ETL 523 Critical Reflection post

What I have learnt throughout my studies of digital citizenship is that the Digital Learning Environment is an environment where technology is used as part of everyday life. It is incorporated into many facets of our lives and we utilise it to enrich our lives. An environment where technology is accessible and we have the skills to use it. The whole way we educate children has now changed. With the increase in the use of technology children now have access to information that they never previously had. As Educators we no longer need to focus on teaching content as the students can access this all online. We are now teaching children how to access information and develop skills in the doing so. Dorothy Burt stated that “Using a digital learning environment means the learner is no longer dependant on the physical presence of the teacher. Their learning is accessible 24/7 and is rewindable; if you don’t get it the first time you can go back and have another look at it because it’s online. Valuable time spent face-to-face with the teacher is focused on learning conversations rather than instructions and directions.” (Patterson, 2013). Children are now learning from more sources of information and need help to come to process all this information. Digital citizenship is about using technology in an appropriate manner and knowing what this is. It is important that children are using the internet in a positive way and that they are aware of the dangers of misuse and what the consequences can be. With the growing use of social media I feel there needs to be more of a focus on the safety and use of these sites. In the article Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village, the authors, question who will guide learners to a safe and productive technological society. “So, the inevitable question must be asked: Who represents the village for our youth, as it relates to digital citizenship? Will it be parents, teachers, administrators, academics, technology professionals, media specialists, or students? The obvious that for a successful cultural shift, it will require all of us. The implementation of this type of program will require an established and shared curriculum, an establishment of middle ground between reactionary and proactive actions in the K-12 environment.” (Hollandsworth, Dowdy, & Donovan, 2011, p. 2). This article really made me aware of some of the issues of who is actually responsible for preparing students for a digital learning environment.  I feel that as teachers we need to bear a lot of this responsibility as we have the knowledge that is needed to prepare students to be good digital citizens. I feel some parents are almost in the same position as their children, using these technologies without knowing how to be safe and how to leave a positive digital footprint. The information on digital footprints really made me think about my own digital footprint. As a teacher I have always had an awareness of my digital footprint as I see that as part of your professional role to be an example. I like the analogy that a digital footprint is like tattoo, once it is there it is very hard to get rid of is. This analogy may help students in their thinking as it makes them think of it as more concrete. As I teacher I feel that the following statement sums up what I need to do to prepare myself to teach in a digital learning environment.  “Digital citizenship is about transforming yourself into a professional who can effectively research technology trends, monitor the uses of technology, avoid the fear factor and model legal wisdom, in order to make vibrant learning opportunities for all” (CSU Interact material, 2014). I think it is important to keep your knowledge and skills up to date by continuing your own personal learning journey through professional development and by being up to date with new developments in digital learning. There has been a lot of changes in the way we teach and I feel a lot of changes are still needed to be an effective teacher, a networked teacher (see image) in today’s digital learning environment.

TODAY'S EFFECTIVE TEACHER

The image above is courtesy of Alec Couros licensed under a Creative Commons license. Photos from courosa Flickr photostream.

References

Charles Sturt University Interact material for ETL523, 2014.

Hollandsworth, R., Dowdy, L., Donovan, J. (2011). Digital citizenship in K-12: It takes a village. TechTrends 55(4) 37-47.

Patterson, A. (2013, December 7). Switched on to learning. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11168355

 

ETL523 4.1

Why is it important to foster a global approach to digital citizenship?
What do you see as typical challenges within a school when balancing ‘educational networking’ with ‘social networking’?
When we go on the internet we immediately connect to the world. Students need to be aware of this as well as being aware that whatever they post can be accessed by many people not just their immediate circle of friends. I like the idea of challenging students thinking by asking questions that challenge their thinking such as ''Would you be happy for your parents to see everything you put on social media, your grand parents, etc". I think the challenge with balancing networking is that children might not be aware where the line is between the two. Keeping them focused on educational outcomes may be hard when the opportunity for social networking is available. If it can be balanced then it would be a great way to engage students.

ETL 523 3.2

What is responsible learning within a DLE?
How do you instill the need for regular, reliable and responsible behaviour for learning while using digital tools?
I liked the idea of the  'Stop, Screenshot, Block, Tell, and Share' strategy by Lindsay and Davis(Flattening classrooms, engaging minds, Ch.5, p. 112). This strategy works within a single class setting or in a global collaboration. If something unpleasant is found or posted (image, text etc), then the user who finds it first is required to follow the pattern: Stop viewing the item, make sure you get a screenshot as evidence (if appropriate), if possible block the offending material from further viewing, tell someone (teacher, IT Manager, other teacher in global project, global project manager etc) so that further action can be taken, and then share the incident so that others can learn from it as well. I think this is an excellent idea for setting up for  responsible behaviour while using digital tools. It ensures that the students are responsible for not only their own content but the content of others as well.

ETL 523 2.5

What curation tools and methods do you use now? How do these compare with new ideas explored through this module?
I think that using curation services such as Scoop.it and LibGuides is certainly an interesting way to go about searching. With the myriad of information out there today, Google just isn’t sufficient to efficiently research a topic in depth.  Before I studied this topic I was not using any curation tools and now I have a wealth of information about curation tools. When I watched a clip on Scoop.it I was amazed at how easy it was to use. Next step, find time to try out them all. Curate the curation tools! This new idea is fantastic. One of the best resources I have found throughout this course. As a mother I constantly am helping my children with assignments and these tools will be a fantastic help.

ETL 523 2.3

Based on your reading of the digital divide, how does this translate in terms of a school’s responsibilities?
How can information specialists/leaders and school administrators adequately address the breadth of Internet regulation issues faced by their school community?

I think the school has a responsibility to provide equal access to technology to all students in a fair and monitored manner. I have seen at schools certain classes being given resources such as laptops whilst others didn't even have access to a computer in their classroom. I think that students bringing in their own devices could make internet regulation harder to manage as they may already have unsuitable content on their device and it would be hard to manage other devices on the school network. The availability of access may vary from device to device and this would disadvantage some students. I also feel that the children who don't have the availability of a device would also be disadvantaged. This may cause a digital divide among students. The school should be responsible for providing the technology needs for students that way it can be fair and equitable across the board and internet regulation can be monitored.

ETL 523 2.2

How do you see yourself developing the knowledge and skills to address current and future information literacy and digital fluency needs?
What is the relevance and purpose of transliteracy in this overall discussion of digital citizenship and 21st Century teaching and learning
I think its important to keep your knowledge and skills up to date by continuing your own personal learning journey through professional development and by being up to date with new developments in digital learning. You need to be using technology on a regular basis so you can maintain and improve your skills to then help students with their digital skills. You cant help students if you are not confident yourself. We need to be aware as educators that information now comes from many different sources not just books and for some students this can be overwhelming especially the volume of information they are sometimes faced with. This is when we need to be teaching students skills in information literacy so they can extract the information they need.

ETL 523 1.4

What makes a digital citizenship curriculum valuable and worthwhile?
Discuss one approach to embedding digital citizenship into the curriculum
"We want our students to have technological fluency and 21st century competencies, yet there is a wide variability in what each school provides in terms of access to technology and priority for education about digital citizenship" This sentence really sums up our current curriculum surrounding digital citizenship. We want our students to experience all the benefits of technology yet as an education system we are not addressing the issues surrounding this use. The students are expected to keep up with this technology but aren't gaining the skills to do this in a safe and productive manner. A digital citizenship curriculum is valuable and worthwhile when  it is a part of the everyday curriculum as this is the frequency at which our students are using technology. This needs to be incorporated into the curriculum so that its normal practice for the students. This would make it valuable and worthwhile, if students interacted with the digital citizenship curriculum everyday. Embedding digital citizenship into our everyday teaching would be my approach.

ETL523 1.3

What are the challenges of introducing digital citizenship to young people (students)?
The challenge I think is that technology is being used so much by young people and its so popular that young people don't want to listen to concerns about their safety when using these technologies. They think everything on the internet is true and safe and don't want to know otherwise. To overcome this we need to teach digital citizenship in a fun, engaging way and start when children are young. If we wait till high school then the students are already using so much technology that its hard to change their habits. If we start in primary school we can influence these habits in a positive way.

ETL 523 1.2

What are important messages and understandings we should be remembering and sharing with colleagues to inform our approach to teaching and learning in the digital world? I think the important thing to acknowledge is that if we are encouraging students to use technology then it is our responsibility as teachers to make sure they are aware of what they are doing and that they know about their digital footprint and the ways to be a good digital citizenship. We should never assume that because children are very savvy in their use of technology that they know what being a good digital citizen is. Unless this is taught the children will not know. Unless children are taught that they have a digital footprint then they wont know. A digital footprint is like tattoo, once its there its very hard to get rid of!

ETL 523 1.1

What is your understanding of digital citizenship? Why?

What have you learned so far? What questions are you beginning to ask yourself?

Digital citizenship is about using technology in an appropriate manner and knowing what this is. Its important that children are using the internet in a positive way and that they are aware of the dangers of misuse and what the consequences can be. I think this is an area that we are not teaching children enough about. With the growing use of social media there needs to be more of a focus on the safety and use of these sites. Why do we not have a program as part of the curriculum that focusses on this? Why are we so far behind from other countries such as America in our use of this technology?

ETL 523 Module 1

What is your definition of a ‘Digital Learning Environment’? Provide examples from your school and/or working/professional life to support this.

What are some of the changes created by our digital lifestyle that you need to be aware of as an educator?

What has been the impact of social networking on teaching and learning

I feel a Digital Learning Environment is an environment where technology is used as part of everyday life. It is incorporated into many facets of our lives and we utilise it to enrich our lives. An environment where technology is accessible and we have the skills to use it. The whole way we educate children has now changed. With the increase in the use of technology children now have access to information that they never previously had. As Educators we no longer need to focus on teaching content as the students can access this all online. We are now teaching children how to access information and develop skills in the doing so. Social networking has connected children online which can be positive if used in the correct way or negative if used in that way. Children are now learning from more sources of information and need help to come to process all this information.