Executive Summary
Sometimes we question if we are really making a difference for our students and the districts that we serve? One direct way we, as an Intermediate Unit, can confidently answer that question is to look at how we are currently assisting our students to become the most productive individuals possible. At IU in-services we create a plan of action and update our skills in an attempt to really meet our students' needs while providing the most effective and efficient service to the school district. We critique IEPs, examine updated laws, and explore new teaching strategies, but one area we need to improve is our use of technology. If we really intend to provide that cutting edge education that helps students and impresses districts then we must alter the way we handle educational technology. Our teachers need to fully understand Access, the Digital Divide, and Special Populations; Copyright; Accuracy and Validity of Information; and Privacy and Security so they are competent in helping our students to meet their potentials! According to http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/virtualpress/student/honorstheses/pdfs/G54_2004GilbertDavidA .pdf many teachers teach the same way they did 10 or 20 years ago. We do not want to fall into this category. As the Intermediate Unit we can set the precedence for our districts!
Access, the Digital Divide, and Special Populations
Summary: We as educators have the opportunity to provide students with the tools and education that is needed to succeed post graduation. It is important to ensure that our educational setting helps to foster the beneficial use of technology in our students' lives. We not only need to provide access to technology, but we must ensure that all students are learning and using technology to the most beneficial means possible for them as individuals.
For example, within our organization we not only need to convince parents, students, and other teachers about the benefits of technology, but we also need to demonstrate to entire districts the importance of beneficial technology. Since districts hire us for our services it only makes sense that we are showing them how we plan to directly help their students close the digital divide! After all, most districts that we serve have SmartBoards and similar tools in their classrooms. It is imperative that we rise to and exceed the level of technology they are using to promote our services, assist students, and to show why they should hire our teachers.
Overview: The Digital Divide refers to the gap between those who use digital technology in beneficial ways and those who do not benefit from digital technology. This divide has helped to create a variety of problems, such as: gender inequities, individuals being exposed to information that they do not understand, individuals being isolated from important information, cyber crimes, individuals not understanding the value of technology due to witnessing its negative uses, individuals lacking necessary technological skills for jobs, and lack of cultural awareness. As we explore the digital divide it quickly becomes apparent how it impacts our students.
Below are two options we should consider to help our students bridge the digital divide. Before considering those options first we need to alter our mindset to recognize that access to technology alone will not bridge the digital divide. That access must be paired with how to use technology in a beneficial manner to have any impact according to http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/net/digdiv.html.
Option 1: Educate students, families, and teacher about the importance of using technology, specifically the Internet, to achieve beneficial skills and objectives. This could be achieved a variety of ways, but a simple solution would be to offer a few evening sessions that address the digital divide. Obviously, teachers could attend sessions or be briefed during in-service trainings.
- Pros: low cost to providing trainings, those who attend will understand the school’s purpose for using such tools, support from families who attend, everyone who attends will be on the same page regarding beneficial use of technology, and the PA State Standards for technology will be addressed
- Cons: staff willingness to present at and attend evening sessions, possible low attendance of families, difficult to differentiate instruction to meet varying technology capabilities of audience
Option 2: Provide classrooms with access to useful tools that allow beneficial access to the Internet, such as SmartBoards and laptops.
- Pros: helps meet the needs of special populations, provides students with a wide range of interactive knowledge, allows students to obtain skills needed post graduation, meets the PA State Standards for technology, motivates students to engage in content, teaches students how to use the Internet in positive ways
- Cons: costly, teachers need training on how to use tools, tools need updated frequently, student progress needs monitored, finding time
Summary: Copyright impacts many mediums, organizations, and individuals. According to http://www.copyright.gov/ copyright is protection to authors of any type of work - published or unpublished from having their work copied. Stop and think how that pertains to your daily life? Do you follow copyright laws? Do the teachers that you supervise follow copyright laws, let alone teach their students about copyright? Now think very closely, maybe copyright is something you have addressed, but is it followed up on, are teachers taught how to implement it, is it mentioned in the Student Handbook? These are all questions that need considered to ensure that copyright is being addressed in our organization.
Overview: We as an organization should recognize how we are putting our organization, as a whole, in a dangerous situation if we continue to glaze over the issue of copyright in our schools. Copyright needs to be addressed at the teacher, student, and family level. If even one of those areas is overlooked then we are suggesting that copyright isn't important. When, in fact, it is important if we look at not only the lawful ramifications that can occur if copyright laws are not followed, but also what are we teaching our students - that it is okay to steal and copy others' ideas? We need to take a stand by using the following options to demonstrate the importance of copyright in our schools, homes, and lives!
For example, think of your own website or when making handouts for a presentation - do you demonstrate appropriate use of copyright? Do you understand fair use and how it relates to you? The "Fair Use" doctrine allows limited copying of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes, which is discussed in more detail at http://www.csusa.orgcawcaw_2006_teachers_articles_basics.htm.
Option 1: Provide an in-service training that addresses copyright. Teachers need to be instructed on what copyright and fair use means. This is important because teachers need to understand copyright to be able to teach it to their students and to ensure that they are indeed following copyright laws themselves. Teachers need to recognize that students need to be taught what is copyright and how to complete projects without violating copyright laws. This is important to our organization because we refer to cheating in our Student Handbook, which could be elaborated upon to include copyright and therefore protect our students. In-service trainings would be a great opportunity to provide teachers with ideas for teaching copyright.
- Pros: attendance would be great as all teachers are required to attend in-services, our technology person could run the training (which would be low cost), all teachers would hear the same information, teachers can then set the standard in the schools where they work, students will be exposed to proper use of copyright by observing their teachers implementing it
- Cons: teachers may think of it as yet another "thing" to do, fair use is a confusing area, finding the time for the in-service training,convincing teachers of copyright's importance, finding volunteers to write the addition to the Student Handbook
Option 2: Monitoring that our teachers are actually teaching copyright to students. Students need to be able to define and demonstrate copyright and fair use. They must have a basic understanding of copyright and fair use that is developmental appropriate. This is important to our students because many of them are able to easily copy and paste from the Internet, but do not understand that is considered copying. Students need to demonstrate how to complete activities within copyright laws. This is important because often students can identify examples of violation of copyright, but are guilty of making copyright errors themselves. For example, students need to know how to cite and reference material.
- Pros: provides students with the skills to successfully follow copyright laws at a higher level, addresses PA State Standards for technology, reading, and writing, teaches students to value others' work as well as their own pieces, protects students and teachers from violating copyright laws
- Cons: teachers may have difficulty finding the time, it may be challenging to teach young students what is copyright, and at the same time it might be difficult to teach older students as they may be unfamiliar with copyright and demonstrate reluctance relating to it
Option 3: Hosting an after school copyright session for families, students, and the community to attend. Helping parents to understand copyright and fair use so they can model proper fair use and also enforce that their children are adhering to copyright laws at home. Parents need to be provided with a training or similar format that shows them what copyright looks like and how it is not just something addressed in schools but also in outside communities. Providing teachers, students, and families with not only a definition of copyright, but also the consequences of copyright violation at the school level is important because many schools do not address copyright or have a set protocol to follow if it is violated.
- Pros: could be organized very low cost, could be held in conjunction with an already organized Back to School Night, shows families how dedicated our school community is to protecting their students, promotes school community
- Cons: low attendance, some families may think it isn't important, may be difficult to convince teachers to attend as it is after hours
Accuracy and Validity of Information
Summary: The World Wide Web offers a variety of resources that enhance education; however, not everything on the web is safe for our students. To ensure that web resources are beneficial to the educational process the following should be reviewed for each site: the content, the site layout, the site author/sponsors, and how current is the information as suggested by http://www2.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/11605_12337.cfm. Another resource states five similar areas to be addressed concerning validity and accuracy:http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html suggests that accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage be considered.
Overview: Within our organization we hope to demonstrate to school districts just how cutting edge we are regarding technology. One way for our teachers to prove that we are providing top of the line education that incorporates technology is for our teachers to use sites that follow appropriate validity and accuracy. For example, when parents and district supervisors observe our classrooms we want them to witness beneficial and trust worthy use of Internet resources. We strive to have students sharing sites at home that demonstrate a high quality reference.
Option 1: Provide teachers with training on how to determine if sites are valid and accurate.
- pros: students would be learning reliable/accurate information and not be misguided by outdated texts/resources, teachers could teach students how to evaluate a site's worthiness, parents and districts would see the value in using accurate sites and the value in our teachers who find and utilize these sites, a training could be short and low cost, teachers could be provided with a site they could reference if they had questions concerning validity and accuracy
- cons: teachers may think of it as another "thing" to do, unless training is held during required work time teachers may not attend, it may be difficult to find time to incorporate training
Option 2: Provide students and parents with a hand-out or website to reference that discusses the important details to check for to determine sites' validity and accuracy.
- pros: low cost, could be a link on district website to allow for easy access, puts everyone on the same page, would not require much time
- cons: families and students may forget about it or not see the value in it
Privacy and Security
Summary: When looking at privacy and security in the school setting we can examine how it relates to students, teachers and staff, and families. There are laws pertaining to privacy and security, but often these laws are not addressed to the necessary extent to show just how important they are! Students and teachers need to be informed of how privacy and security relates to their personal situations. For example, teachers must be capable of understanding privacy and security because of HIPPA and AUP, but also so teachers can demonstrate privacy and security related to student files, and to simply teach privacy and security to students. We must teach and protect our students from inappropriate material, learn how to respect themselves and others by learning how to be safe online.
Overview: According to http://staysafeonline.org/content/in-the-classroom students need to understand three key areas regarding internet safety. Students must be taught cyber safety, cyber ethics, and cyber security. For example, within our organization we strive to teach using technology and to set a high standard for the districts where we work. We can easily teach students how to keep their computers safe from viruses by making them aware which emails are safe and unsafe to check. We can also teach students the difference between the real world and cyber world, so they understand not to give personal information online the same as we do not give strangers in the real world personal information. Lastly, we can easily teach our students that after they type something online and send it or save it that it is not easily erased. It may be online forever and the words can be damaging to themselves and to others; help them to see what is cyber bullying.
Option 1: Provide an article or webpage that provides issues related to privacy and security as it relates to the school setting and accompany the material with an online quiz that assesses understanding. Require teachers to read and view the material and then complete the online quiz. Teachers could be required to complete this during their new teacher induction or they could be required to complete it each year since the material would need updated to stay current.
- pros: teachers would practice privacy and security concerning student files, teachers would possess a solid background so they can teach students regarding privacy and security, by having the material and quiz online teachers could complete it when convenient for them, teachers could promote privacy and security when working with families, the material and quiz could easily be updated as needed, the material could be bookmarked for easy reference throughout the year
- cons: teachers may be frustrated to have yet another issue to consider, teachers may not prefer having the material and quiz online, teachers may not like having to complete the material on a yearly basis
Option 2: Create a section in the Student Handbook that addresses privacy and security in the school and home settings as it relates to student activity. Review this section during Back to School Night to ensure that students and families understand the material.
- pros: all students and families who attend would hear the same information regarding privacy and security, the session would be low cost, the material would be easy to reference in the handbook, material could be easily updated each year prior to handbook being printed
- cons: not all families attend Back to School Night, not all families read the Student Handbook, families and students still may not see the value in the material, a committee would need to be organized to create the material for the handbook and it may be difficult to find volunteers to form the committee, families may still not regulate students use of internet at home
Closing
Now that we have explored Access, the Digital Divide, and Special Populations; Copyright; Accuracy and Validity of Information; and Privacy and Security the next step is to positively impact our students' educations. Only we can demonstrate to districts and students the importance of these issues. We must consider our options and then act swiftly, but sensibly if we hope to help our students prepare for the quickly changing world of technology that they will encounter upon graduation.
References
http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/copyrightlaw.html http://www.state.nj.us/education/schools/security/links/isb.htm
http://www.guardiandigital.com/company/casestudies/itasca.html
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/net/digdiv.html
http://www.digitaldivide.org/dd/digitaldivide.html
http://www.digitaldivide.org/dd/digitaldivide.html
http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/virtualpress/student/honorstheses/pdfs/G54_2004GilbertDavidA .pdf http://www.csusa.org/caw/caw_2006_teachers_elementary.htm
http://langwitches.org/blog/2008/04/20/teaching-copyright-in-elementary-school/
http://www2.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/11605_12337.cfm
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html
