April 13-19′s essential question for CoETaIL.Asia
Enduring Understanding:
The communication tools that exist today are powerful mediums to help spread positive change and global awareness.
So what was the first thing I did? Asked my PLN (Personal Learning Network) of course!
First I asked my twitter network:
Then I asked my Facebook network:
And that was just the replies I got in 5 minutes. Many, many thanks to my PLN!!
Enough said.
Cyberbullying is no different to offline bullying. Bullying is bullying is bullying. Some may argue that it (cyberbullying) is worse as there is an element of anonymity about it and emotional detachment at the time of the bullying that does not bode well for stirring empathy.
Is cyberbullying prevalent at ISB? Well, we honestly don’t know. Some colleagues shared stories they knew of but statistically, we do not know. Finding out may prove equally hard. Research indicates that most adolescents keep bullying incidents to themselves, believing that to tell, will only make the situation worse.
Elona Hartjes blogged about some eye-openers she’d gleaned from the book Mean Girls by Kaye Randall & Allyson A. Bowen.
Other facts include
Our AUP for elementary school mentions it, but does not expand into any specific detail. If we stick to the premise that bullying is bullying then this is quite clear:
General school rules for behavior and communications apply.
No profane, abusive or impolite language should be used to communicate nor should materials be accessed which are not in line with the rules of school behavior. A good rule to follow is never access, view or send materials which you would not want your teachers and parents to see.
Bullying in the school, playground, buses etc is not tolerated, nor should cyberbullying. But is this clear enough – do our students realise that bullying is bullying regardless of where it takes place – is cyberspace a misconception held by our students. The more digital we become, the more embedded this knowledge should become with our students. It should not be taught in isolation, it should be part of what we talk about each time we “go” digital – it’s part of being pro-active.
Cyberbully gets it own heading in the ES AUP but there is nothing in the paragraph about it.
Computer Trespass or Cyberbullying
Illegal or unauthorized access, alteration or deletion of computer programs or applications is known as trespass. Computer trespass, depending upon the circumstances, is a punishable offense that may receive sanctions for Classroom Disruption, Stealing, or Damaging Personal or School Property.
Seems like this might be the right time for our AUP to be updated.
Many colleagues felt we out to find another name for it too. Apparently the older students think it’s a terrible name (it makes them snigger, it sounds geekish). If it’s no different to any other bullying, then we should just call it what it is ….. bullying …… there just happens to be one more place where it can, and does, happen. And it would be very remiss of us not to be pro-active about the destruction of it wherever it may take place.
Image Attribution: bullying.co.uk poster: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/3406087027_2c39a300ac_o.jpg
Saturday’s Face to Face session dealt mainly with the 5 Principles of Best Practice
From the Code of Best Practice in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education by the Action Coalition for Media Education (AUSOC Centre for Social Media – School of Communication American University)
“Educators need to be leaders, not followers, in establishing best practices in fair use.”
1. Employing Copyrighted materials in media literacy lessons.
Using materials inside your classroom, taking reasonable steps to work within Fair Use i.e: password protected blog, internal server, attribution to author/owner, but posting on YouTube – NO
2. Employing copyrighted material in preparing curriculum materials.
Again using copyrighted material in class with fear, working within Fair Use – which enables you to use as much material as you wish as long as it is for the purpose of teaching your students what you need to teach them.
3. Sharing media literacy curriculum materials.
Can you sell it – but not for profit? Yes, and sometimes (in the case of the Video Case Study #1 – you could sell for profit if you were an educational institute. – You are adding value to the works.
4. Students use of copyrighted materials in their own academic and creative work.
If you keep it in your confined space of classroom, internal server – etc then you are pretty much ok. Once you start posting on the web – then you need to consider the next step – are you keeping within copyright and fair use.
Audience matters – what is your audience? Work backwards.
Technology allows us to reach a wider audience. Allows students to have an authentic audience. What are the things we need to be teaching them in order to operate safely?
Can not use mood and emotion as a justification for breaking copyright/fair use
5. Developing audiences for student work.
Meeting the transformative guidelines you can stay within copyright/fairuse in order to show/share your work to the rest of the world.
NOTE:
This document has been reviewed by specialist copyright lawyers, (listed on the last page) but this has not been tested in court.
Interesting conversations were had, especially discussing the Case Study videos. There is certainly a lot that is considered when Judges make rulings about Copyright and Fair Use. It’s fairly obvious that there are clear guidelines that we can follow as educators to ensure that we do not breach Copyright or Fair Use. But it is also pretty clear that as educators, as long as we don’t abuse Fair Use, we can safely use other’s material to help students learn in a variety of ways. It would seem the most care needs to be taken when you are posting your creations of work (based on others materials) for the rest of the world to see.
In order to consolidate our learning of these 5 principles, we were giving time in the session to use a multi-media tool to convey the messages of the 5 principles. You can see some of the other groups work here .
Our group chose Glogster. (Our experiences with it to be a later post – it is still in beta form and it is definitely not the best tool for students – YET). If the flash doesn’t work, click here for the direct link:
Ding Ding …… Round Course Two begins for CoETaIL.Asia
Enduring Understandings:
Essential Question:
When and where should we be teaching students about their digital footprint?
This weeks readings were from Kim Komondo’s Your Online Reputation Can Hurt Your Job Search and Protect Your Digital Footprint from kutv.com
I was fortunate enough to have our afternoon presenter, Silvia Tolisano, stay with me after her presentation at ISB. We discussed in depth one night the need to own your domain name and those of your children. Thankfully my name and those of my children are unusual enough to still be available domain names. What I have realised I need to do is take charge of my blog name so that I can continue to control what happens with it. I’d not really given any thought to what might happen if someone decided to “kick me off” my name. All my thoughts and ideas would disappear over time as someone began to use my name legally. Whilst I would like to believe that no-one would do that deliberately, I realise that not everyone is as idealistic in web ethics as I am.
Google Alerts, RSS feeds of Google Search Terms, Technorati and Edublogs’ incoming links have always kept me informed of how my digital footprint is impacting on others. I believe it is necessary to keep an eye on how and when our names are being used on the internet for a variety of reasons.
Clarence Fisher also believes that tracking your digital footprint is an essential part of working online and these are essential basic skills for us and for our students as well. His Digital Footprint blog post is an informative read as he shares how he tracks his digital footprint and the reasons why he does it.
It is great to see what people are writing about you. It gives you a chance to respond to posts people write and also it keeps your finger on the pulse of any ongoing conversations.”
I listened to Ewan McIntosh, at an unconference session at Learning2.0 in Shanghai, about how he has already begun to protect and nurture his young daughter’s digital footprint before she is even old enough to walk let alone blog! I remember thinking how that was just a little bit over-the-top but as my learning journey continues down the path of 21st Century Digital Literacy, it has become more obvious that looking after your digital footprint is the same as looking after any of your tools in your toolbox and it’s the same as looking after your own reputation. YOU need to do it – no one else is going to.
Online safety and digital citizenship in the classroom when working with blogs, wikis and any other tools that leave a footprint of ourselves online is a message that we, as educators, have a responsibility/need to continually push at ANY level. It’s no different to teaching encouraging students to respect themselves, or respect one another in any space they are in.
Only this time the space is the internet and this space keeps a record of all behaviour – the good, the bad and the ugly.
And anybody can look at it. Anytime. Anywhere.
It’s incredible that Course 1 of our Certificate in Educational Technology and Information Literacy is complete (well as of midnight tonight it will be!)
Our final face to face session yesterday was a doozie! Kim and Jeff organised for the authors of Reinventing Project-Based Learning – Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age (from which our project assignment stems from) to skype in. It was very powerful to receive words of encouragement and advice from Suzie Boss (Portland, Oregon) and Jane Krauss (Eugene, Oregon) Also impressive was the fact that they were giving up some of their Friday night to talk with us.
Take-aways from the conversation:
One of the great things about Course 1 has been the chance to collaborate with members of my own Grade 5 team as we put together a Project especially after hearing the authors of Reinventing Project-Based Learning!! We set ourselves a goal of establishing our Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions by 11.00am (Lunchtime for the Course). It’s such a pleasure working with people who are willing and enthusiastic about learning in the 21st Century.
Julie Lindsay joined us via skype today too. Sheis an IT Director, currently working at Qatar Academy, soon to be at Beijing International School. Along with Vicki Davis (CoolCatTeacher), Julie developed an amazing project-based learning opportunity for students around the globe based on the Horizon Project, The World is Flat and Grown Up Digital. Julie and Vicki have recently completed the first ever Flat Classroom Conference and have received multiple awards for their ground-breaking work. Her blog, E-Learning Journeys, is a wonderful resource for all things related to globally collaborative projects. When I was teaching Year 7 in New Zealand (Grade 6) my class and I were lucky enough to be a sounding board for the Horizon Project in 2006 and 2007. It was an amazing opportunity to be involved at a lower level. My students got real insight into the kind of students that they themselves, in the not so distance future, would be. It was interesting for us look at the ways other students communicated and collaborated and produced a final product during the Horizon Project as well as provoking a lot of discussion about critiquing people’s work / thinking.
The last part of the day saw us back together in our teams finalising our Project. The GRASP was excellent as it kept us focused on exactly what learning we wanted to expose our students to. We struggled somewhat with the “Six Facets of Understanding” because none of us really had any experience with this. Having the template on our CoETaIL wiki helped a little, but we were unsure of what exactly to write. This provoked some discussion about our own understanding and together we were able to nut it out. Fabulous cooperation, contributing and collaboration! You can read our Project Page here – although please note it’s still a work in progress. We are going to share it with the rest of our team and have them add their input too, as we believe this has the potential to be a wicked Social Issues Unit for Literacy! We welcome any feedback or suggestions you might have – just scroll down to the bottom and start a thread!
It really is hard to believe that Course 1 is complete. The weeks went fast, the readings were thought-provoking, reaffirming and sometimes prickly. But that’s ok – we’re life long learners and this is what life long learners do – extend themselves, challenge themselves and learn new things. There’s more photos in my flickr photostream of Course 1 if you’re interested.
Is my journey of learning continuing?
Crossing the bridge as I hit “publish“.
Bring on Course 2!
Wednesday’s afternoon face to face session for our ISB Cert. of Educational Technology & Information Literacy (COETAIL.Asia) was a blast!
In groups we each looked a trend from the Horizon Report. We then had 30 minutes to prepare a 2 minute presentation answering the question “How has your trend changed the learning landscape?”
The presentations ranged from videos to scenes in the elevator and were not only informative about the Horizon Report Trends but hilarious!
Our group worked on the One Year or Less: Mobile trend. So, according to the Horizon Report in one year or less Mobile phones are going to change the learning landscape in our classroom. Here’s our two minute presentation.
So what’s my take away? It wasn’t any of the information presented from the Horizon Report – it was the format that we used for discovering information and presenting it to our pairs. Using the Elevator Pitch was fast-pitched, inspiring, motivating, and a lot of fun. I can’t wait to create the similar “buzz” by introducing this Elevator Pitch technique to my students. If you’re not sure what an Elevator Pitch is ….. watch the video below.
This weeks readings were Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom by Marc Prensky (Edutopia) and Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project “Conclusions and Implications” pg. 35 – 39 (MacArthur Foundation Report)
I have to admit, I’ve been putting this post off. Whilst I found the MacArthur Foundation Report 
rounded up the messages that all of our readings have been pointing us toward – the value, recognition and importance of social networking, messing around, collaboration, peer-based learning etc, I am just a bit wary about what Marc Prensky writes.
This wariness originally grew from a valid point written in a blog post that a very good friend and colleague of mine wrote after he completed an assignment for a paper he was doing – the topic – the frequently- commented-on terms Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. The valid point? Marc Prensky made some statements in that article for which there are no references to research carried out or other reading he has gleaned pieces of information from.
I find myself wondering the same about this article. Where is Marc Prensky’s information coming from. What does he base his statements on – research? personal opinion? observations? Has he ever been a classroom teacher? Or is this point of view solely from someone who may have spent a lot of time in various schools but not actually been a part of one. Has he traveled around the world visiting a variety of schools or is this article aimed solely at the American public education system? And what about the parents? Where do they factor in all of this?
Technically speaking, I’m a Digital Immigrant – but I’m definitely beyond the old things in new ways step and I do ask my students their opinions, and value their feedback. It is my firm belief that we should be using the right tools for the job. If a letter is required, then I shall write a letter, if a face to face message is more appropriate than an email – that’s what I will do. If a digital tool can help students construct meaning in an authentic way then use that technology. Don’t use the technology just for the sake of using it – make sure it’s right for what you want need to do.
I think we need to be a 1 to 1 school if we are to truly prepare our future workforce for jobs that haven’t even been invented yet – but the reality is it’s not going to happen yet. So should I sit back on my heels and blame lack of computers or lack of skills a reason for not using technology in my class? – Heck no! I’m innovative, I’m creative and I’m darn sure that technology embedded in learning is the direction education and educators have to move in and it’s the direction that I am committed to move in, passionate to move in and prepared to move in!
The thorny part, for me, is the sweeping generalisations about teachers. There’s a fair few of us out there in education land that aren’t like what you describe Mr Prensky and we are definitely living up to your last words which I really do agree with SO
I’ll let you have the last word …..
Let’s adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it, and redo it, until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel we’ve done our very best. Then, let’s push it and pull it some more. And let’s do it quickly, so the 22nd century doesn’t catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone.
Literacy has been a major focus for the Elementary School this year. Keeping that in mind, it’s no wonder that our Project Sketch for the end of Course 1 of the ISB Cert. of Educational Technology & Informational Literacy (COETAIL.Asia as it’s affectionately known) is based around Reader’s Workshop. Coming up this Semester is the Unit Study Social Issues and it’s through this curriculum area that we will build our Project.
Our Grade 5 team for this project has four fabulous members: Diane, Robin, Dan and myself. The following is our sketch for our Project Based Learning in the classroom. We’ve got a bit of planning still to do during our Saturday f2f meeting time – but that’s ok. Here’s the gist of our thinking at this stage:
In our Project for we hope to successfully address the following ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S) and Performance Indicators for Students
1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes
using technology. Students:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.
Using Glogster we hope to met the requirements for both standards above. Glogster is an online tool that allows you to mix graphics, photos, videos, music and text into slick glogs.
A glog (Interactive Poster) will not only provide the vehicle to help students creative original works to express their ideas about Social Issues but it will provide us with the perfect opportunity to help students gain an understanding of Digital Citizenship – with a major focus on copyright, creative commons, appropriate graphics, and collaboration.
The thing I love most about hearing Chris Betcher speak is they way he constantly teaches me more about things I thought I already knew. Chris has already posted some incredibly helpful links on the ISB Wiki so I’m just sharing the link to the wiki rather than reposting all his links. You’ll find the links here: (Just scroll down past Chris’s mugshot)
In just few short minutes Chris has just taught the entire room some very useful tips for searching “smarter” with Google, how to use basic search syntax and Google Advance Search.
Chris’s session was extremely interactive – he had us all searching and learning in a fun way. The Google quiz was great – I like the fact that you needed to apply your search techniques – great for doing with our students – and the last question was excellent because it required a deeper level of thinking/synthesizing – kinda like Blooms Taxonomy thinking.
I especially enjoyed the Spaghetti growing on Trees Video and the link to the Tree Octopus website bought back memories of my entire Year 7 class a couple of years ago being completely fooled by this site when we were learning about the validity of websites and information on the internet and how do you know.
Even more informative was the discussion we had about Wikipedia. In just a few minutes (again) Chris was able to explain the ins and outs of Wikipedia’s questionable validity and truthfulness in such a way that the majority of us could go back and explain the exact same thing to our students.
This session was fabulous practical session and I am so grateful to have been reminded about the Google for Educators website (bookmarked in my delicious account but certainly not looked at closely). Even better are the resources we now have on our ISB Cert. Ed. Tech. & Informational Literacy wiki, (COETAIL.Asia) available at our fingertips (and we’ve experienced them) to help us teach ourselves and our students what’s real and how do you know and how can you find out and can you tell the difference?
Thanks Chris – great way to spend the afternoon and thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us. Hope Kim and Jeff ask you back for another session!
As part of our Certificate of Educational technology & Information Literacy Course 1 we have been asked to write a post about our hopes for this course.
I hope to extend skills that will enable me to successfully guide my students, both now and in the future, on their learning journey through the 21st Century.
I hope to make connections with the people taking this Certificate Course to share, collaborate, support and learn from them.
I hope to pass this Certificate Course so that my own Personal Learning Goal of completing my Masters Degree remains on track.
I hope to grow like this new “koro” of the fern from my living room – planted, watered and nurtured but ultimately challenged by my environment.
Not exactly earth-moving stuff – but my hopes none-the-less.
