Audience: Leadership team (Primary)
Digital artefact: Designing the Digital Learning Environment. A presentation for the leadership team in a primary school setting.
Assessment 1 challenged my research skills, encouraging a move away from simple bookmarking of articles and ebooks during online library searches to the use of digital tools (Diigo) to collect, curate and share. Directed towards social media platforms (Twitter and Blog sites) to source information was a new experience and resulted in a greater appreciation for the notion of ‘The Collaboration Age’ (Richardson, 2008). I questioned whether the reticence I initially felt was because I myself am a product of a dated system and mindset (Whitby, 2014). Seeking the support of my work colleagues and fellow students using a variety of methods and platforms I begin to value the potential collaborative power my Personal Learning Network (PLN) could offer. As 21st Century educators if we are practising this sort of authentic self-directed learning, making valuable connections, we are becoming more relevant to our students and will model effective lifelong learning (Whitby, 2014).
I was motivated to reflect upon my personal DLE and inspired by Lindner (2021) I used Locke’s (2007) six social spaces to consider how I behave in each space and what digital technology inhabits these spaces with me. Mapping out the elements that exist within my current DLE exposed areas that I need to develop, such as experimenting with digital curation and utilising a wider variety of publishing tools, thus developing my own digital fluency skills. This would be a useful exercise for any educator and support professional development planning/programs. My research highlighted the importance of professional development and the crucial role played by the school leadership team to facilitate this. McIntosh’s (2020) adapted seven spaces of learning model provides an excellent framework for teachers to assess their classroom DLE and integrate relevant technologies in an effective manner (Terada, 2020) into all aspects of the teaching and learning to secure personalised and authentic digital learning experiences. The aim then across our school DLE would be to see digital fluency allowing the technologies to be used “readily and strategically to learn, to work, and to play, and the infusion of technology in teaching and learning to improve outcomes for all students” (Spencer, 2020).
References
Lindner, K. (2021, March 15). Forum 3.1 [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au.
Locke, M. (2007, August 10). Six spaces of social media. TEST. https://test.org.uk/2007/08/10/six-spaces-of-social-media/
McIntosh, E. (2020, February 6). The seven spaces of learning. NoTosh. https://medium.com/notosh/the-seven-spaces-of-learning-7e02c8682777
Richardson, W. (2008, December 3). World without walls: Learning well with others. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/collaboration-age-technology-will-richardson
Spencer, K. (2020, March 16). What is digital fluency? Digital learning collaborative. https://www.digitallearningcollab.com/blog/what-is-digital-fluency
Terada, Y. (2020, May 4). A powerful model for understanding good tech integration. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration
Whitby, T. (2014, October 1). The connected educator: It begins with collaboration. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/connected-educator-begins-with-collaboration-tom-whitby