Failure provides opportunities for growth and reflection (in my case, many, many opportunities)

As an educator do you ever get the feeling that your not as effectual, prepared, or responsible as your colleagues?  When you engage in professional or academic conversations do you sometimes reflect on your past actions and wince?

I certainly do.

Depressed Havanese Dog by Nutcracker 100, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED

This week’s discourse around digital literacy provided ample time for me to relive a greatest hits playlist of botched attempts at both instructing and practicing Mike Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship.  How important is digital literacy?  According to the Government of Saskatchewan teaching digital literacy is not only essential for preparing our students to live in technology rich world, but it must be done so explicitly and purposefully within schools.  The importance of the latter point is foremost in my mind because up to this point I have made some embarrassing blunders that I intend to share with you.  Why do this?  We all have lapses and make mistakes.  I hope by examining the missteps that I have made (and bore witness to in my teaching career) we can all gain a better understanding of how Ribble’s work impacts the social and learning environment of a school.

Here we go.

The Great Phishing Expedition or “How I clicked a link and almost doomed a school system”

Fishing for Roach, by Charles Jacque, CC0 1.0 DEED

An important part of teaching is modelling the behaviour one expects from their students.  If you wish to instill values like respect, generosity, fairness, and good citizenship in your pupils you need to not only demonstrate them yourself, but they need to be reflected in the daily practices and structures of your classroom.  It does little good to preach one thing and practice another.

Was this top of mind when I logged into my school laptop a couple of years ago and opened my email client?  Not really (but to be fair at the start of the school day I usually find myself torn between the desire to consume all the caffeine in existence and hide somewhere in a janitor’s closet until the grade nines settle down).  While scanning through newsletters, homework requests, and desperate pleas to extend assignment deadlines I noticed a message from Canada Post.  Having recently ordered a package I clicked on the link (please dear reader resist the urge to strangle me through the screen), was redirected to an unfamiliar website, and thought noting of it.  Later during a math lesson my device started behaving abnormally, and being the consummate professional I am, I quickly cried out to our IT department for help.  As it turns out I had downloaded a particularly potent form of malware that required a very exhausted technician to come pick up my system, work some form of technological sorcery, and return it to me with a series of stern warnings.

So no harm, no foul.  Fast forward several months later.  A colleague made a similar mistake which allowed a group of hackers to encrypt and compromise our entire school division’s internal network.  It paralyzed classroom instruction and communication.  I found myself relying on an ancient (but admittedly sturdy) overhead projector in a scene reminiscent of instructing from the 1980s.  The point is that I got lucky.  I could have easily caused the breach that brought the whole thing tumbling down.

Understanding digital security is a key component of Ribble’s nine elements.  As Let’s Talk Science pointed out security isn’t purely technical – it is largely dependent on the human element.  Essentially I am the weakest link in the security chain.  Bad actors are constantly trying to access our personal data and financial information.  By not acting in a security conscience way I demonstrated to my students a lack of personal commitment to this value.

However, this did provide an opportunity for discussion across all of my classes.  While we sat staring into golden light of the noisy overhead projector I recounted to my students how neglecting basic security practices got us into this mess.  It was a harsh lesson to learn and it completely changed my school division’s culture around network security.  Some of our new measures border on Draconian, but these may not have been necessary had I spent more time addressing security with my students and internalizing the lessons myself.

The quest to photocopy literally anything and everything

Let me posit a scenario for you: a conscientious teacher who is well versed in Canadian copyright law both adheres to the rules and communicates them effectively to their students (respecting the rights of creators).  Consider an alternate scenario: a near burned out teacher fueled by adrenaline and six cups of coffee runs to prep room and churns out lessons in a fashion that is reminiscent of a Benny Hill chase sequence.

Which of these scenarios in your opinion is more likely?

According to Ribble understanding the law and how it applies to our use of technology  is part of digital citizenship.  This extends to properly crediting creators, understanding and avoiding plagiarism, and observing the rules surrounding copyright.  I must confess until I started preparing for this blog post I was a little rusty on my copyright law.  As I looked through the booklet entitled Copyright Matters (a forlorn and unloved document that resides in almost every photocopier room) I was relieved to find out that the overwhelming majority of what I have observed in my teaching career has been above board.  However, I am not one to sit here and tell you that I have never heard of an individual or individuals breaking these rules to little consequence.

Therein lies the problem, how often have you heard the term “teaching is stealing”?  What does our cavalier attitude towards intellectual property say to our colleagues and students?  Personally, intellectual property rights are far from my mind in my day to day activities as an educator.  This is attitude is then downloaded to my students as they prepare reports and presentations for class.  I am not arguing that these conversations are the most pressing concern in schools, but I would argue that these are rarely, if ever, discussed with prominence.  How does this affect the way society values writers, artists, and designers?  I would argue that with the advent of artificial intelligence skimming libraries of public available works that the value of intellectual property will further diminish.  It is my responsibility to communicate these rules and their importance to my students, a role which until recently I haven’t given enough consideration.

I don’t avoid learning new technologies, but it sure looks like it in practice

In Liana Loewus’ article she quotes the work of Hiller Spires, a university professor at North Carolina State University, stating that digital literacy contains 3 key components: finding and consuming digital content, creating digital content, and communicating and sharing it.  Digital literacy is also cited by Ribble as one of the nine elements of digital citizenship.  I can say with confidence that I am a wizard when it comes to finding content and communicating it, but I struggle when it comes to production end of things.  More often than not I stick to programs that I already know (after 2 years in a master’s degree program I have finally started to master PowerPoint rather than spit out boring slide shows based on templates – click here for an example), but this has been limiting.  Deep, deep down in my bones I know that I’ve been avoiding video editing software, photo manipulation suites, and in class tools like Canva and Presi.  As Loewus points out this is limiting for two reasons, first creating content encourages and fosters collaboration, and secondly it is a tremendous form of social power.  Essentially her argument is that digital content creation gives voice to people who don’t usually have one which is powerful tool for social change.  By sticking to what I know I am both limiting my own potential and that of my students.  Given the rapid advances occurring around us in the tech space it is my attitude that needs changing more than anything.  No one can be competent in every piece of technology, but the will to learn and change with its flow is key.

Questions to Ponder

Now that I’ve shared of a few of my own difficulties with Ribble’s nine elements, which do you have the toughest time with?  Do you have any similar stories?  On the other side of things is there a particular activity or lesson that your are proud of that reflects Ribble’s work?

Have a great day.