Part II
Was there a field experience that you observed/participated in/led that you feel could have been improved? How & why?
By: Darryl Callens
This blog is a continuation of the previous one. I was tasked to complete a O-P-L-report based on the CoSN Framework for Essential Technology Leadership skills. My blog topic for this one is, Was there a field experience that you observed/participated in/led that you feel could have been improved? How & why? Before I give an answer I’ll first tell you what my second activity that I chose to focus on for this topic was. This time I chose to focus on the Ethics and Policies framework. Within this framework it aligned with my activity because I had to demonstrate high standards of integrity and professional conduct with consideration for fairness and honesty.
The activity that I did was participating in a child abuse mandated reporters training. Based on this activity and my topic I would say that this field experienced that I participated in could have been improved. I thought the information was great and important but I think we could have spent more time on the subject matter.
This was one of those automated trainings where you kinda breeze through the information and they go over the answers with you all together. I just personally think when we are talking about a subject like child abuse, then this should be something worth experiencing more time in developing us as responders and educations.
We have a duty to make sure we are doing right by our students which aligns with showing that professional conduct and high standards of integrity. Unfortunately, I’ve been a part of a staff where we had a student to commit suicide. This was actually one of my students. After this tragic event happened I heard all sorts of stories to come from this. I heard abuse might have been a part of the equation. So for me this was personal.
I wanted to learn more and see the signs so that I can report when necessary on behalf of my students. Yes, we are charged with educating our students but protecting them is even more important for me as a teacher. “Just because todays students have grown up in a technology rich world does not mean that they know how to effectively and responsibility utilize technology… We routinely hear how students use digital tools inappropriately for sexting, cyberbullying, cheating, video-recording teachers and fights with peers, and plagiarizing” (Sheninger, 2019, p.110). There were a few who speculated that the young lady who committed suicide was also being bullied at some point.
Being able to speak to my students about the importance of properly using these tools will hopefully create more responsible Digital users. Less and less people who are entering the world and not abusing the use of these social tools. Child abuse and neglect are public health issues impacting communities throughout the United States.
This article, Developing machine learning-based models to help identify child abuse and neglect: key ethical challenges and recommended solutions, adoption of electronic health records (EHR) in health care supports the development of machine learning-based models to help identify child abuse and neglect (Landau, Mitra, Blanchard, Cato, Atkins, Salazar, Patton, Tpaz, 2022). This was so interesting because it merges technology with ethics and policies just like the CoSN framework. Here we have AI technology, helping us better identify those children who may be suffering from child abuse and neglect.
This is why I love teaching computer science because technology can be helpful to us in so many ways. This is why I know that the child abuse training could be better because there are so many awesome tools and research out here to make things better. Sometimes it’s just about us going out and doing extra research like I did to get informed on a subject.
Watch video to learn more about school ethics and policies!
References
Sheninger, E. C., & Mitra, S. (2019). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times. Corwin.
Landau, A. Y., Ferrarello, S., Blanchard, A., Cato, K., Atkins, N., Salazar, S., Patton, D. U., & Tpaz, M. (2022). Developing machine learning-based models to help identify child abuse and neglect: Key ethical challenges and recommended solutions. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA, 29(3), 576-580. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocab286
Like you, I too have sat through those mandatory reporting trainings and I also agree that they could be better. Our students are facing so many more challenges than ever before. Social media can make a child’s life miserable if not used appropriately. I agree that our students must be taught to be good digital citizens, which includes teaching about cyberbullying and what to do if it happens. Scheninger (2019) points out that cyberbullying occurs partly because “schools are not doing their part to educate students on digital responsibility, citizenship, and creating a positive footprint online” (p. 110). I feel very strongly about teaching digital citizenship to students of all ages. Moorefield-Lang (2020) also agrees that young children should be taught about how their actions online leave a legacy. She continues by saying that because of cyberbullying, it is imperative that we teach students how to be responsible digital citizens. Like Scheninger (2019) says, we can’t allow cyberbullying to keep us from the positive usage of social media, we just need to ensure that students are taught about being good digital citizens.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts,
Dana
References
Moorefield-Lang, H. (2020). Learners’ legacies as digital citizens. Knowledge Quest, 49(1), 24–27.
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed). Corwin.
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ReplyDeleteDarryl,
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry that you had a student lost too soon. That is never easy and I cannot even imagine. My condolences.
I agree that we should do everything we can to protect and educate our students on internet safety. Sheninger (2019) states, "students themselves need a form of professional development on the expectations and outcomes of device use" (p.132). He goes on to discuss how he holds assembly programs annually to talk about digital responsibility. While this is definitely needed it is not enough. I think it needs to be held multiple times and embedded into curriculum. Technology and the use of social media is literally in the palm of students hands. According to Wyne et al (2021), "interaction among younger generation these days is online where they express their emotions and ideas, such exchanges can be emotionally stressful for some thus causing negative impact on their personalities and mental development". We must do everything we can to help mitigate inappropriate use of social media. Darryl you have the chance to truly do that and have your students educated on the safety of themselves and others. Thanks so much for sharing.
Erica
References:
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed). Corwin.
Wyne, M. F., Sood, J., Kempton, C., & Dao, T. (2021). SafeGuard: A web-based application to guard against cyberbullying. Journal of Education and Learning, 10(4), 63–69.