EDU 615 Technology Applications for School Districts

When looking at digital literacy, I feel like that is such an encompassing word that it can really mean almost everything that has to do with technology and using it properly.  When looking at Alan November's website, he does a good job of providing many resources to help people understand what digital literacy is and the importance of it.  Of all the links and resources he provides, my favorite one is the one talking about the use of google.  It is amazing to me how google could be used much better, but not many people, including myself, know how to use it properly.  Like most people, I just type something into google, look through the top few links, and use those.  Odds are, if our students do not know how to use google properly, they are not finding what they possibly could that is out there on the internet.  This is something that I feel needs to get stressed in all schools to make sure students and staff know how to use google properly. As a school lea...

When looking at the TIE website, there was a lot of information on there.  When asked the question on what did I learn, the answer is a lot.  Some of the key things that I learned from the website is how important it is to put together customized learning in schools.  This makes so much sense to me.  I have always had the concern as an educator about the idea of some kids being left behind in education and other kids being held back because students are always at different learning level.  Customized learning helps with this concept because the student who is in theory behind has the opportunity to master the concept before moving on while the student who excels can go as fast as they want.  I have always wondered how far certain students could go if they were not held back by the restrains of the classes they were in.  Also, I really enjoyed listening and watching the video that talked about grading.  Since I have been in education, I have always...

 When looking at the different information on these websites, I found many different things that are important to the success of technology in schools.  My favorite website of the three is the department of education website.  They provide many different ideas and concepts about technology and school leaders.  These topics include collaborative leadership, personalized student learning, infrastructure, open communication, personalized professional learning, budgeting, reducing costs, using federal funds, and other pieces of information.  The website is a very good resource with piles of information that can be used for school leaders and their push for technology in schools. One of the pieces of information that I think will be most useful is the personalized professional learning.  Typically, whenever we have had professional development, we have typically just had someone providing it on a certain topic, which is not the end of the world, but not all staf...

When looking at one-to-one initiatives, there are many things that come to my mind.  First and foremost, the Eureka School District has been a one-to-one school for more than a decade and I could not picture us going back.  In fact, I look at a school like Herreid where my parents taught for over 30 years and they are not one-to-one.  This actually surprises me, and makes me feel very thankful for being in a district that understands the importance of technology in our instruction.  There are many benefits of being a one-to-one school.  One of them is that the students have the computer at their fingertips at any point work on anything they need to.  Another would be that it could be a selling point for a family to choose a district that is one-to-one compared to a district that is not.  However, my thoughts are that the most important benefit of being a one-to-one school is the ability to prepare our students for life after school.  With everythi...

I think that many people in the educational setting do not understand the importance of following copyright laws.  When asked the question if my school had a copyright policy, I honestly did not know the answer to that question.  When looking through the policy book, since none of our policies are actually digitized, I did find a copyright policy.  This surprised me, but in a good way since it seems like so many of our school policies are way outdated or do not exist.  The policy itself definitely could use an upgrade to discuss technology, but it is better than nothing.  One thing the policy does state is to make sure it talks about the "fair use" under federal law or else we need to get permission form the copyright owner before reproducing materials.  One thing that could be added that I liked when looking through the different websites was the thought of intellectual property.  I never understood what that meant until I watched the movie on Mark Zu...

When looking at the different websites on cyberbullying, I realized that there is a lot of information out there that needs to be shared with families, students, and staff.  The website that I thought was the most useful was the internet safety 101 website.  Things that I really liked about this website were the safety tips along with the parents guides.  These are really useful things. To answer the question how could I use some of these resources in my school would be just to require the staff and students to do some research on this topic just like I am doing for this course.  One thing that I liked about the FBI website was the computer games for the grades to play while learning the cyberbullying.  Another thing we could do is bring in an expert to have an assembly on cyberbullying.  We did that once and had good parent turnout. A way to teach students and staff about cyberbullying would be to have them look through these websites and information and m...