Professional Learning Network Plan

I apparently like to learn and connect with people, a lot, if the image at the bottom of this post says anything. I knew I was connected to a diverse set of learning resources already, but until I starting mapping it all out using the iPad app iThoughtsHD (bubbl.us and I don’t get along), I had no idea how big of a network I had already built.

How did this large network get built? I joined the library profession in 2006, when I started my MLS work, just as social media was exploding and people were connecting online like never before. I learned to use the tools available and that became available during my studies and as I started work in a library system office, first as tech support, and then as the technology library (current job). I dabbled and still dabble in tech support, training, tech trending, learning, sharing, teaching, answering questions, asking questions, and keeping up. I have used this network of people and places to connect with others sharing my interests and passions, and also to connect with others of different backgrounds. That’s how I became exposed to the Ed Tech community. I expanded my learning network to ed tech folk, and long story short, those connections greatly influenced my decision to pursue this degree in education technology!

Another way this network was built was by learning from and harvesting resources from those I connected with. Many of my closest friends in the library profession started with a connection in one of the network’s areas, particularly with Twitter. We’d connect online through a network, meet once or twice in person at a conference, and the rest of the communication would take place through these networks and through other tools. I know Twitter is a tool that not everyone uses or gets, but for me, it’s worked, to connect with librarians across geographical and time zone boundaries.

Click on the image to zoom in full-size on the plan.

Items with blue arrows are the resources I utilize the most. Resources in yellow are ones I hope to add to my learning plan. The three marked in Orange (Facebook, Facebook Places, and LinkedIn), are ones I would love to give up, but unfortunately, that’s not possible at this time. Two tools/sites/ideas that did not make the map but that I am planning to investigate is the MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course and the Scoop.It project/website. These look very useful and worth further exploration.

I’ve attempted to divide the plan up by topics, including ways I learn, who I learn from, where I share and learn, tools I use to share and learn, influential organizations and events, and places I reflect.

The division of all these tools wasn’t originally purposeful or planned, but as I look at the map over all, I realize it captures the powerful essence of a personal learning plan. You need to have tools to share AND learn, places to reflect AND read, places to share AND learn, people to learn from AND share with, and supportive organizations. Learning is reciprocal, not one-way anymore.

In the future, I plan to reflect further on the importance of a learning plan and what the purpose of these different identified areas are.

This was definitely a useful project that provides further insight into how learning happens and should happen.

School (Organization) Technology Evaluation

My School (organization) Evaluation summary document can be downloaded as a PDF document. The technology maturity benchmarks file is available to be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet.

This assignment was interesting to complete. It was easy, yet difficult, as I have been heavily involved with the technology implementation, training, and support at my organization since I started there. Being that close makes it easy to evaluate the organization, yet I’m not always certain that my evaluations are accurate, since I’m so close to the situation.

As to the AECT standard of long-term planning, understanding where the organization is currently at helps develop future technology plans to move the organization along. You cannot plan for the future unless you understand where it’s at today on all of the filters discussed in this assignment.

Technology Use Planning Overview

Introduction

During most of my school career (1993-2001), I reaped the benefits of successful technology planning when my school district developed a technology plan that involved pursuing and receiving several technology grants. What is technology planning? A technology plan is both a formal document that plans out an institution’s vision and mission for technology implementation and evaluation and is also the carrying out of the plan. Anderson (1999) calls technology plans both a noun and verb (1). The noun portion of technology planning is the road map — the document created (2). The verb portion of technology planning is the actions, attitudes, and results of the technology plan (2). Both are important elements of technology planning. This posting will address several questions around technology planning, including the National Educational Technology Plan 2010, the timeframe of technology plans, and the elements of an effective technology plan. I will wrap up this posting reflecting on the technology planning I have observed and experienced in the past in K-12 systems, higher education, and libraries and how I might implement it at the organizations I work with and will be connected to in the future.

National Educational Technology Plan 2010

The NETP could be an effective and powerful resource for technology planning. It shows the direction of education with the plan’s vision and then outlines several recommendations, many of which can be used to develop specific technology goals in local educational institutions. These recommendations include concrete ideas for technology integration that are easily adaptable yet flexible enough as technology rapidly continues to change. The recommendations also include ways to assess evaluate success. Finally, the recommendations frequently discuss professional development, a key part of technology planning.

Some of the specific recommendations from the NETP 2010 that could be easily incorporated into a technology plan include:

3.1 Expand opportunities for educators to have access to technology-based content, resources, and tools where and when they need them (xviii)

4.2 Ensure that every student and educator has at least one Internet access device and appropriate software and resources for research, communication, multimedia content creation, and collaboration for use in and out of school (xix)

5.1 Develop and adopt a common definition of productivity in education and more relevant and meaningful measures of outcomes, along with improved policies and technologies for managing costs, including those for procurement (xx)

These recommendations could all be easily formulated into ways that result in more effective teaching that allow students and teachers to “work smarter, not harder” (See 1992).

Technology Plan Timeframe and Elements

Technology is changing rapidly, even more so than when See (1992) was written. One might think that technology plans should be written for short time frames then, which is something See advocates. However, I strongly disagree. New gadgets, devices, and software platforms are being developed each day. As a result, it is vital for planning purposes to think about the bigger picture, the vision and mission for a district and write and implement a technology plan in such a way that looks longterm for organizational goals. Plans take precious time to implement and write. If plans are being rewritten each year to take advantage of the latest and greatest technology because it is the latest and greatest, this is not a wise use of the organization’s time and resources. Instead, in a rapidly changing technology world, it is more vital to look at the long-term goals of the next three-to-five years to not get caught up in hype.

This discussion leads nicely into See’s comment about focusing applications not technology (1992). I do agree with this comment for the same reasons as mentioned above. It is easy to get caught up in buying and bringing in the latest and greatest platforms and devices. A lot of the time, these will end up installed and unopened or unvisited or gathering dust in the closet, because their application was not thought through. Instead, if the focus is on how the device or platform could or could not be used, the planning of its purchase and implementation is much simpler.

An incredible set of questions has been developed and posted online by an independent education technologist (Gliksman 2011) that for those looking to implement iPads in a school. This set of questions covers many of the important areas a technology plan needs to cover. I found the questions to be useful for any type of technology planning.

Personal Reflections

Plan to read Technology Made Simple (2007). As I mentioned in the introduction, during most of my school career (1993-2001), I reaped the benefits of successful technology planning when my school district developed a technology plan that involved pursuing and receiving several technology grants. Students, teachers, and the local community all benefited from the work of a core group of teachers and administrators who relentlessly pursued new ways to implement technology and pursue professional development  to better implement technology into already existing curriculum. The students who impacted by the classes that incorporated the technology proceeded to be ahead of their peers, in the earlier days of the technology revolution. I personally can attest to its impact. That early exposure to technology use in English and social studies papers, presentations, and projects and to technology use and application in journalism and in web design has been invaluable in the years since. I also benefited from opportunities to collaborate with teachers to develop web pages for their classes and help them develop their technology skills, especially in the areas of awareness and application (See 1999) as the result of a professional development grant. As a student trainer assistant, I didn’t get involved in the integration and refinement circles that See mentions, but they did happen at a later time.

Technology planning has continued shape and definitely impacted the careers I have pursued since that time. I have worked in a college IT department as a college student, helping implement the results of the university’s technology planning through equipment install, support, and on-the-spot training. I helped run a classroom “brain” as a graduate TA at large university, where the brain was the central device that controlled all the instructional media that had been installed in the classroom (computer, projector, VCR, etc.). I also helped manage the classroom clicker system which had replaced the time-consuming grading of paper quizzes; both developments were efficient replacements of previous uses of technology or lack thereof. Both of these had to have been planned out and implemented to be successful. In my current profession as a librarian now, we rely on the libraries we work with to plan out their technology implementation three years out. This helps in their budgeting and planning for the libraries’ futures.

In a future career, I hope to focus on technology professional development, the missing key to many organization’s successful implementation of technology, tools, and applications. With the explosion of online interfaces and tools, there may be easier ways to successful implement staff development that meets See’s Awareness, Application, Integration, and Refinement. I helped run the 23 Things Kansas asynchronous online professional development program for librarians in 2010, which addressed at different times some or all four of these elements. We have heard fantastic response from many participants on what that program did for them. The 23 Things model (originally developed by Helene Blowers at PLCMC in 2006) has been implemented mainly in libraries so far, but has had very successful results.

Conclusion

I’ve always seen technology planning mainly from the paper document perspective or through the implementation perspective. Learning about the importance of staff development and the numerous other elements that go into a successful technology plan has been quiet informative, and I hope to take back some of what I’ve learned to my own workplace. I also will be able to apply what I’ve learned in future careers. Finally, I’ve heard a lot over the past few years about the book Technology Made Simple (Bolan), a technology planning guide for small and medium libraries, but have never read the book. It is one of my goals to read this book now. Technology planning is a powerful tool for future innovation and impact in communities and organizations, when it’s done correctly.

References

23 Things Kansas (2010). Retrieved from http://www.23thingskansas.org

Anderson, L. S. (1999). Technology Planning: It’s More Than Computers! Singapore: National Center for Technology Planning. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/articles/tpmore.pdf

Anderson, L. S., et. al. (1996). Guidebook for developing an effective instructional technology plan, Version 2.0. Mississippi State University. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/downloads/guidebook.pdf

Anderson, L. S., & Perry,, J. F., Jr. (1994, March). Technology Planning: Recipe for Success. National Center for Technology Planning. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/html/tp_recipe.cfm

Bolan, K. (2007). Technology made simple : an improvement guide for small and medium libraries. Chicago: American Library Association.

Gliksman, Sam. (2011). Preparing your school for an iPad implementation. Retrieved July 26, 2011 from http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/preparing-your-school-for-an

Learning 2.0 – About (2006). Retrieved from http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/

See, J. (1992, May). Developing Effective Technology Plans. National Center for Technology Planning. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/html/john_see.cfm

Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. National Education Technology Plan 2010. (2010). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010

RSS Feeds for Education

Note: My Shared Google Reader page can be found at my personal Google Reader account.

I have a love-hate relationship with Google Reader and RSS feeds that has continued for at least four years. It is a very powerful tool that has allowed me to keep up with a variety of topics that informs my daily and professional life as a technology librarian. By subscribing to numerous websites, I can quickly keep up with my favorite tech sites (Lifehacker, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb), librarian bloggers (Unquiet Librarian, Librarian in Black, iLibrarian), EdTech folk (Free Technology for Teachers, MindShift, and Edutopia), and inspirational sites (Heart of Innovation, TED blog, and Daniel Pink). You can follow journals, news sites, magazines, and many other types of sites as well.

You can share what you’re reading to your public shared items page, email items to people, and if you turn on the feature, you can quickly share to several different social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and Instapaper. I heavily use these features.

It is very easy to get quickly overwhelmed by sites that post a lot or when you don’t check Google Reader every day. Also, if you take advantage of following people’s shared Google Reader pages, their shared links come into the stream as well, overwhelming you further. I tend to come in and mark everything as read occasionally, and that’s okay.

Even with the ease of being overwhelmed, Google Reader and RSS are still very powerful tools. They can help you quickly canvas many sites at once at a glance on a wealth of topics. Simply following sites in your research, teaching, or interest area will help you gain a better grasp on your subjects. Using RSS in the classroom, can better inform lessons using timely links. Students could create their own accounts and pages, following topics they’re interested in. The sites you can follow can include news sites, specific news searches, databases on search topics, RSS’s potential is nearly limitless if sites have deployed its technology.

Even with my love-hate relationship with Google Reader and RSS over more than four years, I still find it to be quite valuable. If anything it’s more powerful than ever. I just need to continue to learn the value of marking everything as read, and constantly re-evaluating what I’m subscribed to and weed the sites as needed.

Plagiarism Video

Using the guys on Mount Rushmore (former Presidents George Washington and Abe Lincoln), learn some tips about how not to plagiarize! Created for Boise State Ed Tech 501, Summer 2011. It was created with a Goanimate.com Account. The video covers 3 types of plagiarism: cheating, non-attribution, and self-plagiarism. There’s also a “small” dose of historical humor sprinkled throughout.

Tech trends: iPad reading capabilities

Assignment reflection:

Following tech trends has been written into my job description for four years now, and in the past year I’ve started noticing it’s becoming harder to predict the “next” tech trend. I was very impressed to read the Horizon Report as part of this assignment. It’s been on list of “to-read” but I didn’t know how beneficial it would be. I may be a librarian and the Horizon Report is focused on education technology impacts. However, librarians are basically an educational institution, and I found the report’s information to be very beneficial for my current job. It’s good to know that there’s a go-to report that can help me now quickly discover what the upcoming tech trends may be thanks to this report. Furthermore, as an avid iPad user, it was good to reflect in writing about my use of it in light of the report.

The assignment:

The technology trend I explored could technically be considered to fall under two of the the trends: electronic books and mobiles, but for the purposes of this discussion, I’ll mostly refer to the electronic books (eBooks) trend.

I have been an iPad user since the first day it came out (and still own version one). This device has transformed how and where and when and what I read — and who reads with me. This has happened through the eBooks apps (Kindle, Stanza, Goodreads, iAnnotate PDF, Nook), through the magazine-like apps (Flipboard and Zite), through a RSS Feed reader (NewsRack), and through the Kids’ Books (The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat, Rudolph, Shrek, Toy Story, and Rapunzel). Those kids’ books are what my niece and nephew always want to read when “Aunt Heather” comes by! [The app links can all be found in my post “What’s on my iPad?”]

Depending on the situation and place, I can read at home, in the car (when I’m not driving), on a train, on a plane, at a park (in the shade), in line at the store, at a doctor’s office, in a meeting, basically in any situation where either device is at hand. I get more reading done this way.

Image of my iPad Kindle library (part of it)I have read numerous Kindle books on my iPad, many of which are thanks to the freebie-Kindle book tracking blog, eReader News Today. But I have also been able to quickly buy and access a lot of non-fiction books that I may not have read otherwise. All I need is a wifi connection for my iPad and I can quickly get access to any book. If I’m going on a trip, I don’t have to haul 20 pounds of books any longer with me for “just in case” — my iPad is loaded before the trip. If I need to add more content, I just find the nearest WiFi hotspot, connect, reload, and I’m good to go. Depending on the eBook app, I can highlight, make notes, or underline what I’m reading. I can interact with the text of what I’m reading in more ways that I have ever before thanks to the eBooks apps on my iPad.

The FlipBoard and Zite apps aren’t exactly eBooks but they bring in information from my Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook, and other online feeds and put it into an electronic, hybrid, interactive magazine format. These apps help me ingest copious amounts of information in real-time quickly. They make the iPad well-worthwhile. To see Flipboard in action, check out this video:

To see Zite in action, check out this video:

Zite: Personalized Magazine for iPad from zite.com on Vimeo.

Will eBooks replace the book? Many people are saying they will, but I don’t believe so [plus, the reading from a couple of weeks ago shows the fallacy of that type of thinking!]. eBooks fulfill the needs of yet another niche audience–voracious readers and consumers of information who are constantly on the go, yet can’t carry twenty novels with them at once. eBooks also can update to newer versions, cutting re-publishing costs, possibly. The impact here on education costs could be huge.

eBooks also have amazing possibilities in the future. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and some of the other kids ebooks/apps mentioned above are quite interactive. Many give the option to read to you. The possibilities to mix-up content in eBooks that was previously kept in separate formats will be limitless: embedded chat in an eBook as you read, the ability to mark up a book or document and have the notes digitally emailed to you, video and sound clips embedded, exploring citations, classrooms exploring with the eBooks of the future (now?).

Al Gore and others are working on a new publishing platform that will try to “Blow Up the Book”. See this TedTalk on “A next-generation digital book” for what is coming. It will be very interesting to watch what happens next.

I’ve addressed eBooks and my iPad usage from a purely personal point of view, but eBooks have also affected libraries (my current profession). I’m listing a few resources at the end of this posting that will provide more information on libraries and eBooks.

There are many issues still to be sorted out with eBooks, including licensing, DRM, content ownership (the statewide library consortia in my own state is battling this), accessibility issues, price points, platforms, and standards. Even so, the Horizon Report 2011 was finalized in January 2011, just as eBooks were exploding on the consumer market. People now have Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, laptop eBook applications, tablets, and smartphones that will all read eBooks. What will happen next?

More information

What’s on my iPad (a post I created on my personal blog that lists and links to all the apps on my iPad) and includes a couple of education apps reference lists

No Shelf Required (a library-related eBooks blog)

The Digital Shift: On Libraries and New Media (project and virtual summit from Library Journal and School Library Journal)

36 Frequently Asked eBook Questions from Public Librarians (from American Library Association’s Office of Information Technology Policy (ALA’s OITP))

Sources

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., & Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Digital inequality presentation

The presentation:

PDF of the slides, including speaker notes (PDF, 25 MB file)

To read the speaker notes as you click through the presentation, download the slides above or view the slides directly on Slideshare.

Reflection: As a librarian, where my organization’s territory crosses urban and rural areas, I am quite familiar with the concepts of the digital divide. However, I was not very familiar with digital inequality at all. After reading the articles, reports, supplemental reports I uncovered, and the new book, Without a Net, I have a very different perspective on how to resolve the complex issues surrounding the digital divide and digital inequality.

Before this assignment, I would have said putting the tools in the hands of those who needed them and helping provide assistance in making the services more affordable, would be the way to go. Now, I see that it takes a complex set of options and solutions in order to tackle digital inequality. There are very valid reasons for why people have not yet taken full advantage of the Internet, and for many, lack of skill and training is a large reason. Giving everyone a device and affordable access will not solve that issue.

I enjoyed bringing in a lot of the new research that has been released in the past couple of years, especially as it deals with libraries and how they are confronting the digital divide and digital inequality.

This assignment addresses three AECT Standards, including:

  • 3.2 Diffusion of Innovations: Diffusion of innovations is the process of communicating through planned strategies for the purpose of gaining adoption.
  • 3.4 Policies and Regulations: Policies and regulations are the rules and actions of society (or its surrogates) that affect the diffusion and use of Instructional Technology.
  • 4.2 Resource Management: Resource management involves planning, monitoring, and controlling resource support systems and services.

This assignment addresses the diffusion of innovations standard through researching and explaining several options to resolve digital inequality issues.

This assignment addresses the policies and regulation standard by examining the reasons why people don’t have access or don’t access the Internet, a large part of today’s technology world, especially in education.

This assignment addresses the resource management standard by developing and evaluating several solutions to addressing the digital divide, taking advantage of already existing resources.

Elements of Educational Technology

Schools have been trying to embrace new developments in technology since at least the early 20th century to revolutionize education. When the motion picture was introduced, Thomas Edison said in 1913,

Books will soon be obsolete in the schools. . . . It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed in the next ten years (as cited in Reiser, 2001, p. 55).

This revolution obviously did not happen. As the 20th century progressed, educators and leaders would continue to make similar statements, yet books are not obsolete, and new instructional mediums have not fully replaced old ones. As new tools have appeared on the educational horizon, continuing into the 21st century, what guides and should guide their adoption? The answer can be found in the definition of educational technology, especially in the lens of the appropriate element of the definition.

The Definition

According to Januszewski and Molenda (2008),

Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources (1).

In the authors’ discussion of the element of appropriate (2008), they address several components of what makes an educational technology appropriate. First, in the field of community development, appropriate technology refers to the “simplest and most benign solution to a problem” (10). Also appropriate technologies are the ones “connected with the local users and cultures” (10). Only practices and resources that are likely to yield results are appropriate, and they should be selected based on best practices, applied to the appropriate situation (10).

When professionals stay up-to-date on the knowledge base of the field to make decisions, they make an informed choice of the appropriate resources and practices which helps provide for productive learning. Choosing appropriate technologies also allows for the “wise use” of time and effort for the organizations and the educational technologists (11).

AECT Code of Ethics

Finally, appropriateness also has an ethical framework (10). Januszewski and Molenda draw on four separate provisions from the AECT Code of Ethics (2007) to frame the appropriate element of the definition of educational technology:

Section 1.5: Shall follow sound professional procedures for evaluation and selection of materials, equipment, and furniture/carts used to create educational work areas.

Section 1.6: Shall make reasonable efforts to protect the individual from conditions harmful to health and safety, including harmful conditions caused by technology itself.

Section 1.7: Shall promote current and sound professional practices in the use of technology in education.

Section 1.8: Shall in the design and selection of any educational program or media seek to avoid content that reinforces or promotes gender, ethnic, racial, or religious stereotypes. Shall seek to encourage the development of programs and media that emphasize the diversity of our society as a multicultural community.

Is Internet content filtering an appropriate practice?

I now will use these ethical frameworks and some of the previous discussion points to examine whether or not Internet content filtering in schools is an appropriate practice. If educational technology is

the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources (Januszewski and Molenda, 2008, p1),

what could the reasoning and effect be of filtering in schools? Is Internet content filtering an appropriate technological process or resource? Januszewski and Molenda do mention “appropriateness” as an avenue to censor books or other instructional materials, which does not fit into the context of this definition. One might say that filtering Internet content is the same as censoring of books. But as you will see, I will show differently.

Filtering, or blocking, of Internet content in schools is governed by several federal laws, including CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act, 2000). Reading the AECT Code of Ethics (2007), especially Section 1.6, one could argue that the Code of Ethics supports filtering, to “make reasonable efforts to protect the individual from conditions harmful to health and safety, including harmful conditions caused by technology itself.” However, as the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) National Education Technology Plan states,

Ensuring student safety on the Internet is a critical concern, but many filters designed to protect students also block access to legitimate learning content and such tools as blogs, wikis, and social networks that have the potential to support student learning and engagement (Barseghian 2011).

DOE Director of Education Technology Karen Cantor stated in April 2011 that broad filters are not helpful.

What we have had is what I consider brute force technologies that shut down wide swaths of the Internet, like all of YouTube, for example. Or they may shut down anything that has anything to do with social media, or anything that is a game….These broad filters aren’t actually very helpful, because we need much more nuanced filtering. (Barseghian).

CIPA was not created “to keep students stuck in the past, educated in a disconnected school environment that shares little resemblance to the real world for which we should be preparing our children” (Nielsen and Whitby 2011).

One could also state that the filtering is causing harm to the students when schools block access to all tools online, including the dangerous ones, without allowing the opportunity for educators to instruct the students in how to distinguish dangerous sites or online behaviors from safe ones. The students will eventually leave school and need to know how to use these new tools in this digital age. Furthermore, teens are using technology all the time already (Lenhart 2011).

Because the Internet is increasingly user-driven, users need to understand that they’re stakeholders in their own well being online. Kids need to understand that their own actions and behaviors have a lot to do with how positive or negative their online experiences are. This points to the need for a new kind of media-literacy instruction – the kind that develops the “filtering software” in kids’ heads, which is much more nimble than technology or laws, usually improves with age, and goes with them wherever they go. Media literacy has always developed that filter for information consumed and is needed more than ever. The much needed new part is critical thinking about what’s outgoing, about what we text, post, share, and upload as much as what we consume. (Anne Collier, as cited in Jackson, 2010).

All these ways show that across-the-board Internet filtering is not an appropriate practice.

Section 1.5 in the AECT Code of Ethics discusses evaluation of materials and equipment. More often than not, the technology department is in charge of running the filtering system and access to certain pieces of online technology (Skype, YouTube, Google Docs) (Johnson 2010). How do they evaluate requests to use these tools in different districts? Is the technology department held accountable to this same code of ethics? Are they evaluating the appropriateness of these websites and software for productivity of the learners and the educational technologists or do they not want change at all?

How can filtering be appropriate in light of Section 1.7? Educational technologists “shall promote current and sound professional practices in the use of technology in education” (AECT Code of Ethics). Current and sound professional practices currently include using blogs for reflection (Davis 2011), social media for connections (National School Boards Association 2007, Carvin 2007, and Conner 2008), YouTube for explanations or stories (Barseghian 2011), and Skype for connections (Johnson 2010). However, in many places these tools are still blocked through filtering systems.

Educational technologists see their benefits and their appropriate use through their colleagues’ sharing. Bloggers like Byrne track Free Technology for Teachers and explain how it can be best used in the classroom. Barrett has crowd-sourced with his colleagues around the globe to put together the “Interesting Ways to Use ___ in the Classroom” series, that describe numerous ways to use every major technological tool that is currently available.

Finally, Section 1.8 of the AECT standards focuses in part on developing programs and media that emphasize diversity and multicultural community. Many of the educational technology tools that are available can connect students around the country and globe.

If filtering is to be considered an appropriate practice of educational technology, in light of the ethical standards examined together, I do not see how this can be possible or benefit the students or the educational technologists themselves. If they are to be tracking the knowledge base of educational technology and tracking the current best practices, but filtering gets in the way, how can they best practice their profession? They can’t.

One of the best approaches I have seen to fighting the Internet filter in the schools comes from Hamilton (2009), who takes American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner, and shows how the various tools she wants to use can be applied to these standards. Maybe this is the approach the educational technology community needs to take to show the inappropriateness of the filtering system as it stands today.

Conclusion

The ethical standards of the educational technology community do strive to protect students from harm, but beyond that, filtering is not an appropriate behavior.

We need to go beyond worrying about predators and pornography and start thinking about young people as active participants – true citizens – in an increasingly interactive online environment where young people are just as likely to create content as they are to consume it (Larry Magid, as cited in Jackson 2010).

The appropriate element of the educational technology definition is an important one, especially when one considers the over-arching effects of Internet content filtering in schools. As the discussion of the AECT code of ethics that address the appropriate element has shown, Internet content filtering, especially as it stands today, is not the appropriate practice in educational technology. As the Online Safety and Technology Working Group (2010) concludes,

While tools ranging from content filters to anti-malware programs have their place, they are not a substitute for the lifelong protection provided by critical thinking. The best ‘filter’ is not the one that runs on a device but the ‘software’ that runs in our heads (32).

And I will add the most appropriate filter is the one that is in the hands of the student and the educational technologist who is allowed to use the best practices of the field to teach the student how to be safe, connect, and grow.

References

Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (2007, November). AECT: Code of Professional Ethics. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from http://www.aect.org/About/Ethics.asp

Barrett, T. (n.d.). Interesting Ways series. EDTE.CH: Inspire Connect Engage Create. Blog. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/

Barseghian, T. (2011, April 7). Eight Surprising Websites That Schools Can’t Access | MindShift. Mind/Shift: How we will learn. Blog. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/eight-surprising-webites-schools-cant-access/

Barseghian, T. (2011, April 26). Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites | MindShift. Mind/Shift: How we will learn. Blog, . Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/

Byrne, R. (n.d.). Free Technology for Teachers. Free Technology for Teachers: Free Resources and Lesson Plans for Teaching with Technology. Blog. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Carvin, A. (2007, August 14). New NSBA Report on Social Networking | PBS. PBS Teachers: Learning.Now: At the Crossroads of Internet culture & education with host Andy Carvin. Blog. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/08/new_nsba_report_on_social_netw.html

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Photo credit: “networkedunlockedcloseup.jpg” by Flickr user CyberHades under a Creative Commons license.

The official beginning of a journey into educational technology

Hi, I’m Heather Braum, and I currently am the technology librarian at the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS). I come to the ed tech program with a different background than most students, in that I don’t have an education degree or much formal teaching experience. I’ve taught one graduate-level course for the library school I graduated from, on technology, naturally. I’ve also presented at numerous workshops and conferences on technology topics and delivered countless hours of training to the librarians NEKLS serves.  I’ve also started dabbling in online teaching through remote login software, webinar platforms, and website modules. This is the future of continuing education for adults.

In 2010, I helped develop, organize, and lead a statewide online continuing education program for librarians called 23 Things Kansas. Through this process, I discovered how much I loved teaching adults about technology in an online environment.

I see a shift in how, where, and when people learn. Online teaching and learning is becoming an important part of our society as jobs and information quickly change. People need to constantly retool, but can’t always travel. The convenience of online education through online meeting software and online systems is critical for lifelong learning opportunities.

Through Twitter, I have connected with innovative educational technology leaders. They ignited my interest in the field of educational technology, and I realized further study in this area would better prepare me to help others harness the power of technology. A career path toward education technology is a natural next step for me to take, enabling me to combine my interest in these emerging learning environments with my passion for teaching adults.

I’m pursuing the Education Technology degree and the Online Teaching certificate (Adult Learners) because I want to know better how to reach and serve adults when training them with technology. I also want to learn how to better incorporate technology into training on any topic. What works, what doesn’t work, and why is it that way? A lot of my knowledge is self-acquired, and I know pursuing a degree in education technology will help fill in the holes in my knowledge.

My career goals are many:

  • Become fluent in the new learning and instruction.
  • Become skilled in online instruction to instruct librarians, information professionals, and other professionals through continuing education opportunities.
  • Expand my instructional strategies to become a more effective trainer.
  • Serve as a faculty technology instructor or a technology resource librarian in online classrooms.

Boise State’s program intrigues me because the contemporary curriculum indicates the faculty is knowledgeable in the latest research and trends in educational technology instruction, which only improves the quality of its students’ education. The combination of strong, theoretical courses and practical courses will provide the best framework for a career in an ever-changing profession. Adding the Online Teaching (Adult Learners) certificate will prepare me for a career in online instruction and support.

I’m excited about the opportunities and knowledge to be gained as part of this program. This journey unofficially started awhile ago, but has now officially begun!