Blog Post 2

Microsoft Word is something that I have had to use as a student for as long as I can remember. It is an essential tool when writing papers and completing most assignments. I know most of the basics such as creating a very simple outline, typing a paper, changing the margins/indentation/font, and adding an image. Most of my teachers use Microsoft Word to create handouts, syllabi, the guidelines/ rubrics for assignments, and tests and assessments. It seems that many of my teachers in the past have had a good understanding of Word and are at least at the same skill level as myself.

Copyright and fair use are important concepts that influence educators and education. When I was in high school, I was in a graphic design program. We used Adobe Photoshop daily. I was, and I still am, a perfectionist so I often had extra edits I wanted to finish outside of class. The big issue was that Photoshop is a very expensive program to purchase. The school had legally purchased and owned the software license to use Photoshop, but I would have to purchase this as well if I wanted to download the software on my personal computer. This was a common problem for the educators that taught us because we had big projects and only a limited class time to do them. Many of us cannot just afford to buy Photoshop on our personal computers so the solution that the school administrators and teachers came up with was to have an open computer lab after school for some students to utilize the program. If i was an educator, I would agree with this solution to the problem at hand. I would explain to my students why I could not just copy the program to a flash drive for them. I would explain that it is a crime to do such things and that it is not fair and could get me and them into trouble.  I would also explain that proper citation should be in place if you use someone else's research or work and I would use simple assignments such as building a bibliography to get my point across and assess the students understanding. 

The types of issues technology implementation in education can cause are as follows: legal issues, social issues, and ethical issues. One of the main legal issues of education technology implementation is acceptable use. This is what is appropriate and inappropriate for students to access and use on the internet when at school. A solution to this issue is monitoring the students carefully and making sure they only use approved websites by installing filtering software onto classroom computers as an extra precaution.  Another legal issue presented is student privacy. I would protect my students privacy by only posting pictures of my class if approved by parents and by never posting any information about my students online. I would also be sure that I am the only one looking at students work. A social issue that can come up is cyberbullying. Most of cyberbullying will happen outside of the classroom; however, I would help prevent it by raising awareness with my students and helping them learn the best ways to deal with cyberbullying when they see it. I would let my students know how harmful their actions and words can be. Technology can be a great tool in education, but only if the right precautions are used and implemented.