Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

This assignment was really interesting. This is a topic that has intrigued me for quite some time. I’ve lived in quite a few places around the United States since graduating from college, which has given me some insight into how different socio-economics play a role in access to the internet. Now I live in rural Idaho. Living in a rural community the digital divide could be much larger than living in connected cities. I’ve visited cities that are on the forefront of combating digital divide where they have free internet in the downtown area. We do not have that here in Valley County, Idaho. Honestly, in the winter the internet can be really spotty when winter storms come through.

Google Slides Presentation

I have used Voice Thread before. When I took the MTI hybrid course two years ago we used VoiceThread to collaborate. This was a little different because before I had only used it on an iPad and not on a computer.  The interface is a little different, but the idea is still the same.

VoiceThread

One thing I would change if I had more time is I wouldn’t be sick while recording my voice. I’ve been really sick this past week. I was so sick that I actually took a sick day this week, which was the first real sick day I’ve taken in over three years. I would also have put in more images. My presentation is pretty text heavy. I would like to have more graphs and maps for my viewer to look at and not just listen and read.

Code of Professional Ethics in Educational Technology

Here is a link to my paper.

I don’t know why, but this was really hard for me. I had a hard time deciding on how I would find an ethical issue in my current school. I’ve worked places in the past that were unethical, but not pertaining to technology.

The entire time I was writing my paper I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing, which is why it took me so incredibly long. I really want what I do to reflect students in some way and that is why I wanted to chose something that directly impacted students. Before I began the task I talked to a friend of mine who works as a technology consultant about this assignment and he was the one who directed me towards privacy and email.

 

RSS in Education

I had heard of RSS feeds before, but I had never thought of implementing it into my classroom. After reading through the assignment it took me quite a while before I decided on exactly how I wanted to use the RSS feed. I knew I wanted the lesson plan to be something I would actually use, hopefully soon. I had some ideas, all of which were for my social studies class. I finally settled on what you see here (Link to my Google Doc Lesson Plan).

I believe teaching current events in schools are really important, especially middle school. Having my students pay attention to what is going on in the world is something I stress in my classroom. However, since I only have one semester with my students, I was losing quite a bit of class time talking about the current events my students would bring in. This year I transitioned from sharing in class to sharing via Google Voice (call-in assignment), but I didn’t like that I was missing the student discussion component. Also, since implementing the call-in current events I haven’t had as many students participate as I had when we shared aloud in class. I didn’t want to drop current events, I think they have value.

I’m excited to try this different take on current events with my students. I think using the RSS feeds, as well as a student directed discussion board, will allow my students to collaborate instead of just telling me what they found.
Here is a screenshot of the Schoology class assignment.

Schoology Current Events

Here is the RSS Feed setup video that is part of the lesson