Apply research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment & Ethical Practices of Technology Usage- PLO 4 & PLO 5

Pablo Vazquez

EDU697: Capstone: A Project Approach

Professor Keith Pressey

December 16, 2013

This activity will demonstrate attainment of Program Learning Outcome 4:  to “Apply research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment” and Program Learning Outcome 5: to "Exemplify ethical practices of technology usage”.

PLO 4:  Apply research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment

Research is an essential element in the designing of instruction, especially if it is for finding ways to include innovative technology that will help enhance education. It is an important way in which the field of technology education can become further established. Not to mention that research can also pave way to great innovations on how we are able to combine learning theories, the results of collected data, and the development of instructional design. Still, it is essential that data collecting is continuous and updated in order to apply the appropriate research that will support education in a technologically enhanced learning environment. The rapid evolution of educational technologies also makes it increasingly challenging to determine what works best. Longitudinal research that takes years to do risks being irrelevant by the time it is completed because of shifts in the technological landscape (Editorial Projects in Education; 2014).For this very reason it is important that researchers give the highest priority in reviewing manuscripts to rigorous original quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods studies on topics relating to applications of technology or instructional design in educational settings. Although we were not asked to redesign any activity for PLO 4; I chose a quick activity that we did to showcase the examples academic research and research done in popular search engines over the web.

PLO 5:  Apply research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment

            Technology in the last few decades has transformed education and how we deliver academic instruction. These improvements in education have been made possible by advances like the inception of the Read-Write Web; and the innovations that followed such as the Word Document, Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking. Still, with these technological tools, there are concerns that often arise about how we should approach them in an ethical manner. In many situations, when dealing with technology and education, it is important that both educators and students consider Ethical Practices when dealing with copyrighted material found on the web and the issues of privacy amongst many other things. In this paper, I will be revisiting a previous MATLT Program course activity that demonstrates the attainment of Program Learning Outcome 5 to “exemplify ethical practices of technology usage”. I will redesign the activity using instructional design principles and theory. I will also, include an explanation of which principles and theory you chose and why. Additionally, include a discussion of any design and implementation challenges experienced during the redesign process and how they were overcome.

            I selected an activity from my previous course EDU651: Collaboration & Learning in a Virtual Environment. Trace the development of the slave trade. In a PowerPoint presentation trace the trajectory of the events answering the following questions: Under what circumstances did the slave trade begin? How did the Islamic Slave Trade change the existing system? How did it change again during the Atlantic Slave Trade? Finally, analyze and in your own words describe the impact did slave trade have on Africa and the Western world? In their presentation they were asked to present graphs, videos and other diagrams that will help them illustrate and present their work to their classmates. After they have presented their work in class, these would then be added to the teacher’s educational Blog “The Leaders of History” in which their findings would be open for discussion.

            As an instructor, it is easy sometimes to overlook ethical issues that may arise in the instruction that is being delivered. Particularly on the web, were many of the content found there would seem to be “up for grabs” for those who find them. For these very reasons it is extremely important that we familiarize ourselves with these ethical practices. Failing to recognize the may then compromise the integrity of ones work and even endanger a brilliant educational career. Using technology in class offers a great opportunity for instructors to perform the best practices when it comes to how to evaluate online sources, who to avoid plagiarism, knowledge of copyright laws, internet privacy, and digital etiquette when communicating with others.  Furthermore, ethical practices do not only apply to content that is viewed online, but also to social interactions between users such as students and how they follow the online etiquette rules that have been placed by instructors. As the educators who will be monitoring online interactions; it is imperative that we are mindful of the impact of cultural and linguistic diversity in interactions with the students, their families and the colleagues that will be involved in any type of online academic environment. So does this apply to the instructor as well; regardless of personal culture, practice setting, or caseload demographics, professionals must strive for culturally and linguistically appropriate service delivery. The redesigning of this activity is based on the instructional model of Cognitivist/Pragmatism.  Through this, two basic principles help make sense of the changes that were made to the activity. These are “Emphasis is on the building blocks of knowledge (e.g. identifying prerequisite relationships of content)” and “Emphasis on structuring, organizing and sequencing information to facilitate optimal processing” (Dabbagh, 2006).  Also C. Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory states that “instruction should be organized in increasing order of complexity for optimal learning.” (Dabbagh, 2006).

            For the activity revision, I have applied several of these ethical practices were they were unclear or nonexistent. First off, I found it imperative that students who will be performing this activity are aware of the ethical issue of plagiarism and the legality of copyrighted content that they will use to create this presentation. I will create a Blog entry in “The Leaders of History” teachers page were the students will be taking a short activity on the consequences of Plagiarism and Copyright infringement, how to detect and also how to avoid it. The lesson plans in this section will include activities that help students define plagiarism, allow us to assess their attitude toward plagiarism, and create a class plagiarism policy. The resources with titles that include "Handout" will provide handouts that are free to print for the students by accessing the core Website provided by Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/929/08/). The students will be provided with brief instructions of why this activity is necessary and how it will affect their work. Finally, they will access the page through the link that I will be providing for them. There, they will review the handouts and read the information that explains the differences between copyright and plagiarism. That will be followed up by having a brief online discussion on the Blog about the distinction as they understand it.  It may help to explain the copyright is a legal distinction based on property rights and plagiarism is a civil distinction based on the process of creating (OWL, 2013). Then they will briefly go through the scenarios on the handout and engage students in a discussion as to whether they fit under the category of plagiarism of copyright violation and why (OWL, 2013). The link to the blog page is http://pavazq9183.edublogs.org/2013/12/16/plagiarsm-and-copyright-considerations-for-the-history-activity-1-the-slave-trade/.

            Another revision that I think is extremely necessary in this assignment; particularly because of the sensitive subject of what is being discussed is etiquette amongst students within the Blogs discussion forum, be it for the presentation or the plagiarism and copyright segment of our classwork. In this situation it is up to the instructor to moderate strictly what is being discussed and debated in the discussion posts. Still, this will not necessarily stop students from breaking these rules. For this very reason it important that educators inform their students of the ethical practice of online etiquette, how to properly address their peers and how to approach sensitive content regarding culture. For this I have also added another page in the blog in which the students will review the Norms of Online Etiquette which will not only be used for this activity, but for all that will follow. Here the students will be given the netiquette rules. These etiquette norms will be borrowed from Netiquette: Ground Rules for Online Discussions CSU website by Peter Connor. The norms are:

• Respect Diversity: It’s an ethnically rich and diverse, multi-cultural world in which we live. Use no language that is—or that could be construed to be—offensive toward others. Racists, sexist, and heterosexist comments and jokes are unacceptable, as are derogatory and/or sarcastic comments and jokes directed at religious beliefs, disabilities, and age.
• Cite Your Sources: Another big must! If your contribution to the conversation includes the intellectual property (authored material) of others, e.g., books, newspaper, magazine, or journal articles—online or in print—they must be given proper attribution.
• Participate: This is a shared learning environment. No lurking in the cyberspace background. It is not enough to login and read the discussion thread of others. For the maximum benefit to all, everyone must contribute.
• Use Proper Writing Style: This is a must. Write as if you were writing a term paper. Correct spelling, grammatical construction and sentence structure are expected in every other writing activity associated with scholarship and academic engagement. Online discussions are no different.
• No Flaming: Criticism must be constructive, well-meaning, and well-articulated. Please, no tantrums. Rants directed at any other contributor are simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The same goes for profanity. The academic environment expects higher-order language.
• Review your written posts and responses: Ensure that you’ve conveyed exactly what you intended. This is an excellent opportunity to practice your proofreading, revision, and rewriting skills—valuable assets in the professional world for which you are now preparing.
• Be Patient: Read everything in the discussion thread before replying. This will help you avoid repeating something someone else has already contributed. Acknowledge the points made with which you agree and suggest alternatives for those with which you don’t.
• Emoticons and Texting: Social networking and text messaging has spawned a body of linguistic shortcuts that are not part of the academic dialogue. Please refrain from :-) faces and c u l8r’s (Connor, 2013).

After these online rules have been stated it is very important that the instructor also clarifies the consequences of breaking these rules and the penalties the students will be facing for failing to abide by them. One of the stricter penalties will go for offensive content posted on the online forum. Any postings that are meant as an insult to a student, be it privacy, personal, ethnic, sexual orientation and creed based will be met with an automatic fail in the activity. Penalties for other content like failure to cite information or other less severe mistakes will be determined by the instructor.

One of the challenges that I encountered for this assignment was the fact that I had no previous works in MATLT that could really be redesigned for this assignment other than this short activity. Also I needed to find ways to demonstrate the important of Ethical practice in education, particularly through the usage of technology. My opinion was that perhaps the best way to demonstrate this was by utilizing and Blog to post guideline rules and information about plagiarism that had to be reviewed before actually beginning the assignment. This way the students would go in knowing the essentials on ethical practices and how to avoid issues that may arise.

In conclusion, I belief that these ethical considerations are essential to academic work, particularly in these times; when much of learning and schooling is taking place in the internet. As educators it is important that we provide students with the tools necessary to succeed in their academic endeavors, mostly due ti the fact that information in the internet is easily accessible and can be confused as content without ownership. In this paper, I have revisited a previous MATLT Program course activity that demonstrates the attainment of Program Learning Outcome 5 to “exemplify ethical practices of technology usage”. I have redesign the activity using instructional design principles and theory. I will also, include an explanation of which principles and theory you chose and why. Additionally, include a discussion of any design and implementation challenges experienced during the redesign process and how they were overcome.

 Links for Activity Revision

http://pavazq9183.edublogs.org/2013/12/16/plagiarsm-and-copyright-considerations-for-the-history-activity-1-the-slave-trade/

 References

Connor, P. (2013). Netiquette: Ground Rules for Online Discussions; Colorado State University. Retrieved on December 15, 2013 from http://teaching.colostate.edu/tips/tip.cfm?tipid=128

Dabbagh, N. (2006). Basic Principles; Instructional Design Knowledge Base. Retrieved December 15, 2013from http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm

OWL (2013). Copyright and Plagiarism; Perdue Online Writing Lab. Retrieved on December 15, 2013 from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/929/08/