PERSONAL FRAMEWORK

Personal Framework Paper Danielle Howard Concordia University Chicago

PERSONAL FRAMEWORK In the blink of an eye, technology became a necessity in the lives of humans across the globe. Technology benefits users, young and old, in numerous ways, but it creates issues in classrooms in the United States and other countries. The criticisms against technology include social issues, educational issues, cultural and equity issues, and legal and ethical issues. Educators create personal frameworks to discuss and to demonstrate the ethical use of technology to students. The personal framework focuses on a teachers pledge to use ethical technology practices within his or her classroom. As a student and an educator, I, Danielle Howard, pledge to uphold the proper use of technology by making good choices when using technology within the classroom to act as a positive role model to others and students. With the increasingly popularity of technology, teachers face social issues surrounding technology within the classroom. The social issues of technology include quality of life concerns, fears about technology overuse, fears about technology misuse, risks of online social networking, and problems due to malware, viruses, spam, and other malicious actions. As a teacher, my framework focuses on the risks of social networking. In todays society, children make social networking accounts at young ages, and I believe they do not understand the responsibilities connected to these accounts. The lack of understanding leads to dangerous acts of cyberbullying on social media websites. In the School District of Lee Countys Employee

Handbook, the district encourages the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communication (The School District of Lee County, n.d., p. 14) in accordance with the Childrens Internet Protection Act. The handbook states all students receive instruction regarding appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking sitescyber bullying awareness (The School District of Lee County, n.d., p. 14) to teach responsible Internet behaviors. Similar to the

PERSONAL FRAMEWORK

employee guidelines, I will enforce Internet guidelines within my classroom to teach my students the proper and safe way to use the Internet, and I will teach my students the causes and effects of cyberbullying to create awareness about the topic. Cyberbullying occurs outside of the classroom after school hours, but it affects the academic lives of the victims. The use of technology in the classroom benefits the teacher and the students, but a growing number of school districts across the country cannot afford to pay the funding for technology. Luckily, a growing number of local, state, and national organizations offer grants and funding opportunities to provide technology to in-need schools. The Ed Tech Grants Program works to improve student academic achievement through the use of technology in schools and to ensure that every student is technologically literate by the end of eighth grade (State Educational Technology Grants, n.d., p. 1). The grant program works to accomplish these goals through the effective integration of technology with teacher training and curriculum development (State Educational Technology Grants, n.d., p. 1). The grant program provides schools with funds to educate teachers on technology use and to improve students technology skills. After searching different funding databases, an educator requests the funds following the steps on the application, and usually, he or she earns the funds for his or her school to buy new or refurbished technology instruments. It does not take long to search the Internet databases to earn money for technology, and as an educator, I will find funds to improve or to update the technology in my school to provide my students with the best technology and programs to improve the worth of their education. Today, the United States is a melting pot society, but cultural and equity issues surrounding technology appear in the classroom. Events including the Civil Rights Act and the Womens Suffrage Movement changed the world Americans live in today, but classrooms

PERSONAL FRAMEWORK continue to face racial and gender equity. Nicolas Ferroni in his article We Teach Racism, Sexism, and Discrimination in Schools states When broken down statistically, our textbook mentions eight white males for every one African American, women, Jew, and one figure from other various minority groups (2012). He recognizes the subtle appearance of racism and

sexism in textbooks, and the appearance of these creates a lack of racial and gender equity in the classroom. All educators should review textbooks and supplementary handouts to ensure they do not create discriminate against a specific race or one gender. As an educator, my textbooks will promote racial and gender equity in the classroom because I do not want my classroom to feel segregated in any way. Young children do not recognize race or gender in a negative way, and I do not want to teach my students racism or sexism unintentionally. Before using Internet sites in my classroom, I will review the website with each student in mind to ensure the website does not offend anyone. Theorist Lev Vygotsky believed every culture passes along physical and cognitive tools that make daily living more effective and efficient (Ormrod, 2008, p. 330), and educators should recognize and uplift the differing and unique tools in the classroom. The different tools promote diversity in the classroom reducing the risk for cultural and racial equity. To young children, the use of technology seems harmless, but the negatives of technology include legal and ethical issues in the classroom. Similar to the social issues, the legal and ethical issues stem from the lack of understanding about technologys responsibilities. Technologys legal and ethical issues include hacking, safety issues, plagiarism and academic dishonesty, and illegal downloads and piracy. As an early childhood educator, I believe the safety issues of technology will affect my students the most. To protect students safety on the Internet, schools create acceptable use policies. Some common components of acceptable use policies for children include don't give out information about yourself like your last name, your

PERSONAL FRAMEWORK phone number, where you live, or where you go to school and making plans to meet your Internet buddies in real life is usually a really bad idea (GetNetWise, n.d.). Technology in the classroom improves a student education, but young students need to understand the importance of following the teachers and the schools Internet guidelines for keeping them safe. Theorist Jean Piaget believed through interacting with and reflecting on their physical and social worlds, children self-construct increasingly complex understanding and reasoning abilities (Ormrod, 2008, p. 308). With time, social environments transformed from physical environments to intangible environments in cyber space. Social interactions on the Internet provide students stimulation to develop cognitively, but as educators, we need to provide our students a safe environment to learn on the Internet. As an educator, I will create a classroom

acceptable use policy, and after explaining the policy, I will enforce the consequences connected to breaking the policy within my classroom. I will send a copy of the acceptable use policy home with my students in an attempt to ensure safe Internet use at home. On the surface, technology appears to benefit classrooms across America, but on a deeper level, educators recognize four different areas of concern surrounding technology. Within the classroom, technology creates social issues, educational issues, cultural and equity issues, and legal and ethical issues. Educators create personal frameworks to promote the proper use of technology in the classroom. As role models, educators use proper technology behavior to encourage students to do the same. As a student and an educator, I, Danielle Howard, pledge to uphold the proper use of technology by making good choices when using technology within the classroom to act as a positive role model to others and students.

PERSONAL FRAMEWORK References

Ferroni, N. (2012). We Teach Racism, Sexism, and Discrimination in Schools. Retrieved May 8, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicholas-ferroni/teaching-educationdiscrimination_b_1826113.html. GetNetWise. (n.d.). Safety Tips for Kids. Retrieved May 8, 2013 from http://kids.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/kids. Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Human Learning (5th edition). Boston: Pearson. State Educational Technology Grants. (n.d.). State Educational Technology Grants. Retrieved May 8, 2013, from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/edtech/factsheet.pdf. The School District of Lee County. (n.d.). Employee Handbook. Retrieved May 8, 2013, from http://hr.leeschools.net/pdf/Docs/Handbook/Employee_Handbook_Bookmarked.pdf