What I Learned...

This class has been very helpful to me in many areas of technology; I have not only learned how to better use technology in the classroom, but I was also challenged in my stewardship of technology. As a future educator, I must start now at being a good digital citizen in the virtual world we access every day. I am a steward of what God has given me on this earth, and I must be willing as a future teacher to teach my students how to be students of integrity, in the digital world and in reality.

There are many things that I will use in my classroom that I learned in this class. Before this class, I have never really been able to use a smart board; it was great to be able to just sit and use it and learn about many of the different things that can be done with them. I will definitely need to do my best to stay up with technology. I am the one who is becoming a digital alien; all of the kids are now digital natives. But I also want to teach my kids that technology is not all there is. We live in a real world and need to be careful not to get too sucked into the digital world. I hope to be able to impact my students in a meaningful way, and I will use technology to be able to help them learn so they can be the best they can be in this world we live in called earth.

The Future

Technology has forever changed the classroom for educators. The computer, iPads, Internet and many other technologies have brought about these changes to the classroom; there have been negative and positive elements to the changes that the technologies have brought. But in terms of the future of technology, obviously it will be used in classrooms whether we as teachers want to use it or not. 

The goal of education is to teach students about how to succeed in this world, and I want my students to be prepared to be the best they can be in the world. Technology is a part of this world we live in, so I must help my students to learn how to be good stewards of technology. I will have to be very intentional about how I teach my students to use technology. Technology will be forever changing as we are using it in classrooms; I will have to be ready to roll with the changing tides and learn to adapt and teach my students how to think about and use technology.

Academic Honesty

When I hear the words academic honesty, it brings to mind being a person of integrity when it comes to our school and studies in school. Having integrity involves being honest and doing your best work all the time. Being honest involves always making sure to do your own work as a student. Our work must be our own; if we use something from another person then we must give credit where credit is due. As a future educator I will have the responsibility to not only be an example of academic honesty, but I will also need to teach my students how to be academically honest. How can I expect my students to be honest in their work if I do not let them know my expectations for them, with respect to academic honesty. It is very important for students to be academically honest; if o one teaches them, then they may try to cheat their whole way through life. I to be an educator who holds my students to a standard of integrity and honesty in all they do.

Cyberbullying

With the growth and spread of the Internet, cyberbullying is also becoming more prevalent in the virtual world many of us take part in. I would define cyberbullying as the repeated harassing, humiliating and/or threatening through the use of a virtual device (e.g. Internet, phone and computer). Students all over the world are harassed every day through social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

Cuberbullying is very demeaning and detrimental to the person being bullied. It lowers the self-esteem and self-worth of the person(s) being harassed. As an educator, I must be willing to teach my kids to use the Internet correctly. This ties back in with digital citizenship, and so I found some sites that would be very helpful as you teach your students about cyberbullying and why it is wrong.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/cyberbullying.html
http://www.internetsafety101.org/cyberbullying.htm
http://www.isafe.org/

Digital Citizenship for Teachers

In an earlier post, I wrote about how important digital citizenship is, and so this will be the baseline for what I am going to talk about. Teachers are no different than their students when it comes to digital citizenship; the teachers must be good citizens of the digital world just like the students they are teaching. Teachers must be examples for their students in the digital world. If students see their teachers being porr citizens, then they will follow that example.

As a future Christian educator, I must realize the importance of really monitering my digital citizenship. Christ calls us to be in the world but not of the world in Romans 12. I am representing Christ in all I do here on the earth, even in the digital world of computers and the Internet. I must do my best to practice being a good citizen of the digital world; in this way, people will hopefully know something is different in my life. This will give me an opportunity to share the gospel and Christ's love to them! I hope my behavior in the digital world as well as in the real world will reflect Christ in my life.

Technology in the Classroom

Technology has been embraced by educators in their classrooms. This has had positive and negative effects on learning. I will start with the positive side of technology. Technology has really helped the visual learners to be able to better learn. Powerpoints, Prezis and videos are all fairly new technologies that are available to students who are visual learners. The Internet is an amazing tool to use in classrooms and has made research papers and assignments much easier to do.

But along with these advancements in technology have come some negatives effects on student learning. Always using the Internet without checking if the information is good or not is dangerous because students can learn wrong information if they are not careful about where they are getting their information. Too much of an emphasis can be placed on technology when it is over used in the classroom. Students can still learn even if a computer is not involved, and educators need to remember this. As an educator I must strategically implement technology into my lessons with the goal of enhancing student learning.

Being an Upstanding "Citizen"

The topic of digital citizenship is a very relevant one for students today. The Internet is a great resource that is used in many classrooms throughout the world, and it is important that the students know how to be a good "citizen" in the digital world. This is essentially what digital citizenship is; it is learning how to appropriately use the Internet and all of the websites available on the Internet. There are many social networking sites, and it is important students know how to interact properly on these site. Students must be able to behave in a professional manner when in the digital world of the Internet.

If students are not taught how to be good "citizens" in the digital world, then we are heading for trouble. We live in a world where sin abounds; it does not take an expert to see this. Just as we are trying to teach values and integrity to students for living in the world, we must be teaching them good digital citizenship so a good thing like the Internet is not used for the wrong reasons. Below I have attached some links that further go into what digital citizenship is; these are links I would use to help my students become upstanding digital citizens.

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html
http://www.nisd.net/digitalcitizen/
http://ecitizenship.csla.net/