Running Head: SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 1

Shared Vision and Rationale

Elizabeth R. Huffaker

ITEC 7410

Spring 2020

Dr. Beeland
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Shared Vision & Rationale

Vision Statement

The vision of Creekland Middle School (CMS), is to develop students into ethically

responsible digital citizens who are technologically prepared for further education and life after

school. Students will experience a variety of web tools and applications to train them as well as

provide rich experiences to leave a positive digital footprint. Students will be exposed to and

learn how to safely apply programs, many of which collaborative in nature, that will benefit them

well after graduation both personally and professionally.

Rationale

The combined input of the Cherokee County technology team, our CMS’s technology

coach, the administration, local teachers, students, parents and community members was

evaluated through interviews and surveys. Together, we identified the three main foci of

achieving our vision as developing digital citizenship, modeling program selection and usage and

appropriately collaborating with stakeholders through digital platforms. Our vision supports the

School Improvement Plan (SIP) of CMS which is:

“Creekland Middle School's shared mission is to prepare students for college, careers and

life in the twenty-first century by providing a quality education in a safe, yet challenging

environment that sets high expectations for all students, provides equitable learning

opportunities for all students, encourages and provides opportunity for all students to be

well-rounded and promotes academic success, critical thinking and life skills, respect for

others and self, productive citizenship and life-long learning” (CMS SIP, 2018).
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Our actions will support the SIP by teaching the students what they need to know to be prepared

adults and active digital citizens in the twenty-first century. Focusing on digital citizenship,

program selection and usage and collaboration will also help achieve the SIP by promoting

critical thinking skills and life- long learning.

Digital citizenship is an evolving and an important, sometimes overlooked, component of

technology. The social media usage among our students is tremendous, but their barometer for

what is useful and appropriate is lacking. “Social media is both a blessing and a curse”, said by

my colleague, Mrs. New, describes our challenge well. The same problem is seen across the

country. In Paul Barnewell’s article, “Why Every Classroom Should Teach Digital Citizenship”,

he says “Every day, I see a student deficit on how to mindfully employ the unbridled potential

and power of their smartphones and other digital tools.” As social media and other digital

platforms continue to develop, it is the stakeholders’ responsibilities to prepare our students to

choose and apply programs appropriately and safely. Our principal has chosen the Common

Sense Digital Citizenship program to help us deliver and model digital behavior. Common

Sense Digital Citizenship is a research-based instructional tool that provides a plethora of lessons

and ideas to teach digital citizenship. Teaching students how to be an ethical digital citizen

directly supports the CMS SIP by supporting the life skills of utilizing the internet and the

critical thinking needed when selecting digital tools.

Through the implementation of Common Sense, the students will consistently be exposed

to scenarios where they are responsible for making informed choices. From inappropriate photos

and videos to which application should be used when. Through the guided lessons, the students

will gain the skills and knowledge needed to know what appropriate online behavior is and what

it is not. Furthermore, the students will have a chance to explore available programs and
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applications under safe guidance. We will be able to evaluate the success of Common Sense

through continued surveys of parents, teachers and students. We will also be able to monitor

technology discipline related infractions and hope to see a decline.

Coupled with Common Sense, the research-based instructional strategy of modeling will

be used to demonstrate to students how to test, choose and use available technology. The risk

associated with digital usage is fluid; many of the hazards are not even identifiable until it is too

late. Therefore, we feel that educators must continue to expand their digital knowledge and

experience and while doing so, train students as to how to do this safely. Modeling digital usage

supports the CMS SIP by ensuring that all students are exposed to the decision-making process

associated with digital use. By having all educators model appropriate selection and usage,

students will gain the skills needed to be productive and prepared citizens. In addition to using

modeling to teach students how to be a safe and ethical digital citizen, modeling will also be used

to show students how to determine which tools can and should be used for which purposes. In

the book, National Educational Technology Standards—Preparing Teachers to Use Technology,

published by ISTE, they describe preparing teachers by “Having a set of generic models and

strategies that are multipurpose in application assists teacher candidates in quickly developing

technology-rich lessons for their fieldwork.” (National Educational Technology Standards—

Preparing Teachers to Use Technology, 2002). To do this effectively, educators must actively

and continually participate in professional development and training. The feedback from the

teachers at CMS was that they need more guidance for web tool usage. We are provided with

the Microsoft Suite, but using the information from our observations, few teachers are using it

outside of Microsoft Outlook and Word. In our vision, teachers will gain knowledge and

practice using a variety of tools including those provided in the Microsoft suite. We will be able
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to monitor the usage of the teachers and students specifically within the Microsoft suite through

district data reports. In addition, we will implement surveys and questionnaires regarding the

teacher and student usage of digital tools.

Finally, the research-based instructional strategy of collaboration will help our students

reach our mission goals. Collaboration among the stakeholders to keep the mission active is

first, followed by the collaboration of educators in planning and implementing lessons. And,

finally, collaboration between the students to facilitate learning. Communication skills are of

tremendous importance in the real world and this includes communicating through digital

platforms. By exposing students to situations where they need to communicate virtually, we are

preparing them for future jobs and life beyond school.

Our mission is to see students collaborate with both their classmates and students outside

of our school building. We also want to see students collaborating with professionals,

community members and other students not at our school. We feel that providing the setting to

safely collaborate will teach students how to effectively, politely and morally communicate

which will ultimately help achieve the life skills goal outlined in the school’s mission. Digital

collaboration will keep students engaged while teaching them important life skills. Since we are

constantly having to monitor students on social media, giving them the chance to collaborate will

help our efforts. Ted Panitz describes a variety of benefits in his article, “44 Benefits of

Collaborative Learning” including higher level learning and student engagement. We will

measure the usage of collaboration through student and teacher feedback.

Diversity Considerations
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The two largest diversity groups at CMS are 14% reduced lunch and 11% non-white

(https://www.schooldigger.com/go/GA/schools/0111003312/school.aspx). The school is equally

split between girls and boys. The staff’s diversity is existent in the field of technology.

Our current school initiative regarding hardware is for students to bring their own

learning device (BYLD). In addition, the school has ten laptop carts that are either solely used

by a classroom teacher or are available for rent, plus two computer labs and a 3-D computer lab

provided by the STEM department at the county level. The BYLD initiative has pros and cons.

Naturally, when the students see other students with their own devices, it encourages the same

behavior. This does put some stress on families, especially the families that fall into the 14%

reduced lunch demographic. To combat this, our current goal is to provide the students who

cannot afford a device with one of the laptops from the schools’ carts. At this point, this has not

been organized. It is part of the school goal, however, to implement this at the start of next

school year (2019-2020). It is our hope that the BYLD initiative continues to grow and is

received well by upcoming students and families. Once we have established an expectation, then

the school devices will be freed up to provide for the students in need. The shared vision will

support the students without devices by providing the training and modeling needed to use the

loaned device.

The BYLD initiative does not, however, cover internet access outside of the school. The

devices remain in the school building. It is our hope, as mentioned above, that when we can

assign specific devices to individual students, then they will be able to bring their device to and

from school daily. Once the hardware challenge is resolved, then we will focus on the software

and connectivity components. The school will provide the Microsoft Office Suite and Canvas

Learning Management System to all students through their county generated testing
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identification number. The loaned devices will have the connectivity to these programs and the

students will be instructed on how to use the different applications.

The internet connectivity piece remains a challenge in my district. Our media center

specialist has hot spots available for rent by the students, but many students refuse to use these.

There is a social stigma associated with not having internet access at home where students do not

want other students to know. To alleviate this problem, it is our goal to identify students and

families prior to the start of the school year that may need this service. Then, we can provide the

hot spots privately.

The 11% of nonwhite students at CMS are mostly Hispanic, with 1% being Asian and 1%

combined of a cultural mixture. The Hispanic students are at an increased technology risk

especially depending on their level of English proficiency. Our shared mission addresses this

issue by educators remaining up to date on available programs and providing that training to the

students. Many of the applications and digital tools available have dual language components.

In addition, the Hispanic population can be targeted to enroll in the elective classes that focus on

technology. Starting next year, there will be a dedicated STEM class. Students in the STEM

class will be exposed to a larger variety of technology tools and the STEM teacher can

individualize the selected tools based on the need of the student as well as model the tools.

The Hispanic population will also benefit from the collaboration piece of the shared

vision. Students can be paired virtually with other students for a variety of purposes from

communicating in their native language to learning English platforms. As students become more

comfortable, the components of the Common Sense Education can be implemented as well.

Ultimately, resulting in the students being able to ethically choose and use tools appropriate for

their needs.
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Finally, through our shared vision, one of our biggest obstacles will be preparing the

female demographic to use digital tools as frequently and effectively as their male counterparts.

Our school is facing a great challenge with female students and social media use. This

demographic is at a particularly higher risk for misuse of technology. Females need appropriate

technology training. Between all the stakeholders, we came to an agreement that the female

subgroup has the most challenging time determining what is appropriate to share through the

internet and the consequences of what is shared. The Common Sense Education programs offer

specific lessons addressing these concerns with practical applications. Additionally, modeling

the proper usage of programs will be essential for females to learn the programs. Finally, there

are endless collaboration possibilities for females and programs such as engineering. Fostering

female students’ digital usage and collaboration opportunities can help close this divide.

The staff at Creekland Middle School has a large spectrum of digital knowledge. We

have a set of teachers who can model technology for other teachers. We also have many teachers

who are digitally developing. The inequity of ability across the faculty will need to be

addressed. Diagnostic tools will determine which teachers to target and what programs to

deliver.

Stakeholder Roles

The role of the stakeholders begins at the county level. It is important that our

technology department grant reliable access to the educators and students to digital programs and

applications. We are currently restricted from use on a variety of platforms that teachers would

like to incorporate. Our hopes are that the barricades are removed without jeopardizing the

safety of the students.

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Next, our technology coach would need to curate programs for teachers to implement and

provide the instruction and training necessary. In addition to the county and coach, the parents in

our community will need to provide dependable devices (if financially feasible) for students to

bring to school. The parents will also need to familiarize themselves with the Common Sense

Digital Citizenship curriculum and reinforce this at home.

The administration within our building needs to be prepared to provide discipline for

inappropriate digital usage. Although it is our hope that the Common Sense training will

eliminate any digital problems, we realistically need to be prepared to deal with anything that

may arise. Administrators will also need to be prepared to explain to parents the expectations

associated with Common Sense training and digital usage.

The teachers will need to participate in professional development for Common Sense

Education, modern and evolving applications and programs and collaborate with other teachers .

Finally, the students will need to support the mission by following the guidelines of

Common Sense digital citizenship. They will also need to participate in the activities that the

teachers model. Lastly, the students will need to participate in the collaboration set up in their

classes.
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Resources:

Cherokee County School District (CCSD). (2017). “2017-2020 Three-Year-Technology

Plan”. Retrieved from https://www.cherokeek12.net/userfiles/-4/my%20files/2017-2020-three-

year-technology-plan.pdf?id=204.

Creekland Middle School. (2018). “School Improvement Plan (SIP)”. Retrieved from

https://www.cherokeek12.net/creeklandms/Content2/creeklandms-sip

International Standards for Technology in Education. (2002). “National Educational

Technology Standards—Preparing Teachers to Use Technology”. Retrieved from

https://id.iste.org/docs/excerpts/NETTB2-excerpt.pdfs

New, Liesl. (March, 2019). Personal interview.

TeachThoughtStaff. (January 13, 2019). “Why Every Classroom Should Teach Digital

Citizenship”. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/5-reasons-

you-should-be-teaching-digital-citizenship/.

School Digger. Retrieved from

https://www.schooldigger.com/go/GA/schools/0111003312/school.aspx