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STANDARDS
In today's world, teaching comes with a load of responsibilities. Three of the many include standards, ethics, and copyright laws. The International Society for Technology Education ( ISTE ) is a society for educators and professionals who seek to implement new literacies and new technologies into the classroom environment, making learning more enjoyable, real, and meaningful. ISTE also provides the standards and indicators for students, teachers, and administrators.  
Below is a video of the ISTE 2011 Conference that was held in Philadelphia just a few days ago.

GRANTS
Students' success in school is essential to Ohio's future, and eTech Ohio Educators understands this. This site offers many links for further interest on grants, subsidies, funding, professional development, and resources/information on how to implement technology into your lessons.


ETHICS
As a professional in the field of education it is important to understand the measures of Acceptable Use Policy, or AUP. AUP  According to EducationWorld.com:"The National Education Association suggests that an effective AUP contain the following six key elements:

• a preamble,
• a definition section,
• a policy statement,
• an acceptable uses section,
• an unacceptable uses section, and
• a violations/sanctions section."

NOTE: To learn about Digital Citizenship, visit DigitalCitizenship.net.

For more information about AUP view Youtube videos, such as the one below.

COPYRIGHT

Under the Copyright Act of the Constitution, teachers are given the privilege to use copyright material for educational purposes. Koce.org is an excellent resource to learn the odds and ends of what teachers are allowed and not allowed to do. 


Below is a video that helps explain what is okay to use in the classroom.

As the video below shows, the needs of students are continuously changing as technology and new literacies advance. Therefore, it is imperative that educators learn how to apply instructional technologies into their classroom. Whether a teacher has only one computer in their classroom, or all of the students have access to their own laptop, educators of today and tomorrow need to find a way to make this collaboration possible.

 As found on the Teachers For Tomorrow website: "Collaboration, technology and personal reflection must be combined with new methodology and standards-driven curriculum to create a problem-based inquiry-learning environment.  Our job is to create thinkers, leaders and problem solvers.  As educators, our responsibility to stay ahead of the digital natives who enter our classrooms.  Students must develop critical thinking, learning, and study skills that take them beyond the classroom.  Creating a new learning environment will produce more intelligent people.  More intelligent people can stimulate industry and innovation, drive the economy, and change the world.  Only through hard work and risk-taking are such goals possible.  The ends justify the means; but to accomplish such goals one must concentrate on the journey, not the destination."

I am keeping this blog to document my reflections on what I learn during my Instructional Technology Applications mastery course so that I can come back months later and relearn if necessary. I am a teacher of tomorrow; therefore, my instructional strategies should reflect the needs' of my students of tomorrow. This class will help me learn new technologies, generate creative instructional lessons, and make meaningful experiences for my middle school social studies and science students.  Thanks Garth!

-Andrea