2 - Social Media is the Key

Microsoft Word has been part of my life since the beginning of times. I have been in and out of computer classes since I was four years old. On my part, Word has been used to write papers, present projects and create flyers and handouts for events and announcements. Microsoft Word was hardly ever used for anything exciting in my perspective. Teachers have mainly used Word for creating tests, quizzes, rubrics, guides and all that boring paperwork. I can honestly say that the only time I was ever excited about Microsoft Word was in the second grade when I learned how to use clipart and word art. I am sure there is much more that can be done using Microsoft Word, but I just haven't learned all its tricks and capabilities for creation.

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Copyright has never been my strong suit. I am always having to refresh myself on what is allowed and what is not. I remember sitting in media class as a small child being told what exactly what copyright was and I had no idea what the in world anybody was talking about. As I got older, and the research papers and projects started pouring in I began to understand copyright and why it is necessary, and once I got to high school citations and work cited pages became my entire life. Before every research project, my entire class was taken to the library to speak with our media specialist about the the proper way to cite sources and what exactly plagiarism is and how not to do it. As a teacher I feel as though it is very important to set an example for your students when learning what can be used and what cannot when it comes to somebody else's work. As a teacher, I too will put my students through many workshops that provide them with the skills to understand when to cite, how to cite, paraphrasing, and plagiarism. As a teacher, to set a good example, I want to try to stray away from using worksheets and tests made by others in order to show students that the photocopier is not always necessary. Students are quick to understand that using somebody else's work as their own is a bad thing, but they do not always know how to properly cite or give credit and I believe that is the root of the problem. 

Again, as a child of the 21st century social media is not a foreign concept. I was learning how to use Facebook and Twitter at the ripe age of 10 (behind my parents' back of course). I do not think there is much more I can possibly learn about using these media pages, but there is a ton I do not know when it comes to using social media as a learning tool. Twitter is full of current events and discoveries, and educational technology is apart of that. Bringing social media into the classroom will spark students' attention as it is something that is apart of their everyday lives that they genuinely enjoy. It allows students to be interactive with their fellow classmates and teachers in and out of the classroom. Twitter has been adding features such as polls which can be very beneficial in the classroom. It gives students the ability to access and learn from educational articles straight from the experts themselves. In this day and age, social media may just be the key to getting students to want to pay attention and learn.