Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

Follow this link to see my presentation on the Digital Divide/Digital Inequality:

https://edtech.voicethread.com/share/6098367/

I have created many presentations in my life, but I can honestly say I have never put a lot of thought into any multimedia principles.  When researching these principles, my first thought with them was that many of them are common sense. Not putting too much writing on the slides and paying attention to the style of the slides all seems like common sense to me and is something I have done in numerous presentations throughout the years.  However, I think many times I get lost in creating the slides, that I neglect the actual presentation and speaking part of it.  Through this assignment, I was able to put more thought and attention to having a script and speaker notes to follow, so I was not only reading the information that is already on the slides.  Also, I was able to put a focus on staying on the slide that I was currently talking about.

The terms Digital Divide and Digital Inequality are new terms to me.  I have never heard these terms before.  However, after doing research and discovering what these terms mean, they are not new ideas to me.  I have always seen the Digital Divide, especially in my classroom.  Digital Inequality took a little more thinking for me, but it is also very present both in my classroom and the school where I work.

I plan on taking the information I have learned through this assignment right back to my students.  As fourth graders, they are required to write a persuasive paper on any topic.  What greater topic to give them than something that will directly affect them now and in their immediate future?

If I had more time, I would improve this artifact by including more visuals/videos.  I know through the research of multimedia principles, that images should be limited.  I agree with this, but also feel that visuals such as graphs and charts can be very informative.  I also think that certain images or even videos can really hold the audience’s attention.  I think a good balance is always important.

Code of Professional Ethics in Educational Technology

I have to be honest.  When I first saw that we were studying a chapter and focusing on professional ethics, I was not real excited.  I thought, “Do we really need to study this?  Isn’t it just common sense?”  Looking back on my thoughts, I cannot help but think of something one of my favorite teachers said to me: “Common sense is not that common.”  This statement is so true.

When I really dived into chapter eleven in our book, “Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary,” it made me really think about these ethics and specifically how they apply to technology.  I have always followed a code of ethics as a teacher, but have never really put a lot of thought into applying those codes directly to technology until now.  When I reflect on the situation in my community that I wrote about, I have realized that these codes of ethics are interlaced in the situation.  I felt like one code was being met, while another code was not being met.  As educators, we must work hard and be very thoughtful about all of the codes.  We need to make sure that while meeting one code, we are not violating another code.  Each code should be thought about and addressed equally.

Here is the link to my paper, “Too Much Technology?”  on Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16PoJ4WWxS_fqpMadnc6DteLbAiiJMQQ_3bQXG8DK0WE/edit?usp=sharing.

EDTECH Definition Graphic

I used the online program, Tagxedo, to create this graphic showing the definition of Educational Technology.  I chose a hand to display all of the words that stuck out to me that correlate with educational technology.  One of the biggest pieces of the definition that stuck out to me was the shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered.  We are truly placing more of the learning into our students’ hands, thus the hand graphic.  This is something I still struggle with as a teacher and am working on continually.  I do not want to just hand them answers.  I want them to discover them, even if it’s a slow process to get there.  Another word that kept jumping out at me was evolving.  Technology is constantly changing and evolving, and we must change with it.  It is so easy to find something that works at the time and continue doing that same thing without ever changing it.  However, this is unrealistic in our world.  As a teacher, I need to be ever evolving just as the technology we are using is ever evolving.

Reference:

Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (Eds.)(2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary. NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group

Welcome to my Learning Log…

Hello and welcome to my EDTECH Learning Log!