Digital Citizenship
As teachers outside of teaching the future, it is our responsibility to keep students safe. Parents bring their students to school and believe that their child is kept safe and free from danger. We are not perfect and our students are not perfect, so accidents do occur but it is better to be proactive than reactive. I teach science classes, so one of the best practices of science teachers is to have each student complete pre-labs to see the general procedures for the experiment/lab then a safety discussion prior to the lab starting. This ensures that students are kept safe because they know the dangers involved with the lab and the proper steps to take if an accident does occur to keep them as safe as possible. The same needs to be applied to digital learning. As students are using the digital media, it is important to teach them appropriate digital citizenship and appropriate ways to tackle this monster in their pockets.
There are a few different layers involved with digital citizenship, but the most important to me is protecting student privacy and appropriate participation. Students need to understand the appropriate information to share on digital media and how to appropriately participate on digital media. When these two items are inappropriately executed it could lead to identity theft, cyberbullying (then suicide), sexting (then possible legal issues and registered as sex-offender), and inappropriate content (Muthler, 2015). At the start of each school year, we spend the first 10 days of state-mandated FTE count homeroom discussing digital citizenship. We use the common sense curriculum to provide the spark for many discussions of appropriate usage of technology. Due to our school homeroom arrangement, we have the same students every school year so we can get to know our students as we “grow-up” with the students. Each year, we address different issues. I have included this year’s materials below that demonstrate the framework and videos to share with students. From this experience, there are two videos that resonated with my homeroom class. The first video involves an adult male contacting students (with parent approval) to see if he could pretend to be a teenager testing their not sharing information and meeting individuals they meet online. I have included the video below embedded because this is a great video. Kids always say it will never happen to me, but here are three girls who thankfully were still in a safe situation, but it could have not been. This sparked a lot of discussion about situations that my students have placed themselves in and thankfully they were also not injured but we discussed the negative implications that could have resulted.
The second video involves a true story of a young girl who took her life (Amanda Todd). She took to youtube to share her story about sharing inappropriate content and harassment that resulted from it. This story breaks my heart every time I watch it, although she makes a lot of errors and there were many times that she could have stopped her actions that caused this downward spiral; she is someone’s daughter and there was no reason for the individuals who interacted with her to treat her this badly. I have also included this video below for you to check out. Be sure that you have some tissues nearby.
When I searched the above video about Amanda Todd, I noticed on the right panel of youtube a Teens React segment from Fine Brothers Production of a group of teenagers reacting to the Amanda Todd video with a commentary at the end from those teenagers. Overall, it is like every other video that we show students and comments made are similar to ones made by students when we show those heart breaking videos of real accounts. There is one comment mentioned by a student named Rumor who is 17 years old, “at the beginning of the year, they kind of talk about it and when there’s big stuff like [Amanda Todd] that’s going around and that’s pretty viral, they talk about it, but other than that it’s not really brought up in schools, which sucks because everybody thinks there’s so much that gets done for it and there really isn’t. It really feels like you’re alone and nobody cares” that made me think about my school and my classroom. I agree with her. We spend these 10 days at start of the school year, but we don’t revisit it. I personally find it hard to push it into the classroom. It does not easily mesh with our conversations. I am going to make an active role to tie it into my classroom teaching to ensure that students are aware of ways they can get help and that I am an advocate for them. I love every one of my students and it broke my heart when one of my students attempted suicide my first year teaching. Her suicide attempt had no connection to cyberbullying but that she was tired of living with a disease that made her different (diabetes) and her mother was spending a lot of time with a new boyfriend leaving her feeling neglected.
Day 1: Rights & Remixes
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Day 2: Break Hate Speech
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Day 3: Risky Online Behavior
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Day 4: College Bound
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Day 5: Who has your Data?
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There are a lot of great resources available through edutopia and common sense media to provide support for teachers regarding appropriate usage of technology in the classroom.
Firstly, there are a variety of apps and tools available to monitor students and monitor student progress. Common sense has provided a list of apps and websites that are available for this purpose. I have previously discussed Class DoJo as a useful application/website available for student progress monitoring of behavior systems in my last module’s blog posting. I have tried this in my classroom previously, but I found it hard to balance traditionally forgetting to give student’s credit/debit for their positive or negative behaviors. This is best used in a classroom using ActivBoards or other interactive whiteboard. Personally, I like to use Classroom Orchestrator (pictured below). This is an application available through our county learning management system (itsLearning). This allows me to view all student’s devices on my computer screen. Although this feels like big brother, it can be useful when students are using devices during assessments or ensure appropriate content is on student devices. At the start of the school year, they were unaware that this was available. I have noticed that since I showed students this capability there has been an increase of on-task behaviors.
Firstly, there are a variety of apps and tools available to monitor students and monitor student progress. Common sense has provided a list of apps and websites that are available for this purpose. I have previously discussed Class DoJo as a useful application/website available for student progress monitoring of behavior systems in my last module’s blog posting. I have tried this in my classroom previously, but I found it hard to balance traditionally forgetting to give student’s credit/debit for their positive or negative behaviors. This is best used in a classroom using ActivBoards or other interactive whiteboard. Personally, I like to use Classroom Orchestrator (pictured below). This is an application available through our county learning management system (itsLearning). This allows me to view all student’s devices on my computer screen. Although this feels like big brother, it can be useful when students are using devices during assessments or ensure appropriate content is on student devices. At the start of the school year, they were unaware that this was available. I have noticed that since I showed students this capability there has been an increase of on-task behaviors.
If teachers do not have this capability, the active teacher is the best teacher. If you are constantly moving throughout your classroom, you are able to see student devices and ensure on-task behavior. In addition, the arrangement of the classroom could assist teachers to keep tabs on students. During state-wide testing, I arrange my classroom in a reverse rectangle. Students are sitting facing outward with me in the middle of the rectangle allowing me, the teacher, 360-degree access of student computers. Lastly, rules for usage in your classroom can help many teachers. I have a couple rules that I outline the start of the school year. The first rule includes the 45 rule which states that if I say “I need 45”, the students must close their device to 45 degrees. This allows the students to give me their undivided attention, but does not cause their device to enter sleep mode. The second rule includes the closed laptop rule which states that if I close your laptop, you may not open your laptop until I open it. This traditionally works when a child is off-task and they are inhibited from using technology for that time period. If a student is working on an assignment, it would be the same idea as taking a child’s pencil away which would be inappropriate. I use this rule during class discussions or lectures when the device is an added bonus, but not required. This follows closely with the Cheat Sheet: Managing Classroom Technology that states to “create a system for communicating about when students will use devices. Visual cues and signals are important, and it’s best to set expectations early, then practice throughout the year.” (Common Sense Media, 2017).
Secondly, it is important to streamline educational materials for students. This can be completed with the usage of a learning management system. Rachelle Poth from Riverview High School in Pennsylvania discusses how she solved her classroom management problems. She discussed how students were constantly disorganized and losing many of their materials for class. When she started using the learning management system of edmodo, she was able to streamline the education for her students. She was able to have a location to post reminders, materials for class, and for students to submit assignments (Poth, 2016). As we move in the technological world, it is important that we teach our students how to function in society. Think about any task that you have done recently, you probably went to a location to obtain the necessary materials then completed the task. I will use taxes as an example. My husband did our taxes last weekend, he went to the IRS website and downloaded the appropriate tax form then completed this form to be uploaded back to the system. How is that any different than giving students the assignment template, asking them to complete the assignment, then upload to the learning management system? Personally, I find a lot of issues with so many resources being available to students. They no longer go through the process to think through a problem, they immediately google the question so they are at a loss when required to do higher level thinking on assessments. Also, this is making it easier for students to plagiarize other students or educational materials provided to teachers. There is a variety of software available to compare student work to other submitted student work and internet resources. One example is Turn It In, which allows the submission verification and students to peer-edit. Another cool feature allows the teacher to create their own code when grading student work. English teachers find themselves writing the same comment on pages about punctuation, run-on sentences, and other grammatical issues. This saves them time from writing on each student’s paper.
Thirdly, keep it smart and simple. There are so many apps and tools available for everything in the classroom. It was told to me during my masters program that it is important to have a few tools in your toolbox that you use often. This allows students to be trained and understand the capabilities. Students do not spend un-necessary time trying to figure out how to work the new app or tool which leads to off-task behaviors, while a few good tools will increase time on-task and student learning opportunities. Andrew Marcinek, Director of Technology and EducatorU.org Co-founder, stated “the key is to find something that meets your comfort level and the needs of your students, your curriculum standards, and your goals. If you switch apps and technology too frequently and too quickly, students will be confused, and you'll spend too much time setting them up on new systems and missing out on valuable active learning time” (2014).
I have already mentioned the concept of plagiarism and using Turn It In to catch students, but cheating is really becoming a problem in schools. During my master program over 6 years ago, I completed a podcast project called “This Adolescent Life” on an issue in schools. The issue that I choose was cheating. I asked my students a variety of questions to learn their definition of cheating, how they or others cheat, and consequences, advantages, disadvantages, etc. of cheating. Overall, the ways that students were cheating completely amazed me. From discussing how females will write the answers on their upper inner thigh where a teacher technically cannot ask to look at or programming answers to calculators to forcing behaviors all the time so they are not red flags during assessments. It made me a better teacher to know these strategies but it came down to that students do not see the problems with cheating. According to the article from Tamar Snyder (2009), 60% of students admitted to cheating during a test within the past twelve months with 35% cheating more than twice. Students are cheating because it is easy and only 10% are actually caught. It becomes more of game of don’t get caught instead of don’t cheat. Students hear the same old phrases from adults that they are cheating themselves, but the new phrase needs to be what kind of person do you want to be. It comes down to a concept of integrity and doing the right thing when no one is watching. Recently, I had a discussion with students about cheating. Student discussed that they feel pressed for time which leads to bad decisions. Technology like snapchat allow students to quickly take pictures of assessments and activities to share with classmates. Sometimes during homework, students are trying to help out classmates and supposedly not realizing their friend will just copy their work. Due to cheating issues, I have had to change my classroom processes because I have discovered I cannot stop them from cheating. I am now trying to make them more responsible about it. For example, students are able to find answer keys online easily. When a student submits a homework assignment that is not their work (found a key online, looked at a classmate’s paper, etc.), the direction is for them to write in red pen. In addition, students provide a citation of the resource from which they obtained their information. This increases the student’s digital citizenship providing ownership to the appropriate location and allows the me, the teacher, to track this information. Previously, students submit their work (with answers not generated from them) to me demonstrating a solid foundation of knowledge then I would be surprised when students do not demonstrate that same knowledge on assessments. Now, I am able to see that a student did not understand so I can appropriately provide assistance to the student. This system has worked to an extent, but there are still students who do not appropriately use their red pen and I continue to try to find ways to adjust this.
Tools of & Thoughts on the Future of Technology
In this week’s reading, we looked at Web 3.0 and tools for the future. Since the future has not come yet, we are unable to actually work with the tools in the future, but we can work with tools that are going to be the bridges for the future. Web 3.0 involves technology immersed with technology. I know that sounds like a weird circle, but it’s the use of technology to allow search and usage of technology to be better. It was described that searches will remember user preferences and types of information searched to provide a better searching experience. I feel that google has already started working on this by providing options when you begin to type a question. Google is able to do this predicative searching because of multiple user entries, but YouTube will suggest videos based on your previous views, now who feels they are being big brother-ed. As you can see, YouTube recommended a workout video, giraffe camera, forensic files, fish evolution, and teen reactions. My students in “wellness crew” search videos to work-out to, I showed a giraffe pregnancy video in AP Biology, I show forensic files to my forensic class, I show biology related videos to students in AP Biology, and I watched a teen react video for this assignment.
As I think about the tools that will be available in the future, augmented reality is an up and coming topic. I worked through Anatomy 4D for usage in my AP Biology class. We are currently learning about the systems of the body. This application allows for the user to hold the device over an image to bring the image to life. I have taken a few screenshots to show you the 3D body that resulted when I used the app on my phone. The user is able to isolate specific systems (skeletal, muscular, digestive, etc.), as seen in the images below, to investigate the organs involved and de-layer the body through the application. The application is free, so the breath of knowledge is small. This would be great tool for an elementary/middle school classroom to give the overview of the body (but beware there is genitaia shown). This gives students the hands on experience without the vague dissections for those tactial or visual learners. Dissections are useful to see the real anatomy of organisms, but this can be an alternative for students who are unable to complete dissections, preview before a class dissection, or alternative if funding is an issue. So far, there is only the overview of the human body and heart, but I have contacted the publishers to see about expanding their tutorial resources.
I do not know what the future will hold for us as educators, but I believe with the increase in available technology, there will be an increase in the abilities in the classroom. Tools will reduce in cost to be available for the classroom allowing students more real-world applications and authentic learning opportunities. I truthfully fear some of the changes that seem to be coming down the pipeline. From what I have noticed when I allow students self-discovery and exploration, they obtain a superficial knowledge basis instead of in-depth learning. Teachers will need to move off the stage, which is obvious, but there needs to be appropriate resources to develop higher order thinking for the higher grade levels. We are teaching students fast ways to obtain informaton, which decreases their internal need to learn. The answer is traditionally a couple clicks away, so why does anyone need to know anything? Personally, I want my doctors to know what they are doing and not relying on the internet to provide the same answers that I can find on my own. In addition, increasing technology is decreasing the need for higher degrees, as we all feel we are experts on the information, or at least people think they are experts.
I am interested in the changes that are in store like “smart clothing that tracks a patient’s heart rate or blood pressure” (Delaney, 2012) but at the same time I do fear the increase of our digital footprint or dossier. Keep your technology close, but keep your data closer.
I am interested in the changes that are in store like “smart clothing that tracks a patient’s heart rate or blood pressure” (Delaney, 2012) but at the same time I do fear the increase of our digital footprint or dossier. Keep your technology close, but keep your data closer.
Common Sense Media (2017). TEACHING STRATEGIES CHEAT SHEET: MANAGING CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/tlr-asset/managingclassroomtech_revised.pdf
Delaney, M. (2012, October 26). What Is Web 3.0, Really, and What Does It Mean for Education? Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2012/10/what-web-30-really-and-what-does-it-mean-education
Marcinek, A. (2014, September 10). Classroom Management in the Tech-Equipped Classroom. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-management-tech-equipped-classroom-andrew-marcinek
Muthler, S. (2015, April 4). Online Safety: A Teacher's Guide to Dealing with Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Student Privacy. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.edudemic.com/the-teachers-guide-to-keeping-students-safe-online/
Poth, R. D. (2016, September 15). How I Solved My Classroom Management Problems. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/how-i-solved-my-classroom-management-problems-0
Powers, K. (2014, October 22). What is Web 3.0 and How Might it Affect Education? Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://ed4online.com/blog/what-web-30-and-how-might-it-affect-education
Snyder, T. (2009, January 21). Cheating Goes Digital. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/technology-student-cheating-prevention
Delaney, M. (2012, October 26). What Is Web 3.0, Really, and What Does It Mean for Education? Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2012/10/what-web-30-really-and-what-does-it-mean-education
Marcinek, A. (2014, September 10). Classroom Management in the Tech-Equipped Classroom. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-management-tech-equipped-classroom-andrew-marcinek
Muthler, S. (2015, April 4). Online Safety: A Teacher's Guide to Dealing with Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Student Privacy. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.edudemic.com/the-teachers-guide-to-keeping-students-safe-online/
Poth, R. D. (2016, September 15). How I Solved My Classroom Management Problems. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/how-i-solved-my-classroom-management-problems-0
Powers, K. (2014, October 22). What is Web 3.0 and How Might it Affect Education? Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://ed4online.com/blog/what-web-30-and-how-might-it-affect-education
Snyder, T. (2009, January 21). Cheating Goes Digital. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/technology-student-cheating-prevention
Added comment 4/10/17:
I just heard a heart breaking story about an 11-year old boy who had recently broken up with his girlfriend. As a cruel joke, she posted on a friend's social media page as the friend stating that she had committed suicide. As a result, the boy hung himself. The parents found him in his bedroom and rushed him to the hospital, but there was too much brain damage. After 3 weeks on life support, they removed the machines and the young boy passed. This breaks my heart. That was someone's son and he had so much more to live for in his life, but because of a stupid prank his life has been taken early.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/04/09/an-11-year-old-boy-killed-himself-after-his-girlfriend-faked-her-death-shes-now-facing-charges/?utm_term=.294a105902fa
I just heard a heart breaking story about an 11-year old boy who had recently broken up with his girlfriend. As a cruel joke, she posted on a friend's social media page as the friend stating that she had committed suicide. As a result, the boy hung himself. The parents found him in his bedroom and rushed him to the hospital, but there was too much brain damage. After 3 weeks on life support, they removed the machines and the young boy passed. This breaks my heart. That was someone's son and he had so much more to live for in his life, but because of a stupid prank his life has been taken early.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/04/09/an-11-year-old-boy-killed-himself-after-his-girlfriend-faked-her-death-shes-now-facing-charges/?utm_term=.294a105902fa