One element of digital citizenship is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a huge problem in schools and often times goes unreported. In fact, according to the infographic published by Osiris Educational 48% of students fail to get help or advice about cyber bullying and 38% don't report the incidence(s) at all. I believe that because many incidences of cyber bullying go unreported students continue to misuse technology and purposefully hurt each other. The types of cyber bullying that girls experience most frequently are nasty comments and name calling. Whereas, the most common acts of cyber bullying against boys are being called gay and homophobic. And, in total 49% of students report being bullied online in some form. This data clearly indicates a need for students to receive e-safety information. But, interestingly students are receiving this information, with 96% of students receiving some form of e-saftey information (at school or at home). Instead, the problem is that 70% of students do not follow the e-safety advice despite 89% of them believing that the e-safety advice is good. Therefore, the problem is finding a way to encourage students to follow the advice they are given. This infographic provides many intriguing statistics in a visually appealing format that encourage the viewer to think about the real problems surrounding cyber bullying and how to combat it.
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Technology is changing the way students communicate and learn, and as a result computers, tablets and other digital devices are becoming more common in the classroom. Technology can greatly enhance student learning experiences inside the classroom. However, this growth in the use of technology has introduced new problems that students, parents, teachers and administrators have to learn how to deal with. As a result it is necessary for schools to explicitly teach students how to appropriately use technology. LAUSD's RAUPRecently the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) created a curriculum to explicitly teach students in third through fifth grade digital citizenship. The LAUSD developed their curriculum based of the work of Common Sense Media. One of the lessons developed as part of this new curriculum was designed to teach students about the Reasonable and Acceptable Use Policy (RAUP) for iPads. The standards and objectives for this lesson are shown below: I believe that these standards and objectives are very important for today's students to learn and I think that it is especially important to begin teaching students these rules at a young age (such as in this lesson which was created for students in grades 3-5). Part of this lesson requires students to act out different scenarios demonstrating both appropriate and inappropriate use of technological devices such as iPads. I think this strategy is an effective method for helping students remember what they should and shouldn't do with technology both in school and outside of school. One part of this lesson that I think needs change is the reading of the abridged RAUP. The RAUP contains jargon that would be difficult for many third, fourth and fifth graders to understand, which makes this portion of the lesson extremely ineffective. Although, their is a vocabulary activity included in the lesson to help students I believe more scaffolding of vocabulary or rewriting the RAUP in simpler terms would make this activity more productive. 1:1 iPadsMany schools are moving towards creating classrooms where students 1:1 access to technological devices such as iPads and Chromebooks. Therefore, it is necessary to teach students how to use these devices appropriately. An interactive activity, such as the role playing activity outlined in the lesson created by LAUSD would be extremely useful in teaching students how to act responsibly when given the opportunity to work with technological devices. Students need to be frequently exposed to and reminded of the rules of digital citizenship using lessons such as the lesson developed by LAUSD.
Flipped classrooms is a relatively new and growing instructional strategy that flips traditional teaching on its head. The flipped classroom model has teachers divided, some teachers say that flipping their classroom has radically improved student success but others say that students will not learn by sitting in front of a screen. So what exactly is a flipped classroom? Simply put, in a flipped classroom environment students engage with content available to them on the Internet at home and on their own time prior to class (this is essentially the direct instruction portion of the lesson) and then class time is spent reviewing material and expanding knowledge via engaging activities and class collaboration. For most this idea sounds simple enough, but to really make the flipped classroom model effective their are several steps that need to occur. First, the content that students interact with outside of the classroom needs to be varied and engaging. The purpose of interacting with content material before class is to create a foundational knowledge and encourage students to develop questions in preparation for class. The next key step is reflection. Students must be required to reflect on what they have learned, identify areas of confusing and develop questions and then share these thoughts with their peers and instructor in a digital community. The instructor will then synthesize this information and develop a lesson to tailor instruction to the needs of the students. Now let me share my experience as a student in a flipped classroom environment. As an undergrad at UCSD one of my physics professors was an educational researcher, and his area of study at the time was flipped classrooms. So, naturally he used his own students as his research subjects. I will admit I hated the notion of a flipped classroom when he described it on the first day of class. I did not believe that there was any possible way that he could make this system work for a class of 300 plus students sitting in a giant lecture hall. In fact, I was angry that I was attending this prestigious university and paying all this money just for some guy to post some videos on the course website for me to go home watch and post three questions and then come to lecture (note the name LECTURE) for him to talk for a brief 10 minutes and then have to spend the remaining 40 minutes completing a worksheet with my neighbors and answering a few clicker questions. Needless to say I was livid after leaving class the first day, in fact I was so angry I tried to switch to a different professor, but I was forced to stick it out as all the other classes had a waitlist of at least 25 people and their was no way I was going to get in. So with that option closed, my experience with the flipped classroom began, and I must say it wasn't nearly as I expected. I actually liked watching videos at home because I could pause the video and rewind as needed. This really helped when working out complex multistep physics problems. And, as an auditory learner I liked that I could re-listen to videos and podcasts. Lectures were fun and engaging because I didn't have to sit quietly for 50 minutes frantically trying to catch every word uttered by the instructor, instead I got to work through problems and discuss with my friends. Overall, I enjoyed the flipped classroom and despite my initial judgement was able to learn using this method. I personally like the flipped classroom model because it maximizes instructional time and allows the instructor to more effectively personalize instruction in comparison to the more traditional teaching model. I do recognize that this model has some flaws; one being it relies on students having access to digital content outside of the classroom which is not always feasible. However, I do believe that the flipped classroom has several benefits and plan to implement flipped classroom lessons in my own classroom. This blog post was my reflection on the following articles: http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/flipped-learning-a-response-to-five-common-criticisms-article/ http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-pro-and-con-mary-beth-hertz Always be generous with your encouraging words, you may find they will inspire others to be the best they can be.
I watched a podcast made by Angela Watson, in which she argued agains the anti-reward movement in education and advocated for the use of thoughtful and relevant rewards for students. Some educators argue that students should not be given rewards for things that they are "supposed to do" because they will begin to expect these words and consequently not develop intrinsic motivation. However, Watson claims that this only happens when rewards are constantly used as the only motivating factor. When students are constantly given rewards for completing their work or behaving appropriately they become dependent on these external rewards. This pattern is evident in classes where students constantly ask "what will we get?" In these classes students have no intrinsic motivators and rely solely on extrinsic motivation. Thus, Watson proposes that incentives and rewards need to be well thought out, well timed and relative. Moreover, Watson states that this debate over rewards would be irrelevant and rewards would not be necessary if curriculum was authentic and engaging. But because students are expected to complete mundane tasks day in and day out they need incentives to complete these tasks. Therefore, the problem becomes not how or when to reward students but how to create an interesting and relevant curriculum for students.
Podcasts are a good way for individuals to communicate and share information with others. However, they can sometimes be boring and lose the audience's attention. Fortunately this podcast is informative and engaging. The passion for the topic was evidenced by the speakers tone and changes in intonation. Watson grabs her audience's attention by opening with a personal story related to the topic and then passionately delivers her argument advocating for rewards in the classroom. These elements of the podcast drew me in and created a good listening experience.
Cell phones, particularly smart phones, create an interesting problem for today's teachers and the solution is not all black and white. Some teachers view cell phones as a distraction and ban them from their classrooms. For instance, my master teacher hated cell phones and prohibited their use in her classroom. She believes that her students are unable to control their cell phone use and restrict its use to educational purposes while in the classroom. As a result she never allowed her students to take their phones out during class. However, some teachers see smart phones as a powerful educational tool. Personally I do understand both sides of the argument, but I do believe that smart phones can be a valuable educational tool and have their place in the classroom. For example, three appropriate uses for smart phones in the classroom are discussed in this podcast entitled "Getting Smart Smart" on The Infinite Thinking Machine's website. The video suggests encouraging students to use their smart phones in class to: 1) capture information (worksheets, notes, lab experiments, etc.), 2) save all information in the cloud (DropBox, GoogleDrive, AppleCloud) and 3) use video chats for learning. These three quick and easy ways students can use their phones are just some of the many ways smart phones can be utilized in the classroom to enhance learning. For instance, podcasts (the very tool in which I received this information) can be accessed by students using their smart phones in class.
Despite growing up in the "digital age" I never have been a big user of social media. I have heard from other educators the power that Twitter has within the educational community for developing PLNs and collaborating with other teachers. However, it wasn't until a few days ago that I finally created a Twitter account and dived into the world of EduTweeting. I was shocked by the sheer volume of educational related content on Twitter. I had always viewed it as a platform for teenagers to constantly update their friends about their lives or for celebrities to reach out and expand their following. But, I have found that I was completely wrong. Twitter has a vast amount of information for teachers and educators.
Personal Learning Networks
My former professor at Azusa Pacific University always tells her students that as teachers we must "beg, borrow and steal." Collaborating with other educators is essential to being an effective teacher who is knowledgable about the latest trends in education and brings the best instructional strategies into the classroom. This is why it is important to develop a Professional Learning Network (PLN).
Currently my PLN is rather small, limited to the handful of former teachers who I have remained in touch with since graduating High School, my master teacher, my APU professors and fellow cohorts at APU. Twitter has been a great way for me to expand my PLN. In my one week as being and EduTweeter, I have been able to add a variety of digital networks to my PLN.
I have had a Pinterest account for many years, but only visit occasionally to find new recipes, decorating ideas, nail art, DIY projects and the like. As of recently, I began using Pinterest for educational purposes. I began searching and pinning ideas for decorating and organizing my classroom, classroom activities, inspirational educational speakers, instructional strategies and general information related to student learning. Pinterest has so many resources that I can incorporate into my teaching and classroom. Just scrolling through all the educational content energizes me about the upcoming school year and has given me tons of ideas that I am going to use and incorporate.
I strongly hold the belief that each student has the ability to learn. The difference between students lies not in their capacity to obtain knowledge but rather how they learn. Most of us would agree that we all strive in different environments and learn best in a variety of different ways, ways that often change depending on the particular thing being learned. The students in today's classrooms learn in a variety of ways but as a society we try to teach all those students the same way, ignoring everything that makes them a unique individual. As a result tons of students passively go through the educational system believing that they are inferior, less capable individuals. Ken Robinson and Will Richardson (see videos below) both argue that the educational system is failing too many students and is in dire need of a radical transformation.
The problem lies not in being unaware of how students learn, in fact research has provided us with ample knowledge about how we learn. The problem is that the educational system does not align with what we know to be true about learning. As educators we must tailor our instruction to the needs of our students. I believe that as teachers we must make it our responsibility to learn about our students and fit curriculum to their needs, to make knowledge attainable for them. Moreover, as educators we should not solely focus our energy on teaching content to students (because lets be honest not everyone finds Biology and science absolutely fascinating like I do). We should focus our energy on developing our students as whole well rounded individuals. If we focus on teaching our students how to learn, they will carry these skills with them their entire lives, and have the ability acquire new knowledge at anytime on any subject. Thus, I believe that as a teacher I must shape the whole individual, not just the mind, so that I may instill a love of learning that will serve them for a lifetime, not just the nine months that they are in my classroom. As educators we have the ability to make lifelong lasting impressions on our students, and I believe that this should be the ultimate goal of education. |