Quiz #2

1.  What school board approved Internet policies does your district currently have?  Are these policies adequate for your district? What policies do you need to update or add? 

The Pierre School District has the following policies:  Internet Acceptable Use , Distance Learning, and Publishing.  The copyright policy is vaguely mentioned within the Acceptable Use policy.  These policies dealing with technology are in place to strive to ensure the school district stays out of litigation and to protect its students and staff.  While the information seems up to date and relevant, it is important for our technology committee to continually discuss and analyze if any changes need to be made regarding these policies.  The only policy that may need to currently be looked at more closely would be our copyright policy.  As stated previously, it is a generic comment within the acceptable use policy and should be discussed with staff yearly.  

2.  How should a school district handle the issue of copyright, especially in regard to technology?


Districts should have a copyright policy which should include information sharing opportunity with staff yearly.  While this issue is also written into law, which may bring up some good discussion, it would be valuable for districts to provide the information to all their copyright policy to help prevent any potential issues the district may incur.  With technology advancing at a rapid rate, there are always shortcuts to take.  The integrity of the school leader and district must be to respect the law.  Since our district has its copyright policy lightly embedded in the acceptable use policy, an appropriate way to begin would be with the technology committee which would involve multiple staff and parents.  The Bellingham District seems to have a plethora of information that is relevant on their web page in regards to technology policies and would be a resource as the copyright policy is explored. 

3.  Is the use of the Internet in schools worth the dangers involved?  Why?  If yes, what can schools do to minimize those dangers?


Thoughts on this topic probably depends on your perspective, experiences, and generation.  As a school leader, at times it would be fair to certainly question the worth when dealing with challenging issues involving the Internet.  The bottom line is that we have access to tons of information in the click of a button.  Secondly, it isn't going away.  Here are four ways to help minimize the dangers that accessibility to the Internet create in schools and for our students: 
A) Policy:  The appropriate policies need to be in place in regards to the Internet and its use that is signed by the parent and student.
B) Education:  Informing students, staff, and parents of the good and bad of the Internet will help raise the awareness about its use.  By providing a course to students on appropriate use of the Internet is a good way to reach kids.
C) Supervision:  Adult supervision in the labs and appropriate monitoring by staff assist in minimizing risks on the Internet.  Kids will find a way and test the waters a variety of ways - supervision and monitoring is important.  That was one aspect at Riggs that went away with our new round of tablets for the 1:1 - the teachers cannot sync with a student's computer which they were able to do with the first round a few years ago.
D) Filter:  An appropriate filter system such as FortiClient assists in managing not only where students cannot go on the Internet, but also a way to help protect the district's network.  Even though there can be frustrations with the filtering system and at times the lack of being able to get to specific sites that would be beneficial to student learning, the need for the system is imperative when managing students/staff.  The fine line is not having too harsh of filtering that frustrates educators use of positive learning sites and opportunities.

4.  Why should school leaders utilize research when making technology purchases?  What does the current research say about the effectiveness of educational technology?

Research and data can be made to look many ways depending on what you are looking for and want to convey.  The primary reason to utilize research is to provide justification and information to the school board and patrons on its use and value for the district's students and educators.  Anytime you can provide hard data to demonstrate the effectiveness of anything, it helps build support and momentum.  Technology is not cheap and requires constant change to keep up with the times.  Staying progressive means spending money which currently is a challenge because we aren't going to be getting much, if any increase.  One selling point is the development of 21st Century learning and the importance of developing students to be prepared in our seemingly always changing world. 

There is becoming more and more research on the effectiveness of technology.  The positives in the studies we read for class demonstrate increased motivation, attitude, engagement, and may lower drop out rates.  While those factors are certainly important, our current assessments do not engage our students in higher order skills that some technology tools can assist with.  Federal stringencies passed down to local districts for accountability, we are faced with the challenges of teaching our state content standards and preparing all students for high stakes tests....... Dakota STEP.  It is difficult, if not impossible to find research that is legitimate that would be statistically significant that technology improves student achievement.  Those studies may come with continued advanced research over time.

5.  Knowing that web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and social networking tools engage and motivate students, why do many schools continue to block these powerful tools from students and teachers?  How do school leaders balance safety with access to web 2.0 tools?

The unknown and at times the unwillingness to learn can create fear, loss of control, and uncertainty for districts.  The scary part of technology many times is that the kids know more that the educators.  Another concern educators have is they have a year's worth of content standards to cover in a time frame that doesn't allot for that.  With time always a factor, districts and educators are thinking of getting students prepared the best they can for the test that gets media publicity.   Bottom line, change and letting go of control along with all the issues that can be created cause districts to stay away from certain 2.0 tools.  That will begin to change as the professional development and generation of educators changes.

The four main safety areas include:  Policy, Education, Monitoring/Supervision, and Filter.   Providing students the opportunities to be more engaged and motivated, these Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and social networking pages will pay off in the future when used as a tool to enhance learning.  We know there will always be concerns and issues with technology - we must balance it all!