Chapter 12 -- What is educational technology literacy? Why is it important for educators?

Educational technology literacy is vital to educators; it is not only knowing how to use various types of technology, but also being able to apply the technology in a way that enhances their teaching and the students’ learning. Due to the importance of educational technology literacy, NETS standards have been released for students, teachers, and administrators, and most states have adopted these standards to at least a small degree. Because states have begun to require the use of technology to such a degree, it is important that teachers accept this and begin planning ways to implement the use of technology in their lessons.

Most, if not all, states also have technology requirements as part of their state teacher licensure. For example, this course is part of my licensure requirements. For teachers who began in the profession before such technological requirements, courses are required before teacher licensure is renewed. National certification is also available and looked highly upon; technology literacy is also important there.

Many educators are very resistant to technology because it is new and different, and even as these people become more familiar with the various forms of technology, they are usually hesitant to incorporate it into their teaching. I believe that requiring the use is a good start but will not necessarily totally “cure” the problem.
Technology is something that should now be accepted as a part of life, because it influences every aspect of our daily existence to some degree. Teachers are expected to model what they are teaching, so the proper use of technology is one of the things that needs to be modeled. It would not make sense to expect our students to be successful citizens if we as teachers were to just gloss over many of the points that have now become part of being successful; technology is one of these new points. Also, if teachers are seen by students as being too “old fashioned” then it will be more difficult to fully reach them.

What four questions related to the fair use guidelines should teachers ask before using copyrighted materials?

The four questions related to the fair use guidelines that teachers should ask before using copyrighted material are:

*What is the intended use?
*What type of work is it?
*How much of the work do you intend to use?
*What impact does this kind of use have on the market for the work?

What is the intended use?
This question is to determine the purpose and character of use. Determine if you are using it for educational purposes, and if it is noncommercial in nature. If the use is not educational, then permission for use needs to be granted. Also, commercial use would be cheating the publisher.

What type of work is it?
Determine whether the work is factual and if it contains a lot of creative or imaginative substance. If the work is primarily factual, then it is likely that the information could also be found in other places. If it is creative or imaginative, however, then using it without permission would most likely not fall under fair use.

How much of the work do you intend to use?
If you are using a work in its entirety, then it’s not likely to be fair use . . . for use to fall under “fair use”, then only a small portion should be used.

What impact does this kind of use have on the market for the work?
If the way you are using the work would serve as a substitute for someone purchasing the original, then it is not fair use. Also, if it has a negative impact on the market demand, then it most likely is not fair use.

There are a lot of stipulations for copying work created by somebody else, and sometimes it can be frustrating to have to deal with all of these stipulations. There are times that it becomes quite confusing when trying to determine whether or not something falls under fair use. Probably the most common type for a person to have to question fair use is when photocopying a document for classroom distribution. However, things such as showing a video in class or using a website for instruction also fall into this category.

While showing an old movie to a few students can be considered fair use, showing the same video for the entire student body would be questionable. By the same token, copying a portion of one page out of a magazine for article analysis in an English class may be acceptable while copying the entire magazine would not be.

At my school, the librarian handles both making photocopies and approving videos to be shown in class, so I’m very grateful for that . . . there are a lot of gray areas when determining what is and isn’t fair use.

Why is giving feedback a challenge in distance environments? How can this challenge be met?

In distance learning, students must work through lessons without the benefit of a teacher present. Although students are prepared from the beginning to work in a traditional classroom setting, they do not have that preparation for distance learning. A distance educator has the responsibility of not just teaching the content but also preparing the student for the distance environment.

In the distance environment, the teacher is not able to give nonverbal feedback such as reactions and body language as the students work. The teacher is unable to evaluate student progress as the student works through something; he or she must keep up some form of regular communication to assess learning. Adequate and frequent feedback is key. This is one of the many added challenges for distance educators. The teacher should seek to use new and creative lessons to remedy this problem.
Distance education is a definite new asset to the education system. It provides opportunities for all sorts of varieties of education that would otherwise be inaccessible to students. There are constant improvements and innovations to distance education and students and teachers alike are embracing these. As these improvements are made, new ‘problems’ will make themselves visible. However, distance education is becoming an increasingly more important part of higher education.

What is visual literacy? Where and when is it learned? Why is it important?

Visual literacy is essentially the developed ability of associating different visuals with certain information. Throughout life, people acquire information allowing them to interpret visual cues allowing us to function in society. A number of elements are presented in a deliberate arrangement; for visual cues to be effective several elements must be included – the visual must be relevant, coherent, consistent, and proportionate; it must have contrast, unity, and direction as well. All teachers have a responsibility to nurture visual literacy. However, students begin developing visual literacy long before even starting school.

Visual literacy incorporates things such as reading charts and recognizing symbols. Even very young children recognize a red octagon as a stop sign and a heart as a symbol for love. In the classroom, charts and graphs are often used visuals. My school using Thinking Maps to organize information, and the different types of maps are used for different purposes, and each map has a distinct look. By simply seeing what type of map we are using, my students are able to tell what sort of information the assignment is looking for.

The phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” definitely applies to this situation. One visual can easily and accurately convey quite a bit of information in an easier to comprehend format.

Text and affective elements are two other parts of a visual. The text needs to remain clear and visually pleasing as well as relevant and easy to understand. Affective elements include anything that elicit a response from the viewer, and a visual should have the appropriate affective elements to get the response the teacher or whoever designed the visual is looking for.

Because we live in a very visual world, it is important for students to be able to understand and interpret visuals fluently. To some degree, I think teachers incorporate visuals into lessons without even realizing it. Teachers should become more aware of the visuals being used, though, in order to use the best quality visuals.