According to webwise.ie an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) is "is an important document which governs students' use of internet at school and covers a wide range of issues surrounding the rights, responsibilities and privileges - as well as sanctions - connected with computer use" ("What is an Acceptable Use Policy," n.d.).
The internet offers so many amazing opportunities for today's student. Gone are the card catalog and color coded index cards strewn everywhere, instead students have an incredible wealth of information at their literal fingertips. As their teachers, it is imperative that in addition to teaching them to read and to calculate that we teach them how to appropriately use the awesome resource that is technology. A clear and consistent Acceptable Use Policy is an important part of teaching today's learners to become responsible digital citizens. Most school districts and schools by extension have an Acceptable Use Policy in place. When becoming familiar with your school's Acceptable Use Policy, it is important to know that it should include the following components as outlined by Common Sense Education:
Resources Acceptable use policies. (n.d.) retrieved from https://www.webwise.ie/teachers/what-is-an-acceptable-use-policy-2/ What is an acceptable use policy? (n.d.) retrieved from https://www.webwise.ie/teachers/what-is-an-acceptable-use-policy-2/
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As I began to plan, read, and think about this assignment I felt that I already had an automatic bias towards using multimedia in the classroom and could go on for longer than any of you would care to watch about why I think it can be so powerful, but instead I decided to see what others had to say about benefits of using multimedia in the classroom.
Huneycutt (2013), a blog writer for the National Math and Science Initiative, stated that overall “integrating technology in the classroom helps prepare our student for the elaborate world they will face going forward” and highlights four specific benefits to using technology in the classroom:
As important as integrating multimedia in our classroom is, we have to remember that it is not the magic formula that will automatically boost student achievement. Media is simply a tool, it is up to the teacher to make the decisions about how and when to integrate technology to its maximum potential. References: Huneycutt, T. (2013, October, 8). Technology in the classroom: the benefits of blended learning. Retrieved from http://www.nms.org/Blog/TabId/58/PostId/188/technology-in-the-classroom-the-benefits-of-b Edutopia. (2008, March, 16). Why integrate technology into the classroom curriculum?: the reasons are many. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction I was recently reminded by my mother of all the hours I spent playing "school" as a child. I remember I was OVER THE MOON when I got a real grade book one Christmas with all of the pretty little columns to be filled with check marks and letter grades.
Fast forward to 2017 and the thought of a paper grade book makes me shudder in terror! I cannot imagine life without the basic suite. When I worked in the business world I liked to say that there was not much that couldn't be organized, analyzed, or sorted out in an Excel spreadsheet and Powerpoint was my best friend for those conference call presentations. I now use the Google Basic Suite more than Microsoft and I have to say my love for Google is borderline ridiculous. Not only do I use it in my classroom and teach my students to use it also, I use it for graduate school, and my personal life. The most beautiful thing about it is they all connect to each other!!! In my classroom I cannot count the number of times I have thrown a quick picture onto a Google slide and asked my students to quick write about it, or created a shared presentation with my grade level team to teach the math lesson we happen to be working on. The collaboration capabilities that technologies like the Basic Suite have opened up for teachers is amazing. I can share a Google Doc with a friend who works in Chicago and she can add her reflections on the lesson or idea and collectively come up with something better than we ever could have independently. I can only imagine when thinking about the innovation that has taken place in the last 30 years to replace those old paper grade books, what the future will hold for ourselves and our students. I think it is a testament to the framework that the Basic Suite provides to organizations that the primary functions of word processing, data storage and analysis, and presentation are still strongly entrenched in how we preform our jobs, they have just been updated along the way. |
AuthorMy name is Rebecca Davis. I love learning and I hope to inspire the next generation to do the same. Archives
April 2017
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