Month: March 2025

At the start of the year, when I thought of coding, I thought of the thousands of lines of random numbers and letters that somehow magically program a game. Well, now that I have taken a creative technologies class and this EDTC class, I can tell my past self just how wrong I was. Coding can be super fun! Outside of this class, I have used many coding apps, such as Processing, Twine, and my personal favourite Flowlab.

Hour of Code

After looking at our options for this weeks post, I knew Hour of Code would be the most fun for me. I decided to do the Minecraft Adventurer because I used to love playing Minecraft when I was little and it’s in my hopeful teaching level of grade 2-5. When I first opened the link, it provided me with a video on how to input all the code. I decided to ignore the video to see how I would fair on my own. The first few levels were super fun and easy with moving forward, turning, and destroying blocks. The only downside to the first few levels was that there wasn’t a ‘repeat’ option, so in the one level, I had to put in the same sequence multiple times. Doable, but excessive. After that level it gave the option to repeat, which came in handy as some levels had multiple sequences that needed repeating; sometimes up to five times.

Each of the levels was incredibly fun. As it went on, it added more things like mining, creating rail tracks, and building houses. At some points, I would have to run the code just to see where I ended up and would still make silly mistakes like having the character turn right instead of left. Looking at it from a teachers perspective, this would be incredibly difficult for a grade 2 level, but a fun challenge for a grade 5. One level I think a grade 5 would have the most fun with was the last one. The last level gave you creative control, only telling you to cut down three trees and build a structure. This is where I made most of my directional mistakes, and ended up starting my building beside the designated area rather than on top. However, the level still counts it as a win, which I think would be great for a grade 5 students just getting into coding.

Overall, Hour of Code was extremely fun and I would  go back and play myself if I were to have my students play around with it. I will say that I think some of the recommended age levels are much more advanced than they make it out to be, especially if I as an adult am having trouble, even with my coding experience. I would recommend my future students to try a younger age category first (if they’re in grade 2, have them try a preschooler level first) then depending on how easy or hard it is, stay at the younger category or move up to their own. I definitely think that this type of coding would be really beneficial for students, and I would likely have them practice this in a math class. The decision making and critical thinking skills needed to do some of the codes would help students hone their abilities and strengthen their digital skillset.

Last week I explored the incident revolving around Justine Sacco and how a post that she intended to poke fun at America’s lack in Third World education became a case of “mistaken racism” that led the world on a hate train, shaming Justine with no remorse.

Cyber-Shaming and Fake News

As a result of Justine Sacco’s Tweet, she faced extreme, global, cyber-shaming. Cyber-shaming is a form of cyberbullying where it is generally more acceptable to “bully” someone. Justine, for example, faced threats and wishes for harm, such as getting AIDS, physically harmed, death, etc. In person, this would be seen as harassment, and would typically be dealt with professionally and with law enforcement. However, because Justine’s Tweet was posted online, with no way for her to defend herself against the public, she was globally shamed for something she had no ill intentions of.

Many people have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst in people. In the online community, this becomes much worse due to how easy it is to type out a thought and hit “send.” Often, people get caught on a hate-train, or form conclusions about things without properly thinking about it. This is where fake news comes into play. I was reading up on examples of fake news and came across a TikTok post that said Disney World was going to lower the drinking age to 18. The source, a random TikToker, was posting a clickbait video, aiming to get a flood of comments and shares discrediting it. However, many people believed it, and the post was sent to Facebook and other sources to share the “good news.”

Fake news is everywhere. It’s can be unharmful and as simple as writing a gag post saying that “Taylor Swift loves mangos” but you don’t know if your information is true.  However, it’s harmful fake news, and in relation disinformation, that has the world worried for internet users. This article explains how disinformation can be used to cover up certain subjects by making something unimportant or irrelevant seem important, such as bringing up “Clinton conspiracy theories more than Trump’s alleged sexual assaults and ties to Russia.” In this scenario, a publisher can spread disinformation and  hide more pressing issues.

Teaching Students how to Spot Fake News

To help my students begin to learn how to tell the difference in fake vs real news, I could have them attempt harmless game quizzes like Spot The Troll. Of course, I would use this if I were teaching a lesson about fake news and how to spot it. But students use technology all the time and in different ways, so how do I protect them and help them build digital literacy?

How is this relevant for students? Well, I want to teach elementary education, more-so grade 3-5. Let’s say I assign my fifth graders a science project/presentation where they research an animal and present to the class. One of the students might come across the Tree Octopus page, a made-up animal website created to bring awareness to fake news. Now, we would think children could tell that the page is fake – an octopus is a sea animal, it can’t live in trees! However, some students are more gullible than others, and this small, harmless bit of disinformation can show how susceptible young students are to fake news.

The Smell Test article describes how we can actively teach students to analyze news authenticity. This practice can be incorporates throughout different subject areas and alongside the NCTE framework goals. The Smell Test suggest to teach one lesson of branded content, brushing of on fake news, authenticity, disinformation and more. Provide the students with a list of examples and have them rank which ones are harmless, real, or over-the-top. When they’ve completed the lesson, a teacher can incorporate practices throughout different lessons. Like before, a science lesson could include talking about the tree octopus, and a social studies lesson could look into conspiracies vs fact regarding WW2 or civil rights movements. A way I think to incorporate it is through the books the students read. Having them read a book where the narrator is unreliable or there is a character widely-spreading disinformation could show the students a broader range of how fake news comes into play in several aspects of life.

Digital identity is a collection of information about a given person online. This can be a collection of their social media, public records, or what other people post about them. We all have a digital identity – meaning anyone who is online, including you as you read this blog. Every identity is different, and effects our interactions, feeds, and level of exposure and activity.

Carys Moffatt – Enter

When I search my name on the internet, the first few things to pop up are a collection of my online platforms along with someone else with the same name who I will call “Imposter C.” When I enter my name into Google, my blog, followed by Imposter C’s Facebook and TikTok show up. Then my Instagram, Imposter C’s Pinterest, my cheer companies website, my TikTok, etc. My Identity is inter-mingled with Imposter C’s, simply because we share a first and last name. However, our identities are entirely different. We’re both from two different places, live two different lives, and have two different online identities. The only thing we share is our name.

Someone’s identity is their name and who they are as a person. Their online identity is who they are online. Comparing my accounts to Imposter C’s.; She posts on Facebook often, I have one post. She has hundreds of TikTok posts, I have five. Her Pinterest boards are full of aesthetic designs for her house, her dream wedding, and clothes, where mine is a collection of memes of any show or movie I’ve had an obsession with.

Our digital identities are shown through the platforms we use and the amount of accounts we have on a platform. I have a second account for my TikTok for my Learning Project Posts, she only has her main TikTok account (assuming she doesn’t have a private one under a different name). The picture to the right is Imposter C.

One Account or Five?

Our digital identities consist of our platform’s. Personally, I don’t post much on my accounts, but I like to have them for entertainment and to check up on family and friends. My one friend has multiple accounts on every platform she uses so she can have an account for public, and one for private. Another friend of mine keeps it simple with only one account on his platforms, accept for TikTok, where he has five accounts. In Nicole Lee’s blog, she explains how “having multiple accounts is the norm,” and “having one account is the exception.” According to Lee, having multiple accounts on a platform takes the pressure off of having a perfect feed of social moments, and having one account is confining.

The pressure Lee referred to is seen in many teenagers. Take Madison Holleran for example. She was active on Instagram, where she only had one account. Her account was ‘perfect’ in the eyes of everyone, and they all expressed how she looked so happy online that she must be in real life too. At one point, her mother saw a picture and said she “looked happy,” but Madison firmly replied “It’s just a picture.”

Just a picture indeed. Everyone puts out what they want others to see of themselves on the internet. Madison’s Instagram was edited to make her look happy, but in real life she was depressed, and unfortunately took her life unexpectedly in the eyes of her family. The expectation for people to edit what their lives look like online forces them to try to replicate that in real life, causing depression, cyberbullying, and burn-outs.

Shaming vs Cyberbullying – They’re not That Different

Justine Sacco was made terribly famous overnight all from one Twitter post. She went from a private person to globally shamed, all while being stuck on an airplane, and after landing opening her phone to pure assault on her feed. Jon Ronson’s TEDxTalk covered her online shaming, and he posed a question that almost none of her attackers had considered; Was that what she intended? The answer is no. When asked, Justine stated that “living in America puts us in a bit of a bubble. When it comes to what is going on in the Third World, I was making fun of that bubble.” What Justine meant to be a clever dig at the lack of knowledge in America, was what Jon described as “mistaken racism,” due to society wanting nothing but to blame someone because they can, especially since it was all happening online, and Justine could not respond to the internet’s comments.

Justine’s case is an example of how extreme internet usage can be. Whether it’s internet shaming or cyberbullying, it happens everyday. Think about teenagers and children with phones. Without their brains fully developed, they make reckless decisions without thinking twice about it. Sometimes, what’s meant to be a silly post, can cause someone to be tormented to the point of suicide. In these cases, the person affected is the victim, and because it is an online platform and the rules magically change, the tormenter gets away with their acts most of the time. This standard is corrupt, and in the cases of cyberbullying and Justine’s public shaming, people should be held accountable for their words and acts, and allow people the benefit of doubt where it’s due.

Digital Citizenship is the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use. (Ribble, 2023). Everyone who has access to technology and social platforms has a responsibility to use their technology appropriately. We all actively interact on the internet every day – saving and sending Instagram reels, liking TikTok’s, commenting on Facebook groups, etc. We also censor what we say according to what platform or group we are interacting with. Most of us learned to do this as the technology and platforms we used were gaining popularity, so we always knew how to navigate them. However, as time goes on, younger people grow up and begin using technology in a world where many people scorn the thought of children even touching a cell phone. So how can we, as the influencers and teachers of these students, help them learn how to navigate digital citizenship?

Two Lives or One Life?

The current perspective regarding students and technology is for them to live “two lives;” one as the traditional, unplugged life at school, and a digitally infused one outside of school. (Ohler, 2011). The two lives perspective is, although achievable, unrealistic by today’s standards. To have the students be completely unplugged at school is hypocritical, as most school sources, especially the higher the grade gets, are completely immersed in technology. Essays, tests, and assignments were done vastly through or accompanied by technology when I was in high school, and the influence of these practices travel lower into elementary grades as teachers use YouTube videos or apps to aid their lessons. It seems unfair in many student’s and parent’s eyes to allow teachers to implement technology use when they want, even when the school is to be seen as an unplugged area.

This brings into place the implemented phone bans in schools due to student cell-phone use skyrocketing after COVID-19. These phone bans, even when enforced with fierce consequences going against the ban, have only created sneaky students. Many students these days hide their phones in their bags, going off to the bathrooms to check Snap Chat or Insta Stories. Even then, most kids get phone upgrades, and can put fake phones in the bin at the start of class. Ultimately, the phone ban is unnecessary, and even when enforced is not followed without student rebellion.

This is where a “one life” perspective comes into play. The one life perspective is where we allow students to have an integrated life by inviting technology into school, and talking about it in context of a community. Teaching students how to healthily manage their technological lives and balance it with their realities is essential in creating intelligent adults out of these students. Our world is changing, along with it, technology and its impact on people’s lives. As educators, it is our responsibility to teach the students safety regarding technology.

The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship

The Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship are designed to lead and assist others in building positive digital experiences while recognizing that actions have consequences to others and allowing participation in a manner for common good. The nine elements are:

1. Digital Access
2. Digital Commerce
3. Digital Communication and Collaboration
4. Digital Etiquette
5. Digital Fluency
6. Digital Health and Welfare
7. Digital Law
8. Digital Rights and Responsibility
9. Digital Security and Privacy

Teaching students these elements will ensure their ability to interact and be a positive member of Digital Citizenship. Focusing at least one lecture on each of the themes is vital to prepare students for social media interactions. Approaching the areas can be done in a number of ways, and ensuring the students get on the right track and understanding of these themes can be discovered through the Digital Citizenship Continuum. One way, of many, that we can teach students the importance of any of the themes, say for example Rights and Responsibilities, is by giving them scenarios that happen every day, such as giving them a sheet of “comments” on a media post and having them cut out and organize them into groups on which comments are respectful and which ones course on cyberbullying or irresponsible. Giving students realistic examples will help them face these situations while navigating technology.