Digital Citizenship

One of the biggest challenges facing students/parents when in comes to technology in Kent City, is that large parts of the district still do not have access to high-speed internet.  Recently, we decided to eliminate the paper publication of the school newsletter.  This has been extremely controversial as 40% of district parents indicated in a recent survey that they could not access it if it was only available on-line.  However, we have eliminated the printing of progress-reports and parents have not been complaining.  As a teacher, however, I can't tell you how many times I've followed-up on a low progress grade, only to find that parents were unaware that their student was struggling.  This may not be due to the inability to access the grades, but simply lack of interest.  However, some parents indicated they still had dial-up.

A better example of the problems with limited technology came when I assigned students a group project using Google Docs (so they could collaborate on the assignment).  I spent almost three weeks offering time after school so students would have access to technology.  Sadly, many of the students who did not have access to technology at home also did not have access to transportation (aside from the bus), so it was difficult to require the use of technology and I had to make many exceptions. 

I found a professor that sees this trend with many of the students he works with that are from rural West Virginia.  He states "It hasn’t been so long ago when I still had dial-up, which is so frustrating it’s not even worth having, so some people don’t even have it, or if they do have a dial-up internet connection they don’t deal with it, because it’s a pain in the neck" (Source:  Rural students and challenges of technology:  http://bit.ly/1380mr5).

Our district has tried to address this problem by making our school wi-fi accessible, so that parents or students who are attending sporting events or even waiting to pick up a child from practice can access the internet on their cell phone.  This has only been available at the middle and high school since April, 2013, so I haven't had a lot of parent feedback.  However, my son, who often spends a lot of time with me after school, loves it!  He can use his ipod to gain access to the internet.  This adds additional issues for security since he doesn't have to go through the schools security like he did on my classroom computer, but I try to monitor his activity as much as possible. 

This leads to the second element of using technology appropriately, how much time is a healthy amount to spend on the internet?  I found plenty of evidence (ironically on the internet) to show that there is a lot of concern about the amount of time people spend on the internet.  There were 45,400,000 hits for "internet addiction".  The website http://internetaddictiondisorder.org/ indicated that the internet becomes an addition when you are only happy while on the internet, and unhappy when you are not.  I found that their "internet addiction test" was very interesting, but I was concerned that they did not offer any credentials or details about their therapists, yet were willing to bill your credit card for a "donation."  Another site had a similar test at http://bit.ly/167lRc2. 

 According to a study by Stanford University:

The researchers found that 68.9 percent were regular Internet users, which is consistent with previous studies, and that:

13.7 percent (more than one out of eight respondents) found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time

12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended very often or often

12.3 percent had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point

8.7 percent attempted to conceal nonessential Internet use from family, friends and employers

8.2 percent used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood

5.9 percent felt their relationships suffered because of excessive Internet use.

Aboujaoude said he found most concerning the numbers of people who hid their nonessential Internet use or used the Internet to escape a negative mood, much in the same way that alcoholics might. "In a sense, they're using the Internet to 'self-medicate,'" he said. "And obviously something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their Internet activity." (Source:   http://stanford.io/1aL9NOU)

Several websites gave tips for internet safety, which may be a starting point for this issue.  A website called kidshealth.org (http://bit.ly/13g5ANY) recommended that parents always be aware of what sites their children visit and keep track of the length of time spent on the computer.  Being a parent myself, I will testify that this is easier said than done.  I set the timer at home, but sometimes I get distracted at school and find that one (or both) kids have been playing educational internet games for 3 hours.  Not that the games are bad in themselves, but no one wants their 3rd grader playing computer games for 3 hours straight.  Now that my children are a little older and can go outside unsupervised, I have them play on the playground for 45 minutes first to get some exercise before sitting down to play games.  They also have a lot more opportunities to participate in after school activities.

I have a 5 year-old great-nephew that loves "Minecraft".  It's a great game, but he doesn't like to do anything else.  I watched him play "minecraft" while sitting on the dock of a lake, while all the other cousins (11 total) had fun swimming and playing together for over 2 hours.  I questioned his grandparents about it and they said he has gotten hurt because he tries to walk and play his game.  However, they didn't feel it was their place to limit his game playing. 

I believe that this will continue to be an issue that educational systems must deal with as internet access becomes more and more available even in the rural areas of our country. 

Meeting the needs of our learners in KC

Of course, we are concerned in Kent City that we meet the needs of our students and fulfill the requirements of the Michigan Merit Curriculum.  I believe that this has been a focus for our district for some time, but as with most teachers, I'm not always aware of the district plan.  I called our school find out what the plan included.  I spoke with our IT person, and she explained that in the next year we will be partnering much more collaboratively with the ISD to fulfill these requirements.  She indicated that we will be getting a lot more training in the area of technology with the hopes that every teacher in the district will be using DW, SIS (Infinite Campus) and LMS consistently to help meet the needs of our students.  She also reminded me that we are a Google Docs schools (which I believe would fall under the LMS umbrella) and we will continue to have more training in that area as well.  I love Google Docs and was very excited to hear that we would continue in that area.  I love to have students collaborate together to create a document or presentation by sharing documents over Google Docs.  I even taught my 3rd grader how to use Google Docs and she collaborated with another classmate from home on a project for her Spanish class. I can't wait to find more uses for the new school year. 

CMS/LMS

When I first read the assignment, I thought that I wasn't familiar with Learning Management Systems.   However, I'm happy to report that I've been using one quite successfully for quite some time - My Big Campus.  A LMS is technology that allows teachers to plan, deliver content and assess student learning.  I have just begun to discover all of the benefits of using a LMS, but some include the ability to have web-based discussion in a safe environment, the ability to give feedback almost immediately and the ability to monitor and assess student learning much quicker.  I've used My Big Campus primarily to give quizzes/tests and to take surveys, but I know several other colleagues have used it to a much greater depth than I have. I love being able to give students the feedback on their learning before they even leave the classroom!  Results can be posted by student number to keep information confidential.   It also helps me determine who needs additional time for learning a standard, so that I can assign them homeroom time to reteach that skill.   It has built-in security features and can be monitored by staff (although I have never tried to do this myself).  I spoke with my principal regarding this feature and he said that several students have "been disciplined" for "inappropriate usage" of MBC.