Competency Area VI: SOCIAL, ETHICAL,
LEGAL, AND HUMAN ISSUES
Teachers
understand the social, ethical, legal, and
human issues surrounding the use of technology in PK-12 schools and
apply those principles in practice. Teachers:
Sub-Competency
A:
Model and teach
legal and ethical
practice related to technology use.
Evidence: Citation
Machine
Lesson Plan
This lesson plan uses the citation machine web site http://citationmachine-east.net to model for students to legally and
ethically cite electronic resources
such
material retrieved from web sites or electronic databases, such as
Academic Search Elite. The parts of the lesson plan that apply to
the use of technology, such as technology standards
are highlighted in
yellow.
Reflection:
Students in today's age of technology
use and abundant information need to know that copying something off of
the internet, whether it be a picture or a piece of information, is not
okay and that it is illegal. Citation Machine is an online tool
that shows students what information they need from technology sources,
such as databases and web sites, as well as from print sources, such as
encyclopedias and journals. Students then insert this information
into the program and it gives them the proper bibliographic citation,
as well as the in-text citation. This lesson plan highlights this
technology. This program is beneficial to students because it
shows students the importance of this kind of documentation by giving
the teacher the opportunity to talk about its importance. This
program also helps citing sources become second nature to
students. I believe the goal of this program is that once
students have used it for a while they will begin to recognize the
needed information and will be able to cite sources without having to
use it.
Evidence: Copyright in an
Electronic Environment
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/copyright1.html
Reflection:
As teachers begin to incorporate
technology more and more into their instruction and requires their
students to incorporate elements of technology into their work,
everyone needs to have an understanding of what is allowed and what is
not. This article states just that. As teachers we want to
make our lessons and presentations more interesting and presentable to
students and administrators, but we need to be careful that what we are
presenting meets the fair use guidelines that have been
established. This includes text, motion media, illustrations,
music, and internet sources. Each medium has its own
guidelines. We as teachers need to be sure that we are abiding by
these guidelines so that we are not giving our students misinformation
through our presentations. This is how we teach them these
guidelines and benefit them. Students will have it modeled for
them how to ethically and legally use various aspects of
technology.
Sub-Competency
B:
Apply
technology resources to
enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics,
and abilities.
Evidence: Computer-Based
Associative Technology
http://www.ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/edelcompeduc/themes/assistive.html
This
web site describes various technological devices that
assist those with
varying degrees of various conditions ranging from autism to visual and hearing impairments
Reflection:
In today's school's teachers will
begin to work more and more with students who require special
adaptations to the classroom environment in the form of an assertive
technological device. Teachers need to be up-to-date, at least on
some of the basic devices. Teachers need to understand and help
the other students in their classroom understand that these devices do
not make the student who uses it different or weird, but it empowers
them to learn and enhances their leaning abilities. The chart
given on this web site gives links for more information on the device
an the technology integration that it requires. This information
can benefit the teacher by helping him or her to learn about it so that
he or she can become knowledgeable and therefore can inform the other
students so that they can be ready to aid in this special child's
leaning and help to empower this child in the form of peer
encouragement or peer tutoring.
Sub-Competency C:
Identify and
use technology
resources that affirm diversity
Evidence: Books without
Borders: provides video and audio
cassette tapes to students of various languages so that they may have
learning opportunities in
languages that they are comfortable in.
http://www.bookswithoutborders.com/
Reflection:
There is a growing number of students,
especially in North Carolina, who enter our school systems who either
cannot speak English or who speak very little English. Either way
English is not their primary language. They have trouble
understanding and communicating with those around them. We as
teacher have a responsibility to reach these students and provide them
with strategies for learning. One strategy that affirms diversity
and uses technology is to use books on tape that are in that student's
native language. Books without Borders provides teachers with
these resources. When students are able to listen to and
follow along in a book that is in their native language students will
be better able to apply voice-print match in their reading. This
may then transfer to their reading in English. Also, when
students are provided with opportunities to read books that are in a
language that is comfortable to them they are more likely to see
reading as enjoyable and continue to want to read as they learn
English.
Evidence:
Bilingual Software
Programs: provides an
economical and effective way to translate a word processing document
from English to Spanish or vice
versa. It correctly handles subject-verb
agreement, phrases, numbers, gender agreement,
and various idiomatic
expressions.
http://www.bilingualsoftware.com/
Reflection:
As the number of students who speak
little or no English grows, teachers are looking for tools that will
benefit these students and that will help them communicate more
effectively with these students. A lot of the teachers in our
school systems only know a limited amount of Spanish and this is not
good when it comes to communicating and evaluating students who only
know a limited amount of English. If a non-English speaking
student and his or her teacher is having an extremely hard time
communicating with each other, technology can help by translating the
students work for evaluation. The student and teacher could also
communicate and have conversation through a word processor by using
this software. This software could also benefit the teacher by
providing a quick and efficient way to type letters home to the parents
of these students who may speak no English. The letter could be
typed in English and the program would translate it into Spanish or any
other language. This program
Sub-Competency D:
Promote safe
and healthy use of
technology resources.
Evidence: Children's Internet
Protection Act
http://www.techlawjournal.com/cong106/filter/s97is.htm
Reflection:
The use of filtering technology has
been a hot debate in recent years and shows no signs of cooling
off. The Children's Internet Protection Act simply states that
schools that receive federal technology funds must install filtering
software on all computers for which students have access or install the
software on their network. The use of filtering technology does
promote safe and healthy use of technology resources, but as teachers
we
need to explain to our students why we have this technology in
place. We also need to promote safe and healthy use in other ways
for when our students do not have filtering technology in place, such
as
at home. We need to promote responsible searching techniques,
what to do when an unwanted web site accidentally is pulled up, and
what
how to avoid these sites in the first place.
Sub-Competency
E:
Facilitate
equitable access to
technology resources for all students.
Evidence: Essay: Describe how you will ensure that all
students
will have equitable access to technology resources.
In some school systems the gap between those
students who have access to technology resources outside of school and
those who do not has narrowed, but in other school systems it has only
widened. As teachers it is our responsibility to ensure that each
of our students have the opportunity to have equal access to technology
resources. One way that I will ensure that students in my
classroom will have equitable access to technology resources is to
schedule computer lab time when I assign projects and assignments that
require the use of technology resources. The majority of the time
this will more than likely require the use of the internet, a word
processor, or PowerPoint. These are tools that not everyone has
on their home computers, if they are lucky enough to have a computer in
their home. This is something that I will keep in mind as I am
planning my lessons and especially projects. I will also be sure
that I have at least two computers in my classroom that have internet
access and that have PowerPoint and a word processor. These
computers will be open for student use in the event that there is an
emergency situation and the computer lab is not accessible.
Finally, I would like to have a projector in my room that can show my
students various things that I am doing with technology. Even
when there may not be enough computers for each student in the
classroom, a projector can show the class what the teacher is doing all
at one time. Students can gain a minimum understanding of what a
program is about by watching it demonstrated. It is hoped that
this understanding can later be transferred to a time when the student
is working with the program.
Reflection:
in age where technology is all around us it is easy to forget that
there are still homes where technology, as far as a personal computer,
has yet to reach. In some places this gap is only widening.
For school systems this means that teachers need to ensure that each
student has equitable access to technology resources. For
teachers, this means this technology gap is going to have to be taken
into consideration beginning in the planning stages of their
instruction. We cannot wait until we get into the middle of a
lesson and notice that there are a couple of students who cannot
complete the given assignment because they do not have the resources
and we cannot accommodate those needs. As teachers we need to be
understanding and flexible and be willing to accommodate students
according to the given situation.
Page Author: Kelley Haney
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