Monthly Archives: June 2020

ETL 523: Reflection

ETL 523

ETL 523: Reflection

To cater to the learning needs of students in 21st century, it is important to have a highly effective school that has high levels of parent and community engagement along with all the staff members in school. The current global pandemic has made it clear that the role of technology in 21st century is highly significant. In these unprecedented times, technology has made it possible for students to learn from home and for professionals to work from home. The move to remote learning for schools during Covid 19 has seen students and educators rely heavily on digital technologies like never before. Students and teachers might find a bit overwhelming to manage change. However, technology can now be seen as a tool and a catalyst for change as it has made education more accessible and flexible. Schools all over the world have suddenly and unforeseeably have been forced to work remotely. It will be incorrect to assume that teachers and students are already digitally literate. Since students are also now the users of technology. The timing for this course was perfect, in the sense, that it has further emphasised the need for teaching digital netiquettes and citizenship to children from very young age. Our virtual spaces should abide by the same forms of etiquette as do our actual spaces. It would be totally incorrect to assume that students are digital natives. I will ensure that digital citizenship becomes a prominent part of my teaching programs. Frallion (2020) advises that we need to plan to support students to be able to make effective use of digital technologies in their learning, teachers too need support to manage this process.

As teachers, we need to prepare our students as global, connected, digital citizens. This can be done by modifying existing tasks and by encouraging students to use web2.0 tools, contributing to wiki or writing a blog post. Such tools support contribution and collaboration. Lindsay and Davis (2013) states that there are three new R’s in education that have to do with global collaboration and they are receive, read and respond. Digital citizenship programs should be a holistic approach which teaches students that good online behaviour is directly and inextricably related to good behaviour in general (Chen & Orth, 2013).

I have never used Twitter before. I now have a Twitter account and follow many other librarians. This subject has been a worthwhile elective as I learnt about web 2.0 tools like Powtoon and Adobe Spark. Currently I am in the process of designing our school’s library webpage using Weebly. I feel confident using Weebly after our group assignment. I have already started implementing what I have learnt in this subject. We need to model and expose our students to areas of technology that may spark a lifelong interest. This subject also emphasised the awareness of cultural understanding in global collaboration in the online learning environment. My takeaway about global differences is that we need to research other cultures before we start to communicate, to at least avoid innocently offending or alienating others by our own cultural presumptions.  I feel I am a global, connected, lifelong learner who is now more confident to explore, learn, create and collaborate in 21st century.

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