Author: Cheryl Bratton (Page 2 of 4)

What safety?  Digital what?  This would probably be the way my teachers and fellow students would have responded to questions about cyber safety and digital citizenship.  Nothing is going to show my age faster than reflecting back on my school experiences with technology. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, computers and the internet were in their infancy when I was in school. We had computer labs that allowed us to do basic word processing and play a few primitive games, but surfing the world wide web, cell phones, social media and texting didn’t exist and neither did the need for us to be educated about cyber safety and digital citizenship.

Raising a daughter and educating young people in our current digital age absolutely terrifies me.  I want them to be safe and not make mistakes that will live in the depths of the internet for eternity, but I have no idea how to do it.  Instinct tells us to resort to many of the scare tactics of the past by warning them of the dangers lurking behind each swipe or click but I know those tactics are not effective.  I read a book last year, School Climate 2.0: Preventing Cyberbullying and Sexting One Classroom at a Time, that really opened my eyes to how we as educators can effectively go about educating our students with real techniques that will promote cyber safety and digital citizenship.

As Jurgenson describes in the IRL Fetish, and echoed in the Character Education for the Digital Age, separating our digital and school lives is nearly impossible and trying to do so is a disservice to students.  Instead of telling them the internet is a big bad scary place, we need to educate them on how to use it safely and effectively through the nine elements of digital citizenship.  While there is no easy answer as to how to teach this topic, one idea I found intriguing and that I would love to try is by co-creating with students a set of classroom values surrounding the use of technology in our school community.  What makes them feel safe? Unsafe? What scares them or what worries do they have?  How can we work together in our classroom community to ensure all of our members feel safe?  Perhaps in doing so students will be more invested in using technology safely and appropriately in all areas of their lives, not just at school.

The more we can incorporate technology in our classrooms and teaching and demonstrate for our students how to successfully navigate the complexities of the digital age in which they live in a responsible and safe manner, the better equipped they will be to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world. 

 We were challenged this week to try out a new digital tool or app we have never used before.  As I scrolled through the list,, one app popped out right away, Piktochart, an online app that claims to be the  latest AI powered infographic maker.   With my learning project focusing on teacher AI programs this felt like destiny and I signed up for the free version.  I also knew I would need a screen capture tool to document my exploration and initially settled on Lightshot, a google extension and that is where I encountered my first problem.

I have downloaded several google extensions and they work like a charm but while the Lightshot feather is in the toolbar it does nothing. I closed down all my browsers, tried again and nope.  Even restarting had no effect so I turned to the web where I discovered this extension has a very low rating with everyone encountering the same issue, it doesn’t work.  Rather than waste anymore time, a quick google search turned up several other options where I settled on Greenshot and oh man what a difference!  Quick download complete with directions on how to use it, literally just press the Print Screen prompt and a toolbar appears that is identical to the snipping tool on most PC’s, works exactly the same but with better quality images. After using it today I am saying sayonara to the snipping tool forever!! Now Piktochart on the other hand, not so much.

Initially I was excited about the program and chose to focus on the AI tool located in the upper left of the home screen. When you click on it, a new screen pops up prompting you to describe the topic of your infographic below which I did and clicked the generate button.

It instantly brought up several templates for me to choose from with AI generated content about teacher AI.  The template options were very limited (10) and the info generated was extremely vague and repetitive so it quickly became clear that I would definitely need to expand on it quite extensively.  

Once in the edit screen I noticed that the layout was very similar to Canva which again got me excited.  Ya that was short lived.   While editing text and images was just like using Canva, it quickly became apparent that the options for images and graphics were extremely limited without upgrading to the pro version.  What was available was very cheesy and depending on what you were looking for there were next to no good options to choose from. 

I managed to work through my infographic design highlighting the features of a new AI tool for my learning blog.  Once finished, I went to download my project and discovered you only get 2 free downloads.  If you need more than that, you need to upgrade so out of curiosity I had a look at the prices and oh my!! $177 USD ($233 CDN based on today’s rate)  if you sign up for a full year and pay up front compared to Canva’s $150 CDN.  YIKES!!

I wanted to check out some of the program’s other features and consider possible applications for the classroom to see if the cost would be worth it.  It does offer a variety of templates from presentations to newsletters, charts and graphs to worksheets.  But here’s the thing, the AI tool only works for infographics and you can only preview 5 templates before…you guessed it, you have to upgrade so my ability to really explore classroom applications was limited.  While there is some potential this tool could be used in the classrooms to take activities and lessons to the augmentation level and possibly even the beginnings of modification, in my opinion there are much better options out there that can take our teaching easily to the modification level and beyond.  This experience was a good reminder that as much as an app might remind us of another one, they are definitely not all created equal.

Infographic I created using Piktochart AI Infographic Generator

Growing up, we lived several provinces away from my Grandparents and if we were lucky, we would get to see them every few years.  Computers did not yet exist let alone Facebook and YouTube, so we had to rely on the telephone and photographs of our dance recitals and school plays in order for our grandparents to participate in our lives and learning about other places and cultures involved reading about them in books.  The whole new world we live in has made staying in touch and actively participating in each other’s lives so much simpler..

As Wesch described in his lecture, now with just a few clicks of a mouse or touch of a screen we can collaborate and participate with total strangers halfway across the world.  We have access to information and to people that before would have been unimaginable.  During the pandemic these platforms gave us a way to feel connected and to be with people when physically doing so was risky and at times, illegal.  In our classrooms, software such as Kahoot or learning activities such as digital escape rooms provide an opportunity to use students’ fascination with participatory culture to our advantage as a tool to engage them in learning, but not all aspects of this new culture that we see in our schools is positive.  

The ability to share information or snap a photo in seconds is all too present in our students’ daily lives and school culture..  When I was in school, if you did something silly or embarrassing it would be talked about for a bit and quickly fade, but now these events are immortalized on cell phones, posted to instant messaging apps and internet sites there to be seen by people around the globe for all time.  One mistake can follow someone and affect their lives for decades, all because of the desire to fit in and contribute to this participatory culture in a digital world.  As a parent of a young daughter, there is so much about the digital age and participatory culture that terrifies me.  I don’t know how to protect her because even if we teach her about responsible use, some parents are not and so we will never fully be able to protect ourselves or our children.  I can’t help but ask myself, are the positive aspects worth the risk?

I grew up in a time that was not inundated with technology.  Computers were a new thing and internet access involved high pitch screeching tones that tied up your phone line.  I was in my 20’s when I got my first cell phone and apps didn’t exist.  Using our imagination and spending time face-to-face was the dominant form of communication.  Yes, technology has made our lives easier in so many ways, but it has also changed us for the worse.  Children now require constant stimulation and instant gratification and using their imaginations has become a thing of the past.  Companies are making billions of dollars of their ability to keep us clicking.  Working in the school system, technology is a part of my daily life, but it was also this environment that opened my eyes and changed my own daily technology use when a teacher showed grade 9 students the Netflix Documentary, The Social Dilemma.

After watching this film I became more aware of my own use and the effect it has on my and my family which is reflected as I consider my daily technology use for this post.  On a daily basis, the bulk of my technology use is for productivity tasks such as supporting students through the use of Google Classroom, Google Docs and Slides,  Edsby and Outlook or my education primarily through  UR Courses and Zoom.   I also text, check the weather and my personal email  as well as my Facebook throughout the day.  I rely on a banking app to pay bills and monitor our accounts and use the calendar on my phone to help me stay organized, although I do transfer most things to a large monthly wipe board calendar in my kitchen including appointments, events and due dates for assignments .  If it’s not on the board or in my calendar app it doesn’t exist!! 

I have made a conscious effort to limit the amount of time I spend using technology.  One way I have done this is by implementing a no technology at the dinner table rule, and to limit the use of my phone while my daughter is up to only what is absolutely necessary.  Games and social media apps I have buried on the last page of my home screen to help  limit the temptation and will only allow myself to access those apps in the evening after my daughter is in bed and my classes are done.  I will also randomly turn on the usage monitoring feature to make sure I am staying on track and I try to leave my phone in a different room in the house.  I want my daughter to have the best of both worlds, this new digital age but also the one of my youth, and what better way for her to have that than for me to lead by example in my use of technology.