Ethical Practices of Technology Usage

Ethical Practices of Technology Usage

Latriea Grant

EDU 697: Capstone: A Project Approach

Dr. Anthony Valley

Introduction

            In modern day society technology plays an important role. Computers, laptops, cell phones, and many other technologies are used in classes, businesses, and in people’s everyday lives. These technologies can be used for students to learn. They can be used to keep records for businesses, and to keep families and friends in contact with one another. Technology use in the instructional and training setting has caused major changes in the world. According to the findings of Lin, H (2007); such change has enabled learning and training to become increasingly digital, mobile, and virtual.

Prior Activity

            The prior activity chosen was from EDU 655- Week 2. In this activity the learner chose to work in the Early Childhood setting with a group of students aged four to five. The learner would be looking into ways to teach the children their ABC’s, numbers, and counting skills. The lesson was geared towards teaching children in the early stages of life the basics they would need to be ready for kindergarten. Students would be able to have access to videos via the class’ smartboard. Students would also be able to use the class computers as another form of technology to learn and use in the class setting.

Redesign of the Activity

           According to the findings of Dabbagh, N (2006) Constructivism Theory;

 Learners build personal interpretation of the world based on experiences and interactions.

          For this assignment there was a lot that needed to be redesigned. After fully reviewing the assignment, the learner realized that there had to be more to the assignment that just the basics. To redesign the assignment, the learner wanted to first start by creating an actual lesson plan for the class. This lesson plan would detail each week’s goals for the students. After creating the lesson plan the learner needed to determine which students knew how to use technology.

         In some instances, many children have access to some form of technology at home. With this in mind students who have shown the ability to properly use some form of technology will be partnered with a student who may not be as efficient with technology. They will partner together and use the technology during certain times of the class period. For the learner students in their early childhood stages are able to learn and grow from experiences they have with one another. This stage gives them the opportunity to see, learn, do, and grow.

         Brindley, Walti, and Blaschke (2009) stated;

Social learning or learning as part of a group is an important way to help students gain experience in collaboration and develop important skills in critical thinking, self-reflection, and co-construction of knowledge.

Students can learn from more than one source. For the learner this can come from their teacher, their peers, or a form of technology. By detailing the lesson plan to include one on one lessons, as well as small group settings, and learning using technology. Students are able to receive the same information just from different sources. Thus increasing the students’ chances of receiving and keeping the information being taught to them.

Design and Implementation Challenges

       The learners’ design and implementation challenge was being able to look at the original body of work and realizing where the mistakes were made. The original assignment did not give details. It simply was stating that students would be using a technology, but gave no further information. Also it did not state that students would be able to work together. This was challenging due to having to redesign the entire project because it was incorrect.

Summary

         This assignment has given the learner the chance to go back and see what mistakes were made and what was needed to fix those mistakes. The constructivism theory stuck out the most to the learner. One of the facts stated under this theory was that learners’ build personal interpretation of the world based on experiences and interactions. For the learner this is true, working with children of an early age their perception of the world is based on what they have been seeing or being taught. Walking into a classroom full of children who are not from the same home allows them to grow and understand the ways of others them.

          Allowing them to work in groups and to interact with one another will not only stimulate their minds but also teach them to work with others. Something that the original lesson did not detail. The goal of this redesign is to make sure that each student is learning; whether they are using a form of technology or merely learning from the teacher or their fellow classmates.

                                                                 Resources

1.      Brindley, J., Blaschke, L., & Walti, C. (2009). Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 10(3). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/675/1271

2.      Lin, H. (2007). The ethics of instructional technology: Issues and coping strategies experienced by professional technologists in design and training situations in higher education. Educational Technology Research & Development, 55(5), 411-437. doi:10.1007/s11423-006-9029-y The full-text version of this text is available through the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library.

3.      Dabbagh, N. (2006). Instructional design knowledge base. Retrieved from http://cehdclass.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm