Digital Safety

Here is my next blog on Digital Safety. Brought to you by me through PowToon: a real cool presentation software.

AUP

So to combat intended or unintended issues, all students need to understand and agree with Acceptable Use Policies when working in a "professional or educational realm."

When creating an AUP, I am a good believer in the "Don't Reinvent The Wheel" policy. So, I want to borrow from the big guys in the Twin Towers in Atlanta: http://www.gadoe.org/Technology-Services/Instructional-Technology/Pages/Creating-Cybersafety-Use-Agreements-.aspx

Federalism is the system of government in the United States. The Constitution is the law of the land and no state, county, municipality, or person is above those laws. States have the freedom to create policies and procedures that are unique to the needs of the states, and so on. One of the unique tasks left to the state is education. The states for the most part are in charge of the educational needs of the citizens of Georgia. So before I go ahead and create a policy, it is important to know what the State of Georgia requires.

By using the Secondary School AUP, we can create a ground work for what is expected of both students and teachers  in the State of Georgia. (The word document is amendable to match the needs of the individual school if the need arises.) This policy will be during the first class. It will be personally signed by all participates and their parents. It will also be available and referred to on the home webpage of every site I create and instruct from: Mr. E's AUP.

Proper Netiquette

When thinking of netiquette, my mind jumped back to this video. One of the biggest issues of netiquette is representing your true self. Often times, many students feel freer when having a computer screen in front of them than a teacher or peer. Cyber bullying is a growing problem, because students that normally not bully in a traditional setting would feel "braver" doing it from their computer. Another issue can be that they say things that might come across in a different manner intended. YELLING in all capital letters is rude.

My Poster of Netiquette

Access to the net

This was a horrible video when I saw it for the first time in high school, but it was pretty revolutionary. I love watching the reactions of the kids today with this video. It is hilarious!! Enjoy!

The reason I mention this video is because we are watching today's "average" kid in the United States. Students, for the most part, have access to all types of digital media and are very fluent in social networking and general internet surfing. But not all kids are today's "average" kid. Some students have limited to access to the internet.

In my county of Gwinnett, we are ranked 2nd in the state for internet speed with 100% download and upload combinations. Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) has it own Virtual School. Gwinnett County Public Libraries have e-books available for check out. We even have the youngest and one of the most modern and state-of-the-art colleges within our borders. Having access to the internet comes easy to most of the citizens of Gwinnett.

One of the major barriers of access is the financial availability of the families with little to no income. These students may not have a proper computer at home or limited data plans by their provider, possibly neither of these at all.

As more families with limited incomes move into Gwinnett, GCPS has to find better ways to provide for these students as we implement hybrid and fully online courses. Some schools are starting programs that allow students to BYOD (Bring our Own Device.) At the same time, families can also "check out" devices from the school library and take them home for use.

Another major barrier is the knowledge of students in using the internet and devices. By having more computer access and exposure within the schools will allow more and more students gain this knowledge. Elementary schools have started teaching students many of these needed skills and giving them access to educational sites that allow them to explore appropriate sites that can guide them to proper digital citizenship.

Digital Literacy

By teaching Political Systems and Economics, I face a challenge of real creditable sources. In other subjects, truth can be self discovered. Math and Science are based by actual equations and experiments. Grammar is finite depending on the format used by the school or institution. But Social Studies... Oh Social Studies... The subject of opinions and points of views.

With Social Studies, let's use the experts Sean Hannity and James Carville.

1. They are CREDITABLE. They have been in the news business for years: Hannity gained national attention in 1996 and Carville in 1991.
2. They are CURRENT. Hannity is still on conservative radio with his own show and Carville is a Fox News contributor. 
3. They have an AUDIENCE. Both are political icons and are highly respected by both conservatives and liberals.
4. They are both ACCURATE. This, of course, depends strictly on the audience that follows them.
5. Their livelihood is based on their POINTS OF VIEW. The whole reason they are who they are is based on the way they express themselves and the facts they present to their audience. 

The same is true for the websites students and teachers can use. There are plenty of websites, blogs, e-books, and scholarly reports that fit all of the criteria needed in a reputable digital tool, but most sites will have a bias.  The challenge is how to determine which site is a valued source for education. 

In my walkabout, I found some valuable resources that can help me bring creditable evidence to the classroom and share sites with students that can be a value to them when conducting research:

1. Open Edu Consortium - oeconsortium.org -[Social Studies Resources - I will be using this for my higher education as well as the students.
2. Thinkfinity - thinkfinity.org - [Social Studies Resources - The community closes on June 30th but the resources will be still available.]
3. Peer 2 Peer - p2pu.org - [Social Studies Resources - Really cool resource for individual ideas for lessons.]
4. Gooru American Government - goorulearning.org -[Social Studies Resources - Really helpful in teaching Political Systems.]

During my walkabout, I also learned ways to chose better sites for my students and help them determine proper sites for their research:

1. Web of Trust - mywot.com - [Website Check - Great website for site validity.]
2. Evaluating Websites - asha.org - [Website Check - This site will help me with testing a websites validity.]
3. Wiki TLDs - wikipedia.org - [Website Check - Good history and explanations of TDLs]
4. Stop Badware - stopbadware.org - [Website Check - If my site gets a cold, here is the doctor.]

A policy with our online class is to have a webpage dedicated to resources that have been confirmed and validated for their research. If a student finds a website they believe to be a worthwhile source, we can use some of the above sites to determine the source's reputability.

The 3 R's of a DLC Citizen

The Digital Learning Community Citizen is just as important as a United States citizen.  The United States citizen has the power to live the life he or she wishes or learn what he or she wants to learn. "With great power, comes great responsibility." - Peter Parker. A digital citizen has great responsibilities to act and conduct himself or herself on a certain way. Today, it is too easy to be brave when looking into the eyes of a computer screen. It is easier to post the wrong comment, the wrong picture, or the wrong intended meaning of your words.

In Georgia, a large number of schools and districts focus on the PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) System. We can focus our online community in the same manner. Here is the matrix I would use in my online classroom:

Mr. E's Bookmarks

The five DLCs I looked at were:

1. Gwinnett Online Campus: This is my county's online campus. At my current school, we collaborate with GOC which allows our students the chance to recover missing credits.

2. Khan Academy:  This site allows another opportunity for anyone to learn. I am a lifelong learner and try to promote that philosophy to everyone I know. This site is another tool I can use to do this.

3. Open Study: This site is a great way to help students find answers to question they might have about their classwork or homework. The cool thing is this site allows students to also be the teacher. A site that becomes a virtual collaborating study hall!

4. Open Culture: This site is a great site I will use to enhance my Social Studies classes. Utilizing this site can engage students with interesting topics that can be incorporated into the GPS.  

5. The DLC I decided to join was the Free Technology Academy, because I want to learn more about the language, software, and web applications that can better my online teaching experience.