Digital Citizenship and the ISTE Standards for Teachers

In the environment I work in, students usually are not as ethical and concerned about respecting other's property, either physical or intellectual as other students in a more traditional school. Therefore, it is an essential goal to teach ethics and respect across the board in all things. As a teacher it is my responsibility to first model the behavior I want to elicit from my students. 

One of the first things I must do, and I have been lax about, is to make reference to materials I borrow from the internet and to require my students to add bibliographies at the end of their Google presentations. The ISTE standard 4a  for teaching technology suggests that there is a need to "advocate, model, and teach safe, legal and ethical use of digital information and technology." To utilize this in my classroom, I need to teach my students how to compile citations as they search for information and then organize the citations in bibliography form. This process will not be a one-shot deal because my population of students changes almost daily, so therefore it needs to be addressed every time I have students research for information on the computer.  

Citing sources will need to be a key step written out on the worksheets I create for the assignment. Extra time will need to be allotted to allow students to be more thorough in their research efforts. Since the diversity of my students includes grade levels, learning styles, and technological experience, every lesson has to be built on review of the basic expectations which includes safe, legal, and ethical use of the information gathered off the internet.

Students in the Hall are not allowed to interact with others through social mediums. They are allowed to forward their work to me, but they are not allowed to send messages between themselves or to others unless they are teachers. Understanding this, I will not be spending too much time on promoting digital etiquette and responsible social interactions specifically. I will in a general sense when discussing the responsibility of using computers in the Hall.

Finally, I spend a lot of energy in developing and modeling cultural understanding and global awareness with my students.  Stereotyping and prejudice influence most of my students attitudes towards people of different cultures and race. Asking the hard questions and expecting students to respect differences is precedent in my classroom. The expectations naturally flow into their digital presentations.

Since I have a relatively large digital project coming up on World War I, I will have the perfect opportunity to teach and incorporate elements of digital  citizenship and responsibility.

Incorporating Technology in the Classroom.

Forty years ago I sat in a classroom, pen and pencil were my primary tools in most of my classes, a slide rule for Physics classes.  It is hard to believe that my cell phone has more memory than the IBM computer I owned back in the 80s. It's all a blur, how quickly technology changed the way we handle information, one idea igniting hundreds, and thousands more ideas. The possibilities today seem almost limitless.  I suppose the limit would be how much we as humans can learn during our lifetime and that is where teaching comes into the equation. We don't necessarily have to know it all to teach our students to be curious about the world, we just need to be able to open the door for them so they are able to explore and find their own interests.  

The population of students I work with unfortunately have not had a good relationship with school.  Their goal is basically to be done with school, the quicker, the better. They treat their assignments in a similar matter, do the least amount to pass and get credit. My biggest challenge has been to motivate my students to research, to think deeper, to just not settle for the first answer they come across when they google. If only they knew what it was like to have to write out all your assignments by hand, type them on a typewriter with no spell correction, and to use an encyclopedia for all your research, they would be grateful for modern technology. They would be thrilled at the ease of it all, but they are products of a technological age, and it would be hard for them to imagine that world. The reason I became a teacher was because I love to learn and it doesn't matter whether you are product of the 1950s or 2015, learning is learning and using the tools of the day to achieve your goals can only enhance your learning. What took crayons, colored pencils , scissors and glue to make project posters in the past can now be precisely presented in digital form on a Smart Board.  It is all exciting to me, and it is my job to inspire the same enthusiasm in my students.

This year is the first year that I have been able to actively use Google docs with my students.  I have spent most of the year interacting with them through e-mail, forms, docs, and slides.  Figuring it out how it all works for our assignments has been a journey.  By now, my long term students are becoming more proficient using Google and for the most part they can complete tasks without instruction. Unfortunately, my student population is always changing. New students come in with different levels of experience with Google, and their ability to use and understand how to use Google differs.  With most students I am successful with teaching substitution, with fewer numbers, we reach augmentation, and very few are able to master modification.  Redefinition is not practical, my students are not allowed to publish their products through blogs or on the internet in the public realm.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10979861&height=267&width=200

Technology Integration Matrix

Working in a Juvenile Hall, there are restrictions to what students can access through technology.  When I first started, students were not even allowed to access the school e-mail accounts, but now they have more freedom.  They still are not allowed to access e-mail from outside programs such as Khan Academy, Road Trip Nation, or the Big History Project which are programs we are actively involved with in class, but we manage to figure out alternatives.

What we can do is utilize the great applications within Google Chrome as well as extensions that are provided through Google.  I have not been overly creative in assigning projects.  Mostly we as a class have used Google Slides (Presentation), Forms, Docs and Sheets.  We have done projects in Science, English and History.  The Big History Project, a online science/history experience program has introduced the creation of an infograph where students create a one-page document that introduces and explains a topic such as The Big Bang Theory.  I have students use Google Slides to make their infograph.  I give students a rubric for researching the information and graphics for the picture, then they create their page.  I give them several days to complete the project, and then they share the document with me, I show them on the Smart Board and students present their document.  I have not had any students who refused to get up in front of the class. They appear to be excited about sharing and overall, they have done a very good job.  

For the most part, I would say that my students and I are at the level of Adoption. I choose the tool for the student and they utilize the tool to create a product.  I think my assignments have included most of the characteristics of the learning environment within the Adoption level. My student population tends to fluctuate.  Some students are in for a day and others stay for six months.  Some students come in and out of the hall and then others I see once and then never again.  Adoption is probably the highest level I will be able to achieve with most of my students because of the fluctuation.  I have a few long term students who would benefit from learning to use new tools. but I need to consider the entire population of students and whether or not they have enough skills to learn something more complex.

I am intrigued with the video maker. My students are not allowed to video themselves or others, but they could put images together in a video format.  Of course these are things I will need to learn to do myself before teaching students.  Unfortunately, everything my students do on the computer has to be monitored strictly and this can be quite limiting. Yet, despite the limitations, my students have enjoyed having the opportunity to use computer technology, not only for classroom assignments, but for credit opportunities.