Education through Designing, Television, and Assessments

Using design for activities in a classroom is done more often than not. Many times we fail to realize that using design through education, helps our students in so many ways. For example, there are music design programs that help students create music by arranging and rearranging the order of notes. Through these various programs, teachers are often designers with the task of helping students use this particular software and other programs relating to technology. As a future health teacher, I would like to use a program that let's you manipulate your diet or nutrition chart, which directly relates to computer design software. Regardless, all students gain benefit and knowledge through improved technology.

Television can also be a great learning tool. However, I don't think most students can learn from this alone. Many times students need a hands on approach, as well as instructions to go along with that. Our author explains, "one of the best ways to use video for teaching is to model specific performances"(Jonasson 2008). But, this involves recreating the video, thus applying more instruction to go along with the video. With that said, teaching through instruction should not be limited to one model in particular, but in many ways to help all students in their different learning styles.

As we know, there are many ways to assess learning activities through performance using technology. Examples that we've have already used which could be incorporated into a classroom could be: e-portfolios, on-line grading rubrics, and electronic tests. Many of these assessments can take time and be a little nerve racking, but they help to create a standard assessment scale and better organization of records. Through these methods, teachers have a better assessment of where their students are academically, thus aiding them in their learning which would directly relate to their performance.


Jonassen, David, & Howland, Jane, & Marra, Rose, & Crimsmond, David. (2008).
Meaningful Learning with Technology(3rd ed.). Prentice Hall.

Copyright, Fair Use, and Online Safety

The United States Copyright Office states, "Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works." It is this protection that gives the aforementioned people the ability to take ownership in the works they've created and also a way for them to safeguard their work so that it will not be passed off as someone else’s work. We must respect this because it it’s the law, but as importantly, it’s the right thing to do. Those who break these laws cheat people out of their credibility and notoriety. People often times lose money or their ideas are stolen, which many times might be their livelihood. As a teacher, we must teach our students the rules for copyright information and fair use procedure, so that they don't 1)Break the Law, 2)Fail to give credit to the rightful owner, and 3)Lose their ethical morals or sense of integrity. In fact, teachers at all levels have the responsibility and the legal obligation to model appropriate respect for copyright law and educate students about how they can do the same (Fryer, 2003). I think the best way to teach our students these rules is by not only practicing them ourselves, but also giving the students the opportunity to work on these rules through a game or some creative way that doesn't discourage them from wanted to use any other information other than their own.

The difference between online safety and cyberbullying is vast. Online safety consists of protecting things like passwords, bank accounts, addresses, and other personal information. Cyberbullying on the otherhand, is when someone sends harmful images or texts on the internet or other digital device. Cyberbullying happens quite often and can be very harmful to kids. Both of these topics must be taken very seriously. We must teach our students not to give up personal information to any distrusted sources and also tell them to speak out against anyone who says anything harmful or offensive online. Also, as an educator I think parents should know about the recent increase in online safety problems and cyberbullying, so I’d probably send home a newsletter that covers it.

This section has been very informative to me. Often times, I've been unclear on what exactly copyright really means. Sometimes people copy DVD's, CD's, or maybe a textbook. As we've learned this week and should have known, this is not legal. As a world we're continuing to get more and more technologically advanced, thus we need to ensure that these things are covered in school and at a very early age. Our students and children depend on it. I scored a 73 on the copyright quiz, so about what I expected. It's not always very easy determining the ends and outs of what 60 minutes episode you’re watching, but all and all a lot of new information for me, and more things to continue to learn.


Fryer, W. (n.d.). Integrating Technology in the Classroom. Copyright 101 for Educators: Winter 2003. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from www.wtvi.com/TEKS/02_03_articles/copyright.html

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. (n.d.). Safety Tips. NetSmartz. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from http://www.netsmartz.org/safety/definitions.htm

U.S.Copyright Office.(2008).Copyright Basics. Library of Congress. pp(1-12). www.copyright.gov.