Standard+4

** __Enhancing Core Teaching Skills with Technology__ **

#4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

 * Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers: **
 * advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources
 * address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources
 * promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information
 * develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools

My artifacts demonstrating this standard (What?)
1. Here is a link to my prezi that I created in the beginning of the 2010 school year to share with my students in my classes.

2. Filtering the internet is an issue. Following is a summary of a discussion in the class about filtering at Port Allegany School District.

Our online discussion about the filtering system and policy at Port Allegany was not that involved. Apparently, it is quite easy to get your system unblocked. There was some discussion about how to go about doing just that. I added that I just filled out a tech request, and my system was unblocked two days laters. I haven't tried it yet to see what kind of filtering is still in place.

3. Following is my discussion post regarding web site evaluation.

Yes - it was funny. I first came to the site and really tried to look at it objectively. The term, Dihydrogen Monoxide, really had me conviced. But, of course, I eventually figured it out. Water, water, everywhere, and I am just an idiot...isn't that how it goes? Anyway, I found a web site evaluation form from readwritethink.org that I believe would do well for middle grade students - []. My problem with it is that it is in PDF form and I would have to print it out. I guess I could go through the trouble of copy and pasting onto a word document and then emailing to the students or posting on the wiki, but I really like the Web 2.0 tools. I found an interactive web site for evaluation from readwritethink.org, but they have to print the information when they are finished. When I went through the web site, I found no author and the goal of the website was to...um...ban water - which probably isn't a good thing. Obviously, the audience of the web site was this class...I do wonder who actually made the page... I think it is easy to be fooled on the web, but I think more and more, teachers can direct students to sites that will not fool them. Most, if not all, of the work that I do with my seventh, eighth and tenth graders is quite controlled. I have not once asked my students to just go out to the web and find information. I always have web sites already set up for them to use. Also, I can direct the students to good places. I would assume with older and more research savy students, I would need to take a different approach and review the types of information reviewed in this class regarding effective searching strategies and evaluation of web sites.

4. Here is a link to my easy bib: **http://easybib.com/key/458a86**.

5. I added a Creative Commons license to the wiki: media type="custom" key="7473937"

6. Following is a copy of my reflection on my library interview.

I just read Mr. Healy's post and thought to myself, "Self, I could just cut and paste everything that Mr. Healy posted because that was the same thing that I was going to write about." But...I guess since we read about copywrite earlier maybe I shouldn't do that. However, I do have the same thoughts that Mr. Healy had. I sat down with the Librarian earlier today. Before I did sit down with her, I thought that it would be a ridiculous excerise. As Mr. Healy pointed out, our librarian does an outstanding job of keeping the staff informed of the lastest happenings. But I sat down with her and learned about the BIG six. That was interesting... In my own class, we are utilizing gaggle and AR and destiny. I really try to incorporate the things that our district pays for. If they are going to pay for it, I am going to use it. Destiny is neat. The students can look up books in the library. They can make recommendations to other students about the books. They can read reviews. They can rate the books. They can put books on their shelf that they are reading, that they have read and that they want to read. We no longer have reading days - we have AR days. The students are allowed to read or update their shelf and make recomendations using destiny. That is a fun tool and I think makes the students more like read readers. So, yes, our librarian is cool. Our librarian rocks. Our librarian helps with whatever we want. I am thankful for our librarian. YAY librarian!

7. Here is my response to copywrite and fair use.

Sigh. Why can't everything just be free? It is imperative that students do not plagiarize materials. They must know that they should give the proper credit to the proper people. It is unfair and dishonest to not do so. But when I want to use something for educational purposes...why can't I just use it and not worry about whether or not I am infringing on any law. I know - I know - I have think about fairness and people's livelihood and the like. But - I am lazy, and I just want to be able to use what I want...now. Okay, that really didn't have anything to do with the prompt. As a teacher who uses different media (images, video) I need to be aware of fair use. The article states that fair use is flexible. It is not uncertain and it is not unreliable. Um...yeah. It seems a little uncertain to me, but I ain't that smart and I am a nervous little man. Transformative means taking copyrighted material and using it in a new and creative way that would constitute fair use...I think. I believe it was T. S. Eliot who said, "good poets borrow. Great poets steal." A parody would be transformative. Fair use and transformative in the classroom, to me, means that a student can use materials but only in a way that would be noncommercial and nonpublic. My student uses an image from google images on a glog instead of cutting out the picture from a magazine. Same thing...I hope. Um...does our district have a fair use policy? A copyright policy? I am sure...somewhere? One last note - I have never been able to spell, "copyright." I can never remember the correct spelling. So, please, I apologize if you were cringing while reading my recent posts about said topic.

8. Following is a response to the digital citizen forum.

Digital citizenship is important. I believe that it is important that students are knowledgeable and safe when they use the internet. It is a good rule of thumb to treat the students you have like you would want a teacher to treat your own children. As a parent, it would be important to me that teachers teach how to use the computer appropriately when using the computers in school. Our own school policy would, I assume, be the IU/SCHWAN document that each student reads and fills out with their parents before they are allowed to use any computer in the school. The information listed is about the appropriate use of the computers and the internet. I thought it was some good information and I utilized it in a prezi that I created for my classes and that I embedded on my wiki. Here is a link to that prezi if you are interested. [] Regarding the nine pillars of digital citizenship, our school district does not address either commerce or wellness. I do not know if they are that important. It also does not address Netiquette, which I think is very important. I know that students need to know what appropriate computer behavior is. I would want my own children to have even more information than the ones that I give them. It is important. The scariest part of it is the fact that whatever students put on the internet could be there forever…

9. Following is my reflection for my grade level and student activity for digital citizenship.

The person/s responsible for digitial citizenship at my grade level are each individual teacher. It seems that each individual teacher is responsible for giving their students the appropriate information in regards to digital citizenship. I think, in a school our size where there is effective teacher to teacher communication that it works. I would like to see a more comprehensive, more building wide accepted policy, but for what happens in our building - I think we are effective. I created a prezi (which I have written about over and over again recently) and I share that with my own students. I review it almost every day the first two weeks. I do not have the students complete an activity - I just speak the good speak over and over again in an attempt to really get my students to understand. The resources that I looked at really did not add anything to the discussion. I believe in KISS with my students on an issue like this, so I do not want to give them an activity - I just want them to listen.

10. For my innovative project, my tenth grade students are going to create a poetry glog that they are going to update all year long. They are going to write poetry, using the various literary devices required by the state of PA for PSSAs, and embed their glog on a wiki. That wiki will be a collaborative wiki with a group of fourth graders in Susquenida school district. They will also create poetry glogs and embed them on the wiki. Then, using the discussion tab on the wiki page, the students will respond to each other's glogs.

My Reflection on meeting this standard (So What?)
//I think the most important thing that I have done with this standard is the prezi that I created in the beginning of the year. I used that prezi to give the students information about the importance of digital citizenship. I reviewed it over and over with the students. I also embeded that prezi into my class wikis.//

My Future Learning Goals related to this standard (Now What?)
//As a parent and teacher, internet safety and digital citizenship is very important to me. I want my students and my own children to know what to do and the appropriate way to use the internet. I am going to continue to work with that and continue Netiquette education with my students.//