Things I've Learned this Quarter

Where to begin! I have learned so many new ways of integrating technology in my future class.

At first, I was overwhelmed with all of the new terms being presented. For example, I had no idea what TPACK stood for or what it meant. After listening to the course instructor's lecture and a few videos on YouTube, I had a pretty good understanding of what TPACK meant.  TPACK is a concept that was developed to allow educators to understand how technology is a very important part of their teaching. It gives much insight as to how we can integrate technology in our lesson plans to benefit the students' learning.

Other things I learned where how to create my own blog and website. This was exciting for me since it was something I have personally wanted to learn for awhile. I'm glad I got the basics down since this is something I would like to incorporate in my future class. It's an excellent way to not only communicate with my students outside of the classroom, but also with parents especially those who I might not always be able to contact on a daily basis.

Another great tool I was in introduced to was Google Drive. I had heard of it before but never really paid attention to it. I'm glad I was exposed to this now since I have used it regularly to save not only class assignments but personal documents. Also, I learned how to use different presentation software such as, Google Presentations & Prezi.

Overall, it was a great experience for me to have gained so much knowledge in technology in just 10 weeks! I hope to continue to expand my knowledge in this area more in the future.

Copyright Law & Technology in the Classroom

As 21st century educators & learners, have all been exposed to the internet. Many do research strictly online and are not aware of copyright infringement. We have heard the term "plagiarism' when we are writing a paper, etc. But do we also know that we are breaking the law when we use software, programs, or videos that are downloaded from the internet? Here is a great website that has answers to what are copyright laws.

According to an article in  Education World, anything posted on a school's website page, should include a "website concerns" section to address any possible copyright infringement. It's important to note that you should always give credit to any source you use.

So how do copyright laws affect our use of technology in the classrooms? It affects our use greatly.
We should be careful to not use anything that needs permission before being used. Know when to ask permission and always give credit to any resource you are using. For example, if you wanted to have each student take some pictures home you found on the internet for homework, is it legal for you to distribute those photos without permission from the original author? You could possibly be committing copyright infringement. Or maybe you want to put a video you found on a DVD for students to take home. You should ask yourself if you are taking the necessary steps to distribute the video properly.