Standards
1. Ability to model safe, responsible, legal and ethical use of technology and implement school and district acceptable use policies including fair-use and copyright guidelines and Internet user protection policies.
2. Ability to develop and implement a classroom management plan to ensure equitable and effective student access to available technology resources.
3. Ability to promote, model, and communicate the safe, legal and ethical principles of digital citizenship, equitable access, digital etiquette, and responsible online social interactions in a global culture including respect for copyright, intellectual property, the appropriate documentation of sources, and Internet user protection policies.
As I continue to state, my classroom setting is a rather unusual setting. Due to the nature of our students, the vast majority of students only use computers of any sort for taking the Scantron, Accusess, and state testing. Thus, getting my students "online" is a challenging experience. When I set out to do these 2 lessons, the first thing I had to do was clear everything through the principal and made sure that the senior staff supervisors over our behavior aides could strategically place more aides in my classroom. Thus, when I took out the laptops for the students to use, they were already "worried" as there was double the usual staff in the room.
I start the first lesson by asking them what they knew about their digital footprint. Many were shocked to find out that Snapchat doesn't erase and can be "discovered" by police if necessary. Using my Smartboard, we went through the website I created in the previous Tech class to discuss the multi-facets of digital citizenship. https://ourdigitalcitizenship.educatorpages.com/ We went through each page with discussion as a class. I also had to verbalize to them that not following these rules had much higher consequences due to their placement at our facility and what those consequences would be. Each student signed a modified version of the "Internet Uses Agreement" that I now hold on file.
INTERNET USE AGREEMENT
Student Name: ______________________Date: _________
I have read the Internet Use Agreement found on this site. I understand that this access is designed for educational purposes. I recognize it is impossible for the school to restrict access to all controversial materials, and I will not hold the school district responsible for materials acquired on the Internet. I am responsible for the equipment that I use in the classroom and I will only use the equipment assigned to me when I am allowed to use it. I have asked my teacher about any questions I had, and am fully aware of what is expected. Failure to follows these rules will result in a double elevated OBC for violation of technology as well as a zero for every day I cannot use this technology to complete my project. I will follow these rules to be a good digital citizen.
Signature: ____________________________________________ Date: ___________________
When they completed their research for written information and had typed the bulk of their paper, they began seeking images of what the research was about. This was used in the group project and all cited works were listed on their "Works Cited" page of their paper.
As they receive their laptops, I placed a "sticky note" with their initials on it so that I would know exactly who had used that particular device I had to check and clear their history nightly.
A few changes I would make: When the "Our classroom website" site was created, my partner was working with younger elementary students, and the videos target that population more. I would like to go back in and "grow up" some of the videos a bit to better fit my middle school population. Also, assuming I am the only one still using this site, I would like to change the wording of the Internet Use Agreement to what I have above for consistency with my students. I would also change the "computer sign-up" page as this is not something my students will be doing.