Tag: technology

The Final Face-off

It is only fitting that our last two debates were just as heated as the rest of them. I feel fortunate to have met all these passionate leaders in this class! I begin each section with my pre-debate thoughts. Next, I took the main points from the groups introductory video and rebuttal and formatted them into a list, then added comments made during the debate beside each debater. I finish each section with a reflection of the prompt and how the debate influenced my opinion.

@leahtschetter

#fyp #dog #dogsoftiktok

♬ Funny Song – Cavendish Music
mandatory Mia post

Debate 7: Educators and schools have a responsibility to help their students develop a digital footprint

Image from UpSavvy

Before the debate I disagree with this statement. We should be allowing student’s choice in curating their own digital footprint to reflect their identity. I think educators have a responsibility to teach about digital footprints and digital citizenship, but not to develop it. I am glad I don’t have my digital footprint from when I was in school. We still need the right to forget.

Agree

  • Parents, policy makers, and care givers are important, but teachers are better equipped to teach about digital citizenship
  • Families need education and support in this work as well
  • Building a foundation in a safe and controlled environment
  • Digital technologies and 21st century skills are important in becoming citizens
  • We must consider students developmental age
  • Create a personal brand in a public space
  • Rae: Teacher’s don’t need to upload photos of students. If it is portfolios or blogging, they only need selective
  • Funmilola: Student mistakes are permanently online, if we are starting earlier they are digitally naïve, so we have the responsibility to present preventative strategies

Disagree

  • Students digital footprint is already created by students and updated outside of school hours
  • Teachers and schools are not prepared to support an evolving a digital world
  • Risks displaying student information, data collection, and identity theft
  • Inaccessible to many families
  • Canadian law doesn’t differentiate between children and adults
  • Kimberly Kipp: Students have digital footprints before they enter schools, by the time it is taught in school we are implementing a reactive approach. We need to address these issues systemically. Parents are signing these media release forms, but students are not. Online is not a safe space for students and we are exposing their identities in this unsafe space. We need consistent education.
  • Gertrude: We can’t control their digital footprint or responsibly monitor student work. Code of ethics for online activities.

There was lots of debate about digital citizenship vs digital footprint in the chat during this prompt. There was also lots of debate about whose responsibility it is to build digital footprints. Many felt that there is a larger responsibility from government policies, curriculum, and companies that needs to occur. Students also need to give their own consent, not just the parents consent for autonomy. Placing another responsibility on teachers without building capacity will not be sufficient in keeping our students safe. Overall, this debate confirmed my bias. I still do not think educators should be responsible for developing student’s digital footprints, but I do think we have a responsibility to educate the effects of a digital footprint and how to become digital leaders.

Debate 8: Online education is detrimental to the social and academic development of children

Image from IDP

Prior to the debate I strongly disagree. I do see potential impacts on physical health but by keeping student centered pedagogy in your course development there is equal opportunity for social and academic development of children. We do have to be additionally prepared to plan for social engagement and problem solving skills. Some student may even thrive in this setting because it takes away anxiety, there are multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding, and greater possibility for accessibility.

Agree

  • Additional costs to families
  • Unable to provide equity to students
  • At-risk students ‘vanishing’
  • Negative effects of screen time
  • classes aren’t true to their intention as they do not have access to materials (music, arts, PAA)
  • Loss of authentic assessment
  • loss of extra curricular
  • No teacher supervision
  • No division of home and school
  • Physical schools offer access to food, clothing, and a safe space for students
  • Colton: can online learning stand alone, not just supplement? There are a variety of levels of supports students may need.
  • Britney: parents may take away from class time, and some may not have parent support. Social anxiety can continue online, and we can’t assess their mental well-being. Relationships are needed to connect with students.
  • Kayla: K-4 curriculum is learned by play, inquiry, and social interactions that can’t be replicated online. It is not realistic for students to have independent work habits.

Disagree

  • Flexible, accessible, inclusivity
  • Cost saving
  • Teaches time management skills
  • Smaller class sizes and one-on-one support
  • Student autonomy is increased as students can review as needed
  • Virtual classroom is available anywhere
  • Digital skills transfer to the workplace
  • Customizable learning experiences
  • Constructive and timely feedback
  • Flexible schedules
  • Christopher: the more options student’s have, if the option is there it can be chosen. It works best when presented as a choice, not like the pandemic.
  • Arkin: has affordable options to meet their needs
  • Katherine: Students who chose online can still attend in person activities. Pandemic teaching is better than no teaching in emergency situations. Parents can decide if their children are capable of independent work habits.

Maybe I’m stubborn this week, but I maintained the same position. I do side with the disagree team that digital learning needs to be presented as a choice, because it isn’t going to be a successful option for everyone to consider. Some families will need this flexibility to be successful (many of my previous virtual students had a variety of health needs), and some will need the in-person supports, some will need blended or hybrid. I think that it is important that online education is developed with planned opportunities for interaction, which may require a mindset shift on defining social development. The disagree side emphasized that online education doesn’t mean online extra curriculars, students still have access to community services and programs. The distinction of Emergency Remote Teaching and online education are vital to this debate as well. There may need to be some policy updates in the future surrounding online education to include attendance and welfare checks to make sure it is implemented with student safety and wellbeing in mind. I think the benefits of online education can’t be overlooked, and it is a great option for families to have!

Image from Curriculum Nacional

Would online education work for your family?

Do you prefer online education as an adult?

What steps do you take to develop positive digital footprints for students?

Happy Teaching,

Leah

Change the Curriculum?

This week it was time for Sushmeet and me to debate! We spent almost two weeks preparing for the debate, but lots of our classmates wrote diverse arguments for both sides with perspectives that surpassed my limited lens and subjectivity. So, lets get started!

Debate 3: Schools should no longer teach skills that can be easily carried out by technology (e.g., cursive writing, multiplication tables, spelling).

Pre-debate I felt that many of these skills will be replaced by technology in classrooms. To me, it makes sense that our language code develops as time progresses. As words and phrases are added to our dictionaries, the code increases to reflect cultural changes and spread of language codes. Sometimes it seems as if language is regressing back into visual images like emoticons, gifs, and memes. This translates into many areas of the curriculum like multiplication facts (calculators), spelling (spell check), cursive writing (fonts), and even graphing (exporting to charts, graphs, and tables). Now let’s get into support for both sides.

Agree

  • If we want a more equitable educational program we must reimagine our education system to make space for social justice practices, by removing unnecessary skills for today’s society there is more room for higher level thinking, 21st century skills,

“the whole education process can be reformed and restructured, including the main drivers and principles for reinventing schools in the global knowledge economy, models for designing smart learning environments at the institutional level, a new pedagogy and related curriculums for the 21st century, the transition to digital and situated learning resources, open educational resources and MOOCs, new approaches to cognition and neuroscience as well as the disruption of education sectors” (p. v, Shaping Future Schools with Digital Technology)

  • More personalized programming through implementation of technology.

Future education will fully consider the personality and development of each student. With the effective and wise use of AI technology we can surpass the personalized and small-scale education of the agricultural society, we can surpass the non-personalized and large-scale education of the industrialized society, and we can then establish a personalized but large-scaled educational system (p., v Shaping Future Schools with Digital Technology)

  • Faster formative feedback to guide the learner and more time for teachers to give learners quality feedback from higher-level thinking tasks.

Knowledge and skills delivery will be dramatically supplemented by artificial intelligence while other aspects of educating and cultivating become more and more important. New technology will save teachers’ time and help them care more for the students’ soul, spirit, and happiness since there would be time for them to have further communication with students, to inspire students for more motivation and interest to do more creative and innovative learning. Future education will enter the era of co-working between teachers and artificial intelligence. (p. vi, Shaping Future Schools with Digital Technology)

Now I have to say that I agree with most of what we argued, but I do believe that some of these basic skills are foundational to higher level, complex problem-solving.

Disagree

  • Spelling affects marketing and quality of work. Without it we lose our language code.

“That advice reflected a societal approbation of the ability to spell—which at the time could be defined as the capacity to write words that conform to the orthography of a given language—that had been pervasive since at least the 16th century and grew in importance with the rise of the printing press and printed books” (Spelling, (2021), Pan, S.C., Rickard, T.C. & Bjork, R.A.)

  • Cursive writing is linked to motor skills, memory, comprehension, and other improved brain functions.

“there’s plenty of evidence of cognitive and academic benefits. Brain scans reveal neural circuitry lighting up when young children first print letters and then read them. The same effect is not apparent when the letters are typed or traced” (Cursive Writing: Berger, T. (2017, March 10))

  • Students cannot complete higher-level problem solving in mathematics without basic skills.

“students do not know their fractions, cannot do long division or basic subtraction and borrowing operations. The bottom line: “Students don’t have the skills at hand to engage in problem-solving and higher-level math.” (Mental Math and Computation Skills: Bennett, P. (2021, June 6))

I agree that some of these skills are valuable, but also that technology has an increasing role in our daily skills. Overall, technology isn’t quite ready to overthrow these skills.

Debate 4:  Educators have a responsibility to use technology and social media to promote social justice

Whew, we had two heated debate topics this week! Let’s get into the team’s arguments.

Agree

  • Teachers shouldn’t be neutral about social justice issues and we have a responsibility to use our privilege to speak up against discrimination.

“for us to say our role is to be neutral is to operate from a place of privilege. Not privilege as in wealth — that’s just one of many types of privilege, and one that most educators don’t have. Our place of privilege is choosing not to pay attention to these stories or take a position on them because we are not personally impacted” (Angela Watson’s Truth For Teachers: Some Things a Teacher Shouldn’t be Neutral About (September 1, 2019))

  • Social media can increase student voice can make a difference in communities. Our classrooms can be sites of activism.

What I learned from this assessment is that young people are ready, willing, and able to engage in difficult conversations. They are interested in fighting for their lives, our lives, and their nation. They are leaders—even the quiet ones.

“There is power in student voice, and it isn’t a voice any teacher can give. We don’t give voices. We make space for them in our curricula and classrooms, or we don’t” (Using Social Justice to Promote Student Voice: Lorena Germán (2020))

Disagree

  • There are more effective ways that students can engage in social justice.

“Without offline action, gestures like using a hashtag or posting a black square come across as performative, opportunistic, and lazy. Critics are often quick to call out these minimal efforts as “slacktivism.”” (Genuine Social Media Activism: A Guide for Going Beyond the Hashtag)

  • If teachers engage in social activism, there is a possibility of professional repercussions and possibility of influencing students beliefs and opinions.

“They want to preserve their objectivity in front of their students. They don’t want to hurt their relationships with parents, students, or colleagues who might have different beliefs than they do. They worry about professional repercussions, especially when posting from an account that they use for work-related reasons” (Teachers, Politics, and Social Media: A Volatile Mix)

Overall, I believe teachers should be able to engage if they choose to. There are some who wish to engage in social justice, and some who do not. For me, I will choose to use my privilege to be an ally. If there were to be repercussions I am privileged to be able to either use a lawyer to speak more, or find other employment in time. This isn’t a choice everyone has, so they should also have a choice in engaging in social justice.

Meme Generator

If you made it this far, great job!

Happy Teaching,

Leah

Time for TikTok – Update (Part 2)

In this post I am applying Dr. Mike Ribble’s 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship to my personal application of TikTok and Flipgrid in the classroom. To keep things organized for my final project I’m going to investigate the themes I feel most relatable to each platform separately. Even though they are both video based platforms, I think there are different applications, audiences, and considerations that are unique to each platform which will affect my final project for EC&I 832.

Image from Let’s Talk Science

TikTok

Element 3: Digital Etiquette

When copying someone’s content, it is expected that you tag the original creator when replicating. There is a history of Black creator content being replicated by white creators without crediting the original poster. While scrolling TikTok there are many fantastic lesson ideas and resources that teachers have created videos for. While I am still finding my own style, I will need to be cognizant of where I am getting my inspiration from and making sure I credit those creators using appropriate “netiquette”.

Educating Self and Others

Element 4: Digital Literacy

Something I feel can be overlooked in education is the purpose of the technology. We need to be explicit about what platform we are creating and sharing content on. For TikTok, I think it is a great format to share resources, strategies, and teaching comedy. It would be important to communicate the importance of voiceovers, selecting appropriate sounds, and captions as each communicating meaning and intent. The way I’ve been approaching sound selection is by finding a sound and exploring TikToks that use that sound to make sure I am using it appropriately. This has been working, although I haven’t mastered the video and sound synch yet. I can see the potential to teaching students the importance of author’s craft in multimedia literacies.

Element 5: Communication

Author’s craft definitely applies to Dr. Ribble’s fifth element, Communication, which is using the right technology to communicate, for what purpose and to whom. I think this is the real importance of teaching students how to use authors craft to boost engagement on a platform (hey, influencing is a real profession!). This applies to many Saskatchewan Curriculum outcomes such as CR3.2, CC3.3 CR5.2, and so many more! Teachers need to realize that to assess these outcomes it doesn’t have to be a written text, there are professions where sound and art are their primary focus in graphic design, advertising, video game production, T.V., the list goes on. I have dabbled in creating content for entertainment, resources, and a unit introduction, but I still haven’t decided on a “brand identity” for my account.

@leahtschetter

introduction to plant adaptations! #grade4science #eci834 #eci833

♬ original sound – Squirrel the Cat
My first attempt at a content TikTok

Element 9: Health and Wellness

This is probably the biggest concern I had for myself when downloading TikTok, just how much time was I going to spend on TikTok mindlessly scrolling? TBH, it has increased my phone time, although that is part of this project so I really want to look at how it may affect my mental health. It is easy for teachers to compare these “learning snapshots” that TikTok offers, the cute classroom décor, the engaging lesson plans and feel like a complete failure. It is important to remind yourself and others that this is a highlight reel, since we control what we post we are going to put ourselves in the best light we can. I appreciate that in TikTok’s settings there is a “Digital Wellbeing” category where you can set time management and restricted content.

  • Screenshot of TikTok App Screen Time Management
  • Screenshot of TikTok App Restricted Mode
TikTok Digital Wellbeing Settings

I haven’t engaged with the platform enough to understand my own boundaries with TikTok, so these settings are currently off for my profile. I have noticed that because I haven’t given much personal information to TikTok yet, the algorithm for my “For You” page is not yet tailored to my interests and can often frustrate me with TikTok’s initial algorithm. I’m interested to see how this changes as I engage further with the platform with likes and follows.

Flipgrid

Element 1: Law

The first thing I will need to do in my division for Flipgrid is look at students’ Media Release forms. While this form doesn’t apply to limited access platforms such as Flipgrid, it is still important to model respect for privacy and offer choices such as audio recordings or filters to build a community of trust within your school families. In this I believe it is important to be transparent with parents about the access to student work, moderation of comments, and their right to deny use. While I don’t want to disadvantage students by omitting technology or being afraid of it, there is a different comfort level among families that needs to be respected. Teachers and families are a team, not opponents.

Element 3: Digital Etiqutte

The next step to implementing Flipgrid in the classroom will be to determine digital etiquette when interacting with other’s posts. This includes likes, reactions, and comments. It will be important to teach students that what we write is stored, and has serious effects. In the day of screenshots, it is also important to have a conversation of respecting other’s privacy by not distributing or editing images of other people without their consent. This also ties to the next element I’d like to address.

Element 8: Rights and Responsibilities

This element includes modelling our responsibility to report other’s misuse of a platform and maintaining digital equipment (including school provided resources). I’d like to have students create their responsibility list as a class and agree to these conditions, as well as the consequences of not following these conditions. This puts ownership to them in creating a safe digital community. I’d like to scaffold and practice this by first having students upload their videos with a moderated topic, then progressing towards unmoderated topics. This will allow me to have one-on-one conversations with students who are not complying with these responsibilities.

I’m looking forward to testing and comparing these two video platforms. Now, I’m off to make more embarrassing TikToks!

Happy teaching,

Leah

Teaching to the Tech

Often I’ve heard that teachers will “teach to the test”. In a time where tests are being assessed for their validity and authenticity of student learning, I sometimes see technology being substituted as an “end point”. We teach technology because we feel like students “need” to know it. However, I feel that technology can be used as a way to build skills such as perseverance, problem solving, creativity, and collaboration.

How I Met Your Mother- Mystery vs. History

So, what do schools need to do to prepare our students for their future?

Teachers 20 years ago couldn’t have predicted the world we live in now, neither can we predict what the world will look like in 20 years. The content that we teach changes, but the strategies we use to teach it, are not. I like this view of learning, because it means I don’t have to memorize content. I have to learn skills that help me learn better and more efficiently. We need to foster curiosity. When we are curious, we need skills to find and locate information, be able to confirm and construct meaning, and to evaluate information. These skills are useful if we are researching in a library or using a search engine like Google. When we learn these skills we can apply them not to just one technology, but all future technological advances. When I’m teaching code to elementary students, I emphasize that we repeatedly need to check our code as we progress, rather than at the end. I emphasize that I’ve never written a code correctly on my first try, and that it can be frustrating. I also tell them that I’m not going to help them *gasp*. They need to fail and help each other!

This also doesn’t mean we don’t teach how to use technology into our classroom. Just as abstinence-only sexual health education is proven to be ineffective, there cannot be abstinence-only digital education. We need to teach them how to become responsible digital citizens and how technology can help us reach our goals when we know how to use it effectively.

The Future of Schools

Are brick-and-mortar schools on their way out? The short answer for this is, no. While during the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen an increase in remote learning options that have benefitted many, it has not benefitted all. Education needs to be available to everyone. For many of our students, school is the only place they feel safe and cared for. The reality is, our workplaces would need to change first. For students to be at home, their parents also need to be at home. We also aren’t preparing all students for a life of academia or office work. Many skills need to be taught by a skilled person (teacher) in a safe, supervised setting. If its woodworking, mechanics, coding, mathematics, or writing, we need to assess and reflect on our work as we go.

Curriculum

Grade 4 Saskatchewan ELA Curriculum

Our curriculum places the learner at the center, then Broad Areas of Learning, followed by subjects. What this image shows is that we value Thinking, Identity and Independence, Social Responsibilities, and Literacies more than we value the outcomes. Yet as teachers we often get stuck on only presenting the outcomes, but we need to look at learners as a whole. We can’t only teach to the test or tech.

Teachers Can Do “Virtually” Anything

My venture into online learning was sudden, as any teacher in 2020 can attest to. In March of 2020 all teachers and students in Saskatchewan were moved to an online model due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those first months went by rather uneventfully. Learning opportunities were limited to English Language Arts and Math for elementary learners, and were considered optional. I began with 13 students participating in online learning, then by May I was down to 2 students. This model was unsustainable, and ineffective.

Fast forward to September 2020. Teachers and students were eager to return to school. The day I finished setting up my classroom was the day I was offered a position in our Prairie South Virtual School, and I took down my classroom while my position was advertised.

With one week to meet my new grade 3 students, I quickly scrambled to determine how to simply begin. As Bates references, most teaching methods can be done online and in-person while designing for the context differently. I began the way I do in person. Community building with my students. I can honestly say this paved the way to a successful year. These students formed friendships, even learning how to play outside via Zoom. I sent weekly emails to parents with our learning outcomes, carefully scaffolded to build student’s capacity. The responses I got from parents was overwhelmingly positive. I discovered parents that were experts in areas I was not, and could easily access their expertise. Parents sat and learned with their children. Children learned from everywhere, even while checking cows. It transformed my view of building community in schools. It was a dream job, offering flexibility, empathy for families, and a strong community.

With the flexibility comes the importance of boundaries. At one point during the year I was hospitalized for a week. My classroom remained at my fingertips, so I continued to teach from the hospital bed. I emailed parents and explained the situation, but that learning would continue. All of my parents emailed back that they would spend time as a family learning but to not worry about posting work or coming to class. Instead I had visiting time when students would come to chat and visit with me. My students also had times of tragedy, where I got to return the kindness they had shown me. Every student had a reason for choosing online learning, and I was so proud of each of them for the successes they had.

Our at home plant life cycle experiments

The things that made me a successful in person teacher are also what made me a successful virtual teacher. I would say I mostly followed an agile design model, similar to responsive teaching in person. We constantly tried new technology and explored together. The opportunity to provide such quantity and quality of feedback allowed me to plan what learning opportunities students needed. It was the year we stayed home, stayed safe, and stayed connected!

Happy Teaching,

Leah