Cristina Kubicki's List: EME 5050: Fundamentals of Technology for Educators

The International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) Educational Technology Standards for Teachers provides "a framework for implementing technology in teaching and learning" (Shelly et al., 2008, p. 12) in K-12 educational settings. It is essential for teachers to become well-versed with the following standards: (1) Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; (2) Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments; (3) Model digital-age work and learning; (4) Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; and, (5) Engage in professional growth and leadership. All in all, teachers must aim to fulfill a majority of these technology standards and performance indicators in order to effectively prepare students to be competent, global citizens in the digital era.

ePals is the social network optimized for K-12 learning. Over half a million classrooms in 200 countries and territories have joined the ePals Global Community to connect, collaborate and exchange ideas. ePals now translates in 35 languages!

EPals is an innovative Web resource that enables teachers and students to interact with their international counterparts. As a French teacher, I can utilize this web site for my intermediate level students to communicate with French high school students who are studying English as a foreign language.

For this week's annotated Web site, I chose the electronic version of my School District's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). After reading Chapter 8 and engaging in this week's post discussion, I realized the critical importance of cyberethics in schools and that I must develop a concise understanding of its ethical implications. I believe AUP should be created in every classroom equipped with student computers. As schools are becoming more and more digitally inclined, effective teachers must teach and model students the appropriate usage of the computer as an educational tool.

Google Docs is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) web-based productivity tool that electronically creates and stores documents (word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation templates. It is an attractive alternative over overloading one's USB.