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Participate Reflection

Answer: How has the Participate module prepared you to meet each standard listed?  
Standard C: The online teacher plans, designs, and incorporates strategies to encourage active learning, application, interaction, participation, and collaboration in the online environment.
Standard E: The online teacher models, guides, and encourages legal, ethical, and safe behavior related to technology use.
Standard J: The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues, parents, and other members of the community to support students’ success.

The Digital Literacy section in the Participate module has helped prepare me to meet Standard C on active and collaborative learning by teaching me how to evaluate and curate digital resources that promote inquiry and active learning/application. It was in this same lesson that I first learned about social bookmarking as a means of curating and sharing content. As stated in my post from this lesson, I see social bookmarking like Symbaloo as being a great tool for me as an instructor, but also something I plan to incorporate with my students. (More about this is the strategies section below).

Various lessons in the Civility and Vigilance sections of the Participate module have helped prepare me to meet Standard E on safe behaviors. These lessons have been some of my most favorite and most beneficial lessons in the module, as they have made me more cognizant of the need to structure a DLC with fair use and digital safety/security in mind. As stated in my post on this lesson, I have learned that implementation of AUPs is important to ensuring legal, ethical, and safe behaviors in the DLC. I really liked the Campbell Hall Technology Values & AUP resource in this section. (More on how I plan to implement AUPs below).

The entire module has enabled me meet Standard J on professional interaction because I have seen that as a DLC leader/facilitator, I must also be a DLC learner. On-going professional learning through professional learning networks (PLNs) and digital learning communities is essential to one's growth as a teacher and a person. My posts on accessing DLCs and ideal DLCs summarize my thoughts on the importance of DLCs and ensuring that all students/teachers have equitable access to the resources found therein.


Answer: What strategies will you take away from the Participate module and apply to your teaching?
I will be applying Digital Citizenship and Security lessons (like the one I created for "Participate 3" and this one on Digital Security) in my current blended classroom as well as any future online teaching environments. I really liked the idea of "earning a digital learning permit" that was mentioned in some of the resources in lesson 3. Perhaps the most beneficial lesson was on AUPs. Going forward, I hope to begin the year or semester with an introductory lesson to the potential risks and rewards that come with being a member of an online learning community. From there we will work as a class to develop our values and acceptable uses or best practices; I stress working together (as is appropriate) because I think students will be more likely to uphold an set of standards or values that they had a voice in creating. The remaining piece to the puzzle is to model, enforce, and reinforce the desired behaviors in the DLC.

And as previously stated, I really like the idea of using social bookmarking with my students to teach them to independently (or collaboratively) evaluate and curate resources for their own learning.

Answer: What lessons were most beneficial for you?
Personally, the reflections on Digital Health were most beneficial for me. Learning to balance the demands of teaching a blended class with other work and personal obligations has proven challenging. By making a few basic modifications to how I personally use technology, I experienced a small amount of growth in the areas of time and stress management, as well as relief in everyday issues like headaches and strain.

Professionally, I believe the lessons of digital citizenship and digital safety/security will be most beneficial for application with my students.

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