When I was in graduate school, I played around a bit with what my email address should be. For a while I used “lovecow” as my username (don’t ask why) until a friend pointed out that this wasn’t very professional. I hadn’t thought about the students who would be emailing questions to that address or even being on the job market. I was essentially audience blind. I certainly did not consider that what happens on the Internet stays on the Internet. I’ve since cleaned up my act and try to only put things out there that I wouldn’t mind my daughters, my mother or mother-in-law seeing — it helps that I am Facebook friends with them! I’ve found that being careful about my online identity hasn’t required me to hide who I am. Rather I’ve learned to be thoughtful about how I may be perceived if someone doesn’t know me and make a point of not posting anything that might not accurately reflect my values and beliefs.
Sooooo, why is all this important for teachers and students? Well, our online presence is our calling card to the world, and we need to curate it carefully. Who we are online can affect us IRL (in real life) — our job prospects, our privacy, our families, etc. Luckily, my online presence seems to indicate that I’m pretty boring. Our students need to be aware that what’s online is permanent, and it really doesn’t take much to reveal stuff online a person would rather stay private. We’ve all heard horror stories about sexts that were posted online, for example. Or the movie “Unfriended,” which also explores the consequences of online privacy violation and cyber-bullying in a horror film.
Here’s a really cool digital citizenship learning tool I found today: http://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/Sec_Splash/index.htm I’ve linked to the secondary schools one, but they have resources and tools for elementary schools too. The program has games, lessons, and videos. Enjoy!
This week I’ve been introduced to project based learning (PBL) and to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)’s standards for teachers and students. My education both in school and college was fairly traditional. Students in my generation did not have email (I think I got my first email account my senior year in college), so integrating new technologies into the learning environment I want to create will be challenging for me. While in grad school, I taught college composition in a computer-based classroom for a year (my class page seems to have been archived, so the link only sends you to the department). It felt awkward, and I know I didn’t leverage the tools on hand as effectively as I could have. If only platforms like WordPress, Google Docs, and YouTube had existed in 1997!
Fortunately for me (and my future students), there is a host of resources out there to help guide me as teacher. Isn’t the Internet wonderful? This week, I’ll be focusing on ISTE’s standards for teachers and use them to start framing my own best practices.
Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
Some of the best moments in the classroom come when a student lobs a question out of left field or offers an insight I hadn’t considered. So I absolutely want to create a classroom culture that encourages students to take risks. PBL has the potential to develop this kind of learning where students drive the projects and take ownership of their own learning.
Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments
One option is to take advantage of all the educational game technology out there. My 6th grade daughter has weekly Quizlet sessions for history, which she seems to enjoy. However, I’m very intrigued by the Classcraft platform, which models lessons and games that look more like the kind of stuff my oldest plays on her Xbox. I’ll have to keep digging as I’m sure I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg.
Model digital age work and learning
Secretly, I like making PowerPoints and doing some desktop publishing. I’m not on the cutting edge, but I try to be close to it. It’s not enough to show a student new technology and ask them to use it for a discrete task. Lessons need to incorporate modeling how they can use the tool IRL not just in school. A big part will be getting the students themselves to show how they can use digital tools outside of the classroom.
Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
My gut response to this standard was to think about social media and online bullying. That’s a part of it, but there’s much more here. Students need to be aware of their online footprint and that what happens online never fully disappears. Since a large part of my practice in teaching writing focuses on audience awareness, I think it’d make sense to extend that beyond writing and speaking to our online presence as well. Additionally, we need to be aware of copyright and other laws. So, no teaching them how to use torrents in the classroom.
Engage in professional growth and leadership
I expect that once I finish my credential program and Masters’ I will still gladly look for opportunities to expand my knowledge base. Joining professional organizations like ISTE and others is a valuable tool in further growing as an educator and staying current on what on the horizon.
Children participating in Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the Wall experiment.
Educational futurist David Thornburg’s statement that “[a]ny teacher that can be replaced by a computer, deserves to be” challenges us to think about the role of the teacher and technology in the modern classroom. As we see computers replacing human workers (think about self-check out machines at the market or online travel sites), the idea that a computer should supplant a classroom teacher is an uncomfortable proposition. Teachers are necessary, right? Computers can reproduce data, but they don’t think, they don’t reason, they don’t feel. So, don’t students need teachers to guide them, to help them reason through problems? Humans learn, ergo humans should teach. However, what about the educator who hasn’t adapted her teaching style in 20 years? What about the teacher who uses memorization and doesn’t encourage student curiosity and inquiry? Wouldn’t students be better off using a computer for these tasks? Wouldn’t a program that uses algorithms to assess student knowledge provide more nuanced drills than a teacher who uses the same worksheets year after year? At least a well-designed educational program responds to the individual student and paces tasks and learning to their level. In this case, unlike the robot teachers from shows like the Jetsons, computers adapt to students more readily than teachers may. When teachers put themselves at the center of learning rather than their students, then students are being failed and would be better off teaching themselves.
Computers are learning and collaboration tools.
Teachers don’t create learning; ideally they facilitate it. Nevertheless, our current educational system is predicated upon a top down hierarchy with students essentially at the bottom of the totem pole. Historically, if you’re not a white, upper-middle class, native English speaker, the education system isn’t going to serve you well. The US education system was designed to teach students who are already entrenched and adapted to the dominant cultural paradigm. These students know how to negotiate the cultural hierarchy; they know what questions to ask their teachers to elicit the information they need. It’s like knowing what terms to search for in Google. The difference is: Google won’t be impatient if the question isn’t quite right. Finally, our school system was designed to develop the skills and attitudes needed for an emerging industrial workforce. In effect, schools are meant to interpellate students so that they would be productive workers and members of society. The process of interpellation is much easier if you already identify as a member of the dominant culture.
Dr. Sugata Mitra’s hole in the wall experiment reveals a new way forward. His initial experiment was quite simple: set up a computer with Internet access in a New Dehli slum to see what local children would do with it. It turns out quite a bit. They taught themselves how to browse the Internet, download programs, etc. Continuing to refine on his experiment, Mitra discovered that children will on their own and in small groups teach themselves amazingly complex concepts and materials. The role of the teacher is not to guide how the students inquire, but to provide the questions and encouragement. The students will do the heavy-lifting themselves. The computer in this role, isn’t the teacher, but a tool of learning. The students are both the teachers and the learners.
In Mitra’s emerging education model, teachers are still needed. The teacher poses the questions and facilitates the space. This model empowers students and encourages self-advocacy and ownership of the learning process. This is a “bottom-up” teaching revolution where technology is a crucial cornerstone because of the access to information it offers. As an aspiring English teacher, I see the potential for collaboration and research technology provides. Platforms like Google Docs create communities of editors and readers that I never had as a student. I wrote for my teacher. My students will write for the world.
Laura Lee Bayne 