April+ISTE+Handout+Reflections

April ISTE Handout Reflections:

1. Project PLN. This document was actually an online magazine through OpenZine that featured many of the edubloggers that I currently follow. It was a great resource that included how, when, and why to start a PLN not only for yourself but for your students. The magazine went into great detail on the various resources available for creating your own PLN and seemed to go perfectly with our readings from our book this month. I plan to subscribe to this open-source magazine to refer to it again, and to try my hand in teaching students the how's and why's of beginning their own PLN's. I am planning on doing the first of this for our inservice next fall for teachers.

2. Friends, Tools, and Tactics for Digital Age Learning. This URL from Kevin Honeycutt provided a wide array of downloads and resources for teachers. There is a huge host of tools for teachers to use in their classrooms. There are also many applications for iPads, images for use, and other PLN resources for teachers. It also includes notes to his keynotes so you can get a vision of his presentations.

3. Get Ready, Get Set, Get Organized. This was awesome! This is probably my biggest downfall; finding a way to take all of the tools I learn about and keep them organized and at my fingertips without things getting "lost". This site was a Google site that had many different ideas for how to stay organized and what tools can be used to not only inform myself, but inform the teachers in my district about why we would use particular tools. I will be taking this and passing it along to teachers I know. It was put together well in "layman's" terms and gave good reasons for why a tool would and should be used.

4. Copyright Clarity.This document by mediaeducationlab.com was an awesome tool that included powerpoint slides and other documents for teaching teachers about copyright and fair use policies in PD format. It even included videos at every level that were case studies for copyright. In addition, it included sample policies that districts could borrow information from for establishing their own copyright policies for digital information. This actually made what could be a very boring topic quite manageable and interesting. It went on to show how to document your reasoning for fair use. This is an important skill if a teacher is questioned on his/her rationale for using something that is copyrighted.

5. Digital Literacy and Citizenship: An Innovating Whole Community Curriculum. This was the mother load of exactly what I have been looking for! It is a searchable document/site that allows you to select the topic and grade level and you receive lessons for digital citizenship of all types. There is even a cyberbullying/safety toolkit that is a free download so that teachers and schools can easier qualify for E-Rate pricing. Instead of going all over the internet to search for good tools, this seems to be a great culmination of resources. The lessons are already written, so those teachers who are either inexperienced or unwilling to go search for materials will have them at their fingertips. This is another site that will be shared with staff and will be added to the computer class curriculum that I need to help write.