As a student I have always used a program such as Microsoft Word. Teachers wanted papers to be typed instead of handwritten or wanted the paper to be emailed to them. My first time using Microsoft Word was in the 7th grade. My teacher wanted us to write about anything but make it interesting. I remember writing a story about a brave knight going to save a princess, with his only being a well balanced breakfast. The experience of using Microsoft Word was interesting. I didn't have much experience typing and as a result it took a long time to write. I think Microsoft Word makes everything easier for teachers.For example, instead of trying to read chicken scratch handwriting a teacher is able to clearly read a typed paper. Another way microsoft Word is helpful to a teacher is that a student is able to submit it even if they not in class via email.
I have interesting amount of experience with fair use that I encountered in high school. In high school I was in a film class and had to create things not just for personal projects but for the school. I created a video to be shared at my high school's freshman orientation. My biggest task was finding music that worked well for the video that was in the public domain. I searched for about 2 hours until I found something that fit into the video. The most frustrating part is that I knew some songs that would have worked but was unable to put them in for copyright reasons. The way my teacher always told us to avoid any kind copyright issues was to create something ourselves or use something in the public domain. You always had the option to contact an artist for permission but it would most likely have been a waste of time. As a teacher I would encourage my students to create something or use something in the public domain.
The three most important things that my implementation would focus on are: misuse of technology,dealing with copyright issues, and making sure students follow a strict honor policy.
Lets face it, we all have streamed a show from a questionable website and may have illegally downloaded that album illegally. I would encourage students to try to buy music from an artist or to find a reliable way to stream something online. Most importantly I would stress that they should never do these things on a school computer. I remember my friend had a really bad virus and it took me almost an hour to fix it for them and I don't want to ever do that again. Misusing technology is very easy to do. My main focus would be cyberbullying. I am normally a very nonchalant person and I don't take many thing seriously. Bullying is not something that you can be nonchalant about. People have died as a result of it. As a teacher it is your job to ensure that your students feel safe in their environment. If that would require monitoring social media more closely than I would. A big problem with allowing students to work digitally is that they use it as a tool to cheat. A possible solution to this would be to use a plagiarism checker such to monitor the work of students.
