Teachers understand the social,ethical,legal,and human issues surrounding the use of technology in PK-12 schools and apply those principles in practice. Teachers:

A. model and teach legal and ethical practice related to technology use.

Each of my students, as well as myself, are required to sign a Technology Usage Agreement each year. It is my responsibility to model appropriate behavior to the students as well as make sure the students uphold the agreement. Since we do so much research from the Internet, it is such a temptation for students to copy and paste information. In order to teach students about copyright and plagiarism, I use projects such as my Endangered Species WebQuest. Before researching, we discuss plagiarism and learn strategies to help prevent plagiarism in their work. One of those activities is the notes page. On this page, I teach students to take brief notes only from the resource they are using. By only taking concise notes about each topic, the students are forced to summarize or paraphrase items. Later when they write their reports, they can then take their notes and create sentences that are in their own words.

B. apply technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities.

The concept map I created in Introduction to Technology in Schools and revised in Portfolio Development shows how diversity can affect the connections between teaching, learning and technology. Since many students do not have the Internet or even a computer at home, I cannot assign work outside the class that would require such things. Handheld computers have helped some students in this category. By being able to take the handheld home, students can work on certain assignments outside of class. Throughout the year, I also try to use a variety of technology and print resources in order to reach students of all backgrounds and abilities. For my classroom, I keep a collection of books on tape in my classroom for those students who cannot read higher level books, but are interested in them.

C. identify and use technology resources that affirm diversity

I keep an updated list of links on my classroom webpage. The links on my website offer a variety of webpages for students of all backgrouds and abilities. Some of these links we use in class and others are there for fun. The library of books on tape and the listening CD-ROM's for textbooks I keep in my classroom, allow me to reach my lower readers. By keeping listening resources like these available to students, I can ensure all of my students are able to use classroom materials effectively.

D. promote safe and healthy use of technology resources.

The Technology Usage Agreement, as well as the Handheld Contract signed by each of my students helps ensure students will use our technology resources safely and wisely. Both of these documents describe appropriate use of technology in our district, as well as possible consequences for not adhering to the contract. I also continually maintain and update the links on my classroom webpage in ensure the students have access to safe websites. I never allow my students to randomly search the web for information.

E. facilitate equitable access to technology resources for all students.

To help see all students have the opportunity to experience the technology resources available in our district, I have volunteered to help train the new eMINTS teachers. During this training, I found the elementary teachers in our district had very little experience with clickers. So, as part of the coursework for Instructional Systems Design, I planned a professional development training on clickers and presented this training to the teachers in the eMINTS training. My science textbook has some really great resources online and students can view their book from the same website. On my classroom webpage, I have given students a link to access their textbook online and provided each student with the user name and password so they may view the website from anywhere.