Copy-Wrongs

During last week's class regarding copyright infringement, the insane amount of infractions and the bizarre way I have committed these infractions was shocking to my ignorant self. Who knew that so many harmless activities could be in violation of copyright laws? The most illustrating example is a scenario where multiple children being watched at day care would be in violation of copyright laws by simply watching a movie together. To me this was insane, yet completely understandable. Do I expect Disney to come knocking on the door of every day care provider to see if they have paid licensing fees for showing children a movie? No way. However, I do respect the intent of the law, and while as pointless as many examples of copyright infringement seem, the true essence of the law is not lost.

Oregon Trail to Blogging in Grad School

--Tommy just died of a snakebite!
--You just broke a wagon tounge.
--Three oxen died when you tried to ford the river.

If this makes you want to click on hunt and proceed to shoot 15 buffalo right next to Chimney Rock, then you're from the same generation as me. Of course, these are common excerpts from Oregon Trail, which was most likely used on an Apple MacIntosh or Apple II model computer. My use of computers has changed drastically since those 2nd through 6th grade Oregon Trail or MathBlaster days of glory. Today, I use e-mail everyday to communicate with fellow coaches, teachers, and parents in my district. E-mail is a great communication tool that is perfect for announcing schedule changes on sports teams. Also, the web is an extremely useful research tool on a daily basis. Using either Google or some database more profound for research, such as EBSCOhost for research papers, is almost a necessity. Ever-evolving computer software and increasing availability of Internet make computers possibly THE MOST important and far-reaching tool we can use today.