SchoolTube

Schooltube is an online video sharing site that was created for student and teacher use.  Students and teachers can use SchoolTube to access a wide variety of educational videos.  All of the videos found on SchoolTube have been screened and approved by a moderator, so teachers can be sure that the videos they are sharing with their students are appropriate and "school friendly."  Videos are sorted by category, and users can search by topic, making it easy to locate relevant video content.  Users can also upload their own videos, sort them into categories, and tag them so that others will be able to find them (after they have been approved by a moderator). 
Schooltube also allows teachers and students to create their own channels.  Teachers can set up channels dedicated to their classes, where they can post student created videos, as well as the videos that they want their students to watch.  Students can also create channels to keep track of their favorite videos and the videos they have uploaded.  This site would be a great tool for classroom use.  Teachers could use their channels to post educational videos they want their students to use as resources for research projects, or to post videos for students to watch as as a basis for a written response.  They can also post student created videos made in the classroom. 

Week 5B Reading Summary

The Art of Digital Storytelling: Part 1, Becoming 21^st Century StoryKeepers

            The ancient art of storytelling is being revived into an emerging mode of communication called digital storytelling.  Through the process of creating a digital story, students deepen their understanding of content while increasing visual, sound, oral language, creativity, and thinking skills.  The author’s narrative voice determines all of the multimedia decisions.  The narrative is first made as a voiceover, and then all images, sound, music, transitions, and special effects are added and organized around unfolding the story.  Digital media and digital distribution to the community allows us to develop a highly sensory experience that combines a narrative voice with images, sound, and music. 

Take Six: Elements of digital Storytelling was written to help increase the quality of student stories.  Two of the six elements are considered especially essential to good storytelling: Living in the Story and Unfolding Lessons Learned.  Digital storytelling encourages authors to write a very personal emotional connection with the story being told.  The power of storytelling is not in telling about an event, but in shifting the lens to using the setting, details and events for telling your story with the experience.  Good stories also have a point to make.  The lesson learned is a kind of moral of the story that shows the meaning of the situation in the life of the storyteller.  The lesson learned also provides depth beyond the plot of the story.  Making meaning from a story requires the author to dig deeper, and reflect on the significance of the event or situation in his or her life. 

Take Six: Elements of a Good Digital Story

            Although there are endless approaches to crafting stories depending on purpose or style, there are at least six elements that are fundamental to this style of digital storytelling.  The six elements include:

1.     Living your story - Each story is told in the first person.  Viewers are engaged in a very real and emotional experience when you share who you are, what you felt, and what the event or situation means to you.

2.     Unfolding lessons learned - One unique feature of this style of storytelling is the expectation that each story expresses how an event or situation touched your life.  This could take the form of a moral conclusion, a lesson learned, or an understanding gained.  The point of the story can be revealed implicitly with the media or explicitly with words. 

3.     Developing creative tension – A good story creates tension around a situation that is posed at the beginning of the story and resolved at the end.  The viewer is initially drawn into wondering how the story will unfold.  The tension of an unresolved situation holds the viewer’s attention to the end.

4.     Economizing the story told – A good story has a point to make, and it takes the shortest path to get there.  Each digital story is no more than three to five minutes long, and is based on a script that is no more than one page or 500 words in length. 

5.     Showing, not telling – Good stories use vivid details to reveal feelings and information rather than using words to describe them.  Unlike traditional written or oral stories, images, sounds, and music can be used to provide information and emotional meaning not provided by words.

6.     Developing craftsmanship – A good story artfully incorporates technology, demonstrating craftsmanship in communicating with images, sound, voice, color, animations, designs, transitions, and special effects.  These elements are selected to enhance the meaning of the story, not to add distracting bells and whistles.  

Web Resources

The PBS for Teachers website is a valuable resource for teachers.  This site offers lesson plans in all subject areas, broken down into grade level categories.  Teachers can easily access and download lesson plans with information on related pbs programs.  This site also offers interactive online games and activities to engage students in learning. 

 In addition to the lesson plans, PBS for Teachers also offers discussion forums for teachers to ask questions and share ideas.  Teachers can use this feature to get feedback on lesson ideas from other teachers.  This site also offers online professional development courses for teachers to improve their skills in a variety of areas. 

Week 5A Reading Summary

NETS for Students

            The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S) and Performance Indicators for Students include a wide range of technology related skills that students should have.  These skills fall into six different categories:

1.     Creativity and Innovation

2.     Communication and Collaboration

3.     Research and Information Fluency

4.     Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

5.     Digital Citizenship

6.     Technology Operations and Concepts

With the wide range of skills included in each of these categories, students will be well prepared to eventually enter the 21^st century workforce.  They will be able to use technology to create processes and products, communicate and collaborate with others, effectively evaluate and use information, apply critical thinking skills to solve problems and make decisions, practice legal and ethical behavior, and apply knowledge of technology systems to select and use applications effectively and productively. 

I believe that the skills listed in these standards are very important for today’s students.  In order for students to fully develop these skills, teachers must be prepared to lead them toward proficiency in all of these areas. 

NETS for Teachers

The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers include a wide range of technology related skills that teachers should have.  These skills fall into six different categories:

1.     Technology Operations and Concepts

2.     Planning and designing learning environments and experiences

3.     Teaching, learning, and the curriculum

4.     Assessment and evaluation

5.     Productivity and professional practice

6.     Social, ethical, legal, and human issues

With the skills included in each of these categories, teachers will be well prepared to lead students in the development of the skills they will need in order to eventually become productive members of the 21^st century workforce.  It is important for teachers to keep up with current and emerging technologies so they can guide students in using them.  Teachers must also be able to effectively use technology to maximize learning in the classroom, and assess the learning that occurs in all subject areas.  In addition, teachers should use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice, and act as models for ethical use of technology.

Week 4B Reading Summary

AASL Learning Standards

         Reading is a foundational skill for learning, enjoyment, and personal growth.  In order to be successful, students must be able to understand texts in all formats.  In order to become independent learners, students must gain skills, and the dispositions to use those skills, as well as an understanding of their own responsibilities and self-assessment strategies.  Students must also be taught to seek different perspectives, use information ethically, and to use social tools responsibly and safely.  Technology skills must also be taught, as they are crucial for future employment needs. 

            Learners use skills, resources, and tools to:

·      Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.

·      Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.

·      Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.

·      Pursue personal and aesthetic growth. 

The AASL learning standards consist of skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies that cover each of these uses. 

Education for the 21^st Century

        

         The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills has presented six elements of a 21^st century education, and a framework, or vision for teaching and learning in the 21^st Century. 

            The elements of a 21^st Century education include focusing on the core subjects, as well as 21^st century content areas (global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health / wellness awareness.  These elements specifically address important learning and thinking skills.  In addition, students and educators must have Information and Communications Technology literacy, and use technology in the context of teaching and learning.  Elements of the partnership’s framework include standards, curriculum, environment, and assessments that districts must implement. 

            21^st Century learners are shaped in part by their immediate, engaging, fast-paced, media-rich environment.  Through constant exposure to these factors, and access to a variety of digital media, they are engaged and motivated to learn through the use of digital technologies.  For this reason, these factors are also changing teaching.  Teaching methods must adapt to align with students’ methods of learning.  21^st century educators must be adaptors, visionaries, collaborators, risk takers, learners, communicators, models, and leaders. 

            Resources, skills, and curriculum work together to facilitate the integration and implementation of ICT.  If any of these factors is absent, the level of integration is impaired. 

·      Resources

o   A classroom fully equipped with resources and materials is more likely to achieve success than a poorly resourced one.

·      Skills

o   Skills fall into two categories: pedagogical and technical.  Pedagogical skills are more important.  A teacher’s ability to use a variety of pedagogical strategies is key to integration.

·      Curriculum

o   Curriculum must reflect 21^st century learning, and the world in which our students live. 

Teaching and learning spaces must also change to reflect the paradigm shift we are experiencing.  Many classrooms have improved, but too many are designed for the traditional methods of teacher-centric teaching.  Classrooms must be able to adapt to different needs of the learner and the lesson.  

Week 4 Reading Summaries

Copyright 101

            Intellectual property, which includes copyright, is an important concept for educators to understand.  The concept of intellectual property comes into play when teachers copy and distribute products created by others in their classrooms. 

            Copyright is a form of protection provided by US law to the creators of original works of authorship.  Copyright laws are based on the belief that anyone who creates an original, tangible work deserves to be compensated for that work, and that the creator should be able to control how the work is used.  These laws protect literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and they go into effect as soon as an original work is fixed into a tangible form of expression.  US copyright law generally allows the owner of the copyright five exclusive rights to do or authorize others to do the following with the work:

1.     Reproduce it in copies.

2.     Prepare derivative works based upon it.

3.     Distribute copies.

4.     Perform it publicly.

5.     Display it publicly.

Copyright law allows for the fair use of copyrighted materials for educational and research-based uses.  A copyrighted work can be used or copied for educational purposes as long as the use is not solely a substitute for purchasing the work.  The fair use statute provides that making “multiple copies for classroom use” is an example of fair use.

Fair use is often cited as a defense to a copyright infringement action.  To determine if a use qualifies as “fair,” the courts will consider the following factors:

1.     The purpose of the use.

2.     The nature of the work.

3.     The amount of the work used in relation to the whole work.

4.     The effect of the use on the market or potential income for the work.

Fair use is determined on a case-by case basis, by applying these guidelines to each particular instance.  Copying individual articles for lesson planning, or making multiple copies of an article to distribute to a class are both examples of fair uses.  However, copying an entire textbook for class distribution is not a fair use. 

Works in the public domain are freely available to all, and can be freely copied.  Public domain materials fall into two categories:

1.     Works for which the copyright has expired.

2.     Works created by the US federal government.

Both of these groups do have exceptions.  Be careful not to assume that a work is in the public domain just because it appears to fall into one of these categories.

A basic understanding of intellectual property laws and concepts is important for educators’ informed use, as well as for the development of ethical students.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative commons is a nonprofit organization that works to increase the body of creative work available for free and legal sharing and use.  By providing free, easy to use legal tools, creative commons helps individual creators, companies, and institutions to pre-clear usage rights to the creative work to which they own the copyright.  CC copyright licenses let people easily change their copyright terms from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”  Creative commons licenses allow copyright owners to clearly communicate to people what they will and will not allow them to do with their work.

People looking for content that is free and legal to use can access a giant pool of CC-licensed works – from songs and videos to scientific and academic work – that can be used under the terms of CC copyright licenses. 

In addition to major media and technology companies, leading universities, top scientists, and world-renowned artists, millions of “regular” people around the world use CC licensed to increase the depth, breadth, and quality of creative work available for free and legal use.  

Week 3 A/B Reading Summaries

Webquest Focus: Five Rules for Creating a Great WebQuest

            A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the web.  WebQuests are designed to use the learners’ time well, focusing on using information rather than finding it, and supporting learners’ thinking at the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation levels.

            As a result of studying a large number of WebQuests of varying quality, five rules have been developed to help anyone create high quality WebQuests.  The five guiding principles can be captured in the word FOCUS:

            Find great sites

            Orchestrate your learners and resources

            Challenge your learners to think

            Use the medium

            Scaffold high expectations

           

1. Find great sites.

         In general, try to find sites that are readable and interesting to your students, up to date and accurate, and come from sources your students wouldn’t ordinarily encounter in school.  To find these sites, it is important that you master one or two of the most powerful search engines.  By learning the quirks and advanced search techniques, you can become a better searcher.  Also, search the “deep web.”  This includes archives of newspaper and magazine articles, databases of images and documents, directories of museum holdings, and more.  To keep track of these sites, use a web-based bookmark server that allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer. 

2. Orchestrate learners and resources.

            Because there are never enough computers to go around, you should organize your activities so that whatever access you do have is used well.  Consider these possibilities:

·      A single computer can be used to drive whole-class discussion and exploration with the teacher, not the students controlling the pace.

·      One to ten computers can be used as learning stations for students to cycle through while others work offline. 

·      If internet access is limited to a scheduled set of lab periods, a lesson that frontloads the lab visit with offline activities prepares the students to use the lab time well. 

·      If all computers don’t have Internet access, students can access Web archives created on another computer, and saved on their hard drives. 

Teachers should also organize their students, and use cooperative learning strategies to make group work more successful.  A successful cooperative learning environment includes the following attributes:

·      Positive interdependence.

·      Promotive interaction.

·      Individual and group accountability.

·      Interpersonal and small group skills.

·      Group processing.

A well-orchestrated WebQuest has these qualities as well.  Guidance on how to work together should be a part of the process section of the WebQuest.

3. Challenge your learners to think.

            The key element of a great WebQuest is a great task.  Tasks should go beyond retelling and engage students in problem-solving, creativity, design, and judgment.  Students can design travel itineraries, create news accounts or simulated diaries, or use authentic controversies as a vehicle around which to organize the study of a topic. 

4. Use the medium.

            The pedagogical structure of the WebQuest is not limited to the use of the Internet.  A “Book Quest” can be developed for students to find a solution to a compelling problem or question by using the information in a variety of books.  Teachers with only one computer can print out selected web pages for students not seated at computers.  These are compromises that don’t fully exploit the medium.  A fully developed WebQuest cannot easily be accomplished on paper. 

            In addition to selecting interesting and appropriate web pages for your students to read, line up people with interesting information to share.  Options include ask-an-expert sites, or e-mail correspondence with parent volunteer mentors.  Students can also use children in other classrooms as learning partners and sources of information. 

            The use of the Internet also allows conversations to be captured and used as material for learning.  You can add a page to your WebQuest that allows students to post their opinions and findings, and invite others outside your classroom to participate as well. 

            Students should be encouraged to add interest by taking advantage of audio, video, and images on the Web when appropriate.  However, you should be careful that students are not distracted by dazzle and noise that serves no instructional purpose. 

5. Scaffold high expectations.

            Scaffolding is a temporary structure that allows students to act more skilled than they really are.  A great WebQuest builds scaffolding into the process as needed so that the bar of what students can produce can be raised.  Three types of scaffolding are in a WebQuest: reception (provides guidance in learning from a given resource and retaining what was learned), transformation (helps students transform what they read into a new form), and production (provides students with templates, prompted writing guides, and multi media elements and structures).

            The WebQuest model continues to evolve.  By following the five FOCUS principles, new WebQuest creators can take advantage of what we’ve learned as a community and give the next generation of teachers a better place to start.

The Student WebQuest

            WebQuests can provide a positive, educationally sound use of the Internet in the classroom.  WebQuests are directly relevant to the curriculum, interesting and motivating to students as well as teachers, and they direct a more responsible use of the Internet.  Well-written WebQuests require students to go beyond fact-finding, using their creativity and critical thinking skills to find solutions to a real-life problem. 

            The WebQuest was first developed in 1995 by San Diego State University’s Bernie Dodge and Tom March.  Students were presented with a scenario and a task, usually a problem to solve or a project to complete.  They were given a list of internet resources, and asked to analyze and synthesize the information and come up with their own creative solutions.  Over the years, teachers wrote their own WebQuests, and instructors began to teach WebQuests in workshops and classes.  Many teachers began to publish their own WebQuests for others, and WebQuest sites have grown on the Internet.

WebQuests can be found on WebQuest sites, or through the use of search engines.  Additionally, teachers can create their own WebQuests for use in the classroom.  When writing your own webquest, be sure to consider what you want students to learn, what materials they will use, and how student learning will be assessed.  Also consider students’ interests, prior experience, and reading and skill levels.  Curricular requirements and the desire to extend students’ learning beyond the classroom will often lead teachers to create interdisciplinary WebQuests in collaboration with other teachers. 

         Bernie Dodge has created “Building Blocks of a WebQuest” to describe all the elements of a good WebQuest: an introduction, a task, a process, resources, an evaluation, and a conclusion. 

1. The introduction and the task: writing compelling scenarios.

            Although teachers’ imaginations produce a wide variety of ideas and topics, scenarios tend to fall into categories including: bringing contemporary world problems into the classroom, evaluating history, creating products, dealing with life’s realities, and sparking students’ imaginations. 

            Formulating questions is one of the biggest challenges to producing a successful WebQuest.  Short-term quests may require students to search for facts, while long term projects require students to answer difficult questions and analyze information.

2. The process.

            In the process section, the teacher guides students through their task, often using a step-by-step guide.  The teacher may also suggest ways to manage time, assign roles, collect data more effectively.  Teachers can also provide strategies for working in a group, or directions for creating a storyboard. 

3. Resources: Gathering Relevant Materials and Links.

            The teacher must identify the resources the students will use.  Remember to cite texts, reference books, videotapes, places, and people who may be useful or essential resources.  Students can also conduct interviews and visit libraries or museums.  Websites form the core of a WebQuest resource section.  To create a concise, relevant list of sites, you must explore and evaluate many of them and choose those that are relevant and acceptable.  In addition to search engines and directories, you should use print resources such as journals, magazines and books to find the appropriate sites. 

            Most websites fall into one of three categories: commercial sites, noncommercial sites, or individuals’ sites.  Commercial sites can be rich with interesting current information, but they can also have distracting or inappropriate advertising.  Noncommercial sites run by nonprofit institutions such as museums, public school systems, and universities can vary greatly in quality.  However, they can provide valuable, advertising-free information.  Individuals’ sites may be unreliable, inappropriate, or out-of-date.  Teachers must thoroughly explore each site they ntend to use, and restrict students to those sites for their projects. 

4. Evaluation.

            WebQuests can result in a variety of products – paper or oral reports, multimedia presentations, dramatic performances, artwork, or musical compositions.  The most appropriate tool for evaluation of any of these products is often a rubric created by the teacher and perhaps other students. 

5. Conclusion.

            The conclusion brings closure to the WebQuest, summing up the project and reviewing what the students have learned.  Students are asked to continue reflecting on their projects, and may give feedback to the teacher. 

            With careful planning, WebQuests can allow both students and teachers to be productive and creative, using the Internet to spark the imagination, solve problems, and promote discussion about important issues. 

           

            

Week 2 B Reading Summaries

Design Your Website From the Bottom Up

            Most novice website builders begin by designing the start page.  Instead of using this method, it would be more effective to build the site from the bottom up.  The start page should serve as a user-friendly guide to the rest of the site.  This is difficult to achieve if you haven’t decided where you are going to take the viewers. 

Step 1: Brainstorm

            Begin by brainstorming a list of all the items you would like to have in your website.  This can include items that you will produce for your site, as well as links to other sites.  Think about your audience and the kinds of information they will be looking for.  Also consider what you already have available, and what is already available on the Internet.

Step 2: Grouping

            Try to group all of your items into 2 to 4 categories, and see if you can find a name for each category.  Think about dividing up your information according to the viewer (students, parents, classes, grades, etc.)

Step 3: Critique the Categories

            Look at your categories with a critical eye and answer the following questions:

·      Who is my audience?  What are they looking for?

·      What is most important to them?  Will it be easy to find?

·      Will they have to jump between categories to find what they need?

·      Should some items be in more than one category?

·      What items will stay the same?  Will some items need frequent updating?

·      Do the categories make sense?  Do they describe what’s in them?

Step 4: Revise Your Categories

            Revise the categories and items as needed.  Focus on what it will be like for your audience to find what they want.

Step 5: Develop a Flowchart

            Finalize the categories and the items in them, and make an organizational flowchart.  This will become your roadmap for designing the site.  As you develop your flowchart, you should balance the breadth and depth of the design.

Step 6: Design a Navigational Plan

            Think about the navigational path that viewers will use to move around your site.  Most users will begin at the start page, click to a second level page, and then perhaps down to a third level page.  Many will use the browser’s back button to return to the start.  However, you should also include shortcuts to allow users to go from one part of the site to another without using the back button.  Again, balance is key.  You need to offer enough shortcuts to other areas, but not so many that they cause confusion or clutter.  It is often best to put a navigation bar at the top or bottom of every page, linking to the start page and each of the second level pages.  You should also include some information that identifies the site and the designer at the bottom of every page, and remember to put a second, text only navigation bar somewhere on the page. 

Step 7: Page Layout

            Include the following on every page:

·      Navigation links at the top and bottom of every page

·      Identifying information on the site name and organization

·      Page content

Also remember to clearly identify the title of the current page, and place the most important information “above the fold.”  Most importantly, never make a site that is too wide (over 600 pixels).  People don’t like to have to scroll from side to side.

Step 8: Don’t Forget to Keep it Simple

            Most viewers want to quickly find the information they are looking for.  Don’t clutter the site with unnecessary animations and scrolling banners.  Every graphic you add will increase the download time.  Most viewers will quickly lose interest if they have to wait for your page to appear.  Load time is especially important at the top end of your site.  The start page and second level pages should load very quickly.

Step 9: Finally, You Get to Make Your Homepage

Step 10: Congratulate Yourself, and Get Ready to Upload to Your Server

            Remember that building and updating a website is an ongoing project.  Don’t add any cute “under construction” clip art to your site.  They’re always under construction.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

1.     Representation – Use multiple means of representation

·      Provide options for perception

·      Provide options for language and symbols

·      Provide options for comprehension

2.     Expression – Use multiple means of expression

·      Provide options for physical action

·      Provide options for expressive skills and fluency

·      Provide options for executive functions

3.     Engagement – Use multiple means of engagement

·      Provide options for recruiting interest

·      Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence

·      Provide options for self-regulation

Universal Design of Web Pages in Class Projects

         The web has the potential to make information accessible to everyone.  However, this potential cannot be realized unless the content is designed in a way that all Internet users can access the full range of resources.  The Internet has become an essential tool for education at all levels.  Students learn from web resources, and also create their own content.  As students develop web pages they need to keep in mind the disabilities and challenges that some of their users may face.  Accessible website design is an essential skill for all web content developers.

            People use a variety of technologies to access the web.  Assistive technologies exist to help people with specific disabilities. 

            To create resources that can be used by the widest spectrum of potential users, students should think about the broad range of characteristics their site visitors may have and design their resources to be as accessible as possible.  This includes individuals with disabilities, senior citizens, English language learners, and those using outdated hardware and software. 

            The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web accessibility Initiative develops Web Content Accessibility Standards.  The standards include guidelines grouped under four qualities of accessible websites: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.  Many states, schools, and other organizations have adopted these guidelines.  Teachers should find out if their school, district, or state has adopted these standards, and discuss them with students. 

            To encourage students to create websites that are easy for everyone to use, consider providing them with general guidelines that they must incorporate into their projects, and encourage them to address additional accessibility issues.  Students should also remember to maintain a simple, consistent page layout throughout the site, keep backgrounds simple, and use standard html to ensure access by all browsers.  They should also make link text descriptive, and include a note about accessibility. 

            A major barrier to blind individuals is created when text alternatives are not provided for non-text elements.  Many blind individuals rely on text-to-speech software, or a refreshable braille display.  Both of these require text alternatives to describe graphic content.

            Video and audio are often used on websites.  However, audio content is not accessible to those who cannot hear it.  Also, video content may not be accessible to blind users if the message being communicated is not apparent through the presentation’s audio.  Students should include captions for video content, and transcripts for audio clips.  For video, they could also consider including a descriptive audio track. 

            Students should test their websites with a variety of web browsers. Including at least one text-based browser, or a standard browser with graphics turned off and sound muted, making sure they can still access all of the features of their websites.  They can also use accessibility-testing software that will point out elements of their websites that may be inaccessible to certain users. 

            If students use an authoring tool, they should be required to locate and apply accessibility features included with that tool. 

           

           

Week 2 A Reading Summaries

Digital Kids.  Analog Schools.

The quotes featured in this article focus on the need for the education system to adapt to the rapidly changing technology that students are learning to use.  Children are now more familiar with technology at a much younger age.  If educators don’t try to catch up and become leaders, we will be seen by our students as followers who are irrelevant. 

Because we cannot know what the world will be like when our students graduate and enter the workforce, it is most important that we need to teach them to learn, unlearn, create, and adapt to changing technology. 

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

            One of the fundamental causes of the decline of education in the US is that our students have changed.  They are not the same students our educational system was designed to teach.  The rapid dissemination of digital technology has led to a fundamental change in the way students think and process information.  Today’s students represent the first generation to have grown up surrounded by this new technology.  As a result, it is possible that our students’ brains are physically different from ours. 

            These new students are referred to as “digital natives.”  They are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.  Those of us who were not born into the digital world are referred to as “digital immigrants.”  We have adopted many or most aspects of the new technology, but compared to the “digital natives,” we are not nearly as fluent, and we retain a digital immigrant accent. 

            The single biggest problem facing education today is that digital immigrant instructors are trying to teach a population that speaks an entirely different language.   Today’s instructors must learn to communicate in the language and style of their students.  This means going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access.  Content must also change.  There are now two kinds of content: “Legacy” content (reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding ideas of the past) and “Future” content (software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology, genomics, etc., as well as the ethics, politics, sociology, languages, and other things that go with them).  The legacy content is still important, but some of it will become less so.  The future content is typically very interesting to students, but the digital immigrant instructors are not prepared to teach it.  As educators, we need to think about how we can teach both kinds of content in the language of the digital natives.  Instead of sticking to the traditional methods of teaching content, educators can adapt by creating new methods, such as video games, that appeal to today’s students. 

Tools for the Mind

Instructional technology literature from the 1990s showed a commitment to the belief that computers could transform student learning.  In the present era, the pendulum has shifted.  Educators and education officials are now questioning the potential value of computers as instructional tools. 

            Many educators believe in the “exceptionality” of computers, believing that they can do for students what other tools and reforms cannot.  This has resulted in a narrow focus on technology at the expense of the more important pillars of learning.  Many districts have concentrated on professional development that trains teachers in skills instead of teaching them how technology can be used to enhance student learning.  Also, many districts have failed to make the kinds of accommodations needed to allow for the full capitalization of classroom technology.  Another problem is that schools have conflated technology use with instructional quality, and student engagement with improved learning and higher order thinking.  In all the excitement about using new technology, educators have failed to ask the most fundamental question: are students actually learning?  Educators also tend to classify all software applications as cognitively and instructionally equal.  This misconception has resulted in in an overreliance on conceptually easy kinds of software that focus on simple cognitive tasks.  In addition to lower-order tools, classrooms use more robust tools (such as the internet, spreadsheets, and databases) in such nondifferentiated ways that they dilute their power.  Many other software tools offer even greater opportunities for higher-order thinking (geographic information systems, computer-aided design programs, and simulation software programs), but they are virtually invisible in classrooms. 

            The focus on lower-order technology tools may result from the fact that the higher-order tools are less user-friendly, and less visually appealing.  They also take time to learn, integrate, and use.  Also, school districts often lack technology trainers who are proficient in the use of these tools. 

            The solution to the problem will require a return to original assumptions – the need for critical thinking, learner-centered instruction, and the use of computers as mind tools.  It will also require professional development that addresses these needs.  Before computers are dismissed as an expensive fad, schools must take measures to ensure that they are using computers to their fullest instructional potential. 

Week 1 Reading Summaries

Family Guide to Child Safety on the Internet – Summary

Parenting Online

           

            Because their children are often more familiar with the internet than they are, parents often worry about teaching their children how to stay safe online.  However, the dangers found in cyberspace can be managed using the same familiar warnings that parents have always used. 

            Search engines are valuable tools that make it easy to find useful information.  However, it is also easy to find sites that are trying to catch children’s attention.  Pornographers frequently abuse search engines, tricking people into visiting them.  Children may visit their sites unintentionally, thinking they are visiting a more appropriate site.  Most search engines have filtering options that filter out inappropriate content.  Some are even designed to be kid-friendly.  In addition to these search engines, there are several family-friendly site lists, and entertaining sites that teach children online safety.  Librarians and library media specialists can also act as guides to valuable and safe online resources for children. 

            Parents should teach children several common sense rules for online safety.  These rules involve avoiding contact with people they don’t know in real life, providing personal information, aimless surfing, provoking fights, and illegally downloading materials.  Parents should also set up the computer in a common area of the house, make an effort to get to know their children’s online friends, and check into privacy and security settings when purchasing interactive devices for their children. 

            There are also many tools available for parents to control and monitor where their children surf online.  Blocking software blocks access to sites that are on a “bad list,” and some can be customized.  Filtering software uses certain keywords to block sites or sections of sites.  Some allow parents to see which terms are filtered, and select certain types of sites to block.  Outgoing filtering software prevents children from sharing certain personal information online.  Monitoring and tracking software allows parents to keep track of where their children go online, how much time they spend online, and how much time they spend on the computer. 

            Mobile communication devices with internet access make it more difficult for parents to monitor their children’s online activities.  Parents can help to keep their children safe by being proactive and informed.  They should know how these devices allow you to communicate with others, and how communications can be blocked, monitored, or filtered.  They should also know what content or images can be accessed or shared, and what controls exist to rate, block, filter, or monitor the content, and whether the device can be used to make online purchases. 

Preparing students for success in the 21^st Century

            Technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in our everyday lives, and in the workplace.  Soon, almost every American job will require some use of technology.  Schools are challenged with preparing students to use technology as a tool, while learning to make choices between information goldmines or landfills, ethical or unethical use of intellectual property, and privacy of personal information or broadcasting to worldwide populations. 

Developing Ethical Direction – Summary

            Everyone has an internal compass that tells you when something is right, and when something is wrong.  Adults need to teach children how to find and use this compass.  The complexity of technology, and how society chooses to address technology use make it difficult for students to find the right direction.  Students will often disagree on what is right or wrong.  A major reason for this discrepancy is that students have not been taught how to behave when using technology.  Learning digital citizenship is rooted in discussion and dialogue, and not in acceptable use policies (AUPs). 

            Teachers should review the following compass directions to better understand student opinions and guide them toward appropriate technology use:

·      Wrong.

o   Because a small number of students cause trouble for all other students, it is important to allow students to explore their feelings about technology use and abuse. 

·      What’s the big deal?

o   Students traveling in this direction fail to consider how others may feel about their behavior, and they can’t understand what all the fuss is about.  Teachers should help them see beyond their own personal use of technology. 

·      As long as I don’t get caught.

o   Students choosing this direction know what they are doing isn’t right, but they believe that if no one knows, that makes it acceptable.

·      It’s an individual choice.

o   These students believe that technology use is a right, not a privilege.  They don’t want others to tell them how to use their technology.

·      Depends on the situation.

o   There are times when a student needs to know that some activities are appropriate in one situation, but not in another. 

·      I don’t know.

o   Students may not know what is appropriate and inappropriate.  But, ignorance of the rules cannot be used as a defense of technology misuse or abuse.

·      I am not sure it’s wrong.

o   This is the path of a student who understands some aspects of technology but only knows enough to be dangerous.

·      Right.

o   Going in the right direction isn’t as easy as it may seem.  The best way to help others understand the right direction is through discussion, self-reflection, and role modeling. 

The strength of the digital citizenship compass is that it shows that there are gradations of understanding when it comes to technology use and abuse.  It assists teachers in stimulating dialogue and self-reflection, helping students to understand appropriate technology use. 

Technology misuse and abuse has reached an all-time high.  To prevent the problem from becoming even worse, digital citizenship needs to become a priority in school curriculum and staff development programs.