Technology+Leader+and+Facilitator+Standard+VI+Reflection

Standard VI concentrates on the social, ethical, legal, and human issues related to incorporating technology into the school environment. Many students use the internet and other technologies freely outside of school; however, they often do not recognize the dangers of using these technologies. Educational technologists must focus themselves on the following to meet this standard: developing strategies and provide professional development at the school and classroom level for teaching social, ethical, and legal issues and responsible use of technology; assist others in understanding copyright laws related to using images, music, video, and other digital resources; help teachers select appropriate technologies to enable learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities; identify, classify, recommend, and acquire adaptive and assistive hardware and software to address the special needs of students and teachers; assist teachers in finding and using appropriate resources to affirm diversity and address cultural and language differences; assist teachers in promoting the safe and healthy use of technology; and recommend policies and implement school and classroom strategies for achieving equal access to technology for all.

Creating a beginning of the year power point to introduce students to their new laptops and the rules of net usage is interesting and time consuming. Finding multi-media examples and videos takes effort. There is a balance to be struck between not talking down to them, making the risks clear, and not using videos that incorporate scare tactics. Students need to be taught what makes a good “net neighbor”, as well as how to ethically and responsibly borrow others’ works. You also must find a middle ground because there is so much information to impart, but you must also avoid being long winded and dull. The presentation only needs to cover the basics, as teachers should be reinforcing responsible net usage throughout the year and as part of their instruction. Creating this presentation improved my abilities in embedding video and audio into a Power point. It also gave me an opportunity to display the rules in a new way rather than just listing them, which is more likely to retain student interest. The biggest challenge for schools in regards to ethics and the internet are coming up with effective and reasonable consequences when district policies are not followed. Last year my campus experience a problem with some students using the chat feature in the course ware at inappropriate times and for inappropriate purposes, instead of revoking the privilege from those that were abusing it, they withdrew the function from the entire student body.