Should students be forced to work in groups?

By Emily Siemonsma

Group projects are a huge part of high school, college, and people’s careers. However, does group work really create a better individual learner? In the long run does group work in school create better members of society.

It cannot be denied that teams are a necessity to society. Think about a team of doctors. If someone calls 911, EMT’s will arrive, then the patient will meet nurses, doctors, and so many other people to help take care of them. If all the members of this team had not learned how to work with others leading up to them taking this job, that could be detrimental to the patient. Another example is a sports team. In basketball if one person hogs the ball and tries to play the game by themselves, the team probably will not win. The athletes must learn how to play with each other and be confident in each other.

When group projects function as they are supposed to, the outcome is wonderful. Students learn how to better interact with their peers. Students learn how to delegate tasks to one another. And students find ways to overcome social challenges with others. Specifically in the math classroom, students can gain knowledge from peers in group work and do not feel as much pressure to know the answer to every problem because of the help of their group members. Additionally, group work in the math classroom can inspire students to possibly dig a little deeper, because they are encouraged by their teammates. Most importantly they become better learners.

There are a few issues today however with group work. It does not work very well online. Whenever I try to host a meeting over zoom, it feels like less gets done than what normally would. Also, trying to come up with a project idea online takes way longer than it needs to. Even if groups can meet in person it can still be difficult. I remember dreading group projects in high school. I always felt like half of us ended up doing all the work, and the other half did nothing.

Thus, for groups to be effective, teachers must do their best to keep students accountable. Students will put effort into their group if they feel passionate about what they are learning, so whenever it is possible teachers should encourage students to pursue topics that excite them. If students excel in group work in school, they will likely perform well in groups throughout their lifetime. This is important because in the real world no one can learn alone or work alone.

Technology Makes Breaking the Law Easier than Ever Before

by Sydney Stapleton

Technology advancements have created the ability to share information within seconds. New high speeds of data, Wi-Fi in nearly every building, and more technology available than ever before allows everyone to publish and distribute content. This generates the perfect storm for violating copyright and fair use laws. Educators need to educate themselves in order to protect them and their school from getting involved in lawsuits and paying large fines.

This week in class, I was taught, for the first time, the rules and vital fine print statements pertaining to copyright and fair use laws. Before reading any information on copyright, I assumed it was similar to how you must cite your sources to avoid plagiarism. While some aspects, like citing the source, are still relevant there is much more to it than that.

While discussing during class, it was clear there are many misconceptions surrounding what is permissible without breaking laws. The fair use doctrine can cause confusion, due to the fact that it permits unlicensed use of copyright works in certain circumstances. The doctrine is beneficial to educators since the instructional purpose within a classroom falls under an acceptable circumstance. An important tip is that the instructional purpose must be applicable to the content the students are learning, factual, and only presented to the students in the classroom. As a general rule of thumb, as with most things, you should always error on the safe side and never use somebody’s work without their permission.

Why are students not being taught proper copyright laws from the time they are able to use works of any sort from the internet? Explaining and showing students why it is important to apply the creative commons licenses tool when searching for images on the internet is a prime example of an introduction to copyrights even elementary kids can understand and implement. I have stated that educators face the responsibility of preventing misuse of copyright works, but so does nearly every employment position in any job. This means that students have a right and responsibility to know copyright laws and should be taught and then held accountable for not breaking them.

In the long run, technology is going to be more and more a part of the learning experience at any education level. My guess is that the ability to break copyright laws will go up hand and hand with advancing technology. It is important that educators and curriculums find a way to educate students on what copyright is and how to protect not only others’ work, but theirs as well.