Category: ETL523

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.

The digital environment is a global place – you can connect with anyone from all over the world. We need to foster a global perspective, otherwise we are being blind to what is occurring globally; regardless of the sphere it is in. When developing a professional personal brand, we need to keep in mind that the data online is not 100% safe. There are reports of social media accounts being hacked and held hostage or posting content that goes against our personal beliefs. We need to ensure that we have protected our integrity online to the best of our ability. We need to be able to display the same level of professionalism (if not higher) that we are expecting from our students. Our students are still developing their competence in this area and as a site, I am unsure as to what we are doing exactly (I do not have a home group nor do I work with the year levels as a whole.); however, I am hoping to instil some of these concepts in my Year 8 English class. I personally dislike small talk, I prefer to get to the point – teachers are busy enough that scenarios that involve small talk, in my personal opinion as a waste of time. Also, as a TRT (and Early Career Teacher to boot), I find that some long-term teachers use this as an opportunity to brag about what they have done rather than trying to pass on valuable information that could help the new teacher.

I personally dislike using social media as part of a DLE. I like to keep my social media separate from my work and therefore reduce stress etc. I do, however, follow some teaching pages on Facebook in order to keep up to date and learn from them but I very rarely interact on a deep level as it is a stress trigger for me.

Using technology for collaboration and communication can be a challenge. Sarcasm, for example, cannot be easily expressed through the written word. It is more easily detectable through tone and inflection; and while the use of video calling can help ease this, connection delays and less than great internet connection can make it a fairly large barrier. At a basic level, time zones can be a challenge for online collaboration. Where one may be awake, another may be sleeping and vice versa. Even within Australia, time zones can be rough to try and arrange collaboration.

21s century digital learners need to understand that what they put online, stays online, regardless of whether people try and bring it down. Even as technology gets more sophisticated, those that wish to exploit it are becoming savvier. It is easy these days, for fake accounts to be created and even if the person is on a legitimate site, they can be swayed by hackers or those of ill-repute.

My own DLE’s are generally restricted to work and study – I use the Google Classroom platform for work and the CSU platform for study. I like the Google Classroom because you’re not overwhelmed by everything else but the CSU platform is more cohesively designed for online study. My students also use Google Classroom to access their work and to submit assignments. The main frustrations of going digital is being able to help students engage and our familiarity with audio and video tools to provide lessons. I am also hesitant about having a video or audio recording running while I am teaching face-to-face as I don’t wish to have parents criticising the flow of the lesson or while I am dealing with a behaviour management issue. I would love to see more accessible forums available in the Google Classroom rather in addition to the ‘Facebook style’ posting feed it has now. Being able to have the forums easily accessible would be great.

Instilling the need for regular, reliable and responsible behaviour for learning is hard enough face-to-face, trying to do this online would be really hard. I think students need to be familiar with the concept of online learning for a long period of time to try and replicate the preferred type of behaviour. Behaviour within a DLE is being able to participate in discussions, be prompt with the viewing or reading of materials and generally speaking, having the ability to complete the work in a timely manner. Having checklists that the students can update themselves can help as they are then – in part – accountable for their progress.

My experience with social media for learning is limited. I agree that it has it’s place and can be useful; however, I do feel that it should be used with a grain of salt. Many of what is said online can be taken the wrong way and could result in bullying or harassment online.

The digital divide is a great problem for schools, and this is not just between students but also between teachers. The average school site can have teachers who are digitally literate or those who struggle to answer emails. Add students into the mix and you have an interesting mix of digital literacy skills.

All sites have the responsibility to ensure that staff and students can reach the acceptable level of digital literacy and encourage them to continue learning. One thing that my site has done is hold sessions to increase our level of understanding and competency in digital applications. This was evident when we moved to digital learning and sessions were hold to increase an understanding and awareness of Zoom. However, we have also ensured that students have access to both digital and paper resources to ensure that students have access to resources at home.

I feel that you cannot talk about copyright regulations without mentioning plagiarism. In my site, we have a two-strike rule for most of the younger students. First strike, they get a talking to and then they re-submit the assignment. Second strike, they get an automatic fail. Ensuring that copyright and plagiarism rules are adhered to is important as when students reach university or the workforce, they do not get second chances. We attempt to set them up for Stage 1 and 2 where they will not be able to continue on if they continually go against copyright regulations and plagiarise.

I do not work in the library at my site so I am unsure as to what organisation methods we use.

In the current climate, a DLE is enable students to be able to learn from anywhere they can. At my site, students use Google Classroom to be able to access work provided by the teacher. Google Docs also enables students to collaborate with each other in real time. Some changes include the incorporation of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. in our social sphere. This is because our students are living in an ever increasing digital world. Our students spend most of their time on their phones and on social media. As teachers we need to be aware of this in order to understand the world our students live in. This has meant that students spend more time on their phones and are more easily distracted and disengaged in class. As teachers, we need to change our teaching methodology and how we approach the curriculum and content.

Digital Citizenship, to me, is being responsible and understanding the responsibility that a person has when online. Digital Citizenship is something that all students should be aware of from the moment they get their first digital device and then it be continually reinforced. A digital citizen should be someone who can show how responsible they are online and help teach others skills to be the same.

We should be remembering that the digital sphere is a new environment, one that many are still learning.  Many of our colleagues were not raised with the environments that we have. Many new teachers are aware of the technology and how to use it so it is a great opportunity to learn from them.

More and more, we as teachers are expected to use more digital technologies and practices. Implementing these technologies and practices can be difficult because of the divide between staff knowledge and the technologies as well as between students and what we choose to use.

My personal digital footprint is interesting. I have a few social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram are my most commonly used sites. I occasionally use Snapchat and Twitter is reserved for comments about Masterchef) and a YouTube account which is reserved for posting the videos I make for topics.

Digital Citizenship is something that can be implemented throughout the curriculum and that can be something as simple as protocols for computer use in the classroom.