As in all facets of education, legal restrictions must be taken into consideration when developing any lesson plan utilizing technological equipment. First and foremost is the crucial aspect of protecting the privacy of students. One can look at this from the student as a viewer of information and from that of someone viewing the student’s work once it gets posted. Through the use of portable devices, teachers are no longer forced to stand at a podium in the front of a classroom. They can now easily move about the room and monitor what the students are doing. Teachers can also recommend that some type of parental controls be enforced at home. As for others viewing a student’s work, options include marking items “private” or “sharing” them on a limited basis via hyperlink’s emailed to specific individuals. Cyberbullying and cyberstalking have become commonly used terms in this age of accessibility and limiting viewers is one way to install a level of protection.
Having a school Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) in place that meets federal requirements gives a teacher the tool by which he or she can instruct students in proper internet protocol. A review of AUP components should be a part of classroom policies and be incorporated into student assessments. AUP’s should include information on copyright law and fair use criteria.
Personalized Learning and Its Impact on Implementation
It seemed quite appropriate to finish our required readings with a chapter on tomorrow’s classroom technology. At this point, I have been inundated with more technology-based resources than I have ever seen! It is exciting and a little scary at the same time. The following 3 considerations would definitely effect my planning:
1. Accessibility of Technology
I would advocate for purchasing software device licenses over user/site licenses. I prefer to have more usage control by having the programs available on devices that are used only in the classroom setting.
2. Flexibility to Adapt
Technology plans must allow for potential upgrades to be obtained quickly. Equipment like computers and hand held devices must not be treated as if they are a one-time purchase. Technological advances will make some equipment obsolete before it even wears out.
3. Global Communities
My projects for this class focused on weather, a subject that is a part of people’s lives on a global basis. Having and open content set up that encourages collaboration would provide students with a glimpse at weather data on an immense scale. It would be amazing to monitor weather patterns as they travel around our planet through students participating in MOOCs.
Projects 9 & 10 I really had a good time creating these two projects. I loved the dynamic aspects of what the finished products could look like and plan to utilize these applications in the future. I've listed the actual code to my Thinglink project below. It looks really impressive when you see it written out that way. |