Social Media and Speedcubing Adventures

The idea of remixing is not new.  In the documentary  this week, Kirby Ferguson gives examples of remixing and sampling in music going back more than 50 years.  In fact, remixing, sampling and copying have been around for thousands of years. The book of Ecclesiastes (written almost 3000 years ago) states:

 “What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)

As a teacher, I am constantly remixing and sampling work for students.  In education, we often call it differentiation.  It is actually more common for me to differentiate a previously created activity than to use it exactly as it was originally intended.  The other phrase that teachers often use to describe this behaviour is to say that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Differentiation, sampling, remixing and copying are the “wellspring of all creativity” (Ferguson, 29:50).  If we think about how students learn, it usually follows Kirby’s Elements of Creativity (Part 3):

1. Copy (in teacher speak, “I Do”)
2. Transform (“We Do”)
3. Combine (“You Do”)

As a simple example, when a student is learning how to print letters, they start by tracing the letters on the page.  The second step is to write the letters without the tracing lines.  This part is the longest stage as students need lots and lots of practice and they figure out what works for them.  Finally, students make the letters their own – how many times have we held up a piece of paper without a name on it and had the student recognize their work by their handwriting?  We all print the same letters but, over time, each one of us develops our own style and personality in our writing.

On a larger scale, when we are taking someone else’s work and remixing it, we do need to be aware of Copyright Laws and we can’t take credit for work that someone else has done.  I looked into the statement that Kirby made about the US being the only country with a Fair Use clause (55:30) because I was sure that Canada also had the same idea in Copyright Law and I found that in Canada, it is called Fair Dealing.  Section 29 of the Canadian Copyright Act states that “Fair dealing for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire does not infringe copyright.”

I believe that as far as education is concerned, social media fits under the umbrella of citizenship education.  It is not enough anymore to teach students how to be ‘good citizens’ in the physical world, we have an obligation to help them learn how to be productive citizens in the digital world. The Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools document quotes Ohler in this way: 

The Saskatchewan Curriculum has many references to relationships, interactions and interdependence, as well as creation and exploration using multimedia tools as early as Kindergarten in both the Health and Social Studies curriculums.  We need to be teaching skills such as reading critically, protecting privacy (of yourself and others), how advertising and marketing work, how online algorithms work and the difference between fiction and reality.  All of these skills can be embedded in both Social Studies and Health curriculums.  

There are great resources to help educators navigate this space but I think many educators shy away from teaching these skills because they don’t understand the skills themselves.  Having access to well curated materials is a great starting point! 

Common Sense Education has hundreds of lesson plans and Professional Development for teachers.  Accounts for teachers is completely free!  This is a great place for educators to find self guided lessons about AI, ChatGPT, Digital Citizenship, Student privacy and more.  I believe that learning about these online activities will empower teachers to teach them to their students.

Canadian Centre for Child Protection has resources for parents, kids and teens regarding online safety as well as free printable PDFs for use at home or in the classroom.  The teen section “Need Help Now” is an important link for teens to know.  It is a website that explains the steps to take if an inappropriate picture of you has been posted online.  The website is also directly linked to cybertip.ca.  For younger students, I have used the Zoe and Molly online activities with students in Grade 3-5 as part of the Health Unit on Personal Safety.

Kids in The Know is a resource I have used every year!  There are lesson plans for students from Kindergarten – Grade 12.  This website is funded by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.  The only downside to this resource is that you need to purchase the materials and they arrive in booklet format.  This makes it difficult to stay completely current as technology changes.  That being said, I really like the resource for Elementary students because the focus is on the deeper learning of personal safety, healthy relationships and assertiveness – skills that are easily applied to all online activities that students will encounter.

Finally, Media Smarts is a great resource for teachers.  Access to this resource is provided free of charge for all Saskatchewan teachers through the Ministry of Education.  There are lots of lesson plans for use in the classroom but my favourite aspect of this website is the Professional Development section.  There is a section called Media Literacy 101 and another called Digital Literacy 101.  These resources are provided in a way that they could be presented as a workshop for teachers or they can be completed as self directed PD.

If we are going to be successful at teaching students how to navigate in online spaces, we need to understand the world they are living in and we need to focus on the important concepts of  reading critically, protecting privacy (of yourself and others), how advertising and marketing work, how online algorithms work and the difference between fiction and reality. When students can master these foundational concepts, they will be more prepared to handle the online world! 

Here me out… I think that when it comes to education, teachers tend to ruin the fun in things for students.  I’m not saying that all teachers ruin all the fun in everything for all students but, often, teachers with good intentions end up having a lesson or unit backfire because they have made something that students genuinely enjoy backfire by turning it into work.

Back in 2011, iPads were all the rage.  I was the new Teacher Librarian at my school and I had heard about the benefits of using iPads in the classroom.  I was a strong supporter of technology in the classroom for the next few years.  I led my school through learning about apps, screen time, technology contracts, BYOD, using Pinterest, Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, vlogs, Google Classroom, SeeSaw, and more.  I was very vocal about the importance of integrating technology, thinking “Well, they are on it anyway, we should show them how to use it correctly.”

That feeling of accountability hasn’t changed.  I still believe that it is very important to teach students about responsible use of technology and how to leverage technology as a tool for learning rather than using it only as a very expensive time-sucking-never-ending stream of random videos and memes.

My concern is that, in our enthusiasm to connect with the interests of our students, we can inadvertently ruin the fun of an app or website.  This in turn makes students less eager to use the platform we are teaching with and they find something new, thus starting the cycle all over again.

As a Librarian, I have seen this many times with novel studies.  Teachers choose a novel that is trendy and think that by turning it into a novel study, the students will be engaged because they already have an interest in the novel.  This almost always backfires.  In my own experience, I have seen this happen with books such as Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, Hunger Games, Hatchet, City of Ember and more.   It breaks my heart when a student stops reading for enjoyment because of a bad experience with a novel study (I have many thoughts about this topic, but I will save those thoughts for another day).

In recent years, I have seen the same phenomenon with technology.  Minecraft EDU is the most prominent example that I can recall.  For a few years, Minecraft was everywhere!  Kids couldn’t get enough of it!  Then, once Minecraft EDU was launched and teachers started using it in their classrooms, suddenly, students were not as interested.  This happened with Coding as well.  Students loved coding on Tynker, Scratch Jr. or Blockly but as soon as it became part of a class through code.org, students quickly lost interest.

Of course, I am not saying that integrating technology into the classroom doesn’t have its place. Most students can run circles around me when it comes to learning a new app or remixing content to show their understanding.  There are wonderful, exciting ways to authentically use technology to enhance learning.

I know that there are great opportunities out there and many teachers do really amazing things with technology – please share the amazing things you are doing in the comments!

5 Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom

I may have an unpopular opinion here but I support the cell phone ban, at least, in theory.  I don’t agree with how the Saskatchewan Government announced the ban in the middle of the summer without proper engagement with teachers, administrators, students or parents and I do believe that it was a political move rather than a true effort to improve education in our province.  That being said, as an Elementary teacher, I see definite benefits for the students in Elementary schools.

In the past decade, more and more students are coming to school disregulated, unable to focus, and not ready to learn.  The unfortunate reality is that too many students are spending a huge amount of their free time on screens and it is affecting their sleep, their emotional regulation skills and their interpersonal skills.  Removing cell phones during the school day is far from the solution for all these issues, but it is a small step we can take to help students learn how to focus on others, be present and communicate effectively.

As a personal example, my son is currently dating a girl who has difficulty communicating in person.  When she has an issue with him, he doesn’t know about it until after the date, when she texts him about it.  She says she has anxiety, and although that may be true, my concern is that she has not learned the interpersonal skills of face to face communication through her teenage years.

As younger and younger children get consumed by texting, SnapChat, WhatsApp and other digital forms of communication, I believe they are desperately in need of a safe place to practice face to face communication.  This is where the cell phone ban in schools is starting to be effective.  When students are not tethered to their phone, they are forced to interact in more meaningful ways with others.  I have noticed that there seem to be more disagreements and conflicts between students but I choose to look at that as a learning opportunity!  As teachers, we are seeing more of the conflict that, just last year, would have happened on phones and we would never be aware of.  Disagreements and conflicts mean that communication is happening and these are invaluable opportunities for teaching social skills to children.

There are definitely downsides to a full cell phone ban as we talked extensively about in class and I think that, over time, we will need to find a compromise which allows teachers to use cell phones as the tools they are meant to be.  For now, let’s focus on how a cell phone ban can be a positive experience – the chance to teach emotional and physical regulation and the opportunity for students to learn valuable communication skills.

Here are a few of the videos I watched this week:

The Case Against Cell Phone Bans in School

Cell Phones in Schools: To Ban or Not To Ban

Students Give Up Smartphones for 21 Days