#2 Yo dude, what's the Word?

   As a student, I have been using Microsoft Word for as long as I can remember. Whether it was for writing papers, answering homework questions, or simply playing around with Clip Art for poster projects, Word has pretty much been my friend since day 1. As far as seeing my teachers using Word, I have seen them use it to make worksheets or note outlines. In college, I've had professors create bare-bone lecture outlines that they put on Black Board for us to fill in during class. Word is awesome because it is so easy, especially now in college, to send documents back in forth to classmates or colleges.
 
   Copyright and fair use issues have mostly affected me as a student in a research context. I often use the internet and other resources for research, especially now in my major looking at specific political science literature and research. For the most part, I have always been taught that anything that I didn't create myself must be attributed to the original author in order to avoid plagiarism. My first two years of high school were spent at arts school and when we created films for our juries, we were able to use any background music. However, if we wanted to submit our films to festivals, we would have to replace copyrighted music with generic Garage Band songs.
   In an education or professional setting (ex. teaching a presentation on mass incarceration or another civil rights issue), I would e using mostly statistics or case briefings in order to present material. Statistics won't really pose a copyright issue, but case briefings and political literature must always be attributed to the original authors. Not only does this protect against copyright infringement, but just in general, it also makes you seem more credible and reliable as a presenter/educator if you are backing up your assertions and providing credit.

   One issue that arises is the issue of academic dishonesty in the digital age. It is easier than ever to copy and paste someone else's words and try to pass them off as your own. I know that many of my teachers in the past have required that papers and projects be submitted to a plagiarism checking website like "Turn It In. If I were a teacher, this is certainly something that I would implement not only to make my life easier, but also to stress to students that academic dishonesty is a large issue.
   Another issue is the issue of free speech. While I want students to know that they do have a freedom to say what they want, I also want them to understand that there is a time and a place for every type of speech. I would want students (especially older students) to understand that the type of speech that they use colloquially at home may not be appropriate in an academic setting. I would try to simply reword student's language while still stressing that their thoughts are valuable.
   A final issue is the right to privacy. Especially when it comes to grading and student records, it is incredibly important that those documents don't fall into the wrong hands. I would absolutely use a password protected grading system to protect student's privacy rights. Another thing that I would avoid doing would be submitting grades while students are in the classroom. I know that this isn't always avoidable. But, as a student, it was always embarrassing to have a teacher accidentally put Grade Quick up on the projector or have it up on their computer screen while they were talking to other students. No one needs to see my grades but me.