Technology+Literacy+Class-+Introduction

=__Introduction__= This is a working outline of a class that the students will complete at the beginning of the school year.

As the Red Oak district moves to a 1:1 computing environment for the 2012-13 school year, there are going to be many challenges for staff and students. This class is being developed specifically for the students attending the Red Oak Alternative School, though the information and resources can be used by any students and staff. The goal is to give the students some of the tools that they will need to really utilize the new resources that will be available using the new laptops. As many have said, just because a students knows how to use a computer does not mean that they know how to use it to enhance their learning. Here is a great article concerning teaching web literacy and why it is important.

The class will be divided into several sections.
 * 1) This section will focus on the use of Schoology as it is going to be the LMS for the Red Oak school district.
 * 2) The second section will focus on ethics and online behavior. This will include fair usage, plagiarism, online safety and security, and digital citizenship which includes cyber bullying.
 * 3) This section will focus on some of the tools that are available from Google, including setting up an account, using Chrome, and completing a Google search class. This search class will show the students how to evaluate the information they find as well as use the tools that Google supplies to allow for more effective searching.
 * 4) Here the focus will be on rubrics. Many students have not beeen exposed to rubrics, so they are not sure how to use them. Not only are they a guide for teachers to evaluate, but they give students a list of expectations for completing the assignment or project. The goal is to allow students to become familiar with rubrics and learn to use them in the classroom.
 * 5) The fifth section will focus on some of the many web 2.0 tools that are available for students to use. I will list some of the sites with a brief description on how thy can be used. I want the students to try many of these tools out to see which ones they find usefull as well as find other tools that they can share with the class.