Monthly Archives: November 2024

Digital literacy, beyond the classroom.

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Andrea and Dustin presented this week on how we can foster a culture of lifelong learning in digital citizenship that extends beyond the classroom. The article provided by Andrea, Empowering the Future: How Digital Literacy in Schools is Shaping the Next Generation, discussed the importance of digital literacy in school for reasons such as

  • preparing students for the digital world – this has become a common theme throughout our discussions. We know students are surrounded by technology and digital media.
  • numerous benefits and skills to prepare for the workforce  such as understanding how to communicate and collaborate, access a wealth of information, and potentially coding and programming skills.

The article provided by Dustin, Digital Literacy: The Most Valuable Tool for Lifelong Learning also highlights the importance of digital literacy skills in your professional life, such as

  • Digital etiquette
  • Digital security
  • Project collaboration

As discussed in a previous week, when integrating digital literacy skills into our teaching, we should be looking at ways to incorporate those lessons and skills into what we are already teaching, vs a stand alone unit or lesson. This fosters the idea of life long learning by providing project based experiences in whatever subject it may be, where students can use the digital tools. I think this ties into the work by Wes Fryer and his various projects he has shared.

When thinking about lifelong learning in digital literacy, I personally am not sure simply adding it into our curriculum is not enough – because we’ve mentioned it before – I think the amount of stuff on teachers’ plates as is may mean that they skip over those digital literacy skills, or maybe they do not have the resources readily available. Maybe it is also a technology equitability piece that is difficult to navigate. Either way – teachers are not and cannot be the only solution (in my opinion).

“Digital literacy education is a collaborative effort that involves not only schools but also parents and the wider community. Parents play a crucial role in supporting and reinforcing digital literacy skills at home.”

This quote was taken from this weeks article Empowering the Future: How Digital Literacy in Schools is Shaping the Next Generation as they describe ways in which the parents and community can support digital literacy skills. Thinking of my own experience this past week, I had to reach out to parents regarding sharing of passwords for our classes Epic! accounts. Although it may be minor as its ‘just Epic!’ (Epic! is an online reading app with lots of books for students to read), even after having discussions with my students about the importance of passwords (I used parts of the commonsense grade 3 lesson on passwords) we were still struggling with this. I think it is important to provide resources to parents as well to help them support digital literacy skills – we do it with reading and writing? why not for the digital world? 

AI – The dragon, or the Knight?

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This week our classmate Taylor Zerr shared information around the challenging topic of AI, and analyzing the ethics and morals when using ChatGPT. Taylor opened her presentation stating that AI is scary, which I found myself nodding in agreement with. When asked to think about AI at the beginning of this course, I too found myself thinking it was this scary, unknown technological advancement that was going to take over the world…. Do I still think it is scary? Yes. However, after spending the time throughout this course thinking critically about AI, learning more about how it truly works, and how there are benefits to us, I can feel my opinion on AI slowly changing.

Share Your Thoughts on the Future of AI! | Elektor Magazine

Image from Elektor Magazine

In the Ted Talk titled “Cheating or Learning? Walking the AI tightrope in education”, Eric Winerö discusses the concept of AI being “the dragon or the knight” when looking at AI use in education and if it is considered cheating. Teaching in the primary end, I cannot say I have had much experience with students using AI with their assignments or that it is a concern… yet. However, as I navigate my new role as a student again, as well as how I am using AI as a teacher, the main ideas presented in this video combined with the discussion questions in class have helped me gain a better understanding of the various ethical ways in which we can be using AI.

Learning loss? 

One aspect of Eric Winerö’s video that stuck with me, was that we need to recognize that learning involves overcoming obstacles, and that when we use AI to generate our product, we risk losing out on valuable learning opportunities. I liked his example of how teachers use AI to assess.  He explains that although it is tempting to simply push a button and have assignments assessed for us, a vital part of being a teacher is recognizes and being aware of the mistakes our students are making, which is often found when assessing manually.

Does that mean I think AI should not be used by teachers for assessment? Of course not. There are ways to use AI to help build rubrics, provide clarity of curricular outcomes, or providing formative feedback when time is limited, but I think the critical piece here is that we are taking the time to actually review was is being provided by AI and thinking critically whether the information accurately depicts what we were are wanting.

Chris Kennedy shared a video on his blog of teachers sharing their experience using AI (Magic School) in their classroom. This was a great way to see some more practical examples of how teachers are using AI in the classroom, but also the various levels in which teaching are using it.

Model, model, model! 

We know the concept of using AI in the classroom is complex as it depends on the context in which it is being used and will also differ between teachers. Thinking of my own experience in the classroom, I’m a firm believer of modeling and explicitly teaching everything to our students, right down to how they should be behaving in the classroom. This applies to use of technology in the classroom and how to appropriately use its features, including AI. I accidently fell into the assumption that because I have grade 3/4 students, they must know how to use iPads, because they are the ‘iPad kids’ or the ones who have been around technology their entire lives. I was rudely shaken from my unrealistic expectation when over half of my class did not even know how to turn it on. It made me realize my own assumptions with technology use and digital skills for students. This ties to the use of AI in the classroom in that we need to model how to use it ethically, such as showing students appropriate prompts to use, asking those critical questions when evaluating the content, and working through those processes together.

My takeaway

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my scattered collection of thoughts regarding AI in the classroom. My main takeaway is that the use of AI in the classroom can be meaningful and promote ethical uses, if we take the time to acknowledge our own use, model and include the students in the process, and be clear with expectations.

Fake News: Navigating Truth in a World of Misinformation

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The concept of Fake News has been around for centuries, as described by classmate Anna in her video Can We Still Trust What We See and Hear?, yet I am willing to admit that I don’t remember hearing much about Fake News and its challenges until around 2016 – likely due to the American election. Of course, as the pandemic arrived, we were inundated with more fake news. Reflecting on my past self, during the pandemic I made the decision to simply stop watching all news. At that time, I unfollowed EVERY single news page I followed on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. I refused to turn on the news simply because I felt I couldn’t figure out which news to trust and which news was “fake news”. After learning more about Fake News this week, I am aware of where my own actions could have changed, and am better aware of what term “Fake News” means.

Image from https://www.flaticon.com/free-sticker/fake-news_11474080

Fake News – What is it?

In the article provided by Lisa, Fake News Bias, I learned that the term Fake News is often being used, although it may not necessarily mean the same thing. The term “misinformation” has been more present (at least I’ve noticed it more on my social media platforms), however I was never truly aware of the various types of fake news.

The article breaks down disinformation and misinformation as follows:

From my own personal experience, I feel as though I have experienced seeing, reading, and unfortunately been someone who shared misinformation (damn you, facebook posts!) in the past. I think this is easier for my to identify and be aware of, especially in the social media world. I usually think of some of the questions discussed last week:

  • What is the purpose of this post?
  • Who is sharing it?
  • Is it relevant or recent?

Also tying it back to being a visitor or resident makes a difference. For me, I am a resident with Facebook and have watched it change and develop over the years. I am usually pretty quick to notice those misinformation posts being spread. However, on a platform that I am unfamiliar with, I may not have that same experience and know what to be looking for.

Chris shared this infographic in his video Fake News and How We Combat It. which is a great visual to see the many types of misinformation. The article Chris provided reminds us how important media literacy and digital literacy skills are when combating Fake News. “Research from the RAND Corporation and others shows media and information literacy improves critical thinking, awareness of media bias, and the desire to consume quality news—all of which help beat back misinformation. Even brief exposure to some training can improve competencies in media literacy, including a better understanding of news credibility or a more robust ability to evaluate biases.” (Lord & Vogt, 2021)

Lisa discussed in her video this week the concept of confirmation bias and the ‘filter bubble’. When researching media literacy skills last week, understanding algorithms is an idea that is quickly being added into many resources.  I remember using TikTok during the pandemic thinking “I don’t know what I clicked on to get my ‘for you’ page to this… I have to change my algorithm!” But realistically I had no idea what is actually was or how it was influencing my social media world.

How aware are you of the algorithms on platforms you use, and do you think a better understanding of algorithms would help combat fake news?

 

**Use of ChatGPT: Once again, I have used ChatGPT for a blog title. It just generates much more intriguing titles than I can come up with.