Reflections Standard VI

Standard VI states “Educational technology facilitators understand the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology in PK-12 schools and assist teachers in applying that understanding in their practice” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, pg.136). One way to meet this standard is to utilize technology with diverse abilities. I met with behavioral skills teacher on my campus to help utilize software to create lessons on behavior skills. Most of the students receiving the services of this class are students with Autism. Many of the behavioral skills teachers on my campus are interested in the iPad for their Autistic students. I began researching iPads in education and started sharing the information with the resource team.  I have shared those resources with many interested teachers: http://www.diigo.com/list/leanneknight/iPad-resources.  I truly appreciated several “Live Binders” that specified iPad resources for special education students and teachers such as: http://livebinders.com/play/play/89854.  We are in the process of allocating funding and getting approval to implement iPads at our school. We already use a 1-1 PC laptop environment in our third and fourth grades. This would benefit a specific population of students who might benefit more from this tactile piece of equipment.

Another way to meet the requirements of Technology Standard VI is to “Identify and use technology resources that affirm diversity” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, pg.137). I worked with global partners designing lessons. Throughout the month of September, 2010, I worked with Sudha Penu, a global partner in India, to create lessons for our physical education connection. Sudha and I conversed regularly via email due to time difference on different aspects of the lessons. I also trained Sudha on the use of Moodle via Skype.  Our school created many educational videos expressing popular ways of exercise and sports in the U.S. Her students created videos about India. We conversed via email and sometimes via Skype the lesson objectives and possible ways to create a positive end result. Our students from both countries were able to appreciate the differences and similarities between our two cultures during this lesson enforcing global connections.

One way to perform the skills in Standard VI is to “promote safe and healthy use of technology resources” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, pg.137). On many occasions I have shown teachers  correct researching tools and sites. "Web filters are a must for school districts, no matter what their size" (Careless, 2007, para. 22). Since most students do not have filtering services for their personal technology devices it is important to also teach students skills for navigating the web safely. My favorite though is when I am able to work with students so they truly understand the importance of appropriate technology usage. Too often teachers will tell their students to do a safe search so that the children will not find inappropriate contents. Unfortunately, too often, students will go home and try an unfiltered search to see what kind of inappropriate things they can find. I often try to put the lesson in a different perspective. I show the students that often times Google finds sites that are written in language that adults understand with really long words. I show the students a children’s safe search site, such as http://searchypants.com, and let the students see that the site is kid friendly. The students also appreciate the readability of the websites that kid friendly search engines find.  hard to read many of the sites that Google pulls up. Internet filtering in schools is a necessary means by which to keep students safe from inappropriate sites and materials.

"A district can take many steps to ensure that its students are protected from harmful, obscene, or otherwise unworthy websites. It can establish guidelines for appropriate Internet usage, create acceptable use policies, or provide training for teachers" (Ullman, 2009, para. 1). Throughout the last few years I worked with different classes on web literacy. With the team effort of the media specialist on my campus, we worked with teachers on age appropriate researching techniques. We also held after school training on the Big 6 and Super 3 research models. I created a poster for teachers to post in their classrooms that posts the top search engines for children with public domain images. Making web literacy and safe searching more accessible and acceptable helps to keep our students safe online.

References

Careless, J. (2007). The filtering challenge. Tech & Learning. Retrieved on May 7, 2011 from http://www.techlearning.com/article/7212

Ullman, E. (2009). Web Filtering that Works. Tech and Learning. Retrieved on May 11, 2011, from http://www.techlearning.com/article/22092

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.