ISTE STANDARD 3.1 Equity and Citizenship Advocates

      According to 3.1.a: Ensure Access to Skilled Teachers, it is the responsibility of educational leaders to ensure that teachers are provided with the best tools and resources. This means that a leader needs to evaluate educational apps, websites and online learning platforms before they decide to invest. For my institution, I would recommend the online educational platform Google Classroom.   CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE EVALUATION Evaluate the classroom management software by rating the features listed below.  Tick the box and rate the feature from 1- 5 that best reflects your opinion and record the total. Software:  An online learning management system Description:  P romotes effective communication and collaboration between educators and students. Vendor:  Google Notes on Use:  Simplifies the sharing and delivery of learning resources, such as course materials, assignments, surveys and documents. Name of Participant:  Trecia Fie...

                                               Students with SEN exercising to an online dance video This section requires leaders to show how technology can be used in a safe, friendly, useful, and welcoming way to build community, solve problems, and improve health.  The main idea behind this standard is that leaders should show everyone in the community how to balance technology use with their physical, mental, and social health. In doing so, people will see that technology can be used as a tool for good engagement and problem-solving, thereby making the classroom more, connected, open and caring.  Students with SEN and infant students at my school, love to engage in these activities and do so regularly throughout the day to give their brains a break and to help them self-regulate. However, it is not common practice to use technology in this way with junio...

  This section encourages  leaders to use technology responsibly by following and spreading the best digital safety, ethics, and legal practices. This standard stresses how important it is for educational leaders to show safe, legal, and moral behaviour in digital spaces and to encourage students to think critically about digital content. Leaders set a standard for students, teachers, and everyone else at the school to follow in order to become good digital citizens, who are well-informed and responsible. To do this, the leaders at my institution should set in motion the practices of:   Showing and Encouraging Safe Online Habits                   Leaders show and enforce safe ways to interact with others online, protect privacy, and keep information safe by providing cyber security training for students and staff that teaches digital safety. They also ensure that all persons in the school have the right to  privacy se...

                          Students with SEN at my school, engaging with tablets during their Technology class. This section   stresses that it is the leader's job to make sure that all students have equal access to technology, internet access, digital content that is appropriate for all students, and learning spaces that can be adjusted to fit different learning styles and needs. This standard is all about making sure that everyone has equal access to technology and that every student can use it in a supportive learning environment.  At my institution, more must be done to ensure that adequate amounts of resources are sourced, maintained and properly secured. Assistive technology is not readily made available for students and is often left up to the parents to source. You are also told that software is expensive and asked to use free and limited versions of a program. Despite these challenges, my school leaders ...

                                                     This section wants leaders to ensure that teachers create a safe place to learn and improve their technology skills. In this way, all students will have access to teachers who know how to integrate technology to improve learning.  It purports, that by giving teachers support, resources, and training, they can develop the skills needed to create meaningful, engaging, and tech-enhanced environments and learning experiences for their students.   Most of the teachers within my department are willing to embrace new technologies as they acknowledge its benefits. However, they are equally aware of the challenges posed by a lack of infrastructure e.g. wifi, storage etc. and the time necessary to effectively use technology in the classroom and engage in training within the school day. Recognizing...