ISTE Standard #7
Digital Citizen Advocate
Coaches model digital citizenship and support educators and students in recognizing the responsibilities and opportunities inherent in living in a digital world.
ISTE Indicators for Standard 7 7a. Inspire and encourage educators and students to use technology for civic engagement and to address challenges to improve their communities. 7b. Partner with educators, leaders, students and families to foster a culture of respectful online interactions and a healthy balance in their use of technology. 7c. Support educators and students to critically examine the sources of online media and identify underlying assumptions. 7d. Empower educators, leaders and students to make informed decisions to protect their personal data and curate the digital profile they intend to reflect.
Work Samples
Video Presentation: Acceptable Use Policy
ISTE Indicators Addressed: 7d
Artifact Description:
This video presentation describes what constitutes Distance Education and Acceptable Use Policies. It also examines them within the context of my now-former school site. At the end of it, I share resources for parents and teachers.
Implementation:
I made this video during a very opportune time – while I was providing distance education to K-12 learners during the COVID-19 pandemic. It helped me to contextualize my experience of distance education and expand my understanding of it. I then discussed it with some of my colleagues, all of whom were also providing instruction over Zoom with Google Classroom as our LMS (Learning Management System), in addition to hosting information on our class websites. My goal in creating and sharing this video with my colleagues was to empower them, our administrators, and our students to make informed decisions about protecting their personal data and to intentionally curate their digital profile (7d). Being part of the first generation to experience social media, I have learned over the years to be careful about what I share online, but in making this video, I grew as an educator and instructional coach. Now I better understand the legalities involving student data and why it is so important to be careful about how technology is used in the classroom. Moreover, I know how to help others adhere to AUPs and the laws on which they are based.
Impact:
Prior to making the video, I had never looked at my schools’ Acceptable Use Policy. After creating it, I was able to help my colleagues locate and comprehend it, as well as think of ways to make it better and more accessible to all stakeholders. Learning more about distance education also informed my mentorship project (see the page for Standard 3 “Collaborator”), as I mentored an educator who generally viewed distance education unfavorably. In discussions with him, I emphasized that one school’s form of distance education can look vastly different from another school’s. Importantly, what we all experienced when campuses closed in March 2020 was more emergency remote teaching (ERT) than true distance education, which takes years and a lot of intentional design and development to effectively implement. I had similar conversations with my colleagues at the time, and they agreed that distance education does have great potential and is not inherently bad for students. The key is having support systems in place at all levels for proper implementation. My colleagues also found it beneficial to discuss distance education and AUPs at the same time because of how our schools’ AUP provided them with clear guidance on how to follow FERPA, CIPA, and other federal and state laws.
Video Presentation: Check Your Sources
ISTE Indicators Addressed:
7b & 7c
Artifact Description:
"Check Your Sources" is a video presentation I made to coach educators on how to teach website evaluation to their students. It discusses why website evaluation is important, methods for evaluation, and resources for both website evaluation and information literacy.
Implementation:
I made this video explaining why website evaluation is important and how to do it because there is an urgent need for it and because it is not consistently taught to people. It also is not something that people inherently know how to do; it requires explicit instruction. It is my professional duty as an educator and ISTE coach to partner with educators, leaders, students, and families (all stakeholders, basically) so that there is a culture of respectful online interactions and a healthy balance in students' use of technology (7b), as well as to support educators and students as they critically examine the sources of online media and identify underlying assumptions (7c). This video addresses both of those aspects of digital citizenship because it explains the process for checking online sources and connects stakeholders to tools and other resources that aid that process.
Impact:
This is the second video I have published publicly to my “EdTech Perna” YouTube channel. Due to all of the difficulties I experienced while recording, re-recording, and publishing it, I am now motivated to make a tutorial for QR codes. (I am only half-joking that the motto for my tutorials should be “my pain is your gain.”) I shared this idea with a small group of instructional designers that I formed, asking if they would find it useful. The response was enthusiastically affirmative! Including QR codes in videos can be helpful because they allow viewers to easily follow up on information provided in the videos. The one drawback is that if the URLs change or those web pages get removed, then the QR codes become outdated. Therefore, I would also make the links available in the video notes, which is easy to do on YouTube. At this time, I do not have any hashtags or keywords that would drive traffic to my channel, but I may change my mind if I want to make a larger impact publicly in ed tech, particularly regarding digital citizenship.
Conference Proposal:
English Learners: Agency and Advocacy
ISTE Indicators Addressed: 7a
Artifact Description:
My ISTE conference proposal is called “English Learners: Agency and Advocacy,” and it is based on what I developed and taught over the course of three academic years. It demonstrates how I have worked with students, teachers, and administrators to integrate media technology in order to increase civic engagement and community empowerment amongst English Learners, specifically from Latin America.
Implementation:
Several components of the scope and sequence were used as examples for other teachers and teaching artists in the media arts pilot program, specifically during the quarterly training sessions held prior to launching the next unit. The director of the program also thought that the final student products for graphic design and especially photography served as excellent examples of how to inspire and encourage other educators (in the program and beyond) to use technology for civic engagement and to address challenges in order to improve their communities (7a). The students explored their identity and connected it to their families, their families’ homelands, and their new homes, with an appreciation for the past, understanding of the present, and dreams for the future.
Impact:
I have shared this conference proposal with three educators so far: the teaching artist who was my co-teacher for the media arts pilot program, the director of that same program, and my former principal who now works at an ed tech company training teachers and administrators. All of them reacted very positively to the proposal, because I was able to cohesively put together all of the pieces that had been developed over three years. Essentially, I was able to “package” it and connect the dots in a way that made sense for English Language Development. They also were impressed with the flow of the scope and sequence, which I had always wanted to create. They could see that it was a well thought out blueprint that other teachers could follow and implement. They also expressed full support for me submitting the proposal for consideration at ISTE’s next conference.
Reflection:
I am well on my way to achieving full competency with Standard 7 “Digital Citizen Advocate.” Based on the AUP and website evaluation videos, I have demonstrated competency with indicators 7b, 7c, and 7d. With the ISTE conference proposal that I have written for next year, I have also begun to address indicator 7a. If it is not accepted for that conference, then I still hope to share it with other educators, because it does show how technology can be integrated to empower an entire community. I have always thought of myself as an advocate, and digital citizenship with all its layers of social responsibility are an increasing part of that. Whatever coaching I do and whatever instructional products I create, I will continue to ensure that digital citizenship is evident and promoted, as it truly can be applied to all levels of learning.