Category Archives: Education

Fake News: Navigating Truth in a World of Misinformation

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.

The Ongoing Relevance of Media Literacy in a Digital Age

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This week our guest speaker was Andrew McLuhan. He brought forward the work of Marshall McLuhan and discussed the 4 laws to media. Understanding the history behind media and how we have come to media literacy or digital citizenship studies helps to see where we may be headed, as well. The 4 laws to media were as follows:

Enhance: enhances some human function.
Obsolesce: obsolesces a previous way of achieving that function.
Reverse: When pushed to the limits, new media will reverse it’s original characteristic.
Retrieve: The new media brings back some features of earlier media.

I think these 4 laws of media are the starting point of a much more complex understanding of media but important to remember when looking at media literacy and what it means to be media literate in today’s world. For instance, when looking deeper at some examples of these 4 laws in a way I could better understand or in a way I could connect better, I found an article that provided some examples when looking at social media:

Enhance: online connections and non-local friendships; the image of the user of the social media site.
Obsolesce: face-to-face socialization and real life.
Retrieve: long distance correspondence; Narcissus and masquerade.
Reverses: into social isolation; online virtual life and socializing; fake identities and fake news.

We can see that McLuhan’s work continues to be relevant in today’s society with the rapid growth of technology and media. With that rapid growth comes the importance of teaching media literacy and understanding the media we are seeing.

Image from https://www.niallmcnulty.com/2021/06/why-is-media-literacy-important/

This week’s catalyst content was provided by myself and classmate Kelsey. From both resources provided, we can see the Media Literacy it a broad concept, or an umbrella term, with many pieces to it. From my research, it was apparent that media literacy skills are crucial in today’s world with the ever developing media and technology, spread of misinformation, and our overall lack of critical thinking skills. When looking through resources and various articles, I was trying to find more recent resources. Many I found were from 2020 or earlier, and although the content provided would still be relevant, I felt that media continues to change quickly, and our media literacy skills may be falling behind.

Consistent across most resources found, was the importance and ability to critically think about the media we are consuming. Media literacy educator Renee Hobbs states that there are five inter-related competencies that are now needed to participate in the digital world.

Access refers to technology skills such as keyboard, mouse and interface skills, understanding hyperlinking and digital space and using effective search and find strategies.

Analyze and evaluate refers to the ability to identify the author, purpose and point of view of a message; evaluate credibility and quality; and recognize and resist stereotypes.

Create and Collaborate refers to being able to brainstorm and generate ideas, work collaboratively to create messages using language, image, sound and digital forms like curation and remix, using feedback to edit and revise

Reflect involves examining the impact of media messages and technology tools on our thinking and actions in daily life.

Act refers to engaging in using digital and media in solving problems and at the same time take advantage of global connectivity.

Image from https://www.bathacademy.co.uk/2023/03/03/how-limiting-your-social-media-will-increase-your-productivity-2/

When I reflect on my own media literacy skills – or whether I feel I am a media literate person – I had always felt I was. However, after reading and learning about these various competencies, or even thinking about the questions when consuming media, I unfortunately think I fall into the middle ground. I have always found myself as not a strong critical thinker, and when thinking about media, I am not sure I truly take the time to think about what I am seeing, listening to, reading, etc. As highlighted in my video, there are lots of questions you could ask yourself when consuming media. There are questions geared towards understanding advertisements, news sources, social media content, and the list goes on.

As I know not everyone in the course is a teacher, I am curious about your own reflections:

If you have younger family members or friends, how do you think your media literacy skills can influence them?

**Use of ChatGPT: I am terrible at creating a blog title, so I used ChatGPT to help me come up with something! I actually didn’t like the 3 it generated for me and used a mash of them for my title.

Thank you for engaging in the discussion questions during our zoom (and for your patience with my lack of Zoom knowledge!). Here are the additional questions to reflect on:

Thinking about your media literacy skills when consuming news (our group started discussing this as well so maybe you already did):

Can you describe a time when you encountered information that seemed questionable? What steps did you take to verify its accuracy?

Thinking of your media literate skills from a social media perspective:

How has social media influenced your views on current events? Have you noticed any changes in your critical thinking as a result of your online interactions?

Digital Citizenship in Schools: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

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How can schools integrate digital citizenship into existing curricula without it feeling like an ‘add-on’?

This was the topic presented by classmates Miranda, Jenni, and Allysia this week. Reflecting on my own digital citizenship – or any media instruction – in my current role as a grade 3/4 teacher, I have been guilty of having more “one-off” lessons or units, rather than embedding it throughout the various outcomes. This has become a goal of mine this year, and although I have been able to have a few conversations with my students regarding digital citizenship that has tied into what we are already learning, I have a long ways to go.

Miranda, Jenni and Allysia shared through their videos and the resources provided, that a barrier to teaching digital citizenship is the lack of integrated curriculum, or that teachers feel they need to reinvent the digital citizenship curriculum, however, as explained in the ISTE resource Embed Digital Citizenship in all subject areas, teachers can simply “hack” the outcomes, or integrate it to what we are already teaching.

Speaking of not “reinventing the wheel”, I was aware of resources such as common sense education, however if it was not for this course, I honestly am unsure if I would have dug deep into the various lessons to find those resources. Because digital citizenship is not at the forefront of our divisions strategic plan, as well as the new technology ‘ban’, I am curious if other educators are simply putting digital citizenship on the backburner for now. In order to teach these skills, educators also need to feel comfortable with digital/media skills. Could this be another barrier? Are teachers feeling unprepared to teach the resources? I hope in the future and with the revamping of curriculum outcomes that language around digital use and technology can be more embedded in the curriculum, so that we do not have to “hack” the outcomes, but instead it would be common practice. Maybe wishful thinking?

Thinking of my own practice, I always give myself “baby step” goals each year which usually align with our divisions strategic plan. For instance, Indigenous Content and embedding indigenous ways of teaching, history, and content has been one of our goals. Each year I have slowly been increasing my own experience and adding more into my teaching practice. I feel this will be the same with teaching digital citizenship. As I am becoming more comfortable understanding the various aspects, become more comfortable with resources and scope and sequences such as Ribble’s Digital Citizen Progression Chart, I am finding myself looking for ways to include digital citizenship into our everyday lessons.

Moving forward, I am looking forward to using Common Sense Education, delving into some of our health and ELA outcomes to see where I can incorporate digital citizenship, and supporting colleges with resources as well (I’ve shared quite a few of these resources already – I think they might be getting sick of me!). Thank you to the videos and resources provided, as they show it may be easier than we think to embed digital citizenship into our curriculum, it just means we need to be willing to adjust and take the time to do so.

Leaving my comfort zone: Giving AI a try.

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This will be part 1 of my blogs this week, as I wanted to do a follow up to my previous post.

When first reading about AI and learning more about the various types, I was still quite skeptical and hesitant to really cross over from the fear side. However, since discussing it more as a class, and actually spending some more time discussing it with other colleagues, I think I am slowly leaving my comfort zone and seeing the many possibilities of using AI.

Screen Image from https://loudme.ai/

I was quite intrigued when learning about LoudMe or other song generating AI. This past week I attended a literacy PD for our division, where we were reminded that we need to be including songs, poems, etc. into our literacy instruction when possible. I am not a musically gifted human being aside from singing in my car when no one is around, so LoudMe sounded like a perfect opportunity to see what we could come up with!

Image from Maths With Mum blog https://www.mathswithmum.com/skip-counting-by-3/

To start, I thought about a few concepts I would be covering in the upcoming weeks and decided on generating a song for skip counting by 3’s.

Prompting generative AI takes practice, as I am learning, so I tried a couple different ones. It wouldn’t create a rap song for me, which I think the kids would have thought was fun, but did generate two different pop type songs. I will attempt to link them here if you wish to listen.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

I was going to try some more prompts but realized this could be a fun activity to actually do WITH my class and choose a song they want to use. We will see how that goes!

As part of my personal journey into media, I have been learning about and using the app Threads. I’ll share more information from Threads later on, but what I have noticed is the amount of teachers or educators who have been sharing ChatGTP or AI tips and tricks. I have ‘followed’ some and have some of the posts saved to give a try at a future date. I have found my overall perspective shifting this week and would like to continue trying Chat GPT or other generative AI platforms in the future.

Another realization I had this week, is that the school division I work in has created a few AI Professional Development opportunities as well. I was starting to wonder when we would start hearing more about it from the division level in regards to expectations, assessments, or accountability, and it looks like they are starting to provide that information.

We also have our Teachers Convention coming up, where I registered for “AI – Helping Teachers Teach”. I am looking forward to learning more about how it can be beneficial and going to try and go in with an open mind, while letting some of my concerns or fears regarding AI take the back burner for a bit. Don’t get me wrong – they are still there – but I’ll admit I need to extend my knowledge.

Thanks for reading!

Kathleen

Understanding Digital Citizenship, Digging Deeper

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This week we had the pleasure of listening to Mike Ribble share his research and information to our class.

“Digital citizenship is the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use.” – Mike Ribble

There were many takeaways from Mike’s presentation, as well as the readings this week, but what stuck with me was the notion that it is continuously developing, as well as the idea of empowering others to do more using technology. I found myself nodding in agreement when Mike described the differences amongst students and their abilities. You will have those who use paper and pencil with no problems, and others who could show their knowledge in different ways. His question of “Are we ready as educators? Are we ready…to accept more of that and using that to be able to show how how we understand things…” really had me thinking of my own use of technology in the classroom.

Reflecting on my own teaching practices and experience, I feel as though I am treading in the shallow end when it comes to using technology in more meaningful ways with assignments. I have tried to provide opportunities for students to create videos, cartoon creations (Chatterpix is the one we’ve used the most – I’m sure there are better ones out there!), and voice recordings to share what they have learned, however I truly feel I only lightly touch on how to use that technology in an empowering way. I’m curious for those who are teaching the younger years (ie younger than middle school) on how you may be using technology in the classroom in a deeper way?

9 Elements of Digital Citizenship

Image from Socially Savvy

Reflecting on the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship:

As I was learning about the 9 Elements, I realized that I have seen some – but not all – of these in action both at home as a parent and in the classroom.

Digital Access: A fun little fact about me is that I happened to be on maternity leave during the crazy covid year of online learning (or at least the heaviest part of it!), so I do not have the same experience as others when it comes to navigating and pivoting to the online teaching world. However, I was still teaching when schools initially closed and it was an eye opener to the realization that not everyone has the same access to technology. Even to this day, the expectation for parents and students to be using online platforms for communication with schools (ie Edsby, School Cash Online, etc) is concerning as we need to recognize that access to technology may not be the same. On the flip side to that, does this new policy of no (outside) technology in the classroom help ensure everyone has equal access to technology provided by the school? Would it help with the divide amongst peers as to who has newest devices or not?

Digital Commerce: For this element, I cannot say I have seen it in action in the classroom at the level I teach, however I have heard of older grades using technology to explore banking and budgeting activities. The other day at home I did see a SaskTel Commercial that made me think of this element, where it shows how technology could help them in business or future paths.

Digital Communication and Collaboration: As described on the Digital Citizenship website, “All users need to define how they will share their thoughts so that others understand the message.” This area I have seen in the classroom a variety of ways to help students communicate, such as using google read and write, speech to text, or translating apps for students who are struggling with language or reading/writing skills.

Digital Fluency: As part of my ELA instruction, we complete an “Advertisement” unit, where students look at various advertisements they see, and we discuss the good information given, poor information given that might just try to “hook” you in, and we also spend a lot of time identifying real life vs fake – for example, in GTA you can run people over… we don’t do that in real life.

Digital Health and Welfare: I think for me, personally, this is the one area I focus a large amount of my time monitoring and discussing with students, and my own child. As posted in my previous post , I spend a disturbing amount of time on my phone for no real reason (It’s getting better, I SWEAR!). As a mom this is something I have been more and more mindful about and have been trying to reduce screen time.

Image from Digital Citizenship

Integrating Ribble’s 9 elements:

The digital citizenship progression chart, shared by Mike Ribble, is a fantastic resource to help us understand where and how to integrate the 9 elements. While digging into the elements more, I wondered if we did have a guide like this here in Saskatchewan that I maybe just wasn’t aware about, and sure enough I found this publication from the Government of Saskatchewan with an outline for REPS from K-12. I am guessing it is not the most up to date as it refers to REPS (Respect, Educate, Protect) as Mike Ribble said was from quite a while ago. I’d be curious to see if or when updated resources like this would become available here.

As mentioned above, my digital experience as an educator is just beginning and I am hoping to use this progression chart as a way to organize and provide instruction in ways that move beyond Safety and Protection, but ways to empower students and use the digital world as a tool.