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The idea of education in the modern world is a pressing topic. Although it’s somewhat touched upon in both of the videos, the idea of nostalgia is very much present. The first video ends with a teacher writing on a chalkboard and the second one talks about issues within the educational system. The title of the documentary in itself is called “Declining Degrees” has negative connotations with them.

“What are we missing now in comparison to fifty years ago in the educational system?” This question leads me to believe that we all desire time. College students these days are stressed out, they have a huge amount of homework. There is an ever increasing amount of students who have student loan debt and if only there was more time in which we can both work and study to counterbalance the amount of debt students will have to tackle. There is a sense of aloneness I feel like students have. Here students are in a classroom filled with a hundred others and a teacher won’t know their name when they see them. Then the ultimate question is: will I matter come after graduation? I’ll be fighting for attention in the outside world for a job and I can’t get attention in a normal classroom setting. It’s sad reflecting on college life and ultimately saying “that’s the way it is.”

In considering my future career of creative writing, I did my research on just that. Although I could do it on education in general, but I decided otherwise since I feel like we have rehashed quite a bit this semester on the issue of ethics within the classroom. I enjoyed reading the Geologist section for the fact that it proves that there is a specific community of scientists that intertwine with one another. It would be the same as any other profession I guess, but it’s nice to actually read something geared to a certain field.

There wasn’t anything I found that had a similar setup as the Geologists Statement on Professional Ethics for the school of creative writing. When doing a Google search as suggested within the module, the first link that popped up was https://naiwe.com/about/ethics.php. Upon looking at it, you can tell that this isn’t technically a formal document that is home to a list of statements. The question now that needs to be addressed is: why is this the case? I understand that creative writing in general can be subjective so it can be intimidating to define such a field. I think the one link that I was looking at and comparing it to the Geologist Statement, I think a good common ground is to stress on the idea of community. Without having a good sense of community, then the whole career field will crumble in itself. At least for creative writing, we need readers and writers to intertwine, which is kind of cool that the link I supplied stressed on writers and editors and grouped them together.

I didn’t get introduce to Creative Commons until I was a part of a project where I am regularly blogging once a month. The first thing that was addressed was the issue of copyrights. This blogs will be out in the world and anyone can technically see them. Of course to liven up blogs, pictures are recommended. Even for our blog posts here. The one major thing we have to keep in mind that pictures online came from somewhere/somebody. We can’t just nonchalantly pick a random photo online and put in on a PowerPoint without doing some investigation on if we can use it in the first place (I was definitely guilty of that in my high school and undergrad career). It’s so easy to take a photo off Google and put it on an assignment or presentation. We must keep into consideration that the photo needs to be credited to the author.

When doing the blog, Flickr is a wonderful tool in which to find pictures you can use however you like. You can do the “modifications allowed” search to find certain pictures in which you can add meme’s or edit yourselves. The one thing I noticed in the searches is that if you want to use a pic of a celebrity, it might be hard because majority of the rights aren’t available to use. Majority of the photos will be of people taking pictures themselves of them in a public setting. If all else fails and you wonder if you can use a picture or not, just try to take your own photo of what you are wanting to use. You can never go wrong!

For my final project, I want to incorporate my own talents/what I’m pursuing and utilize it into something that pertains to academic integrity in some way shape or form. Since I’m a poet in the MFA program, I think I’m going to do a poem in which embodies originality. I thoroughly enjoy Austin Kleon’s presentation on what is the definition of originality in terms of the art world. Is it even possible to be original?

For my poem, I might do something similar that Kleon did, but instead of using newspapers, I would go through some modules within this class and see if I can make any funky poems with them.

I was also thinking of doing a found poem which takes bits and pieces of the outside world and I group them together to make a poem. This also takes on the idea that the poem isn’t completely one’s own thoughts, but instead a collection the poet consciously made when grouping these things together.

This will help me learn test out the idea of what is originality and does it count as plagiarism. This directly correlates to academic integrity for the fact there is still talk and debate about this issue. Is it academically dishonest to use work of a different writer and then incorporating it to one’s personal work?

I’d love to hear any opinions on my project and if there are any suggestions or a new poem idea that I haven’t thought of, please let me know.

As a poet who is surrounded by tons of other writers, there is a strong emphasis on the question, “What makes you stand out amongst the rest?” It’s a field where we are constantly being comparing to one another and trying to figure out how we can be more original than the person next to us.

In watching Austin Kleon’s TedEx talk, it was kind of refreshing. I was already aware of the quote of T.S. Elliott talking about how great poets steal each other’s works. The word steal feels harsh, but he literally doesn’t mean steal, because that would be plagiarism but rather use similar ideas you enjoy and then try to make them your own.

The David Bowie example was a good one where he says he’s more of a tasteless thief than someone who is original. When we think of Bowie, we think of someone who is “original.” Lady Gaga is someone who gets hit on for being unoriginal, but even she would say she isn’t original. She is open about who are her influences and who has inspired her.

As for my work, I’m influences a lot from the poet’s works who are Zachary Schomburg and James Crews. There are some poems that are similar to their work. Does that make me unoriginal? Perhaps. Does that make my work any less important? Definitely not. Art, just like academic writing, is supposed to be immersed with conversation with one another. In doing so, similar ideas will then flourish.

Since I’ll be teaching come spring, I know emphasizing citing is crucial to the students learning and how they are not plagiarizing within their own works. Some of the sources the module gave are will be extremely helpful. For example, I didn’t know about Zotero or EndNote in helping one to cite their sources. I know I have difficulties when citing when it comes to the actual works cited page at the end of an essay because each type of source of varies.

Although the citation game is something that can be used to help students and instead of lecturing the students or guiding them to Purdue Owl and calling it day, it is crucial to note that the citation game is wrong since the MLA has recently changed. For instance, the town of where it was published isn’t used anymore. At this point, Purdue Owl will be the best source since they update their website quite readily.

Finally, the topic of the monkey having copyright rights is very interesting. Where does the line cross? Besides the ethics of the monkey having rights, the website addresses what defines copyright issues in terms of people using selfies, which I wasn’t aware of. If a person intentionally took a picture of himself/herself, then that person should have the rights to it since they did the action themselves. This can also be applied to humans and it’s something in which we should be aware of. All these things can help us steer away from the possibility of plagiarizing.

A couple of years ago, when I began thinking about the courses I teach as places where content is created and curated rather than transmitted and tested, lecturing was one of the teaching modalities I most wanted to jettison. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy lecturing, it just seemed that so little of it “stuck” … Continue reading The Student-Centered Lecture →

It is all here: “The teacher who thinks “correctly” transmits to the students the beauty of our way of existing in the world as historical beings, capable of intervening in and knowing this world. Historical as we are, our knowledge of the world has historicity. It transmits, in addition, that our knowledge, when newly produced, … Continue reading Essentially historical Freire →

In lieu of an introduction: After two glorious years facilitating the New Media Seminar, my charge as Faculty Fellow for Technology-Enhanced Learning and Online Strategies shifted this fall to the Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI). These are distinctly different, but also related projects. While the New Media Seminar brought together faculty, staff and graduate students … Continue reading GEDI Gems: Learner-Centered Syllabi Nuggets from GEDI@VT →

Last night’s GEDI seminar provided plenty of action and interaction, as we thought about various ways to engage the imaginations of 21st-Century learners, debated whether or not gaming might save the world (or condemn it once and for all), and concluded with an impressive round of Massively Multi-Player Thumb Wrestling guided by Jane McGonigal herself. … Continue reading Almost back in the game →