Yes, you are unique, and you are loved. As a parent in today’s interconnected world, knowing how to best help your child succeed is difficult. Many states sponsor online public schools (i.e., state virtual schools), but is it wise to enroll your child in a supplementary school program to the exclusion of enrolling in a charter school or performing extracurricular activities like sports, dance, music, or gymnastics (Evergreen Education Group, 2018)? Additionally, what tools should parents use to help their students with homework? Programs like ABCMouse.com may work for some students, but do students with a known or perceived learning disability require different tools? And what happens if we pick the wrong tool? All of these questions and more plague legal guardians of students, as more free and low-cost options are being provided at a rapid pace. It sounds like a perfect opportunity for a librarian to step in and make sense of it all. Libraries To The Rescue A timeless and...
Yes, you are unique, and you are loved. Too few people are told that simple sentence even though many billions of joined the digital revolution of the past 20 years , which is astonishing because personal computers, once the exclusive domain of universities and government programs are available at every K-12 school in America, with 88 percent of schools having access to high-speed internet (National Science Board [NSB], 2018). So, if most of America has access to technology in the classroom, then why do we hear more stories of cyberbullying than we hear of students spreading love and cheer? The answer begins with understanding what educational technology (i.e., EdTech) is, the benefits of EdTech, how to ensure students are safe when using EdTech, the rules of online etiquette (i.e., netiquette), and finally how academic integrity can be safeguarded with the proliferation of EdTech. Understanding EdTech The term “educational tec...