Reflections: Standard Three

Legal, ethical, safe and healthy behavior on technology is largely ignored it seems.  I always use the artifacts below to model and help the awareness of my students, be it college students or faculty. I have seen the consequences of disregarding these issues first hand.  I watch students' work in online classes to help determine what kind of technology they have and how current it/they are.  You can detect the symptoms in the kind of presentations students do and the documents they send. I have a survey asking for student’s technology awareness and how they use it. I also post many resources for how to upgrade their technology, spend less money and where to look for appropriate and personalized gadgets.

 

The artifacts you will experience in this standard one module include:

• Academic Dishonesty: An activity and explanation videos on what the term means and visually explains how to avoid it.

• Plagiarism Tutorial A short student tutorial explanation of a tutorial to pretest, learning and posttest students on how to detect plagiarism and how to avoid it.

• Healthy Computer Usage: A visual tool that shows how to use a computer in a healthy way with posture, lighting and hand placement

 

I also like to have health officials from other institutions to chat with students occasionally about their experiences and best practices. Preventing and finding Academic dishonesty is a critical part of my classes.  I do not tolerate plagiarism but I always look closely for every piece if culpable evidence and check their work for copying of original work form others.  I have the plagiarism artifact below that helps students become painfully aware of what plagiarism is and how serious the consequences are.  I also use videos and then discussion boards and/or written assignments that reaffirm the information.  SWC has its own policies for academic honesty and acceptable use. 

 

Sometime learners will treat the requirements less seriously because they may feel that with 20,000 students and so many labs, they can avoid detection or employees are too busy to do anything about it.

 

 On the students side of strict policies  I believe it is just as important to make sure they are aware of the law in regards to their information privacy FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and their HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rights.  Learners need to be aware and confident that the restrictions placed on their actions has equal protection for them as well.  The reasons are obvious but sometime this issue have great opportunities for some spirited conversation, either in chat rooms or on Voicethread, which I use, and also Blogs for a more public environment...

 

 Cyberbullying is on the rise and I treat it seriously in online classroom environments equally with traditional classrooms.  I treat cyber bullying just like academic dishonesty. I do not tolerate it, but to make these fair, learners need to know what the symptoms are and how to report it. I use tutorials and have learners sign a contract confirming these rules and understanding the consequences for not complying.