Technology+Facilitator+Standard+VI

= Standard VI Reflection = Chapter VI deals with social, ethical, legal and human issues that face technology leaders (Williamson, & Redish, 2009). As a 1-1 district we have encountered many situations where we are operating without clear guidelines and as a result we are constantly updating the Acceptable Use Policy and Web Page Guidelines. There are four issues that every school must address, these issues impact every decision that a school technologist makes. The first issue is digital equity. My district has addressed the issues of the “digital divide” by providing every student fifth grade through twelfth grade with a student laptop that they can take home. Providing the hardware is just one piece of the puzzle, many students do not have Internet access at home. The students who have not had access to computers from a young age have lower basic technology skills. I witnessed this first hand when I was teaching Technology Applications to seventh graders. The more affluent students did not need “the basics” and were ready to move into creation of products, while the others needed “the basics”. This divide is even more apparent when I am on campus I see students who have the latest and greatest technology products while some students have just a plain basic phone. I foresee this as a problem that might need the same type of intervention like Head Start, because once behind always behind. I wonder how other districts are addressing this problem. Privacy and student records are the second issue that affects school decisions. FERPA is always a big concern for schools, but in my district it is a HUGE concern. Many years ago, the district lost a lawsuit that dealt with a FERPA issue and since then as a district we seem to be overly concerned. In fact, recently I attended a webinar over a new predesigned technology product that the district just purchased. While the facilitator was explain how the product work she was showing me live student data from other districts. Later, I wondered if I should have said something. I am not sure if that was my responsibility to point out what I saw as a FERPA violation. The third issue is online safety. My district receives e-rate money so it must follow the CIPA law; therefore we have a filter on our Internet. I wonder why our district could not have different filters for our kindergarteners and the high-schoolers who are taking college courses. I have been in high school classrooms when the school filter blocks a website and the student pulls out their phone and access the site anyway. We must teach students to use the Internet wisely and safely, and be able to dissect information to learn what information is reliable and what information is needs more research. As Williamson and Redish point out schools are erring on the side of caution when it comes to incorporating some Web 2.0 tools into classrooms. I am constantly frustrated by websites that require an email address before the students can use it, because legally students younger than thirteen cannot have email addresses, even though many do. The final issue is technology and copyright. Teachers must change their assignments from those that can be easily plagiarized to ones where students have to think, much like our assignments that we are doing for this course (Johnson, 2004). We must reflect on our learning and how what we learned can be applied. For me personally this is a much harder type of assignment. I struggle with answering the same questions for each of the different assignments. To combat plagiarism our high schools use the turnitin.com website. It is one of the software packages I support, so I am in contact with teachers who use it on a daily basis, they say it amazing how many students still cut and paste from websites even though they know they will get caught. It is as if they do not know how to write any more. But it is not only students who violate copyright, I have watched teacher Power Points that never give anyone credit. My Lamar group was ever mindful of copyright when we were creating our projects. When we created our PSA, we researched if we could call it the same thing as a nationally known PSA. As part of my job, I have taught teachers and students about copyright. We have an online course covering copyright that teachers are required to review every year. Last summer one of the professional development courses I facilitated concerned Cyber Safety. As a group we created age appropriate lessons Internet safety lessons that will be provided to teachers throughout the year. Programs that instruct students on the issues make the difference in keeping students save (Solomon, & Schrum, 2007). This standard is one that is constantly changing and being redefined because balancing these four areas of concern are difficult. For that reason, I will have to stay abreast of new laws and continue to revise our district policies.

References Johnson, D. (2004, March). Plagiarism-Proofing Assignments. //Phi Delta Kappan,// , Solomon G Schrum L 2007 web 2.0 new tools, new schools Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). //Web 2.0 new tools, new schools.// Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). //Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards What Every K-12 Leader Should Know and Be Able to Do//, Eugene, Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.

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