Ethical Practices of Technology Usage

Ethical Practices of Technology Usage

Ethical issues are always a concern when implementing new instructional technology.  The examples given in The Ethics of Instructional Technology: Issues and Coping Strategies Experienced by Professional Technologists in Design and Training Situations in Higher Education are “digital copyright infringement, violation of private online information, and other inappropriate use of instructional technology (Lin, 2007, p. 412)”.  Other challenges are interfering with other’s work, using technology to harm others (cyber bullying), spamming and hacking, and privacy, and confidentiality. 

In the Constructivist theory of instructional design, “learners build personal interpretation of the world based on experiences and interactions”.  To do this, the teacher should provide a context for learning that supports both autonomy and relatedness while keeping in mind ethical issues that could pose an issue. 

Original Assignment: EDU649: Technologies for Teaching & Learning

The assignment that will be redesigned is Instructional Methods and Media.  The assignment was to create knowledge of how to use media, but also how to present the chosen media to reach all learning styles in the classroom.  “Media are essential to good teaching and, to get the most from them, they must be selected properly and used effectively.” (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, Russell, & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2011)  Instructional method is a procedure to help learners achieve objectives or understand the content or the message of instruction.  Media and methods help each other to make the message clearer to the students.  They both go hand in hand, but the method is the foundation of the presentation while media is just an extra.  If you concentrate your lesson on media, the objective may not become clear to the learner. 

Evaluating and using the correct media can help meet the needs of various types of learners by promoting interactivity, individualization, and consistency.  It also can help establish the Constructivist theory of Instructional Design by interpreting the world based on experiences and interactions, but ethical issues could become a problem. 

Redesigned Assignment

When using media in the classroom, students should have a chance to view the media as may times as the feel they need.  This is because not all information can be taken in all at once, but having multiple views of the chosen media can bring more take-a-way information for the student.  The media needs to be accessible to all students so that each student will have the power and resources to be successful.  Not all students may not have computers or internet connection so giving them choices to access these tools will help those student such as; the local library or open classroom throughout the week. 

If two media formats were shown to be equally effective for presenting your content, some factors such as material availability may cause you to choose one over the other.  Some media and materials may be hard to come by, have high start up costs which can cause an issue.  If planning to use a certain material, but the day of the lesson it is not available could cause the lesson to be unsuccessful.  Choosing material that are already available will make less confusion and frustration of both students and the teacher.  Another factor would be which media will motivate the students more.  Even though two media choices weighed out to be equally effective for presenting the content, what would the student’s appreciate more.  This factor could change if the teacher as more than one class of different students.  All students are different and may learn better from different types of media.  Ethical aspects would be any disabilities in the classroom; hard of hearing, eyesight, or any other reason that may cause the student to struggle. 

Using technology and media is a great learning tool and can help students broaden their learning styles and take-a-way concepts in the lesson being taught.  Knowing the students, learning styles, and any disabilities will enable the teacher to make a more solid and enjoyable lesson. 

Supporting Learning and Leadership with Technology

Performance learning objective 8 is to demonstrate the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of leaning and leadership.  Data can be used to improve instruction; was the goal met, was it successful or unsuccessful, did each student gain concepts or knowledge.  To make decisions about academic success or failures, having data will help improve the decision making and also implement new ways of promoting learning especially if you are working with others who are resistant to change.  The activity that will be redesigned is week four assignment in EDU658: Instructional Leadership.

Original Activity

Kindergarten Readiness is important aspect in a child’s life to prepare him to become a lifelong learner.  Celebrating small wins not only will show everyone involved appreciation for the hard work that has been given, but will also help keep them motivated.  Goals given will be obtainable and will be a positive and productive experience for everyone involved (Spiro, Leading Change Handbook: Concepts and Tools, 2009). 

The original activity was to create a change strategy and to implement small wins.  The change strategy was to prepare Head Start students for Kindergarten by working with the public school Kindergarten teachers and using learning strategies that will get the students comfortable with the routine and technology used in the classroom.  To start this process, technology needs to be allowed to work with the curriculum and funds need to be raised to purchase interactive white boards.  Interactive white boards will help children become familiar with the tools and how to manipulate it.  The original activity had great ideas for rewarding small wins and would use data and results to determine if the goals were met, but nothing was established on how to record data or even what goals needed to be met. 

The Redesign

            The redesigned activity uses the principle of Objectivism and Behaviorism because the teachers who are involved will observe the students over a period of time to establish data on whether the knowledge has been obtained.  Since the original assignment did not include a way that data would be entered and organized, Microsoft Excel and TeacherKit.net will be used.  Teacher Kit is a classroom management tool that can help track behavior, attendance, and grades.  Microsoft Excel will organize the information for each skill type and whether the skill is leveled at 1, 2 or 3.  Once information has been entered in Excel, the final point evaluation will be entered in Teacher Kit. 

            The students will be observed and once the teacher sees a skill the child has chosen to do, the teacher will rate the process as 3 for mastery; if the child was able to finish the task on time, with little or no help; 2 for progressing; if the child was able to attempt the task with help, or 1 for not seen.  Not seen will be used for if a child refuses to attempt task.  Once all skills have been measured, the teacher can look to see where the class stands as a whole and also which students need more individualized help. 

            Using the interactive white board, students will that the ability to lead their learning by choosing the skills or games they would like to attempt.  The interactive white board will be used as a technology delivery system which will relate to the Objectivism principle.  “Knowledge and learning are achieved when the abstract symbols that the learner came to know correspond to the one and only real world” (Vrasidas, 2000).  When teaching and learning take place, an objectivist model is where the teacher is controlling the learning process and goals. Also in this model, the instructional strategies are well defined, learning is structured or sequenced in an orderly fashion, and assessment aligned with the goals is conducted at the end of instruction.

Using Teacher kit, each grade for the skills for Kindergarten Readiness will be accumulated under each skills type.  For example, motor skills have 8 different skills to be learned so therefore, motor skills will have 24 total points that can be scored.  Here are screenshots of Teacher Kit: 

The challenges that were present was first using Microsoft Excel Analyse-It.  The tool was difficult to figure out because of the lack of experience with the Analyse-It feature.  After I played with it for a while, I still could not figure out how to organize the data.  I then decided to use Microsoft Excel and the Teacher Kit.  Excel is great for organizing data and the Teacher Kit seemed like a neat tool to use.  I am glad I decided to use both tools because it was able to give a grade to the students, but also track in what sub-skills each student is progressing in. 

Using different technology allows learning to take place differently, but making sure the tool is being used as it should be and that it is able to make a change in learning.  This is why tracking data and academic progress will help ensure that you are making a difference.  Once data is shown, staff, which may be resistant to change, will see that they could also make a change for the better and also take advantage of a tool that would help promote learning. 

Assessment and Evaluation Using Technology

This week’s assignment is to select a prior MATLT activity that demonstrates attainment of Program Learning Outcome 6 to “technology resources to facilitate effective assessment and evaluation” and Program Learning Outcome 7 “Utilize technology to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate findings”.  Redesign the activity using instructional design principles and theory.

There are different types of assessment and evaluation tools that teachers can use in the classroom.  Assessment is the evaluation or estimation of the nature, quality, or ability of someone or something.  Assessment gives you feedback in strongest and weakest points and to help improve performance.  Evaluation is the assessment of a program or policy using absolute or relative criteria (McDavid, Huse, & Hawthorn, 2013).  Evaluation helps identify the quality of the performance that is usually compared to standards that have already been set and helps make judgments; whether something worked or failed. 

Assessment in the classroom is to enhance student learning and obtain feedback about student learning in course objectives.  General evaluation should be done in both summative and formative types of assessment.  This will allow the educator to facilitate fair opportunities to provide growth to the students.  Evaluation should also be ongoing to show whether or not a lesson was successful and if the students were able takeaway the main concepts.  There are two types of evaluations that can be used for assessing goals; summative and formative evaluation. 

Summative evaluation is used to assess its impact, or the worth of a program at the end of a lesson or activities.  The main focus of summative evaluations is the outcome itself.  Collection of data can be in the form of questionnaires, surveys interviews, observations, and testing. 

Formative evaluation is “indicates whether or not students have learned what they must know before progressing to the next portion of the instruction” (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, Russell, & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2011, p. 316).   Collection of data for formative evaluation can be blogs, journals, open-ended experiences, or long term projects that are done in an extended period of time. 

The assignment that will be redesigned will be is week two’s assignment in EDU: EDU652 Instructional Design & Delivery.  For this assignment, each student was to design an Absorb type activity.  The topic chosen for the design was the life cycle of a frog for second grade students.  The knowledge that was trying to be measured was:  Students will understand that frogs go through changes in their life cycle. 

·       Identify the stages of the life cycle of frogs in order from first to last. 

·       Students will be able to define metamorphosis.

·       Students will be able to compare and contrast the frog at each stage of the life cycle.

·       Students will be able to create diagrams of the life cycle of the frog.

The data was going to be collected by creating a collaborative activity for the students to participate and share with the class the life cycle as they understand it.  At the end of the activity, the class would participate in filling out a Know, Want to know, and Learned (KWL) Chart.  The evaluation during the course did not consist of much, except observing the students and recording the findings. 

To redesign this activity to include an assessment and evaluation that will show growth, I found a resource that can be used to design quizzes.  The website is called QuizStar (quizstar.4teachers.org).  With QuizStar you are able to create and edit students, manage quizzes, and gain feedback on student performance.  Setting up the class and making the quiz was really simple.  You are also able to keep a log of the student’s user name and password in case it is forgotten.  After a quiz is taken, the teacher can go back and review the results and can gain individual results or class results.  This would help the teacher identify if the lesson can be moved on or if more time needs to be spent on it.  To further explore this assessment, use the following information as a student: username: Edu697 password: class.  

The challenge of this design was the fact that I feel students learn by processing current knowledge and actively participating and organizing information.  As the Cognitivism/Pragmatism instructional design theory states, I also feel that “Learning is viewed as an active process that occurs within the learner and which can be influenced by the learner and the outcome of learning is not only dependent on what the teacher presents but also on what the learner does to process this information” (Dabbagh, 2006).  Having assessment and evaluation done with a multiple choice quiz, I feel does not help learn from their experience, but just what the teacher has taught and also is not very interactive.  The quiz falls under the Objectivism Instructional design theory by creating a learning environment by providing a correct response. 

General evaluation should be done in both summative and formative types of assessment.  This will allow the educator to facilitate fair opportunities to provide growth to the students.  Evaluation should also be ongoing to show whether or not a lesson was successful and if the students were able takeaway the main concepts.  Using both types of assessments will enable the teacher to gain more knowledge on the student’s progress than if just using one type.  With the Cognitivism/Pragmatism instructional design theory, creating more interactive ways to learn, providing hands on opportunities will give the students a chance to “remember, retrieve, and store information in memory” (Dabbagh, 2006). 

Supporting All Learners

Week 2 Redesign: Supporting All Learners

All learners have strengths, weaknesses, and preferred areas of interest within the context of the learning environment.  The importance of designing to support the needs of all learners is so that all learners can succeed.  Promoting interactivity, individualization, and consistency can help meet the needs of various types of learners.  Using technology in the classroom helps students become more motivated, simulated, and can also bring out individual skills and learning styles. 

Recognizing all types of learning styles, visual, auditory, tactile, linguistic, kinesthetic, logical, social, and solitary will make sure all individuals get everything out of their learning and education.  Since there are several different ways to learn not everyone learns the same.  Understanding and knowing multiple intelligences will allow individuals and students to explore and learn in many ways and enable the students to identify strengths and weaknesses (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).  Since technology is able to bring out and concentrate on individual needs, it is a great way for students with disabilities to learn. 

Original Lesson EDU648 Teaching & Learning with Technology

The activity that has been chosen to be redesigned was to Plan, Implement, and Evaluate (PIE) can help students and the teacher make the most out of the lesson; the impact of commercial fishing on the seal population in Alaska’s Maritime National Wildlife Refuge during the last thirty years.  In this lesson, the students will demonstrate an understanding of the impact that commercial fishing has on the seal population in the Alaskan Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. 

The top questions that should be asked are: what is the goal of this task, what obstacles could hinder learning, how to begin and follow planned learning strategies, do I understand what I am doing, how can I tell if my task motivation is being maintained, what have I learned from this experience that could be used at other times, and what improvements could I make for future learning tasks (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, Russell, & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2011). 

What is the most effective, efficient, and appealing manner in which the to-be-learned task can be acquired by the students?

Teaching the task one item at a time such as characteristics of seals and threats, where they live (Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge) and then move on to commercial fishing and the impact it has on seals.  Group research would be the most appealing to the class and then share what they learned.

 In what order should the learning activities be sequenced?

·       Seal characteristics and threats

·       Alaska’s Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

·       Commercial Fishing

·       The impact

How can I determine to what degree the students have learned the material?

Observing positive gains made by the students will help determine what students have learned.  Students will be tested on the subject to measure understanding.

In the original lesson, the uses of specific technologies are obsolete.  The uses of auditory and visual components are the only ones used which only will address a minimum amount of the needs of the students in the classroom. 

Redesign Lesson EDU697 Capstone, a Project Approach

The Smart Board Technology will be used to create a presentation that goes with the topic.  Tools such as; Prezi, Google Docs, or slide rocket will be used to present and share the presentation.  These tools allow the user to present add voice and videos to the presentation.  The presentation will help students gain knowledge on the topic being discussed and also address visual, auditory, linguistic, and tactile learning styles in the classroom. 

To address kinesthetic or hands on learners, creating an opportunity for a virtual field trip will allow kinesthetic, logical, social, and even solitary learners the ability to visit a place that is too distant and can learn the relationship between commercial fishing, the seal population, and the Alaskan Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.  Students can also learn how the seals and other animals live in the Refuge and what the Refuge des to protect its wildlife. 

Technology will also be used to create flashcards and quizzes that can be administered in groups, as a class, or individually.  Technology will help engage the class by using different techniques then just lecture or reading time.  The quizzes can be made using QuizStar which is an online quiz maker that allows you to manage the class, assign quizzes that can be done from a computer, and it keeps track of scores and student performance.  Flashcards can be made online also and students can practice the key words or take-a-way words and definitions.  As a class, the students will go through these words, but students will have time to break into groups or administer the flash cards by themselves.  As a whole class, the students will be broken up into two groups and have a competitive game of who can get the most points. 

Challenges for this lesson are that it could have a lot of information to give to the students, but preparing a way to make it exciting and engaging.  Technology will engage them, but trying to find technologies that will promote different types of learning styles so that each student will have something to take-a-way from the lesson and to gain knowledge was an issue.  Researching ways to promote multiple learning styles was helpful to find ways to not only promote learning, but also to engage the students.

The use of technology in lessons can enable the teacher to promote ways to acknowledge different learning styles.  Giving the students the chance to see the information applied in different ways will give them an opportunity to gain more information and to retain it better by applying it to different parts of their brain.  My original lesson did not give any options n the use of technology, but pretty much for the teacher to decide for themselves.   With the revised lesson, options are given to show a starting point.