Category: ETL 523

Learning reflections for the Digital Citizenship in Schools

Assessment 2 Part B Critical Reflection Blog Post

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Prior to participating in the course learning, I did not have a full understanding of what digital citizenship is or what it looks like in an elementary school system. I understood that digital citizenship did not get the attention or the focus of the other 6 C’s – collaboration, creativity, communication, critical thinking, character, and digital citizenship. I noticed over that digital citizenship resources were lacking in the school board and educators, including myself, did not truly understand digital citizenship. I am now confident that I understand digital citizenship practices and the next steps that are required to improve digital citizenship at the school board.

As the Technology Enabled Learning Teacher Contact for the school board, I am considered the leader who promotes the effective integration of technology into the classroom. Over the last three months, I have made great strides to create digital citizenship awareness among educators and students. During Catholic Education Week, I facilitated a Digital Citizenship poster contest connected to the Catholic Graduate Expectations. Students were asked to select one of the Catholic Graduate Expectations and interpret what that looked like as a Digital Citizen. Students also practiced their digital literacy skills that posters were completed using digital tools.

The week of May 24 – 28 was deemed Digital Literacy Awareness Week. To promote digital literacy skills across the school board I created a choice board that promotes digital citizenship resources and games. A live Youtube event was held May 20 with Cobblestone Collective to promote students promoting the skills they have within the Digital Learning Environment (DLE). Parents were invited to attend the event with their students to learn how to create a video tutorial. Students were challenged to create their own video tutorials to share with their parents and teachers about the favourite tool they use in Google. The video and slide deck is will be shared with teachers to share and promote in their classrooms the week of May 24 – 28th.

Another step forward was obtaining approval to purchase a collection of primary and junior books to be kept in each school’s library. As I was conducting research for both course assessments I learned that there are not many digital citizenship resources available for the primary division. I was able to collate a list of 15 picture books that support educators integrating digital citizenship practices into the primary classroom.

Where do I go from here, what is next and how do I continue to move forward promoting digital citizenship across the system. One large project that I will be undertaking is creating a digital citizenship course within D2L Brightspace, Ontario’s Virtual Learning Environment. I would like to develop a course that enrolls all educators within the school board will be enrolled as students. The course will include information about school board policies and procedures, teaching resources, digital citizenship lessons, best practices for digital citizenship, ministry resources, Catholic Graduate Expectations, and professional development opportunities. The course will appear on the SNCDSB Hub landing page. The benefits of developing the course will include teachers learning more about digital citizenship practices but it will also positively impact their ability to navigate with the VLE. Currently, the VLE is only used as a landing page and a curation tool for resources and digital artifacts of learning. Educators will experience firsthand the functionality and features of the VLE.

In my first blog post for the course, I indicated that I would become more active on Twitter to actively participate rather than solely being a consumer. I have increased the number of posts I have noticed an increase in participation with educators across the school board as well. I have begun to feel a sense of community through Twitter as my Professional Learning Network.

Finally, I will advocate for a dedicated professional development day for educators, centered on technology integration, digital citizenship, and digital literacy skills. I will work closely with the leads within the school board who have do have dedicated professional development days to collaborate about how I can work with teachers, offering technology integration sessions.

 

Module 6 Professional Responsibility

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What is my leadership approach to education? Am I a connected educator who strives to leverage technology to impact education globally in a flat environment? What is my next step as an educator in Ontario, what is my professional responsibility? These questions came to mind during my readings in Module 6. Many of the ideas are not new, as I have encountered these topics, ideas, and philosophies throughout my studies. However, nearing the end of my Master’s work, I find myself considering where am I and what is my next step in terms of professional responsibility.

Without a doubt, I would consider myself a leader within the board. I am one of six board-level leads. I am the only board-level employee who supports technology exclusively. However, I have been working with the board leads, so they are moving forward with their digital literacy skills within their roles. I see myself as a coach, I support my peers. I am open to learning from mistakes and others within the board. I look to classroom teachers to support my learning, as I do not have a classroom of students of my own to try new technology tools, resources, or software with. I have to lead the board through new models for professional development, student workshops and expanding technology access and functionality within the board. I do not have the ability to influence curriculum reform, however, I can advocate for programming and professional development initiatives.

I see my next step towards becoming a stronger global connected leader is to expand my professional learning network. I need to open my mindset to intentionally consider the global perspectives to issues affecting learning using digital tools and technology. I can do this by networking with others beyond my school district, province, country, and even continent. I appreciate reading articles about school systems overseas, however, I am reading it through the lens of an Ontario educator. I need to practice being more aware of others’ perspectives, barriers, and learning conditions.

Module 5 Information Leadership in Schools

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It is interesting to consider that students have been provided with devices to demonstrate and engage in learning in classrooms and now synchronously and asynchronously, but digital citizenship is not a part of the Ontario Curriculum. Media Literacy is a part of the Language Arts Curriculum, Critical thinking is a part of the Mathematics Curriculum and Cyber Bullying is a part of the Health Curriculum, however, there is not an explicit one-stop-shop for teachers in Ontario to know what is important to ensure students know and understand in terms of Digital Citizenship. One could argue that educators are preparing students for their future, however, what does that mean practically for educators who didn’t attend Univesity using their own device to engage in learning? What does that look like for teachers who didn’t use Web 2.0 to complete their formal education?

As the Technology Enabled Learning Teacher Contact for a K – 8 School Board in Ontario I have begun to collate a list of skills are required for students to know and understand before leaving the system to attend high school. The scope and sequence is not an all-encompassing list of skills, but rather it will provide a baseline assessment of what students know and understand and what is the next step for educators to begin integrating digital citizenship, digital literacy, transliteracy, and information fluency skills into the classroom. Baseline data will be collected during the month of June to determine where students are at. Educators across the board will be asked to complete a survey that will paint the picture of where our students are at. The findings will inform planning for student programming and workshops as well as educator professional development.

Media Smarts is a Canadian not-for-profit organization that is committed to providing educators with lesson plans and programming ideas. There is no curriculum for digital citizenship skills. Common Sense Media does provide a digital citizenship curriculum that could be utilized in the classroom, however, it is American content.

The school board I work for has released the Strategic Plan for 2020 – 2024. One of the pillars is Focus on the Future. Under this pillar are Information Communication Technology (ICT), Blended Learning, and Digital Fluency. Although current job descriptions outline the importance or need for ICT or Digital Literacy Skills. I wonder if this will be stressed through the interview process. I also understand there is the understanding of coaching educators through workshops and professional development to grow professionally. The Ontario College of Teachers encourages Ontario educators to develop a positive online presence.

Assessment 1 Reflection

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Creating and developing a web guide was a rich learning experience. Digital citizenship pertains to everyone using Web 2.0, however, in the educational setting, it is the responsibility of the educator to support students, our future. There are a number of focuses that the web guide could have incorporated, but I decided to focus on educator’s awareness of digital citizenship. I feel strongly that educators need to understand what digital citizenship is before they can model and teach students about digital citizenship. I resolved to create a web guide that supports educators who teach in the elementary panel. I aspired to make it valuable and relevant to my current teaching role as a Technology Enabled Learning Teacher.

Reviewing research from the course readings, previous courses and Ontario Ministry of Education and governance documentation provided the content for the top ten best practices. I also referred to the policies and procedures adhered to by the school board where I am employed.

It was interesting to recognize how the best practices fit within the 21st-century learning frames-work, the 6 C’s also referred to as the global competencies. Citizenship is one of the 6 C’s. Create, communicate and collaborate are competencies for digital citizenship and served as an organisational structure for the recommended best practices. Critical thinking and character are two of the 6 C’s that I did not include in the ten best practices, but they too are competencies included within digital citizenship. Critical thinking requires users to discern whether information online is correct and can be substantiated. Character is to display good character when engaging online. In the future, I may extend the web guide to include all of the 6 C’s in the orgnisational structure of the ten best practices. Only create, communicate and collaborate were included in the web guide.

There were a few challenging aspects to the assessment. The first was writing only 1500 words to synthesize the ten best practices for educator digital citizenship. Writing the narrative portion for the video was also difficult to keep concise. My initial recording was almost ten minutes long, too long to hold the viewer’s interest. Finally, the finishing touches or the details while creating the artifacts required an iterative design process. Creating, viewing, seeking feedback, improving and then improving. Adding a QR code to link to references and the Creative Commons images to my artifacts were two details that were added through the iterative process.

Creating the artifact was a great way to critically reflect upon how I practise digital citizenship. Most images included in the video were from the stock media within the WeVideo program. Any images that were used that were not included in the stock media were sourced and cited. I created a poster and licenced it under Creative Commons licencing. Going through the learning process of actually licencing my work provided me with a stronger understanding of Creative Commons licencing.

I look forward to sharing and embedding the best practices in my workplace as I mentor and support educators.

 

Assessment 1 Proposal Digital Citizenship Guide

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Topic/Focus Point: Best Digital Citizenship Practices in a Digital Learning EnvironmentEducators in a K – 8 School Board

  1. What is a Digital Learning Environment and how to design it?
  • What is the real context of the digital learning environment?
  • How can learning spaces be personalized to learning needs?
  • How do you design and manage a digital learning environment?
  • What are the basics for setting up a digital learning environment?
    • Digital literacy and information fluency
    • Balance – opportunities and responsibilities, sense of community and wellbeing 
  • What are the best organizations globally to support the DLE and digital citizenship?
    • DLE
      • Google
      • Teachers Pay Teachers
      • Boom Cards
  • Networks (Wikis, Blogs)
    • Networking (PLN) and collaborating using social media
      • What does ‘networked and connected learning’ mean?
      • How can we effectively and safely harness social media for connected learning?
        • Twitter
        • Pinterest
        • Facebook Groups
    • PLE 
      • Curation
  • Communities
  1. What is responsible for Digital Citizenship in a Digital Learning Environment?
  2. Why does Digital Citizenship matter in a DLE?
  • Student learning styles and outcomes
    • New literacies (digital text is different)
  • 6 C’s
  • Validating Online Sources
  • Making Community Better
  • Filtering

  1. Digital Citizenship Teaching Focus in a DLE
  • Technology fluency
  • Communication/Collaboration
  • Research/Information Fluency
  • Problem Solving
  • ability to practice and advocate online behaviour that demonstrates legal, ethical, safe and responsible uses of information and communication technologies
  • Network awareness
  • Etiquette & Respect
  • Safety, privacy, copyright and legal
  • Habits of learning
  • Literacy and fluency
  1. Best practices for digital learning environments
  • What does responsible learning look like using digital tools?
    • What are the best organizations in Ontario to support DLE and digital citizenship?
      • eCommunity
  • Student-Centred, Experiential, Holistic, Authentic, Reflective, Expressive, Social, (Kemker, K. (2005). The digital learning environment: What the research tells us. Apple White Paper.)
  • Flipped Classroom
  • CoP
  • What are the best practices for encouraging responsible learning when using technology?
    • Internet safety/cybersafety
    • Creative commons and ethical use of the internet
    • Copyright and plagiarism (Free Use)
    • Personal reputation and digital footprint
  • Engage parents in digital citizenship learning expectations
  • Use digital textbooks ie. Edwin, Digital Subscriptions vs. photocopying
  • Citing images and information used in lessons
  • Content curation – Google Drive, Portfolio 
  1. Resources to Support Educators learning/practicing Digital Citizenship in a DLE
  • Digital Citizenship Resources for Educators in Ontario
    • Ontario VLE
    • Media Smarts
    • Digizen
    • Common Sense Media
    • ConnectED
    • Online Safety Guide

I am thinking that the web guide for elementary school educators, Kindergarten to Grade 8. The guild will promote educator digital citizenship in a digital learning environment. It will outline the components of digital citizenship to consider in the elementary classroom. The web guide will create awareness for educators’ to understand why a software request policy and the procedure need to be implemented and followed. I will be drafting a board-wide policy and procedure and include this as an appendix to the web guide.

The research and content will draw from Ontario Ministry of Education documents as well as Canadian publications. I will explore how each of the criteria listed below through the lens of Ontario and Canadian research, resources and interactive games.  

I am thinking that the artifact will be a video that outlines educator best practices and resources that can serve as a “best practice” sample tour. A virtual walk-through of a DLE that includes all the components and criteria outlined above.  

Module 4 Supporting the Digital Learner

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I work for a K – Grade 8 school board, therefore I see educational networking for educators using social media. I do know that many of the students use social media to communicate, especially now during the global pandemic when we are restricted to only “socializing within our own households”. Educators DLE can benefit from the use of social media as social media has no geographical boundaries. Educators can learn from educators in other provinces, countries or continents using social media platforms.
The Ministry of Education in Ontario is moving towards providing educators with more digital resources. The new Mathematics curriculum that came out in 2020 is all digital and interactive with hyperlinks and resources. However, this is Ontario’s perspective on mathematics instruction. It is interesting to view how other countries promote mathematics instruction. I know during my learning in teachers’ college, I learned how China promotes mathematics in their classrooms. I also learned the “Dutch Algorithm” for division. Networking with educators outside of one’s school can promote a diversified and informed approach to education for our students.

I do find that there is more work to do in my local educational environment to promote the use of social media as a learning tool. Educators have not been sold yet on the value of using social media to network and support new ideas in their practice. This will be discussed in the web guide that I develop, as I see it as a gap in the system I work in. Educators don’t have a professional digital footprint, they use social media for personal purposes but not professional. I think once educators understand what it means to be a responsible digital citizen, they will expand their use of social media into their professional practice.

I was excited to review the technology policies and procedures for the school board I work for. The policies and procedures were recently updated in February 2021 to reflect the new learning and teaching environment since remote learning started in April 2020. There are two areas of digital citizenship I noticed that were not reflected in the policies and procedures, promoting the positive aspects of digital citizenship – creating a positive digital footprint and collaborating through professional learning networks. The current governance documents seem to be a list of thou shalt not…..rather than foster the idea of being positive contributors to the digital learning environment. I look forward to promoting these ideas through the digital and interactive web guide I create for assessment 1.

Module 3 The Digital Learning Environment

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I understand the digital learning environment (DLE) to be where and how learning takes place using technology and software platforms. The DLE for the school board I work for includes Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Students are able to collaborate using Google Docs and Slides. The student is assigned their lessons and submit their assessments through Google Classroom. Students communicate using the Stream on Google Classroom, Google Hangouts and meet synchronously when in Remote Learning through Google Meet.

The DLE also includes an accountability platform to monitor students’ digital activity. GoGuardian is a Chromebook management tool that allows educators to monitor where students visit, what work they do and control their device in real-time. Teachers can pull up a tab on students’ screens, close tabs, lock the device, block websites and manage students’ tabs. This supports educators teach digital citizenship. Without a platform such as this, students can be left to their own “devices” literally, without formal consequences. When students are learning remotely, taking away a student’s device is not an option.

The DLE for the school board also includes D2L Brightspace or Ontario’s VLE. The VLE holds curated resources for educators and students to learn from, digital games to interact and websites to serves as reference material for lessons, curriculum content, lessons and much more. Student’s digital portfolios are held within the SNCDSB Hub, the VLE. Students are loaded into classes through the student information system. This allows for seamless and secure access to upload artifacts of learning. Students are able to provide reflections, strengths and next steps for learning.

Support students being responsible digital citizens is not an easy task. I believe the biggest hurdle for educators is that digital citizenship not be a well-known concept. Students need to learn in a supportive environment that corrects behaviour but allows students the freedom to explore and engage in a way that provides them with an authentic learning experience. Students should not learn digital citizenship practices theoretically without the opportunity to apply the learning in a DLE.

A DLE can also include social media. I currently use Twitter to share my work in the classroom with the broader community. I also follow educators who inspire me, provide hands-on learning experiences through STEM, makerspaces, coding, robotics and 21st-century learning. I follow educators who will provide me with a spark, motivation, encouragement or inspiration. I learn from educators in the field. My next step in the social networking arena is to comment on others’ posts, rather than just retweeting or liking a post. However, my DLE does include social media.

Module 2 Issues in Digital Citizenship

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The digital divide is new terminology to me. I understand the digital divide to be the limitations of bandwidth in rural, remote and lower socioeconomic places to connect, collaborate and create due to internet connectivity issues. I can empathize with this, as I live in a rural – remote location with a limited internet connection. The investment required to obtain internet is significant and cost-prohibitive for sure. I have recently been upgraded from 100 MB per month to unlimited. The highest download speed I have obtained with this service is 10 MB/s. I am able to create videos and communicate asynchronously to complete my studies, but synchronous learning via Zoom or Google Meet is happened by the download and upload speeds. During synchronous meetings, I generally have to keep my camera off and not share my screen.

A new Satellite option called Star Link high-speed option is now available, however, the setup cost is $800 CAD and then a monthly payment of $130. Lower-income families would not be able to afford the investment required to obtain download speeds greater than 50 MB/s.

The school board I work with has been working tirelessly to connect our students and educators. The school board has supported 1 to 1 device for students to ensure everyone is able to connect. The IT team and I support families, educators and students to ensure learners are engaged in DLE. I am proud of the school board I work with and the forward-thinking administration that is student-centred and strives to narrow the digital divide.

To support parents and students during learning at home the EdTech Team planned a Student Summit. It was a week-long event where students were engaged in digital literacy learning. Teachers learned alongside students through workshops and students created and communicated with “experts” with programs such as Google Draw, Google Earth and Google Slides. At the end of the week student work was showcased and celebrated. Additionally, parent communication and workshops are ongoing to ensure that parents have the support and knowledge to support their students throughout the pandemic.

I am excited to embark on the Digital Citizenship web guide assignment for the course. Digital Citizenship has not been a priority for the school board, for a number of reasons. The focus has been on engagement and promoting educator’s and students’ digital literacy skills. However, I believe that I am taking this course at the perfect time to support the system and educators consider and develop digital citizenship skills.

The first step that the board has taken is to create an awareness of Digital Citizenship. This past week the IT department has pushed out the Responsible Digital Citizenship Through the Lens of the Ontario Catholic School Graduate Expectations presentation. Each Monday a new slide will be the wallpaper on classroom interactive monitors and whiteboards. This will serve as the first step to create awareness for students and educators about digital citizenship skills. There is a plan to have students engage with the idea of digital citizenship for Catholic Edcuation Week. There will be a student poster contest whereby students will develop their own posters to share their learning and reflections on digital citizenship. Students’ work will then be posted on the desktop wallpaper of the interactive whiteboards in the classrooms.

Initially, my thinking around curation was that I don’t do it and it is not a focus for the school board, however, after reading through the articles I see bits of curation happening. Each portfolio lead within the board has curated digital resources to be shared with educators on an internet-type resource page. They took the time to vet resources based on pedagogical application (not privacy and cybersecurity, that is my project now) for classroom educators to implement into their programs. Another curation project that occurs at the board level is shared drives in Google Drive. Again each lead and superintendent uploads and shares resources, forms and documents through the shared drive. Again a repository that is searchable and has been sorted in a way that makes it accessible and can be added to. Finally, a student-centred curation project is students’ digital portfolio. Each student has been uploaded to D2L Brightspace Portfolio through the Student Information System and can access their digital portfolio. Each student’s portfolio is connected to their Ontario Education Number (OEN). It will follow them from Kindergarten to Grade 12. I was pleased to realize that I do support and actively participate in curation.

Educational Resources for Educators and Students

References

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21 st century [White paper]. MacArthur Foundation Publication. https://www.macfound.org/media/ article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Schradie, J. (2013, April 26). 7 myths of the digital divide [Blog post]. http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/ 2013/04/26/7-myths-of-the-digital-divide/

 

Module 1 What is Digital Citizenship?

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A Digital Learning Environment is a classroom that is interactive, digital and accessible through a technology device and internet connection. The school board I work with uses Google Classroom and D2L’s Brightspace as a digital learning environment. Educators will synchronously meet with students through the Google Meet link in Google Classroom. Students are able to post questions on the Stream or some educators have integrated a Google Hangout as a discussion space for classroom participants. Within Google, Classroom educators are able to post assignments, provide feedback and keep their mark book. Students are able to communicate with their classroom teacher and submit their assignments.

D2L’s Brightspace is slowly being adopted within the school board as it is Ontario’s VLE. Currently, the expectation is that students upload their very best work to their digital portfolios. The tool organizes students’ work by offering filters and tagging system. Each year student’s classrooms with be populated so students can visit the previous year’s work to reflect on their growths and achievements throughout their learning journey. The tool currently meets the needs of students having a digital portfolio that can be shared with parents/guardians through student lead conferences and offer digital artifacts for reflection and consolidation of learning.

I am excited about the learning in this course, as I lack the confidence to provide guidance to educators and students on the board about what it means to practice digital citizenship. I have a general idea of a digital footprint, copyright infringement, however, I am looking forward to learning more about privacy and data storage best practices. According to Greenhow (2010), students require the following technology-based skills: technology fluency, innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, problem-solving and digital citizenship. Digital citizenship is beyond online safety but involves participatory digital communication.

As a 21st century educator, I created a Twitter account. I post my work, activities, workshops, and learnings that I have. I find it inspiring to learn from other educators using the tool. I have also met and had interactions with educators that I may not have otherwise had the pleasure of meeting through the social media platform. I use my Twitter account exclusively for professional use posting my work and sharing information with educators.

References
Greenhow, C. (2010). New concept of citizenship for the digital age. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(6), 24-25.