Key Concept 7

7.1 Candidates will be able to model and build a positive school culture that supports the safe, healthy and ethical use of technology.

Digital Citizenship became one of my favorite technology issues throughout the course of this program. In multiple classes, our cohort was asked to address issues with Digital Citizenship, in general or specifically at our school. I have chosen two artifacts for this Key Concept that I feel exhibit my passion and support for a safe, healthy, and ethical standard with which to use technology.

The first artificat is a report I wrote with Edward Schultheis for Dr. Marcovitz in ET680. We were asked to look at a technology issue at our school and attempt to rememdy the situtation. We decided to look at MSJ's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) as written in The Mount Book, our tome of rules and regulations. We analyzed the issues within, including wording that was difficult to understand, at best, and a draconian tone that promised more punishment than support in building excellent digital citizenship. Once we analyzed these issues, we drafted a letter to our principal and vice principals suggesting edits and offering to help revise the AUP. This was a tremendous undertaking and one we weren't sure would have an effect, as we teach at a very traditional school, but we were able to at least have a conversation about our feelings and suggestions. We heard back that administration thought the AUP was fine, but later in the school year, a student launched a DoS attack on our servers, and the serious nature of following our AUP and promoting it to students became more apparent. In the upcoming school year, there are more features in place in our Mount Book rules to help students understand their responsibilities with technology.

The second artifact was an optional activity for ET630. Dr. Thomas gave us the opportunity to create Ignite sessions modeled after the 20-slide, 5-minute presentations held at conferences like ISTE. I chose to do one on my latest thoughts of Digital Citizenship and how teachers need to be proactive with technology, whether they like it or not, in order to help our students become proficient and positive digital citizens. It was difficult trying to boil down my thoughts to five minutes, but it was a healthy exercise to help crystallize my thoughts on the matter. This Ignite session, along with the Digital Literacy Project I completed in Dr. Thomas's class, have been shared with my English Department colleagues, and in American Literature, we are using my Digital Literacy Project in conjunction with our reading of The Crucible to discuss the need for critical literacy and being able to discover fake news.