Tag: DLE

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.

 

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.