright and fair use, I have discovered that it applies to so much of my life, even my own work. Copyright is defined as an IP law that protects original creative work. Fair use is the rule that allows people to use portions of those creative works fairly without paying or requesting permission first. I think to deal with these concepts as a teacher who is creating her own lesson plans and materials, as well as encouraging students to create original works, I would explain to them what the terms are so that any student who wanted to practice fair use or obtain copyright for their creations could correctly. I would also obtain copyright protection for my work that I was putting out publicly. 

Issues with Technology Implementation

While technology grants us great benefits, it has also undoubtedly been the root of new issues that students face. One of these is cyber bullying. It is often taught about in schools as a preventative measure, but these warnings must be constantly updated as new trends develop on the internet and social media. I think the best thing to do when teaching children about these dangers is to tell them foremost to be safe. If anything seems dangerous or someone is being harmful, tell an authority figure. On the other side of that coin, we also must educate children to be kind and respectful when using the internet and social media. This is difficult, because many people who are adults have a hard time being respectful online. However, by encouraging this kind of culture while kids are still young and learning, it may hopefully prevent the toxicity that we all know can so easily spawn in online spaces. 

Decreased productivity is another issue we face as future educators with technology. With so much stimulation, it can be distracting for students. However, this can be helped by taking breaks from technology in the classroom, returning to more traditional mediums like books or paper assignments, at least for part of the class time. 

Designing a Newsletter

One of our assignments was to design a newsletter that could be used in an educational setting. I decided to create one for a high school theatre department. In the future, I could improve my newsletter by playing around with design elements in Word that could make it even more visually appealing. I could use the skills I learned in this assignment in the future to design presentations and papers, or even newsletters, since I want to be a teacher. In the meantime, I can use these design skills to contribute to the comedy club I am a member of in the form of creating promotional material and flyers for our performances. The club also puts out a newsletter, so I could contribute to that in the future using skills I learned from this assignment. 

Here’s a look at my newsletter!