Reflection #3 Copyright

"What do you think of copyright laws? Are they helpful or harmful? Do you think changes need to be made? If so, what would you change?"

Honestly, when it comes copyright laws I have a lot of mixed emotions. I see their purpose and understand why they are needed, yet as a college student I cannot deny the fact that I think they are a big hassel more than anything. There are so many technicalities and the laws have so many grey areas that if you are violating laws, you probably don't even realize it. Especially as future educators we have to juggle so many things from discipline, lesson plans, and tests, that worrying whether or not we are violating copyright laws when we show a movie is not going to be our main concern. Thus, I like how section 110(1) of the copyright laws basically says that if you are showing something in an educational setting for educational purposes, you are usually covered under fair use. The problem with this is the word "usually." This is the part I would change about the copyright laws. The words, "usually" and "limitations" are all contributing to the ambiguity of the laws. Any time there are grey areas it leaves room for different interpretations, which leads to court battles, which leads to wasted time and money. Thus, I would just make it clear that if you are an instructor using something for educational purposes you are covered under fair use.

An Apple A Day Explained...

Welcome to my blog! Judging from the large rugby picture at the top of the screen, I'm sure you can already tell that I have a love for sports. I love it enough to tackle girls twice my size with no padding. The quote below the picture is one of my favorites. My senior year of high school our Varsity Soccer team chose this to be our theme. We put it on the back of our practice t-shirts to remind us what it takes to be a champion. To go along with this "Champion" theme I listed my favorite inspirational sports movies as well as some of my favorite songs to work out to.

I am sure we have all heard the saying "An Apple a Day keeps the Doctor Away." Since entering the Physical Education program here at BYU I have discovered a new love: a healthy diet. My roomates would probably say that I have turned into somewhat of a health freak. The Biggest Loser is officially my new favorite TV show and healthy cooking has become a new hobby. Proper Nutrition is not only crucial to the health of athletes, but it is important for everyone. Thus, if I can convey this message to my future students along with helping them discover a love for physical exercise then I have done my job and a PE instruction. And if this Instructional Technology in Teaching can help me use technology to do that then-bring it on!

Reflection #2

"Would you like to use any of the resources we talked about in class (or perhaps others you found on your own) to help further your learn? Which ones? How might these resources be useful to you as a student and as a teacher?"

I thought it was really neat how you can highlight web pages by using Diigo. In the past I have had to do a lot of research projects using the Internet. It gets complicated by having many different tabs and getting the bookmarks mixed up in my other bookmarks. This would also be really neat if you had to do a project with someone else. Both of you can highlight and then compare what you have highlighted. I can definitely see myself using this in the remainder of my college career. I might even have my students do a project on physical fitness and require them to do research. My brother is a PE teacher at Mountain View high school. He had his students do a report where they learned about nutrition and recorded what they ate. This website would be a help in the research aspect of the project where the students are actually looking online for information.

Zotero might actually be an even better website for my students to use because it cites the articles for you. You can organize the articles and bookmark them just like in Diigo, but this site does the referencing for you. With my past experience referencing in reports, I have found it to be quite a hassle. Also, it is time spent on something that should be spent researching more material. So any program that can save me or my students that time would be beneficial.

Reflection #1

When it comes to technology, I would say it neither frightens me nor excites me. I recall last year when my computer crashed and I lost all of my photos from the past five years. Yeah, that was not a happy day. But I also recall being able to keep track of all of my siblings and nieces and nephews by viewing their blogs. So, like with most things in life, technology has pros and cons. Last year I was in a "Teaching math with Technology" class. I dealt with Excel, various computer math programs such as Geometer's Sketchpad, website evaluation, and calculator use. I had to create a google website "Danielle's World of Math" I enjoyed the class b I updated daily.ut I definitely think the technology aspect made it more stressful.

One of my goals for this class is to make sure I know how to successfully implement technology into the classroom. I want to learn specific things I can assign my students to do as well as programs that will help me in instruction. Basically I want to make this class as realistic and applicable to PE teaching as possible.