Meghan LeCuyer

Over the course of the semester I have been been very active on social media, more than I usually am. I was the most active on Twitter, commenting on blog posts and creating my own blog posts. All of these sources provided me with the opportunity to get to know my classmates better, and expand my knowledge on becoming a teacher.

Twitter was not something I had used before this class, but I’m happy I had the opportunity to do so. Twitter is like any online source, it is effective when used correctly. At first I was so surprised at how many other educators are on Twitter. I tried to comment on my peers post everyday as well as share some resources but there were some days were I was too busy to do so.

My Twitter Profile

At a first glance of my profile, you get the basic info on me. I’m a future teacher, I’m a horse girl and you can see my pronouns.

Twitter feed

Twitter feed

Here are some examples of my peers reacting to my posts. The list can continue for a long time – or you can view my Twitter here.

Twitter posts

Twitter posts

And here are some examples of the Tweets I have retweeted. My favourite thing about using Twitter was getting to see how some of my classmates would implement certain techniques into the classroom. It’s so great to see what works effectively and what doesn’t.

Blog posts is where I got to share my thoughts about our weekly discussions and my journey of yoga. I liked reading my classmates posts on the weekly discussions as they offered a different viewpoint than my own. It was also nice to give my peers encouragement on their learning projects.

Edusites activity

Here is a small example of what shows on my edusites page. From this you can see some of my most recent blog posts and what posts some of my peers have commented on.

Comment

Comment

Comment

Here are some examples of the comments I made. I tried to comment on as many blog posts as possible.

My blog posts

My blog posts

Here you can see all the posts I have made. It took me a little bit to get used to blogging but now I almost think of it as writing a letter to myself – it is just a way of putting down my thoughts.

Record Sheet on Comments I’ve Made I did my best to keep a record sheet on the all the comments I made. It is very vague but it gives an idea on how active I was on social media.

Although this course was online, there was still lots of opportunity to be interactive with my peers. I believe we can always learn something each other, especially when we are in a group like this. We are all different ages with different backgrounds. I know that I am walking away from this course with a whole new perspective of social media and just how beneficial it can be.

To me, seeing of something is a scam or fake news is just natural. I’ve never really been “taught” about fake news, but rather just grown up in an era of social media where this kind of thing is just common sense. However, I do see the importance of teaching fake news and scams to students. I think it would be best taught in its own course, however it can be implemented well into the Health or Social Studies curriculum. Unfortunately, it is something that will probably need to be taught each year, as technology and scammers evolve. By the time students graduate, they should be fluent in how to find true academic sources and how to beat fake news.

I like this Fake News Article because it includes diagrams as well as the explanation behind the diagrams. The author gives multiple examples of why fake news is spreading and how it can get so easily spread. The main reason is that people share without checking. As people, we are more inclined to believe something that aligns with our views (I do it all the time without realizing it).

A second resource I would use with my students would be a video. Lets be honest, are students really going to pay attention when reading some article? In this digital era, we all want to watch videos instead of reading. I like this video because it aligns closely with the article I chose to share. And this video uses a very real example, the Covid vaccine.

And lastly, I would test what my students learned with a quiz. This Break the Fake Quiz is very in depth, I got half the answers wrong! One key element I noticed is that most of the posts were fake, although some of them looked very real. Plus, fun online quizzes are always a great way to get students excited about what they are learning.

As a student myself, it is very important that I know how to find credible, academic sources (which can be very difficult). There are way more non academic sources (that are easier to read) than there are academic sources (which can be wordy and difficult to read). It can be hard to know what to believe in this world making it so important that we do our research before sharing it or referencing it in our work.

Coding is not my cup of tea. I honestly don’t know how people do it. I used the draw feature on code.org and it took me a couple days to figure out (I would get frustrated and give up). However tonight, I was able to create something.

Photo By Me

I mostly just created a series of lines, I get too frustrated when I try to add more things into it. Once I figured out that I had to adjust the pixels by which the character is moving by it got easier.  I still don’t totally understand the purpose of coding but I think with a little more exploring I could figure it out.

Photo By Me

With the knowledge that I have right now I still don’t see coding to be useful within the classroom. All I can picture is frustration. I know one of the arguments to include coding within the classroom is that it teaches students how to work through their problems but they get that in everyday teachings to begin with. I think it would be most helpful being taught in a computer science course and possibly math and science.

I noticed on code.org that there was a game about forests fires. When I clicked on it, the game actually provided me with a ton of information on human-made forests fires and how they are put out. I see the benefits of games like this – that have educational content. But I struggle to see the importance of coding and minecraft (the example we did in class).

I’m sure my opinion will change as I continue my education and gain field experience. However, at this point of time I don’t see the importance of coding other than for fun.

I decided to focus on the digital citizenship in grade 8. My first thought was to look Health Education. After a quick glance and not seeing anything directly related to digital citizenship I looked at Career Education and Social Studies. At this point I realized that digital citizenship is something that does not have its own goal, outcome or set of indicators.

I believe that digital citizenship would be best taught in Health Education. Looking at the existing curriculum I think that digital citizenship best fits under outcome USC 8.4 and 8.5. Both outcomes have indicators reflecting experiences one might have on the internet. USC 8.5 indicator A focuses on body issues which many teenagers struggle with.

In an ideal, world digital citizenship would have its outcome and set of indicators. Technology is becoming such an important part of our world and we often don’t realize or understand the impacts that the internet can have on youth. A common example we use is teaching students how to send an email. We often say it is like writing a letter, but the younger generation has never needed to send a letter. If we’re teaching students how to properly write an email, shouldn’t we be teaching them about other sources in the internet?

I am a firm believer that we need to teach students how to navigate the internet safely. Telling them to stay off the internet won’t be effective. Technology is so apart of our world today and it is not possible to just “stay off the internet.” It is vital that students, as well as the elderly and everyone in between know how to use the internet safely. The internet can be used for many great things, let’s just make sure that it does not get abused by the wrong person.

Photo by Fox on Pexels