ISTE Standards in Relation to the Underage Children and Social Networking Article

The article titled, Underage Children and Social Networking, discussed how underage children are lying about their age in order to gain membership and access to popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  I was shocked to learn from the article that children as young as nine years old are misrepresenting their ages with permission from their parents.  In my opinion, I think it starts out with the parents.  Parents should not allow their children access to social networks. Parents must engage close monitoring and parental controls in an effort to control their child’s computer access.   But with busy schedules, in time, monitoring diminishes and as the child grows into middle childhood and adolescence, he or she could be participating in risky behavior.

The ISTE standards provide:  guidelines for parents to start their children on the right path of being responsible stewards of technology.  I particularly like standard number five, digital Citizenship, where students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.  If parents practiced this one ISTE standard with their children, underage participation of social networking would not be an issue.

ISTE standard six allows underage students to demonstrate sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operation.  This standard is important because students the internet is full of advertisements that could lead to viruses, identity theft and sexual predators.  When students understand how computer systems work and how people can manipulate the system, they are less likely to click on the flashy advertisements and enticing banners.

 I think the article was interesting and sad simply because how parents are allowing their children access to adult social networking sites.  But think about how the parents are behaving on these sites and how they are sharing inappropriate pictures, friendships and relationships.

Twitter Question - Teaching style

My teaching style is learner centered with lots of participant reflection.  The strength of this style is participants learn from each by sharing knowledge, opinions and experience.  A weakness from this style is losing classroom control.  As the facilitator, I have to redirect opinions and keep participants on task, which can be difficult with certain subjects and a diverse group.

Twitter Question - Growth as an educator

I grew as an educator by realizing I have to become proactive when it comes to voicing my opinion on project ideas with my co workers.  The EIPT course reminded me that I am a creative person and I need to get back on track as far as finding creative and innovative ways of implementing technology into my course designs.

OR Project Reflection

My OR project consisted of a video teaching participants how to create an InDesign flip book.  Overall, the feedback was good, I just needed to tweak a few things here and there.   I took it a step further and added a flip book design to one of the courses I’m developing on the job.  It was received positively which led to my supervisor purchasing InDesign for future developments.  I even uploaded the “how to create a flip book” video to the company’s intranet.

I enjoyed the OR project so much, I have decided to learn a new technology for each month, and incorporate it into a course design at my workplace.  I would also like to encourage other instructional designers to do the same.  I think it would prevent burn out from creating the same old types of course designs that we are used to.

I took a little time to write this reflection because I wanted to conduct a new survey after incorporating the feedback edits to the video. I was a little perplexed because I received feedback to take the music out – which I did.  But after the revision, some of the participants surveyed noted for me to put the music back in the video.  So, I am going to upload both the original and edited version of the video to my Wiki for viewers to decide which one they prefer.

Teaching Stlye in the OR project

Twitter Question: Did you learn about your teaching style in the OR project? - Discuss your teaching strengths and weaknesses from this on blog.

I learned that I can change my teaching style to accommodate adult different adult learning styles. For my OR project, I will teach learners how to create a page turn book in InDesign. As I taught the initial short course to co-workers and family, I found myself changing my style for a co-worker who was computer literate. She just wanted the basics and my short course was too long and cumbersome for her.  For family members, some who lacked computer skills, I found myself having to add details and vivid description of instruction. I guess my strength is being able to change my teaching style to teach adult learners.  I found my weakness was that I needed to create a course that adhered to all learning styles.

Professional Development Plan Project

Visionary Leadership

 

Educational Administrators inspire and lead development and implementation of a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformation throughout the organization.

My focus area is:
B) Engage in an ongoing process to develop, implement, and communicate technology-infused strategic plans aligned with a shared vision

My professional development plan goal for the above standard is to create a technology road map that will allow team members to recognize the department’s current technology state, and future technology direction.  My short term goal is to research books, articles and internet sites on how to develop a technology road map. My long term goal is to eventually become an expert and develop a template for all departments to create their own technology road maps.

Ertmer/Leftwich Article

  

   The article discusses the need for 21^st century technology in the classroom.  The article focuses on four aspects of knowledge, self-efficacy, pedagogical beliefs, and subject and school culture. To get teachers involved in today’s good teaching, teachers must see examples of “good teaching.”

   Teachers who change their pedagogical beliefs need support from their peers, principal, and administration.  Teachers, who first hand see the benefits of this new teaching idea, may want to implement those ideas in their classrooms, but without support and examples, teachers may lose initiative.

   The article also pointed out that a strong professional development program is needed in order for teachers to understand how students learn. Also, teachers need guidance with carrying out new instructional practices to build confidence as they implement “good teaching” in their classrooms.

   My is reflection of the article: it is a good thing to encourage teachers to step out of the old 20^th century ways of teaching for the new 21^st pedagogical style rich with technology and student centered learning.  Professional development classes such as computers for teachers was a popular summer development course and the principal encouraged teachers to take the class.  But something was wrong. First, it was a summer course and most teachers had vacations and personal issues to deal with.  Second, teachers, who found the class exciting and innovative had to wait until summer vacation was over to implement what they learned in their classrooms – by then, the thrill was gone.