I was given a task by The Strong Studio to complete a week challenge with creating a video about the most impactful thing I learned from participating in a Top Droppers Challenge. I chose to use TikTok to create the video because it fit so well with my final project. Here are some of my reflections on this video: there was a lot of frustration with having to go back and redo the video because I kept making mistakes, or waiting till words came back around so I could set the text duration and I couldn’t get my timing perfect on the end to stay a bit longer so a person could read the last little bit without having to pause. My daughter offered a piece of advice afterwards to keep my text font the same so it would be easier to read; I agree with her 100% but I also wanted to use this opportunity to play with fonts specifically for this class. Overall I had a blast creating this longer video but it took A LOT of time (almost 2 hours in just putting it together not actually recording), A LOT of editing and clipping videos to make them shorter, and not to mention trying to record myself in the middle of a trainer led workout where I was trying to get a good workout in was something else all together, etc. I was surprised at the effort that needed to go into my very amature creation and I have a lot more appreciation for the people who create very flawless (to me) looking TikTok videos, and man the tools they must have to get everything perfect!
This TikTok was created with a lot of support from my daughter! Check on the link below!
Yep that’s me, I am the dummy!! I decided to do some beginners “research” on how to use TikTok aside from enlisting my daughter to help and offer feedback on my videos; she has been a great resource to have but sometimes she is not interested in helping me so I turn to Youtube. Although something suspicious may be going on here….she doesn’t have TikTok yet so this makes me wonder how she knows all the things… (I need to investigate that later). Youtube is so helpful sometimes and this is one of those times. I watched this video below and then I put it into practice, the focus is going to be on sound and effects; although I have played with it before in other videos, this is where I finally understood what I was doing and not necessarily going in blind.
Common Sense has provided a privacy evaluation on TikTok where it evaluates the safety, privacy, security, and compliance of the platform. TikTok is labelled as “warning” with 60% and does not meet their recommendations for privacy and security practices. It goes into more depth around data collection, data sharing, data security and rights, data sold, ads & tracking, parental consent, and school purpose.
Common Sense is once again proving how valuable of a tool it can offer to both educators and this time parents. Common Sense has put together a comprehensive guide to navigating and understanding the app. There review includes but not limited to a description of TikTok, how safe it is, recommended ages and appropriateness for children, how to make videos private, delete videos, parental controls (this was relieving to see), TikTok security, and other topics.
Common Sense has provided a privacy evaluation on Edsby where it evaluates the safety, privacy, security, and compliance of the platform. Edsby passed with 87% which means it met their minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Digital citizenship in schools is very much like the Woody and Buzz meme; it’s there and some teachers are excited to explore it, share it with others, take on this becoming more apparent need of curriculum and others are terrified like Woody. Not sure where to start, never even heard of the concept, see it as completely foreign planet.
Are there Roles?
Technically yes for my grade level, which until I did not realize till I went “digging” into my curriculum looking for it, I found it under my health which makes perfect sense; Understanding, Skills, Confidences, 4.4 Determine basic personal responsibility for safety and protection in various environments/situations. Within the indicators I located many that tie into cyber safety, cyber etiquette, responsible use of electronic networks. However the indicators are not the mandatory parts to which we need to teach so teachers have the professional autonomy to decide how to best meet the outcome and unfortunately if they are the Woody they will not choose to venture down the digital citizenship side of things. This I don’t see as a “bad teacher” shaming moment, I see this as an opportunity for the serious need for professional development that needs to be provide to all teachers; Gerry discussed this in his articles he shared last week. I am a Woody who is venturing out to the Buzz Lightyear side, exploring a whole new planet that I knew existed but was afraid and uneducated not only about the importance this area needs to be taught but uneducated in how to teach it (insert-this is why I am back taking my masters, I have this need to keep learning).
In our school I do not see any ongoing practices currently in place that focus around digital citizenship. I see our upper grades immersing themselves into Edsby for finding assignment directions, worksheets, and submitting work but I am not hearing about any learning that has to do with Mike Ribble’s 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship. Occasionally we will have our Community officer come into classrooms to give presentations based around posting of private pictures online, online bullying, and giving personal information to strangers BUT this happens once and then it is not talked about again; almost like a check mark made on a list and now it’s done.
Envisioning the Future
So much work needs to be done that I see a serious need for a collaborative approach. Something that needs involvement from our division team and administration. We need the division to provide learning opportunities and guidelines to teachers; a supplemental curriculum prepared and approved with appropriate learning materials that are easy to use, low prep, blackline masters included, grade level appropriate, and ties into present curriculum. Common Sense Education already has much work already done, and Durston has already offered many other websites that would make putting together such learning materials less daunting. I would like to be apart of that change.
But for now…
I have already taken on the suggestions and resources mentioned by classmates and I have presented to my principal about having our SCC host a parent night based around social media and children. Teaching parents how to support the learning of their children in this digital age. I feel I may become an advocate and encourager for our school to transition towards the inclusion of teaching digital citizenship; my principal was very excited to present this idea to our SCC.
In my classroom I am going to be creating a new unit based on the indicators USC 4.4 that have a strong digital citizenship presence. This past week we focused on Anti Bullying lessons and I had included “The Power of Words” from Common Sense that “Help(s) your students build empathy for others and learn strategies to use when confronted with cyberbullying”. It was very user friendly and I felt was a great way to begin this new unit. The feedback I received from my students was so positive and left me feeling empowered to continue with it, and feeling that it is possible even with 8 and 9 year olds.
Below are health curricular connections I have located for each grade that can connect to teaching of digital citizenship; there are more I only included one per grade
Grade 1 & 2- No direct connection to any use on media
Grade 3- USC 3.6– Distinguish between examples of real violence (e.g., schoolyard fights, shaking a baby, bullying) and fictional violence (e.g., cartoons, world wrestling entertainment, video games) and determine the influence of both on health and well-being. Indicators (a), (d), (e), (f), (g)
Grade 4- USC 4.4- Determine basic personal responsibility for safety and protection in various environments/situations. Indicators (a), (b) ,(d) ,(f), (i), (j)
Grade 5 USC 5.3- Analyze how infectious diseases (including HIV and Hepatitis C) and non-infectious illnesses/diseases challenge holistic well-being. Indicator (a), (b), (c) & USC 5.4- Analyze the connections between personal identity and personal well-being, and establish strategies to develop and support a positive self-image. Indicator (k)
Grade 6- USC 6.6– Develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and personal standards necessary for establishing and supporting safe practices and environments related to various community activities.
Grade 7- USC 7.1– Establish and use strategies to commit to and act upon personal standards (see grade 6) for various aspects of daily living over which an individual has control.
Grade 8- ** No direct connection
Grade 9- USC 9.2 **But not very direct-Analyze how the well-being of self, family, community, and the environment is enhanced by a comprehensive, community approach to safety.
Grade 10-12- No Health curriculums
It seemed to be that there are only brief moments throughout health curriculum where the possibility of digital citizenship could be included, it gets very sparse as our students got older which seemed odd to me but shows there is much room for growth.
We are asked to blog about our digital identities in reference to my past, present, and future, along with my own children’s identities, I will focus mainly on my present knowing that my past and future still play a huge role.
Thinking about digital identity is complex, it is considering and analyzing where I am leaving my digital fingerprint and what it says about me and what I am already leaving about my children.
To preface part of my discussion I want to start with this video:
Present:
I know we have all fallen to some of these password protection errors and some point. I am noticing the increase in digital identity protection in multiple areas of my personal and work life. When I think of my identity I think of protecting it and how much of a headache this can be at times. Which leads me to yesterday… oooh yesterday… I hope you enjoy the humor in this or you can make a connection. Yesterday, I wanted to get into my account on CRA, you know many of us head to this site once or twice a year, tax season and all. I just needed to check one small thing, see if a tax document was available yet. Do you think that I remembered all the information needed to get onto my account? Nope. Here I was running around my house looking for this document for a number, finally getting on and then realizing I did not change my address and now I have locked myself out of my account due to a security breach and need to contact CRA to get back in. Once I authenticated my identity with the nice lady on the phone I was now needing to regain access to my online account which required bank information, address, birth date, last years income tax number line XXXX, then I had to enter in my phone number, get an 2 factor authentication number to enter and then finally I was able to access my account only to realize I need another number to gain full access to my account which will be sent in the mail. SERISOUSLY??? I appreciate protecting my identity but UGH. Then I had to make my way to the Canada Student Loan website as well which has similar identity protection set up. In my personal life I access many websites and without using a password saver there would be huge amounts of frustration and tons of password resets.
Work has also recently increased its protection and now requires us to authenticate ourselves when logging on to a variety of multiple different platforms (for example Edsby). This again helps with protection but comes with inconvenience and requires that I have access to my phone to get that special code. If it was not for my smart watch that I can see the text message on I could spend precious teaching moments looking for my phone which could be in my lunch kit in the staff room fridge (yes it has happened, more then I want to admit), in my car, my purse, my jacket, on my desk, on the back table where my son was playing on it before school, etc. Authenticating myself throws me off sometimes, it makes me feel unprepared and scattered, but more importantly it can interrupt the flow of my teaching and I let my frustration show sometimes. However I am evolving and learning from this class and I should take these moments and turn them into teaching moments about the importance of digital identity. The teaching moment is literally presenting itself and I should be seizing the opportunity to use it.
A reflection on something Alec said…
Alec said to think about if you were to die and your last 3 posts define who you are as a person, what does that say about you? So let’s take a look:
Based off of my 3 last posts on Twitter and my last 3 posts on Facebook in my comments let me know who you think I am? What does my digital identity in these posts say who I am? Be honest with me! I won’t be offended (much haha).
My present identity in these platforms are very different then each other. They each show a side of who I am, sides of myself that I am willing to share; pieces of my digital identity. It has definitely evolved over time but through its evolution I am becoming more aware of the fingerprints I am leaving behind. I am also becoming more aware of the fingerprints of my children that I am leaving behind; I did not give that a second thought but I sure am now.
My focus thus far on my major project was on TikTok but for this post I wanted to shift my attention over to the second app I will be diving further into; Edsby, and how the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship fits here.
“ Digital Access is about the equitable distribution of technology and online resources. Teachers and administrators need to be aware of their community and who may or may not have access, not only in school but at home as well. Educators need to provide options for lessons and data collection such as free access in the community or provide resources for the home.” https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html
Digital access is the first element of digital citizenship and the first that I wanted to discuss. When the shift was made to Edsby for parents to see their students digital portfolio, enter absences, see students grades, have access to report cards, etc. This was seen as through the eyes of privilege. We discuss throughout our university classes (undergrad & graduate) the privilege that many of us have, we become very aware of this, it is drawn out of us. Thinking of this brings me to my last class with Dr. Twyla Salm where we discussed so many versions of privilege; racism, ableism, sexism, and heterosexual normative discourses and I see that accessibility to technology could easily find a spot here too. It is wrong to assume that parents always have access to internet , that phones are never disconnected, or that parents have access to a computer. I bring up computers in particular because Edsby works better on computers then on a phone, so if you want full access to your child’s learning or the many other things Edsby can offer you need a computer. To have a computer, a cell phone and reliable access to the internet is privilege, an assumption that most have both. Full disclosure here, until beginning my masters I have not had a computer in my house in years; I didn’t need one at home. So if not in my masters my only option for checking on my own children’s work on Edsby or having full access to what it offers parents would be through my work computer. But what if I wasn’t a teacher, what if I was a mom working at a job that did not have computer access, I guess I would miss out on some stuff hey? But no big deal I probably would not know what I was missing out on anyways.
“We need to know our community and be aware of who may not have access at home as well” so how does Edsby then support this? It does not. As mentioned above there is a scaled down version on the phone app but that does not address those who have lack of cell phone data. There is definitely some work that needs to be done here; I have brought it up a few times to administration and others.
The second element of citizenship that I will focus on is digital communication and collaboration whichis the electronic exchange of information. For students this is great, they are able to see their marks in real time, and in the older grades their assignments are/can be assigned on here. I have yet to dive more into this but my daughter and her teachers use them frequently and they both seem to understand and engage in the platform with ease. When it comes to parent access to this form of digital communication I focused on the negative above which still applies here but for the parents who do not meet the criteria above and are using Edsby it is a good platform to show parents their child’s work through the learning story, or to see school newsletters etc. I appreciate checking in on my daughters grades, seeing if they were handed in on time but also seeing the areas she struggles in or is thriving in; it opens up the conversation at home more. However part of being able to share this information is also being able to understand it; and for some of my schools cliental we have ESL families who speak/read little English and therefore understanding the Edsby app would be very difficult to navigate let alone being able to read the messages. This is an area Edsby could provide a better service in to make is more accessible to other languages so communication can occur.
The third element I would like to talk about is digital fluency in relation to Edsby. As a parent I am able to easily navigate the program and see what it is intended for. I like that I can promote comments and show good digital citizenship by leaving comments on my child’s learning story posts. As a teacher I am doing the bare minimum that the program can offer, I do my attendance, enter grades, upload work to students learning stories. I have taught my students to find their grades, locate their learning stories, and taught them how to leave comments or upload their own work (thanks to our Tech Ed guy he opened this up for me last month). I would like to become more digitally fluent in the app and thus my students can become more fluent as well. To increase my students fluency in the app and for students who are younger then grade 4 I strongly believe there needs to be a elementary version or platform created; I find the layout too advance for our younger learners; and as it stands right now it appeals to more advanced students. Which I am not sure why the Edsby website appears to show that it is actually child friendly with a space theme background but that is truly not the case at all. Take a look at the pictures below; it is misleading to me.
Edsby website design (looks exciting, inviting for younger children)
Actual Student View (for all students)
There is definitely more that needs to be done to meet the 9 elements of digital citizenship within the Edsby platform. The first is to examine the place of privilege and second the ease of use for the younger cliental. This meme below speaks to many different levels.
First the makeup! Ah so what I noticed is there wasn’t any description in the video, no suggestions on colour palette, suggested brushes; notta. My goodness the speed of the video was fast and when I was recording myself I was trying to keep up but eventually got a bit behind.
The logistics of setting up a video to be as “professional” as the people in the videos requires many other things I am sure, things that I did not have… like this stand; I bet that is useful.
You can by this on Amazon for a decent price (if you are in to that sorta thing)
After creating my video, I learned that I could put the videos together back to back but I have not quite figured out how to make them go side by side yet and be in sync with each other. That will be learning for another day. I tried adding music but then in cut my video and I could not get that to work but hey, I dipped my toes in a little further today…
Now to talk about the result of such make up tutorial; lets just say I think I will stick with my own makeup regiment for now; I felt like when I was done I had the look of “I worked on cars all day and had grease marks left on my face” all probably due to not blending properly, not using the right brush, and so forth. Watch below and have a laugh, I sure did.
Now the Hair Tutorial
I am so jealous of those girls who seem to be able to rock the messy buns, make them look perfect, heck lets be honest all the ladies out their who have kick butt hair styles, know that I am jealous!!! So maybe getting into some TikTok tutorials on hair styles might be a great way for me to learn. The video I watched and mimicked had a hair dresser doing it so clearly they have the advantage and my sister (a hairdresser) can’t come over because I’m self isolating so I gave it the “old college try” as my husband says.
I was unable to get the videos to directly embed here so I left the link instead. I also have the videos set up as private so I do not know if you will be able to see them let me know though!
So I added the TikTok app… It asked me to select some of the thing I am interested in so I selected a few. After creating my account and using Facebook to log in it now asks me to follow some of my friends that are on TikTok; I bypassed that option for now.
My first set of videos (is that what they are called?) I have listened to are pretty funny! They were comedy ones that came up right away about married life; made me giggle! My second set of videos were some hair hacks on creating “cute messy buns”. Stay tuned for tomorrows class I might give it a try; I mean I have all the time in the world right now being in isolation for the next 5 days so why not right?
