Standard Four : Professional Knowledge

& Skills

AECT Standard 4 : Professional Knowledge & Skills

Candidates design, develop, implement, and evaluate technology-rich learning environments within a
supportive community of practice.

4.1 Collaborative Practice:

Collaborate with peers and subject matter experts to analyze learners, develop and design
instruction, and evaluate its impact on learners.
Digital Citizenship Blackboard Mini-Course (ETEC 6253 Spring 2014)

During the initial phases of creating this mini-course, I relied heavily on both formal and
informal interviews. The very first thing I did when I got this assignment was call my friend who, at the
time, taught elementary and middle school technology classes. When we met together the following
week and combed through her curriculum, and discussed what she believed to be weak areas in
technology curriculum she had examined during her stint as a technology teacher. Digital literacy,
safety, and citizenship were top priorities for her. Over the course of two weeks we met together
several more times. At times, I interviewed her formally, other times we discussed anecdotal tragedies
of technology misuse. She shared lessons with me that had worked well with her students and provided
valuable insight about lessons that did not work. Finally, she directed me to a handful of excellent
websites dedicated to digital citizenship and the safety of children in the cyber world; Common Sense
(https://www.commonsense.org/) and NSTeens (http://www.nsteens.org/) were the sites I ended
referring to most frequently.

Some of the best teacher collaboration occurs in the teachers lounge. During lunch breaks, I
informally interviewed my co-workers to determine how their students used technology in the
classroom, how their students talked about technology, and what kinds of learning activities they had
found useful with their students. Overwhelmingly, the teachers said their students responded positively
when videos where integrated into lessons. Other activities their students seemed to like were
interactive internet activities (especially in math) and creating presentations such as PowerPoints or
Prezis. Finally, I informally interviewed middle school students. At that time, I taught reading enrichment
classes (2nd 6th grades). Since we relied heavily on computers for most of our lessons, these classes met
in the computer lab. I used this as an opportunity to talk with students about their cyber lives, observe
their technology usage, and get suggestions for the mini-course. In later phases of developing this
course, I used some of these students as test subjects.
 During another part of creating this mini-course I built a prototype of the course and tested it
with a few of my middle school students and my teenaged daughters. For the prototype, I basically led
the students through the course activities but outside of Blackboard. After the students worked through
the prototype course, I interviewed them about their experience with the course.

Later, two of my peers viewed and interacted with a draft version of the course inside Blackboard.
They were required to complete a checklist which rated the following elements:

Instructional design
Navigation
Pedagogical effectiveness
Accessibility and Usability
Copyright Compliance
Technology
Scheduling
In addition to rating these components, they also provided additional feedback.

4.2 Leadership:

Lead peers in designing and implementing technology-supported learning.

CCS Grant (ETEC 5263 Summer 2016)

Writing the From Zero to Ten in Two Years grant proposal required me to take a leadership role
in several facets of the project, from buy-in to budgeting to project follow through. Prior to settling on
this particular project, I researched how tablets and different apps were being used with pre-school
aged children. And I collected evidence of successful early childhood STEM programs before I suggested
the K4 and K5 iPad program to anyone in the school. At that point, I approached the CCS technology
administrator and the pre-school director with the idea. With their support, based on my research, I
developed the scope and a draft outline of the program to present to the school board and new
president. After which, I scheduled a meeting with the CCS president, the school board, pre-school
director, and technology administer to gain high level buy-in for the program.

During the process of writing the grant proposal, I contacted the UCA STEM Institute to confirm
that their program would be a good fit for our school and to discuss STEM training that they could
provide for our staff and faculty. Soon after confirming future collaboration with UCA STEM Institute, I
initiated contact with a member of the local foundation, Conway Acxiom Cares, to determine whether
this was the type of project they would consider funding. I met with the CCS business manager to
acquire budget information and researched vendors and prices via the internet while creating the
proposed budget and sustainability report for the From Zero to Ten project. I presented this budget and
report to the school board and president prior to including it in the grant request. I established and
initially enforced project deadlines and developed a timeline detailing important project tasks and
designating responsible parties for each task. Finally, I delegated responsibilities as indicated on the
checklist and timeline in order to ensure the program would keep on track after I, as the grant
advocator and writer, stepped out of the process.

4.3 Reflection on Practice:

Analyze and interpret data and artifacts and reflect on the effectiveness of the design,
development and implementation of technology-supported instruction and learning to
enhance their professional growth.

The entirety of the e-portfolio serves to fill this substandard.

4.4 Assessing/ Evaluating:

Design and implement assessment and evaluation plans that align with learning goals and
instructional activities.
Internet Safety and Digital Reputation Lesson (ETEC 5243 - Fall 2014)

I created every output activity in this lesson to correspond with at least one lesson goal or
objective.

Lesson

Objectives

1. Students will explain at least one way to create a screen shot and describe how a screen shot can
be used to spread information quickly.

2. Students will tell how to prevent negative consequences of digital dirt.

3. Students will explain how to avoid creating digital dirt.

4. Students will distinguish between safe and unsafe digital world behavior.

5. Students will illustrate and list safe and unsafe digital behavior.

Output Activities

1. Complete Six Degrees and Digital Dirt Handout (SixDegreesDigitalDirt)

2. Complete Internet Safety Review Handout (InteractiveSafetyReview)

 3. Students create internet safety Infographic on poster board.

Requirements: List & Illustrate

1. 5 Digital Dos
2. 5 Digital Donts

Objective 1: Students will explain at least one way to create a screen shot and describe how a screen shot
can be used to spread information quickly.

When students complete part one of the Six Degrees Digital Dirt Interactive Worksheet, they will
demonstrate their ability to accomplish this objective.

Objective 2: Students will tell how to prevent negative consequences of digital dirt.

Part two of Six Degrees Digital Dirt Interactive Worksheet is designed to assess objective 2.

Objective 3: Students will explain how to avoid creating digital dirt.

The Interactive Safety Review Worksheet, especially the Protect Your Profile and Post to be
Private sections, which require students to write about their experiences with these topics,
aligns with objective 3 and provides students opportunities to explain how to avoid creating
digital dirt.

Objective 4: Students will distinguish between safe and unsafe digital world behavior.

Objective 4 is addressed and assessed when students discuss and plan with small group their
infographic that will display five Digital Dos and five Digital Donts

Objective 5: Students will illustrate and list safe and unsafe digital behavior.

Finally, objective 5 is evaluated when the small groups actually design and present their
infographics of five Digital Dos and five Digital Donts.

4.5 Ethics:

Demonstrate ethical behavior within the applicable cultural context during all aspects of their
work and with respect for the diversity of learners in each setting.

Digital Citizenship Blackboard Mini-Course (ETEC 6253 Spring 2014)

When creating this mini-course, I determined that actually using proper netiquette throughout
the lesson was one of the best ways I could demonstrate ethical behavior and respect for diversity.
These very simple rules of netiquette appear in lesson two:
Tips for Proper Netiquette

Be Calm. Avoid using all caps in written messages. People will think you are shouting at them.

Be Cool. Never send a message when you are angry.

Be Kind. If something would be rude to say to someone's face, it would also be rude in cyberspace.

Be Honest. Do not copy or claim credit for someone else's work. Get permission to use copyrighted
materials.

Be Clear. Make an effort to use proper grammar and spelling so others may understand your
message.

From the very beginning of planning the course I made deliberate efforts to follow these rules and make
sure the instructor and students could easily continue to follow them as they progressed through the
course. A couple specific examples include giving credit for the work of others throughout the course
and choosing videos, activities, and websites that are kind and respectful in nature.

When I began selecting content, I watched each video with this question in mind, could this be
offensive to any person or group of people? I looked for things such as derogatory comments or
portraying groups of people in a negative way. For example, one video I didnt use always portrayed the
cyberbully as a male. I felt that this subtly implied that only boys were bullies and that girls could not act
in such a way. To me, it showed disrespect to males and I did not want appear to condone this type of
bias and disrespect. During the content selection phase, I intentionally selected videos that were closed
captioned, as this feature can help make the information accessible to the hearing impaired. I also,
purposely chose to use more videos than text for instruction. I did this for two reasons. First, video
content is easily understood by strong and weak readers alike. Secondly, video allows students to learn
at their own pace. They can stop, rewind, and re-watch as many times as necessary.

Finally, one of my favorite features of this mini-course is that the NSTeens videos and lessons
can be downloaded in English or Spanish. This is a particularly helpful feature for ESL students and
learners who want to share the information with their Spanish speaking friends or family.