Teaching Students the Ethical Use of Technology

837 Words2 Pages

I once wrote about technology being the foundation of my life. Along with that is the caveat that technology is not all there is to life. With using technology comes great power, power to learn anything one would like to, power to find out information on any subject and any person with a few keystrokes. I have always stressed to my students the importance of keeping personal information private. One task my students had was to Google themselves and their families. The amount of information was usually surprising to them and their parents with whom I had them share the information. In some cases it was through no fault of theirs or their parents that information could be found on the Internet. Today there are newsletters posted from various organizations with all kinds of information. If one lives in the public then there are digital traces to be found online.

As a teacher it is my responsibility to keep my students safe but what is more important is to teach them about the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology. From the first day of school when I introduced our year out came the special online user agreements for the various Web-based projects we did. The students had to get them signed by a parent or guardian before we got started. This was along with the general Internet agreement they signed the first day of school, in some cases when they started Kindergarten. I felt that by sixth grade students should take more responsibility for their actions when using technology. It is also my responsibility to follow laws for children under thirteen. This can make it difficult to do everything I would like to as a teacher in the online world.

Working with sixth graders or teachers they all come...

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...esources, through my studies at the university, as a classroom teacher and as an educational technology teacher I am constantly learning about new ways to make that access possible. I learn on my own, through my studies and from others about how to promote the use of technology resources in a safe manner. I apply this knowledge to my teaching as I continue to learn, research and develop programs in my district.

Works Cited

ANKN. (2007, November 29). About Alaska Native knowledge network. In Alaska Native knowledge network. Retrieved June 19, 2010, from Alaska Native Knowledge Network Web site: http://ankn.uaf.edu/about.html

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). What is universal design for learning? In Teaching every student in the digital age (chap. 4). ASDC. Retrieved December 5, 2008, from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/chapter4.cfm

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