While reflecting on ISTE’s NETS for teachers (2008), I feel that I have undertaken many steps in the journey toward becoming the most effective modeling of technology use and integration that I can. However, there are two areas I fell less comfortable with that I would like to improve.
My first area of improvement is from the area of Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility, indicator a: advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. I have a basic understanding of ethical use, but I have not taken steps to increase my knowledge or to share this knowledge with students.
My second area of improvement is from standard 5, Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership, indicator a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. Currently I passively participate in a PLN. I read a lot of educational blogs and follow a ton of inspirational educators on Twitter. But I rarely participate in this kind of networking; I want to increase my own participation in these networks.
To successfully improve in these areas, I will need to organize my learning. Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) describe learning as a lifeling journey, most effectively undertaken by self-directed learners. They offer the GAME plan as a successful structure for organizing personal learning. The GAME plan consists of setting goals, creating a plan of actions to achieve the goals, monitoring progress toward the goal, and evaluating the experience and finding ways to extend the learning (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
My GAME Plan:
Goal 1:
My goal is to increase the ethical use of digital information, especially copyright information, in my own work, and in my school.
Actions:
To work toward my goal, I will begin by locating and exploring resources about copyrights and ethical use. I will take the information I find and create a presentation for the faculty of my school and a set of lesson plans for students. I will present these lessons to my class.
Finally, I will create a bookmark list of places to find copyright friendly media for projects
Monitor:
To monitor my progress, I will put time in my calendar 2 times per week to check on progress. I will set benchmarks for myself to make sure I finish each step in time to complete my goal.
Evaluate:
At the conclusion of this process, I will organize a meeting of the faculty of my school to discuss how they have implemented ethical use in their classes and any changes they have seen.
Goal 2:
My second goal is to increase my participation in educational social networks.
Actions:
To accomplish this goal, I will put specific time into my calendar to participate in networks. I will take 15 minutes each day to read educational blogs and social networks like twitter and Educators PLN. I will respond to at least 1 blog post each week via comments. Additionally, I will post at least 5 substantive tweets each week. I will find at least ten new Tweeps to follow that I think will provide interesting perspective about teaching and learning.
Monitor:
To help me monitor my progress, I will create a checklist of questions to monitor effectiveness of my actions. I will keep checklist in my school planner so I see it each day and can reflect on my progress.
Evaluate:
To evaluate the success of this goal, I will write a blog post reflecting on my experience and how participating actively rather than passively affected my learning. I will also evaluate my own contributions to social networks to make sure I am providing a useful voice in conversations about education and technology.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
Your second goal of participating in educational social networks is a fantastic one and I have three suggestions and a couple questions. First, make sure you are using an RSS feed. It did not say explicitly in your plan that this was your strategy, but my time in Walden has made me a believer in the efficiently of the tool. This may be especially beneficial when we are no longer guided by deadlines to have information being automatically sent to you, instead of remembering to go out and actively search for it. My second suggestions is to follow these two blogs: http://educationtechnologyblog.com/ and http://kathyschrock.net/edtechblogs.htm. The second site lists a whole cornucopia of cites that you can follow! The third suggestions is to create a site or a blog to keep track of your findings. Journaling your progress is good, but archiving the information and success our students encounter seems better. Remember some tips from this weeks learning on creating websites; do not use students names attached to work, keep pages concise and consistent, have a structure in mind to make it navigable, include links and pictures to make projects more real and use consistent navigation buttons (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
ReplyDeleteI also two quick a couple of questions. First, when you say that you want to increase the ethical use of copyrighted information are you talking about teaching students about citing sources or steering them away from wikipedia towards more substantial sources? I guess I am wondering what course you teach and how you are planning on using the copyrighted information? My second question is are you going to use Twitter with your students? I have a couple of teachers that have started accounts and give homework/tests updates occasionally and I have been considering adopting it into my practice.
Thanks!
Nick
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Nick,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the suggestions! I do use an RSS reader and read about 40 blogs regularly, and follow a very large number of people on twitter, but I rarely leave comments. My goal is really to increase my willingness to participate in conversations instead of passively taking in information.
My school blocks twitter, but we have a schoolwide social network that we all use regularly. We also have moodle, although we are considering moving to edmodo because of the increased social network capabilities.
Thanks for your questions about ethical use. I don't know the answers, yet, because I don't have enough information to decide yet. This is the major reason I made it my goal. The main concern I have is that students regularly create multimedia projects using images, video, and music that they do not have the rights to use. I want to determine the best ways to make students understand why copyrights exist and how students can use their creativity without violating ethical behaviors.
Thanks!
I like the fact that you are willing to take on such a lofty goal with the copyright laws. I must admit that this has always been a hard topic for me. I know why they are put into place, but do not know how to relate the information to my students. Our technology instructor just emailed us about this issue regarding laws with using clip art from a cd. She found a lot of information just going to the website (DJ Inkers). They listed when and how to use the copyright. What grade do you teach? It might be fun to start this process with your class. You could model for them the way you would start researching this information. Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) mention that we learn more when we actually do it. I think it could be a great hands-on activity if our students are old enough.
ReplyDeleteCollaborating with your colleagues may also give you some great blogs and websites to follow. I have learned about most of my resources from other people.
Good luck,
Lisa Tarter
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.