Staying Critical

As a teacher, I am constantly trying to find ways to become better for my students. I look at my style of teaching, the different assignments I create, the different technology I bring into the classroom, and more because being critical of what I use and how I use it helps me become a better teacher. It helps me explore new skills and ideas that benefit my students.

Today, there is a large push to incorporate technology into the classroom. While I find technology incredibly useful, as many people do, there are many other aspects of it to keep in mind. Unfortunately, some technology is inaccessible to some people. The district that I teach in is more affluent than many other areas, however there are still issues of accessibility. I teach many students with disabilities, and these disabilities can create barriers for them in using technology. While websites have increasingly gotten better at accessibility for those with disabilities, “a number of research studies indicate that many existing websites remain inaccessible” (Kurt, 2018). When a website is being designed or updated, it should be kept in mind that there will be users that will need to use some sort of non-standard technology to help them, so it is the website’s responsibility to ensure compatibility between its content and assistive devices/tools (Kurt, 2018). As a teacher, it is my job to remain critical of websites and explore how accessible they are for my students, and if they are not, I can evaluate how I can adjust them to become more accessible.

I use many different online resources in my classroom. This brings in unique tools for my students and interesting content. With this, another topic that I must remain critical of is my students’ privacy. Now, I am not new to the idea of privacy. Early on as a student of education I had learned about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is designed to protect students’ identifying information and restricts schools from sharing this information without a parent’s consent (Office of Educational Technology). The discussion of privacy goes beyond what the school can release. With the usage of technology, many websites are recording data and information about its users. As a teacher that often uses various websites, it is important for me to be critical of which websites I use and what the privacy policies are for these resources. It is important to protect my students’ privacy as best as I can.

Another resource that is becoming more prominent is Artificial Intelligence (AI). My students are very curious about AI and are typically very interested in what it can do. I understand the curiosity, however, I am also aware of downsides that come with technology. One large downside relates to the issue of privacy. Many AI models are currently being trained using real people’s own creations (Leffer, 2023). Developers are using this work, which does include many copyrighted materials, to feed their AI models. This is a huge ethical issue, and as a teacher, it worries me about my students’ privacy. If I have my students use AI in the classroom, who knows what sort of information they are giving to these websites. As useful as these tools are, we have to be critical of how ethical it may be.

I really enjoy trying new resources for my classroom and bringing in new technology. After all, this technology is not going to go away, so it is important to understand it and know how to use it safely. I find it crucial, though, to be critical of these new creations and analyze how students are able to use them and how they affect my students. There are many issues surrounding new technology, and we should be aware of the constraints, downsides, and negative impacts it can have.

Resources:

Kurt, S. (2018). Moving toward a universally accessible web: Web accessibility and education. Assistive Technology, 31(4), 199–208. https://doi-org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/10.1080/10400435.2017.1414086

Leffer, L. (2023, October 19). Your personal information is probably being used to train generative AI models. Scientific American.

Office of Educational Technology. (n.d.). Privacy resources. tech.ed.gov.