Author: Georgina Asare (Page 2 of 3)

The concept of remix as demonstrated in Everything Is Remix gave me an insight into how individuals borrow concepts from one another and create something new which they think is original but in reality, that so called new thing was influenced by someone’s idea. It was an eye opener to me, although I knew something about music remix, but I did not know it goes beyond what I know. When watching the movie, one thing that came to mind was that, if everything we do is been copied from someone then there is nothing like originality and that the artist who drag their fellow artist for legal actions against copyright issues, they themselves copied someone either consciously or unconsciously. In the education settings, the concept of remix also exists as far as educational practices are concerned since educators often borrow, adapt and combine ideas from diverse resources in order to create their own, much like an artist remixing some sounds to create new sound. These practices can evidently be seen in education.

Regarding curriculum design, I believe educators design their programs based on existing and established theories and models which are resources developed by someone. For example, open educational resources (OER) are mostly adapted to suit the unique learning needs of a specific classroom. By copying or remixing these resources and materials together, educators can make curriculums that will resonate with the diverse student population as it ensures that the core academic standard will be maintained. This practice supports the principle of remixing that curriculum designing is not entirely something new but is dependent on the synthesis of different learning resources that aims to boost learning outcomes.

Concerning the pedagogical approaches, educators often employ variety of teaching methods, practices and strategies that will be engaging and relatable enough for their students. By employing the various methods and strategies for teaching, educators tend to copy from a lot of strategies from constructivist methods to inquiry-based learning. Educators use the works of others to purely understand the new thing they want to do by adding their own creativity. Educators may combine the traditional teaching practice with collaborative projects copied from a resource. This would create a hybrid form of teaching where student engagement would increase. This approach reflects the process of remixing principle where some strategies have been borrowed and integrated into the traditional teaching style and has created a new form of teaching practice which aligns with the evolving needs of students.

Through remix, assessment strategies by educators have evolved.  The rigid traditional examinations have been complemented with variety of assessment such as group assessment, project-based assessment and portfolios. These methods have provided a new form of assessment through the integration of copying how other educators do their assessment, other schools do their assessment, how other countries do their assessment, ensuring a holistic assessment of students learning.  In this regard, assessments will become a dynamic tool that will ensure creativity among both students and teachers unlike the traditional way of measuring knowledge of students.

In several contexts in education, copying is prohibited and seen as an offence to the extent that there are strict rules and regulations governing copying which often stigmatizes it. The regulations on copying are mostly aligned with plagiarism policies in schools. However, if copying can be seen and considered in a remix lens other than “copying” then it can be interpreted as a learning process where a student or educator familiarized themselves with something they know already before they create their own.  I think the key thing to consider when copying is the ethical consideration. For example, when a student embarks on a research project and acknowledges the resources used in the extraction of their ideas, students can therefore transform those ideas what may be seen as a replica and merge it into something critical and engaging which would add up to the existing knowledge. Personally, I think that the stigma concerning copying should be reconsidered by educators and the school at large by making students understand that it is a way of learning. Rather copying should be reconsidered so that it will enable both students and educators to have collaborations and partnership in learning with others by finding something new. With this, students would be able to learn and know more about what already exist which would serve as a foundation to be creative in transforming their own ideas because the essence of remix it to understand similarities in ideas or things, understand familiar things, make new information easy to grasp and finally to create more of the same idea but in a different way.

Consequently, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has given a different perspective on the concept of remixing both in the classroom and outside the classroom. From personal experience, AI tools enable me in curating and synthesizing series of information, therefore facilitating the creation of customized teaching learning experience in the classroom. AI makes content creation and that of educators work easier because it provides some sort of skeleton idea on what and how needs to be done. Since AI lacks the human creativity in its work, I do not think it is good to entirely use AI in your contents. As educators, I think AI had enhanced our resource compilation skills. Educators use AI tools to search and understand educational materials across different sources which makes it easy in designing programs and curriculums. Again, AI enhances both educator and students’ engagement by making them critical. This is because AI provides feedback and suggests innovative integration of contents and this help both educators and students to explore critically. This provides an insight into how remixing ideas fosters creativity among students and educators.

Outside the classroom, AI-driven remix is evidently seen in content creations on the various social media platforms particularly in artwork and music.  The algorithms in AI tools help to generate new image by combining pictures. In this case I feel if machine replicate the works of human without any ethical consideration, then there is a violation of right of ownership regarding that specific art designed. The emergence of AI in content creation and how we heavily rely on it makes me feel this generation have lost our power of creativity and critical reasoning because there are instances where you would see a blog with its pictures and written content been generated by AI and this makes me very sad because I wonder what makes us human different from the machines if whatever we share does not have any form of feeling or emotions attached to it.

In conclusion, remixing in education is not just a replica of ideas but rather an act of discovering new ideas and being innovative. Educators as remixers who continually to adapt and integrate ideas from other people to form a new idea to help in learning experience and this is phenomenal effort to be dynamic in teaching. This helps to challenge the stigma associated with copying as educators can foster an environment where copying can be seen in the lens of remix, which can be considered as a learning tool. This would enhance the creativity in students as they can bring out something unique and different to existing ideas.

Social media has become part of daily lifestyle and daily routine to the extent that we do not feel okay without cell phones. indeed social media has come to stay with us in modern society. As a result, the influence of social media on students has increased and this calls for an effort to deal with it. This transformation in digital age presents educators with opportunities like collaborative learning, virtual classes and challenges like cyber bullying, spread of misinformation and among others in the classroom. Educators are therefore needed to help to integrate social media into their teaching practices in order to promote education on digital literacy and enhance responsible online behavior.

As an educator, The Digital Citizenship in Saskatchewan Schools – Policy Planning Guide is a key strategy in approaching the issue of social media in the classroom as it highlights the significance of integrating digital literacy in all subjects and not to treat it as a single subject. Integrating digital literacy into the curriculum would enhance a thorough conversations between educators and students on issues like ethical use of social media and develop critical thinking skills among students. Educators can employ the strategy of question sessions with students on social media by asking what they understand by social media, the apps they use, how they use those apps and how they balance it with their studies. When educators employ this, it will be easy to figure out how students understand social media and what they use it for. This will inform educators a lot on what students are going through on social media.

The documentary on the social dilemma was just a reminder of surveillance capitalism to me because it highlighted the the addictive nature of social media platforms which aims to increase user engagement at the expense of users’ mental wellbeing in order for tech companies to gain profit. Balancing the opportunities and risks on social media, it has the potential of enhancing learning through collaborative projects, discussion forums, and online classes.  I think educators can help students to use these social media platforms in a healthy way. This can be done by sensitizing students on the need to set a boundary for social media use at certain time and reflect on digital overload by assessing what they watch and how it impacts them mentally, physically and emotionally through the comments they read and the contents they watch on their feeds. Do students feel manipulated or engaged? Such questions would bring some awareness to students on their digital lifestyle.

strategies: Tech-free periods can be employed as a strategy to encourage students to have breaks from online and social media and reflect on their studies.  Guided discussions as a strategy will enable educators to have an engaging and insightful conversations on dopamine and ethical use of technology with students.  Intentional use of  social media can also be considered as another strategy as educators can approach the issue of social media by  teaching students about privacy settings, data protection and digital footprints because the internet does not forget as whatever one shares online goes a long way on harming them if it was not a good content

The documentary on dark cloud highlighted some of the issues of cyberbullying and this reminded me countless issues concerning bullying by students in the classroom. The Digital Citizenship Continuum outlines the need for students to understand their digital rights and responsibilities. In this digital age, bullying and harassment has increased on social media and this makes it very crucial for educators to collaborate and help students navigate through this era of digital age by establishing a culture of respect and accountability.

Educators can employ the following strategies to deal with cyber bullying and harassment on social media

• Educators can Implement anti-cyberbullying policies that will highlight the consequences for bullying or harassing someone.
• Educators can also teach students to be bystanders. This strategies would encourage students to report any form of online harassment or bully. This would help to mitigate cyberbullying and harassment as it will keep students on  toes to respect each other.
•  Also, educators can approach social media issues by creating awareness on cyber bullying using real life situations to teach students the effects of actions on social media. This can be engaged through watching of documentary movies with students as part of sensitization program. Students may be exposed to physical, emotional and mental dangers associated with social media due to ill comments, negative messages and all sort of unkind words.

I found this video very insightful as it highlighted ways students can protect their sanity as far as cyberbullying is concerned. Educators can employs some of these ways in dealing with social media issues.

Furthermore, I think there should be a strong collaboration between parents and the school particularly with educators. Since students are mostly engaged with social media outside school hours, a strong collaboration with parents is very important as it will enable parents to monitor their children’s digital lifestyle in the house by probing into what their children watch, share, and listen. Parents conversations should go beyond how was your day or how was school today with their children, rather a deeper conversations on digital lifestyle like how did that comment made you feel, why was this image shared, why are you watching this video and among other insightful questions should be encouraged and even get normalized in the homes. Strategy employed is hosting seminars and workshops for parents on digital literacy would help to bridge the gap between school and the home. This would enable a unified approach in dealing with social media issues.

Finally, to achieve digital citizenship in the classroom, there should be professional development training for educators to always keep them updated with digital knowledge to be able to impact their students. Development trainings can focus on social media trends, privacy laws as well as a well-designed educational technology that would enable educators to create sound policies and lessons to enhance the ethical use of social media.

The digital age has shaped the world to an extent that almost all our everyday activities are dependent on digital; from banking, communication, agriculture, marketing, entertainment and education. In the education industry, digital has profoundly influence teaching and learning for both students and teachers. As educators, it is important to understand our role in this digital age as guiders to our students and as facilitators of knowledge.

Memes in Education: In this digital age, memes have become a rampant form of communication which allows users to express ideas, express feelings and engage in issues. Memes are appealing and its often used among the younger generation because of its graphical representation which gives a pictorial view of what a user implies. As meme has become part of digital communication, it raises an alarm to questions its place in the educational space. In the educational space, memes can serve as a potential teaching tool where educators can use it to make abstract topics or subject more relatable to students. For instance, a study highlights that memes can demonstrate a visual accounts on historical events or social theories in ways that students can easily understand and grasp. A well created meme about Karl Marx’s theory of class struggle, for instance, can give a clearer and more detailed explanations on the theory to enhance a deeper understanding for the students.  Again, assignments on meme creation by educators to student can enhance students’ ability to engage with course materials as they will critically have to synthesis course readings so they can capture the key points in a particular topic or subject to create the meme. Personally, I think meme can also be a tool to engage students in the classroom when students feel boredom and have low energy in the classroom, funny memes yet educative can be shown to the students to get their attention in the classroom. However, some of the memes are full of irony which can be misinterpreted by students if they are not guided. A study by (Kellner & Share, 2007).  urges educational institutions and educators to embrace teaching of digital literacy so that they can help students to critically analyze and understand memes and guide student on the use memes as far as digital learning is concerned.

Participatory Culture

In the space of participatory culture in education, platforms like YouTube, and Wikipedia coupled with the emergence of TikTok have immensely increased the production of knowledge and its sharing. Concerning participatory culture, users which includes students and teachers, do not only feed on those knowledge, rather they actively create new contents, remix and interpret those contents. The milestone in knowledge production and acquisition challenges the traditional notion on authority on knowledge where textbooks and school libraries were the sole gatekeepers regarding knowledge. This shift challenges traditional notions of knowledge authority, where textbooks and academic institutions were once the sole gatekeepers of knowledge information (Jenkins, 2006). These platforms enhance education by making learning more flexible, relatable, convenient, accessible and easily for students which will enhance their engagement in classrooms because they may be familiar with certain topics or subjects, they came across on these platforms. For example, students can learn and grasp difficult scientific concepts which looks so abstract through YouTube tutorials on the topic in question. TikTok also give students an insight into different cultures and perspectives through the videos students watch which I believe gives a deeper understanding on the realities in societies. Again, Wikipedia promote collective intelligence, where knowledge is always refined and reshaped through user contributions. However, the open nature of participatory culture creates the spread of misinformation as there are no restrictions on what has to be posted on these platforms. In spite of this, an article on Net Smart: How to Thrive Online  urges educators to assist students so they can develop the necessary skills to critically evaluate and analyze the contents they come across and know how the algorithms work on these platforms. This will shape their understanding to know the differences between reliable contents and unreliable contents.

Concerning the rapid growth in information sharing, misinformation  and AI generated contents, educators can play a key role by ensuring teaching media and digital literacy. An article titled Critical media literacy is not an option highlights the need for educators to teach students how to verify information, cross checking of sources and manipulative mechanism used online. Activities like fact-checking exercises, media biases analysis and discussions on ethical use of AI will equip students and keep them on their toes so they can successfully strive through the digital world. Furthermore,  Net Smart: How to Thrive Online  highlights how AI tools like chat GPT, Co Pilot and among others can be very useful and valuable resources in education by making leaning easy for students as they could explore on various concepts being thought in school. However, students should be educated on the implications of using AI (plagiarism).

In conclusion, the emergence of digital culture presents both opportunities and challenges in education however, teachers are encouraged to teach students the pros and cons on the usage of these digital cultures. Through intense sensitization on digital literacy in schools, students can critically use and share knowledge on these digital platforms with little to zero harm. Personally, I believe educators role goes beyond their subject delivery in the classroom, rather they are mentors to the students and as mentors, we need to equip our mentees with the necessary skills and knowledge in other to strive successfully in this digital age.

The cell phone restriction policy in the classroom in Saskatchewan has sparked numerous conversations and as a concerned educator, I would like to add my voice to the subject of discussion concerning the benefits and the drawbacks on the policy.

From a teacher’s point of view, the restriction of cell phones in school from kindergarten to grade 12 has its advantages and disadvantages. Teachers usually struggle with students in classroom to maintain students’ attention when class is in session. When students are in class with their cell phones or smart devices, they mostly get distracted with calls, social media notifications, games and other things which are not even related to academics. By restricting the usage of cell phones during class hours, it will enhance a more focused learning experience between the teacher and students which will gradually improve academic performance. This policy will strengthen the bond and cordial relationship with teachers and students in the classroom as teachers may get the full support and attention from students during class activity.

On the other hand, it may also impede teachers’ integration of technology and innovative use of technology in the classroom as these cell phones and smart devices from students helps with quick research and academic related activities in the classroom.  However, the policy allows exemptions for students in grade 9 to 12, where teachers can seek administrative approval for cell phone use when it serves a specific instructional purpose which I think it is not fair to other students and that is not giving equal benefit to all students. If some grades are being considered, then it should work across from kindergarten to grade 12.

As school administrators are tasked with the implementation of restriction of cell phones, it requires a clear guidelines and enforcement mechanisms which I think it will be difficult because students may definitely hide it in the classroom and find ways and means to use it. The policy mandates that school divisions establish procedures, including exemptions for students requiring mobile devices for emergency or specific learning needs which I believe will not be an easy task.

As administrators will be compelled to ensure the enforcement of the policy across classrooms without making room for unfairness, administrators will therefore need to provide relevant support for teachers in other to handle this transition smoothly. Additionally adjusting with the new provincial directive is a very complex process that needs careful consideration.

For students, the restriction would enable them to have a full concentration in class, pay attention in class and also participate in class activity without getting distracted with cell phone notification or a message from a friend.  This will eventually help them to perform well.

One may argue that students use their cellphones in taking notes and doing some research in the classroom, but a study shows that students retained more information when they are not distracted by mobile devices during lectures and class hours.  Students again may feel the restriction as a way to deny them to access academic resources or have an emergency communication as their cell phones and smart devices serves as a tool for such function. In as much the policy may have some considerations for grade 9-12, I do not think it will fully address student’s grievances and concerns over the ban of cell phones in the classroom.

From a parent’s point of view, I believe they may appreciate the restriction of the use of cell phones in classroom because it would create a conducive environment for their children without any distraction while class is in session. Some of the concerns like inappropriate contents for their children, the impacts of screen time and even with mental health from parents may reduce.

However, parents mostly rely on these cell phones to communicate with their children, particularly on emergency cases. Despite the policy stating that each school division should be responsible for communicating with parents and students during emergency time, I think parents may not be able to get a real time and quick communication from the school concerning an emergency with their children which may compel parents to adjust their expectations.

With my personal experience, I did not use cell phone or smart device during my basic school through high school back home (Ghana) and I must say it helped me a lot. It made me stayed focus in class, paid attention and also had a good relationship with my teachers. It can clearly be seen that the restriction is seeking to address the concerns of distractions in the classroom while lessons are in session. Nevertheless, this policy raises the concerns of the role of technology as technology is something that we live with it in this modern era. I think the stakeholders, the government and the school management can come together and refine the policy by chipping in some allocated time for the use of cell phones and smart devices in class, because I believe the skill to efficiently and effectively use smart devices is very essential in this twenty first century where technology is leading the world. I think the students rather need guidance on how to use these smart devices and cell phone.