Blog Journal #2

I actually didn't use MS word as a student until last semester for my ENC2135 class. Throughout high school I always used Google Docs, I didn't even know we were given Microsoft for free until my roommate told me about it. But, beginning this past fall, my experience with MS Word has been pretty blasé. I definitely prefer Google Docs for essays, because MS Word is kind of confusing for me. As for my teachers, I'm not sure of their usage with Word, I'm fairly certain they did use it, I just genuinely can't think of any time when I've seen it.

I've definitely, as a student, seen and heard my teachers talk about fair use materials within the classroom, especially when it comes to watching movies or using a specific template for an assignment. I once had a teacher plan to have us play a game that was designed to assist in our understanding of medieval feudal systems, and then have to cancel the lesson surrounding the activity because she couldn't get access to it for wide scale use. There are a lot of great resources online for teachers now though, especially ones that are made for teachers by other teachers, that supply access to different activities, ideas, lesson plans, etc. When I become a teacher I plan to take full advantage of these types of resources, and also educate my students on this type of thing because I didn't fully understand it until this class.

To make sure that in my classroom the rules of Internet etiquette were maintained, and no cyber bullying was taking place, I would make sure that any work done online, especially collaborative work, was done during the classroom hours when I could make sure that students weren't taking advantage of each other, I would also make sure they filled out partnership reviews, so that if there were a situation and they felt uncomfortable saying anything during class I would be able to find out. This also applies to working with the Digital Divide. As a student who never had access to at home internet/ computer, I was always very frustrated when teachers would give last minute online homework or projects, because I wasn't guaranteed a ride to the local library, or if it were Monday, the library wasn't even open at all. I think it's important in the beginning of the school year to have students fill out accessibility cards, I've had a few teachers do that in the past, and then I would know if the class was fully capable of online work or if I needed to do alternate assignments. As for academic dishonesty, I think TurnItIn is a great resource and I would fully utilize it in my classroom.