ReflectionsOnStandard6

In chapter six of //ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards: What Every K-12 Leader Should Know and Be Able to Do//, Williamson and Redish discuss Technology Standard Six. From this reading, I feel much more comfortable with standard six, and what it involves. For me to learn, I must break information down into a simple form. So to simplify, Standard Six discusses policies, law, and the moral implications of responsible use of a school's technology. As we know, teens today (96% according to the text) use some kind of a social networking technology (Williamson, 2009, p. 128). But using these types of technologies can be a scary thing for several reasons. First, we as those responsible for them do not know who they are "chatting" with texting on the other side. For all we know, it could be a preditor and a lawsuit waiting to happen. Secondly, they are having baseless conversations with friends instead of doing their school work or listening in class.

During my internship, I was able to see how these social networks could be useful in education afterall. I was with my mentor as he was giving a staff development session on how to use "twitter". He mentioned using it as a way to tweet announcements to your classes away from school. If all students are on twitter and are following your tweets, students at home can be reminded of due dates, assignments, announcements; and even students with attendence issues, or those that may have just missed a day of school can stay with the rest of the class and have virtually no 'catch up' time. Also during my internship I had much experience learning the copyright laws, and what students can and cannot do in downloading software, sharing music using the school's computers, etc. and what they could and could not do using the internet in general. On my campus, I am in charge of making sure students understand and sign our "Responsible Use Policy" for the district.

"Standard TF/TL-VI recognizes that technologists will face social, ethical, legal, and other human issues when implementing technology programs in education. As indicated by the standard, both technology facilitators and leaders must work diligently to understand these issues" (Williamson, 2009, p. 134). Working diligently to understand all of the issues could take up a great deal of time, and will likely encompass much of my future and life-long learning on the subject. Working with other students and colleagues have really helped me understand much of these legal boundaries that must be respected. Being able to discuss with other teachers what they have been able to do and share what I have done has really helped us as a group become better.

Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards: What Every K-12 Leader Should Know and Be Able to Do.// Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.