I teach at a school that strongly advocates the use of technology for educational purposes. We are a BYOD school or bring your own device. We also provide laptops to certain students who do not have access to the internet at home. Our school utilizes the website Echo as a means of disseminating and collecting student work. Students and parents alike can access Echo to see how a student is progressing in each class by checking grades and even specific assignments.
This being said, students are expected to demonstrate technological proficiencies on a regular basis. My students are expected to successfully navigate Echo to access their assignments. Google Docs to complete their work as well as Drive to store their various assignments. My students must also learn to navigate the vast internet through appropriate lenses while avoiding distracting material. When I began teaching at my site, I was initially very impressed by the level of ability and comfortability that many students showed towards technology. However, after two years of teaching, I have begun to see the cracks forming. For example, one common issue that many teachers experience at my school, is the consistency with which students take advantage of their technology. Whether it be the issue of using Google chat at inappropriate times or cheating on assignments by sharing Google Docs and simply changing the name on the assignment. Our recent achievements of ever expanding technology can provide our students new and amazing options that has never been seen in the history of education. There are certainly advantages to utilizing technology in the classroom, such as the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with anyone from anywhere and anytime. Unfortunately, many students have not been taught how to make appropriate decisions when faced with so many different digital communication options. So the question becomes, how do we prepare our students to utilize such an immense resource as the internet. We as teachers must educate our students about digital citizenship and what it means to navigate this second world that we have created. Students need guidance in determining the norms of appropriate and responsible behavior with regard to technology use. At the start of each year, I ask each of my students to successfully access a Google Doc that I created which contains several Ice Breaker questions. Students need to create a Google Doc on which they will answer these questions, and then submit that document to Echo, with the proper share settings to provide me editing rights. This is one example of teaching students some of the more technical norms of digital citizenship. In addition to being a BYOD school, we are also a Project Based Learning school. One of my favorite projects to teach is the “Antisocial” project. We spend about a month investigating the effects of social media. Specifically, students investigate the impact that social media has had on people’s social skills when offline. I have students consider how vastly different communication between online users and offline interactions are. Many students ultimately agree that heavy online use can lead to issues such as online bullying or extended isolation. Which prompts my students to have conversations about how to avoid and rectify these issues. Students determine ways to intervene when they see online bullying and recognize the need for offline time. While certain projects lend themselves to teaching digital citizenship, it is certainly something that I need to continue exploring and explicitly instructing, as it will only become more and more applicable to students educational experiences. The key is to not only provide students the tools to successful digital citizenship, but to help them recognize the need and purpose of it.
6 Comments
6/11/2017 06:04:41 pm
Jimmy,
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Jimmy, This is the great challenge of technology. I used to teach at school that was entirely online, and the struggle to make sure that students were ACTUALLY doing their work was exhausting! I know for a fact that students that sneak to places they shouldn't and do thngs they shouldn't. For every student I catch, I am sure there a couple more getting away with it. Making sure that students are on task is a constant battle. One of the reasons that I created my own website for my students was to make sure that they were going to the links that I wanted them to go to. It was an attempt to control their internet experience. I am always looking for tips and tricks to ensure students are on task, and I imagine I will be learning about this for the entierity of my career.
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Patrick
6/12/2017 10:50:37 am
I really agree with what you said about the "cracks" forming in tech use, but I wonder if it is really all that different than things used to be. Before students would just find a friend who had an early block than you and ask what questions were on the quiz. Or you would meet up at the park to copy each other's study guides. Sure technology has widened the horizon, instead of passing notes in class you can chat anyone in the school! I don't really feel like the core behavior has changed much though, just the setting. And of course, when students are more literate than some of their teachers, there is no structure to help them. Classroom management now needs to be applied digitally as well! Digital citizenship is definitely a part of that. The challenge is in limiting the poor usage without removing the good usage. Google chat is a great example. I have seen students use it to communicate with someone on their team who was home sick. Now, it's true they could just do it with e-mail, but chat is simply better and more efficient. Should we deny the best tools from our students because it can be misused? I don't think so, but we need to find ways to better their citizenship.
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Nai Saelee
6/12/2017 10:56:10 am
Hi Jimmy,
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Nancy
6/12/2017 02:34:22 pm
Hi Jimmy,
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Dan Parker
6/13/2017 02:46:43 pm
Jimmy,
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