“How have I contributed to the Learning of Others”

I contributed to learning by participating in the classroom by commenting on people’s Blog posts. Though I didn’t have as much interaction I would’ve liked to have had, I still believe I did contribute to the learning of others. Here are some examples:

I think I could’ve used discord for asking questions. I just feel like I’m not someone that people should be taking advice from in terms of technology. I will look to improve this part of my learning style in the future. I do think if I would’ve asked more questions on discord it would’ve made these blog posts easier not only for myself but my peers as well.  It was a pleasure learning from my classmates and all their unique learning projects as well as their insights into technology.

The AI tool : Canva  

How can this be used 

For teachers Canva can be used to enhance lesson plans and units. What I mean by this is Canva is a great tool for creating units at a glance by how easy this program is to set up. This allows the teacher to more efficiently set up timelines for teaching certain topics. The ability Canva has to also help integrate visual aids for students should be noted. Creating visual aids can take a large portion of time that at times teachers just don’t have. Canva allows us as teachers to create these types of visual aids and resources for our students  in much less time when the teachers become familiar with what Canva offers. Another way Canva can be a good resource for students is that it can offer a more efficient way to provide feedback to students’ work. Teaching is one of the few jobs that you can’t just clock out of. Teaching is a job around the clock so I am going to use Canva to help me be as efficient as possible. Another way that Canva can be used is to make an Eportfolio. From what I heard from people in the field and my professors, developing Eportfolios is the new wave that they are hiring. Knowing this, it is important that I keep my ear open for tools like Canva (which is free for teachers) to help me develop these Eportfolios.

For students Canva offers a unique ability for collaboration and creation with their peers. Not only that but Canva allows students to learn how to make infographics, posters and videos. There are more options for students to experiment how to use properly which not only can benefit the students academically but also outside of school. This allows the learners to use their creativity by allowing them to explore ways to show their own learning in their own personalized way. When the teachers use Canva it can offer more engaging lessons that integrate different learning styles that support all students. Another reason to use Canva is that it is available to everyone including students. Some types of tools like Canva aren’t free for students which directly affects the ability for students to use it. 

I personally feel like using programs like Canva should be integrated into education. I don’t feel this way about all AI but there are definitely good resources out there. When educators use programs like Canva to support their teaching both the educator and students benefit from it. I look at programs such as Canva like a textbook. When used properly there is no real downside. When you use any resource too much that’s where it can become a possible problem.

What is digital literacy

Digital literacy is defined as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”

How digital literacy helps to combat fake news?

Digital literacy helps combat fake news by promoting critical thinking in what we see and hear on the internet. What this means is having the ability to evaluate sources, have the ability to fact check, and seeing bias. The ability to evaluate sources is crucial for all people to have in today’s day and age. This allows people to determine what type of media they are reading. I’m a big sports fan and an example that I can think of is real vs. fake insiders. There are people that create a page just to tell lies to try and trick people into believing something happened (like a trade). The ability for people to evaluate the source is very important. This was just a surface level example. When you consider that people can spread fake news it is very important that everyone has the ability to evaluate the source. This leads into fact-checking and the tools available for people to use. We talk about how AI is able to create images, if people think those images are real it can have a huge consequence depending on what the image shows. Lastly, seeing bias is also a crucial skill for people to have. For example, when looking at a blog which is a more personal form of media there is bound to see bias. People can add one topic which supports their opinion but leave out a topic that doesn’t support their opinion.

How can this tie to the curriculum and Teaching?

The big thing that I think of when tying digital literacy to the Saskatchewan Curriculum is the overall goal throughout school to build critical thinkers. Digital literacy is exactly that when observing and interacting with all forms of media. I would also add the overall subjects of social studies and health. I think that when looking at the Power and Authority part of the curriculum you can bring in sources into the lessons that students can use their digital literacy. The same goes for health in the Understanding, Skills, and Confidence section of the curriculum. Online sources have a huge influence on today’s youth so having the skills of Digital Literacy would benefit all young people’s mental health.

How I can incorporate the goals of the NCTE framework?

I think one way that I can incorporate the goals of the NCTE is to allow the students to use a variety of media in which they can build skills of digital literacy to enhance their own school work. This will take a lot of work to allow the students to be prepared enough to handle such tasks so I believe as an educator I need to explicitly teach the skills and strategies needed. I also feel as though we (educators) need to model this for our students then allow them to join in once ready. We do these practices for all subjects, like math and literacy. This is how students learn and we can’t expect them to just figure it out.

Cyber-vigilantism and cyber-shaming

Cyber-vigilantism is where people online take justice into their own hands. This is a very intense topic that it seems to me everyone has their own opinion about. I believe this is a hard topic for people to find an agreement on because of how vast the circumstances can be. For myself I believe that if you post something online people have a right to comment their own opinion on the post. I compare this to saying something in public, obviously people around you are probably going to say something back. To expand upon this I believe having discourse on the post is alright, it’s where vigilantism kicks in that things start to become unclear. I think circumstances have a major factor in whether vigilantism kicks in. For myself, I never really comment on these circumstances mostly because I never really see them. My time online is looking at sports media, funny and educational videos. If I were to see something I probably won’t comment because I don’t think that the person that put out a post deserves my time. If I were to comment on these posts it would be like talking to a wall. This would lead to me becoming frustrated. A lot of vigilantism that is seen online also causes a lot of name calling which won’t lead to anything positive. I don’t believe going this route will cause a person’s beliefs to change, if anything it will probably have a negative result.

Digital footprints

Growing up in a time where social media has always been a thing, my digital footprint has always been something that I have thought about. I remember in multiple classes this has been a topic of conversation and I think rightfully so. During my time in school, they mostly scare tactics, which I am neither for or against. It worked for me but I definitely would say it didn’t work for everyone. Today we also see people blowing up on apps such as Tik Tok and many kids like the idea of being popular, so they might put something online to try and get attention from others. Looking back at how I was, to who I am today, I would hate to have a video of myself online when I was a kid. Me and my friends find pictures of each other when we were young and make jokes about one another. Since we are friends, we know that it is just a joke, but if someone is making fun of a person and they don’t know each other, it can be hurtful. Then when you consider getting hired for a job, that employer has the tools to learn about a possible employer by searching their name up. It makes me post things that I would want to reflect on myself.

The right to have elements of our digital footprint be forgotten

I think that posts that are ten years old should be scrapped because that is just such a long timeframe for someone to change. I also think that society also changes a lot and things that are “cancelable” today might just be a bad joke ten years ago. I’m not saying these jokes are right in any way, I’m just saying there are circumstances in which people need to be aware. I also think if you are a kid and put something on social media you get a pass most of the time, but if you posted something when you are seventeen and are now eighteen that is a whole different ball game. I believe as more time goes on this will (hopefully) become a more clear topic.

Digital citizenship in the classroom

 

Digital citizenship is best described as “is the ability to navigate our digital environments in a way that’s safe and responsible and to actively and respectfully engage in these spaces”. I think it is important for students to start to develop their digital citizenship because in today’s world, technology and the internet are used in everyday life. Teaching students these skills gives them the tools and knowledge to navigate these online spaces safely, responsibly, and effectively. As a teacher I am going to implement digital citizenship in a variety of ways. One of these ways is by giving my learners the opportunity to evaluate information that they pick up online. I think it is incredibly important that students have the tools to be able to see the bias, credibility and reliability of online websites. This is part of our jobs as teachers to build critical thinkers and I believe this is a way for students to do this. I would also bring real-world scenarios in the classroom to guide the learning of digital citizenship. I believe bringing in real-world scenarios benefits the students because it makes the learning relevant and more understandable to these students. Once again, I would teach about digital footprint. We’ve talked about it a lot during class because of how big of a topic digital footprint is. Learning about digital footprints has had a huge impact on how I interact with these internet spaces. I think it is important that students learn about the consequences that can happen when using the internet. At the same point I think it is important that students also know the benefits that having a positive digital footprint can have. Often I think we are so worried about the negatives that we don’t let our students know about some of the positive impacts a good digital footprint can have.

 

9 elements of digital citizenship

My approach when considering digital access is to not expect my students to have prior knowledge on the topic. Not every kid has the ability to access the internet in their home life so there is not even a playing field for these students. I believe to teach about digital citizenship you need to start at step one. If students know about the topics there is nothing wrong with a review. I have a hard time seeing myself teaching strictly about digital commerce just because I am going to teach the elementary grades. I don’t believe the students would be ready to learn about digital commerce unless it is surface level for older grades. I think in high school the students are more prepared to learn about this topic. When teaching about digital communication and collaboration I would allow students to start experimenting with some of the tools available. Some of these tools are email, zoom, google docs, etc. When students have these apps I think developing assignments using these tools would be beneficial. As a teacher I would keep in mind my students skill level when using these apps when assigning work to be done.

When teaching about digital etiquette I would add this to my classroom rules and expectations when using tools for school work. I would also bring in real-life examples of what digital etiquette is and is not.When examining digital fluency with my students I think it would be beneficial to learn ways to understand what is real and what is fake on the internet. Like I have brought up quite a bit I believe real-life examples would be beneficial. When teaching about digital health and welfare I think it is important in using real life scenarios to show some of the consequences of social media when used in an unhealthy way. I think I would use group discussions as well as strategies to combat unhealthy habits online

 

When teaching about digital law I would bring in a third party to support the students’ learning. One of the resources I would use would be the school counselor. I believe we as teachers should make use of the experts that we have available.When teaching about digital rights and responsibility I would compare it being person to person. Often we see people hide behind screens and be keyboard warriors. I think it is important for students to know the have rights and responsibilities online.When teaching about security and privacy access I would use apps that are popular among students’ age range. Well going through these apps I would note certain privacy and security settings and show the benefits of turning using the features. I would also dive into the terms and conditions apps have and explain what certain parts of it means. Often people don’t even read these things so they don’t actually know what they are agreeing to.

I believe it is extremely hard to reflect on our changed world because of how quickly technology is changing and adapting. We are living in a time where everything is new and improving. I think of a phone for instance, if you have a phone that came out more than five years ago it is seen as an old piece of technology. The new technology isn’t seen as a luxury anymore and more of a need. I’m trying to think of someone who doesn’t have a phone, computer or television. Most people I know have all three of these technologies. This then pushes people to get involved in creating social media accounts, upload things on social media which can be recreational, or to help them in their careers. I have peers that created social media pages to help their business by using it as an advertisement to reach new potential customers and clients. Technology is also being used as a tool to help get jobs. An example of this is making an online portfolio for a teaching career that you will be able to use to help get employed as a teacher. When looking at how people are active in their participation in using social media for fun. You get to interact with more people than you could ever imagine by a touch of a button.

What does this mean for the future classrooms?
For future classrooms I believe one of the most important things is making sure that young students know safety online. Like I talked about in this blog already, you can interact with more people than you can imagine. It is important that students know the world that they are living in and how they can protect themselves. With that being said I think it is important for students to be better prepared with tools that can be used to help them during their time in school and help them outside of school. In order for us teachers to do this I believe we need to take advantage of different training opportunities when it comes to new technology. We need to stay up to date with the rapidly improving technologies and relay the information we learn to our students. I believe we should be preparing our students for life outside of school, and with how new technologies are becoming available it’s only in our students best interest that they should know how to utilize and use these new technologies.

What does it mean for schools in general
For schools I believe there needs to be more of an emphasis in being able to use these new technologies. I have already seen that utilizing tools such as google classroom to make the class more tech based has been beneficial to students. I think that if we bring in more options for teachers it can help students with different learning styles have success within the classroom. I think there will be more of a focus for schools to try to build more technology fluent students. This will help those going to get further education and students that decide to work after highschool graduation by giving them more tools to use.

How might we rethink the idea of schooling and education in our networked, participatory, and digital world?
I am of the idea that our schooling needs to buy into our networked, participatory, and digital world. I believe this because as we teach them they will pick up on how to be safe online. I am not saying whatsoever that students need their phones in class. I think phones are a distraction in the class and in the outside world. I think that in the health curriculum there needs to be more of an emphasis for healthy lifestyles and this includes screen time. With the world we are living in we can’t just turn a blind eye to what technology is used for and how it can impact people’s lives. Students will need these tools in the real world.

How can we balance the challenges of our new digital reality with the possibilities that it offers?
I believe it is important for schools to offer technologies that can be useful in the classroom. Students love the ability to use technology in their own learning and to demonstrate their own learning by using technology. As teachers we need clear expectations and rules about the use of technology for not only the students but also the parents of the students so they are up to date.