Description:  This project was completed by the team of Susan Poyo and David McGeehan in GDIT 725, Leadership and Ethics. The learning artifact created by the team was an interactive infographic. The infographic was deployed on the Internet via a development tool called Glogster. The purpose of creating the infographic was to provide faculty and students with an easy to use reference on copyright and fair use issues. It was designed to be useful and engaging.  Use of this tool will promote a learning environment guided by ethical standards for this profession.  The second artifact included here is an online participation contract used for an online course that I designed, developed and administered last summer. 

 

Reflection:  Fostering a learning environment that promotes ethical behavior and safety is paramount (Maslow, 1943).  Instructional practice must include those procedures that lead to increased health, knowledge and moral capacity.  Although I have been in education for many years, it has not been my practice to use direct instruction for teaching copyright, Fair Use and appropriate behavior with open access resources.  It has only been within the past three years as a doctoral student that I have learned about the many ethical behaviors unique to the current culture that must be addressed in the classroom.  Most especially, as an instructor in a teacher preparation program, the knowledge I gain in this regard must be shared with my students as they prepare to enter a classroom of their own and instruct their students in ethical behavior. The responsibility is even greater in the role I perform.  The information in this Glog is shared with my students, as are numerous online academic integrity resources discovered in this course.  One point our cohort discussed was the necessity to communicate explicit ethical expectations and teach our students what this behavior looks like in a variety of learning environments. The participation contract included as an artifact is an explicit and unambiguous communication of expectations for learning in an online environment.