Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

Standard 4.2 Safe, Healthy, Legal & Ethical Use:

Candidates model and facilitate the safe, healthy, legal, and ethical uses of digital
information and technologies.
1. Briefly describe the artifact and the context in which it was created. What was/were
your individual contribution(s)?
In order to demonstrate my understanding for Standard 4.2 I completed two artifacts to
meet all of the conditions in this standard. In ITEC 7430 I competed an Internet Safety
Blog where I developed several strategies that focused on student safety and healthy
internet use. I also created a Copyright assignment presentation that centered on the legal
and ethical use of using digital sources for students and teachers in ITEC 7445.

2. Explain how this artifact demonstrates mastery of the standard/element under which it
is placed.
Standard 4.2 is one of the most important responsibilities that teachers have, to keep
students safe, create an environment where they all feel encouraged and accepted. The
safety of students and teachers has various aspects which is why the blog and
presentation together both meet the standard. The Internet safety blog focuses on three
strategies that teachers can implement in their classrooms to facilitate safe and healthy
uses of digital technology. The first strategy is for teachers to become informed on how
to teach students how to search and post. One excellent resource for students to use in
class is an online scavenger hunt. This website has different resources for grades third
through eighth that are age appropriate. This could be an excellent class activity that
students could complete either together or individually. It has ten different sections that
students visit that cover the following topics: strong passwords, credible online sites and
information, cyberbullying, safe gaming, digital footprint video, plagiarism, online
predators, and giving your personal information. The videos are wonderful and can
provide a reality check for students to understand that what they publish online is
permeant. Teaching students exactly how text messages or posting on social networks
works and that all of the information including images are managed by software

Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

companies that are controlled by people. Students especially at the middle school age
think that it is just stored and deleted by a computer not a person. (Edudemic, n.d.)
Another strategy that teachers can use to promote internet safety is to help the students
create their own personal boundaries about what type of information they are going to
post and how much of yourself should you expose to the world. (Edudemic, n.d.) The
FBI created a Cyber Surf Islands where teachers can register their classes. The students
can log on to their class account and complete several activities and games over cyber
safety where they develop a plan and practice scenarios testing their cyber safety
awareness.
The Copyright presentation focuses on what is Fair Use from a legal standpoint. The
presentation was created to inform teachers what students can use as far as copyright and
fair use laws and how using the creative commons can help students remain ethical. The
presentation list out the four factors to consider if it is fair use or not as well as providing
examples of court cases against former teachers, and scenarios for teachers to practice
deciding if a situation is ethical or not.
3. What did you learn from completing this artifact? What would you do differently to
improve the quality of the artifact or the process involved in creating the artifact?
One of the most valuable things that I learned from looking into school safety was
that the first thoughts generally are security and locked doors but the majority
of predators are not walking into our schools through the doors but
through our lap tops, IPads, and cell phones. Students do not even
experience peer pressure or bullying in the same way that previous
generations have, no longer are there notes passed in the hallway but
texts or Instagram photos are shared in a matter of minutes. Students
in todays classroom take the game of Telephone to a whole new level
since they can share gossip with the whole school instantaneously. It is

Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

easy to become overwhelmed by the dangers of the internet and want

to shield students from this so much that we ban it from our class
room. Although the safety of our students needs to be on the forefront
of our thoughts as teachers, there are so many more rewarding
opportunities for students than dangers. Preparing and educating
students is more important that than taking it away.

One thing that I

feel like I could change would be to incorporate a survey into the

copyright presentation or embed a Padlet where teachers could post
their initial responses of what fair use is before the presentation and
then we could go over it after. This could help to start meaningful
conversations about what is ethical use and what is not, ignorance is
often times the reason behind violations.
4. How did the work that went into creating the artifact impact school improvement,
faculty development, or student learning? How can the impact be assessed?
The blog post is on my online portfolio and helped me the most when beginning to use a
class blog with my students in order to maintain standards of safety. The presentation on
copyright laws was shared on the technology resources page of our school website and
during one of our professional learning meetings. I presented the power point for my
grade level and the academic coach shared it with the other grades. Most teachers were
very shocked to learn that they could not use images from google images just because it
was for an educational purpose.