Currently, there are no job descriptions including the terms “digital learning” or “leadership for digital citizenship” or any form of that wording. Making a DLE part of the job description would make it clear that monitoring or being heavily involved within the DLE is a part of the job and not have any confusion. Making it clear that they would be looking at the DLE from a social, cultural and global perspective would also make the desires of the site clear. My personal DLE is generally made up of databases that I have accessed as well as the use of OneNote for recording of notes or documents. Within my employment we use Google Docs and the Google Classroom for recording of material and saving of documents.
The frustrations of going digital include having used new mechanisms and programs that we are unfamiliar with. It can also be a struggle with having to keep the content continually updated and easily accessible for students. You also have teachers who are set in their ways of teaching and moving online is struggle because it goes against what they have always done. Leadership need to support the teachers in the transition to online learning. My wish list for improving a DLE includes having an ease of access of work from a personal computer as well as an ease of having discussion boards. Responsible learning is being able to take charge of your learning and being able to keep up with what is required and not leaving it to the last minute. It also encompasses being able and willing to ask for help when you need it.
It is important as many of the today’s students have devices and spend much of their time online. However, we need to ensure that we are teaching them how to be safe online and how to keep themselves safe from predators. A digital citizenship program can ensure that all students have accessed the same thing, as not all teachers embed digital citizenship into the curriculum. Some teachers see this as being a useless point of the curriculum as some teachers thing that our students are experts in their fields.
There are internet and Chromebook policies that are updated regularly as well as a Learning from Home guide, that was created this year. The senior leadership team is responsible for the updating of the policies. I can understand both sides of the ‘devices at staff meetings’ debate and I am personally for that everyone should make the choice themselves. Some staff members cannot write clearly (dyslexia, dysgraphia etc) and therefore, computers are the way they can take notes and transcribe what is occurring. Some staff prefer handwritten notes as they take in the content easier.
There are some norms and that is that people stick with what they know. People see no harm with what they were doing and continue as they have been, regardless of whether they know better or not. Adults don’t tend to know when to stop with social media; they tend to see it as a ‘norm’ to get into arguments online or Twitter feuds – in many cases adults are worse than children.
If comfortable, I would share some of the pitfalls that we have encountered in social media as it shows that it can happen to anyone and it doesn’t discriminate against people. I would also highlight the content of documents such as community standards for different sites as this can highlight some facts that they may not know or be willing to acknowledge. Handling these topics with care is important as it means that we are acknowledging their different experiences and histories.