Caitlin Leek Instructional Media

What does the research say about this? Digital Citizenship is the way to correctly act when online and using/doing anything in the digital world. Digital Citizenship Utah lists ten different topics to address when it comes to understanding digital citizenship: media literacy, digital footprint, security, ethics, digital literacy, harmful content, digital safety, etiquette, cyber bullying, and sexting. Common Sense Education talks about the importance of teaching digital citizenship in our classrooms. "Being a good digital citizen is more than knowing your way around the web. It's about connecting and collaborating in ways you didn't even know were possible" (commonsense.org).  How can this be effectively integrated into your teaching? Digital Citizenship can be effectively integrated into my teaching by reminding students about how to act depending on what we are using in the curriculum. It is important that my students understand how to be safe and act when we u...

Standards and PLN's What does the research say about this? Standards are important guidelines for teachers to follow. I believe that they are good tools to guide an educator as long as they know how to use them. However, like many things, they come with their own problems. According to Rebecca Alber of Edutopia, there are four "pitfalls" with having educational standards. She labels them as "The Hyperfocus" which is "...when one standard or two or three receive inordinate amount of talk and focus at school." The second pitfall she sees is "The Delusion". This is when teachers are trying to shove every single standard in to their entire year and make students hate their class. Third is "The Misfit". She is talking about the fact that one way of teaching doesn't fit all. Finally, there is "The Distortion". This is when we begin to focus on standardized tests and therefore we begin to teach towards the test. All of thes...

Equity and UDL What does the research say about this? According to Edutopia, "It's easy to miss the scale of equity as an 'issue,' because unlike assessment, curriculum, teacher pay, class sizes, educational technology, or any other persistently evergreen edu-choke point, equity never stops affecting. It's both the center and periphery of everything because we're always who we are and where we are." This means that even though schools and teachers understand that students of who are not middle class, white, and (usually) a man, are not at the same level in education. A persons' place in life has a huge impact on what is available to them growing up and what tools they have to advance through the education system. Students of low-income families enter Kindergarten already 1 or more years behind. It is important for teachers to try and fill the gap that many students experience when entering the education system. Universal Design for Learning is m...

1. What is digital literacy and why is it important?  Digital literacy is the ability to navigate electronics and the internet at a level that is necessary for life. It is knowing more than just how to check Facebook. Digital literacy is important because or world is changing fast and technology gets more advanced every day. It is especially important for students to learn so they are ready to enter the real world when we set them loose after High School.  2. What should students be able to do with technology? Students should be able to use technology to their advantage whether that means knowing how to blog, using social media, knowing how to code, or how to use Office. Students should know technology well enough to feel confident in entering college and/or the job market.  3. Why is it important for us to use technology in education? It is important for us to use technology in education because it can bring more ideas and learning techniques in to the classro...