Standard iV
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.
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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
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Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources
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Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information
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Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools
Reflections & Artifacts
The fourth standard reminds teachers of the notion of digital citizenship as well as online etiquette among diverse cultural backgrounds. On one hand, the easy access to online resources, whether images or texts, brings us convenience; on the other hand however, puts risks on ethical and legal issues. Teachers should be warned that citing or copying online materials must be taken seriously to protect others' intellectual property. Only after the teacher possesses the consciousness, students will follow the correct behavior. Besides, the standard also underlines the educational equality mainly referred to having equal access to some tools and resources. I do agree that teachers should take it into consideration since the educational inequity exists in real life. Technology provides us with the opportunity to better handle the problem because with those available tools and resources, we can prepare materials in different formats to be presented with different devices. Thus students will have more ways to reach the materials.
The first artifact chosen for this standard is a photo editing report I did for IT 740. In the project, you'll notice that all of the images I used were retrieved from online resources. We should be aware of the fact that our students will use online resources very often thus guiding them to legally and ethically use the materials is compulsory for any teacher. I listed the information of each image as well as the original addresses. The second artifact is a podcast recorded by myself as one of the instructional materials for my flipped course, The Society and Culture of Major English-Speaking Countries. Students can access the podcast via different devices such as mobile phones or even the stereo systems of cars. The content thus can reach many people than video. Using podcasts to prepare course materials will provide learners with a more equal access to the course contents. The last artifact is the course site for Society and Culture of Major English-Speaking Countries which addresses the cultural differences among six English-Speaking countries and helps me as a teacher to understand the various social structure through which my global awareness was built.
To view the artifacts in detail, please click the following thumbnails.
future learning goals
Based on the requirements and expectations for teachers in this standard, I would be more careful in my future research and teaching towards the issues of copyright and fair use. At the same time, I will be aware of my own creations when they are put online. Thus, students can model my behavior when dealing with similar problems in their learning. Also, when I need to create course materials, I will first make sure that everyone in my class has access to the devices for content presentation. If not, additional ways must be offered for equal access to the tools and resources. And for the cultural difference and global awareness, I would use technology communication tools or available online resources to guide my students understanding other cultures and etiquette. Since there are so many free resources available online, I don't worry about finding materials I need but I have to be careful with the fair use because I don't want to misguide my students about the digital citizenship and copyright protection.
