Blog Post #2

As a student, I've pretty much used MS Word throughout my entire schooling, starting from about 4th grade up until this year as a sophomore in college. Word was as essential in creating projects and essays back in elementary school as it is now being at a major university. I definitely didn't do as intense writing in elementary school compared to middle school, and high school compared to college, but gradually learning the basics of the program and how/when it is best to use it definitely had a positive impact on me as a student. Now, having been put in a classroom to teach, I find myself using Word to do a lot of things that my own teachers did back in my K-12 schooling, like create test/quizzes, write notes, create lesson plans, and present general information to the students.

Throughout each year of my schooling, at least one teacher of mine goes over what copyright means and the rules of fair use of materials. Both copyright and fair use have always been an important issue stressed upon in each school I've attended. They stressed the seriousness of using someone else's material in projects, and to make sure it was available to be used publicly. As a teacher, I would do the same as my teachers before me, showing students the importance of creating individual work, and when having to use someone else's material, be sure to give credit where it's due. I would also apply this same principle to my own work when creating lesson plans and tests, as well as giving credit to creators of material when finding activities or materials that I see as beneficial to the lesson, whether they be from online, a book of lesson plans/activities, or from a fellow teacher.

I never thought of Twitter as a professional networking app, but after monday's class I see that it is a great way to connect to companies and other educational services to not only share information, but receive it as well. Having the ability to tweet out to well-established companies about educational issues at hand, or share a solid opinion about whatever is being shared, is a great ability to have. It expands your connection to the world of education outside of your classroom and school, and puts you in a place where information would have been hard to access or hear about in a timely manner outside of social media. Inside the classroom, it gives me the ability to connect to the other students in my class to discuss topics we are learning, ask questions, and share helpful information with each other, which I think is a great thing to have in any classroom.