Connections with Key Issues in Educational Technology.
The most important thing that I will stress to my students at the beginning of this unit is that they will be responsible for whatever is posted to their webpage and that they need to know the consequences of those posts. We will talk about what it means to be a digital citizen and I will introduce information literacy to them by looking at each step separately.
My first thought is that I will assign the students to look up and find examples (good/bad/ugly) of copyright (infringement, laws, etc.) and intellectual property as a homework assignment. Then we will come back and look at them all together. My hope is that -between the entire class- they will find the World Intellectual Property Association, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and possibly the 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement for intellectual property. For copyright, they should find the Library of Congress page on copyright and the Photography & the Law article from JPG.
Then we will go through the components of Information Literacy, so that my students know how to assess, evaluate, manage, integrate, create, and communicate their information before they present it to the class. As IB students, they know about reliable resources, but it is always a good idea to review the hows, whys, etc.
In regards to digital equity, I know that all of my students in the past have had access to internet at home. I know that about 95% of them have smart phones and that at least 80% have a laptop or iPad/tablet that they can bring with them to class. Most of the reflections will be done in class, so if they need a computer they can check out a Chromebook from the media center.
One of the most important changes that I've been trying to incorporate into my class for the past two years is differentiation. I want to teach directly to students as individuals, not as one large group. Through this project, I believe that I will still be giving my students the opportunity to create, think, write, etc. individually. I want them to keep a blog, but I will allow them to blog through writing or through speaking. I want them to present and share their opinions, but I will not tell them how but (maybe) for how long. In regards to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), by having these tasks be open-ended, I am allowing my students to gather the information in their own way and to express their opinions in their own way; hopefully this will allow them to be motivated and challenged in their own way as well.
Through technology, students will be able to creatively and critically address these different big questions. I agree with Piffer in his "Can creativity be measured? an attempt to clarify the notion of creativity and general directions for future research" when he says that creativity can not be tested, but I still want to encourage it, so I may use Jason Silva's "How Ideas are Living, Beautiful Beings of the World" video on Vimeo as inspiration to my students for their presentations. To inspire the critical thinking through the use of technology, I looked at Dr. B. Jean Mandernash's "Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking: Integrating Online Tools to Promote Critical Thinking". In the article, he suggests using blogs, podcasts, and online threaded discussion forums to promote critical thinking in the classroom, and my unit uses all of these tools.
By using technology, I've already become a go-to person at my school for Moodle. By implementing the blogs and the audio recorders, I think that I will quickly become a leader in those technologies as well. My coworkers know that I am in this program, and they know that they can ask me questions about technology implementation whenever they need it. I've already presented at some of our PD times. My dream, though, would be to become the technology coordinator (even though that position doesn't exist at my school).
My first thought is that I will assign the students to look up and find examples (good/bad/ugly) of copyright (infringement, laws, etc.) and intellectual property as a homework assignment. Then we will come back and look at them all together. My hope is that -between the entire class- they will find the World Intellectual Property Association, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and possibly the 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement for intellectual property. For copyright, they should find the Library of Congress page on copyright and the Photography & the Law article from JPG.
Then we will go through the components of Information Literacy, so that my students know how to assess, evaluate, manage, integrate, create, and communicate their information before they present it to the class. As IB students, they know about reliable resources, but it is always a good idea to review the hows, whys, etc.
In regards to digital equity, I know that all of my students in the past have had access to internet at home. I know that about 95% of them have smart phones and that at least 80% have a laptop or iPad/tablet that they can bring with them to class. Most of the reflections will be done in class, so if they need a computer they can check out a Chromebook from the media center.
One of the most important changes that I've been trying to incorporate into my class for the past two years is differentiation. I want to teach directly to students as individuals, not as one large group. Through this project, I believe that I will still be giving my students the opportunity to create, think, write, etc. individually. I want them to keep a blog, but I will allow them to blog through writing or through speaking. I want them to present and share their opinions, but I will not tell them how but (maybe) for how long. In regards to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), by having these tasks be open-ended, I am allowing my students to gather the information in their own way and to express their opinions in their own way; hopefully this will allow them to be motivated and challenged in their own way as well.
Through technology, students will be able to creatively and critically address these different big questions. I agree with Piffer in his "Can creativity be measured? an attempt to clarify the notion of creativity and general directions for future research" when he says that creativity can not be tested, but I still want to encourage it, so I may use Jason Silva's "How Ideas are Living, Beautiful Beings of the World" video on Vimeo as inspiration to my students for their presentations. To inspire the critical thinking through the use of technology, I looked at Dr. B. Jean Mandernash's "Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking: Integrating Online Tools to Promote Critical Thinking". In the article, he suggests using blogs, podcasts, and online threaded discussion forums to promote critical thinking in the classroom, and my unit uses all of these tools.
By using technology, I've already become a go-to person at my school for Moodle. By implementing the blogs and the audio recorders, I think that I will quickly become a leader in those technologies as well. My coworkers know that I am in this program, and they know that they can ask me questions about technology implementation whenever they need it. I've already presented at some of our PD times. My dream, though, would be to become the technology coordinator (even though that position doesn't exist at my school).