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Wrapping it Up

It is hard to believe that I am in my last week of the Digital Citizenship course.  Time has really flown by with this class.  I feel like I am walking away with a wealth of knowledge from this class.  I have no doubt that I will be utilizing everything I learned in this class, not only in my classroom, but in my future.

Week 1 was an introduction to what digital citizenship is and how we can become better digital citizens.  We know what it takes to be a good citizen in our everyday life.  Let’s be real, we were all wanting that citizenship award back in elementary school, right?  These days though, it seems that once people get behind a screen, we lose focus on what it takes to be a good citizen.  All of a sudden we are ten feet tall and bulletproof and in reality, we really are not. 

Week 2 was evaluating our digital footprint.  If you have never put your name in a search engine, I encourage you to do that as soon as you can.  It is very important to try and maintain a positive digital footprint.   It is smart to always go back and check this to see what is actually out there about you.  You never know when your boss or future boss will do the same just to see what type of person you are behind the screen.  They want to know the real you, not the one you tried to sale to them in an interview.

Week 3 was learning about copyright laws, and let me be frank right now, this could have been a whole class in itself.  There was so much information about the history of copyright laws and how they really haven’t changed much since its creation back when George Washington was president.  We learned about the different types of licenses you can get and how each one brings something different to the table.  We explored two case scenarios to be able to see which were copyright infringements and which were not.  This was difficult for me, if I am being honest.  I plan to do some more digging so that I can fully understand these laws to better help my fellow educators.

Week 4 was an exploration into cyber-bullying, which was probably my favorite lesson for the course because of the importance of the topic.  This is a topic that hits home with me since I am presently in a high school classroom and have three children of my own.  These students have no compassion or empathy towards others.  They post something on their social media because they think it is funny and have no regards on how it makes others look.  Currently our school is battling with a couple of social media trends.  One is where students are taking pictures of people in the restroom.  Several students have already been placed in our alternative education program for contributing to this trend.  Another trend is where they take pictures of sleeping students and post to an Instagram hashtag created for the school.  I actually heard students talking about this and giggling, and we had a very frank conversation about why they should not be doing this.  We talked about how this infringes on privacy of others and the student posting does not have the permission from the sleeping student to post. 

The social media world has exploded so quickly that no one was ready for what we are facing with cyber-bullying.  Schools, parents, lawmakers were not anywhere near ready to combat this issue.  It is imperative that schools take a stand and try to fix this issue before it gets more out of hand than it already is.  The rate at which students are committing suicide is heartbreaking and we (teachers, parents, and students), as a whole united group, need to work together to help prevent cyber-bullying.

In week 5 we had to do our culminating project which was us picking a stakeholder group and presenting a lesson over digital citizenship. My audience was my students, because I feel that it is important for them to realize what happens when they are not good digital citizens. This lesson has to start somewhere, so why not me? Click on the link to view my project.

Culminating Project- https://edpuzzle.com/media/61be44819702c542c41a1c2d

Cyber-bullying

As a teacher at a high school, I see first-hand the seriousness of trying to address our students’ cyber-bullying and sexting issues.  I find that some students do not have compassion for others.  It is like we are living in a world where it is every man for themselves.  Students find it too convenient to sit behind a screen and say horrible things about one another or to share a text or picture that was only meant for one person.  They think that by simply making a fake account to attack another student is funny and nobody will ever find out that they created the account.  They show no empathy towards anyone else’s feelings, which I find scary. 

This week’s assignment hit home to me.  Although I did not grow up in a time with cyber-bullying, I have three teenagers, which one has special needs, that I constantly worry about.  I try to be a positive role model for them and monitor their accounts, but I know I will not find it all.  All I can do is hope that if my kids begin having issues, I am quick to catch it and start intervention to stop it before it gets to the point of Ryan Halligan.  Ryan Halligan was a thirteen-year-old boy who was not only being bullied in person at school, but being cyber-bullied too.  Unfortunately, he did not feel as if he had any other options except to take his own life.  My heart aches for him and his family.  His father has taken this horrible situation and is trying to prevent the same fate to happening to others.  He is an advocate on bullying and has been one of the biggest pushers for the Vermont Bullying Prevention Bill and has also led the law’s passage on mandatory suicide prevention education in public schools.  You can read more about Ryan’s Story by clicking the link provided. 

I know schools are doing what they can to help with all types of bullying, but I cannot help but feel more can be done.  I believe staff should be trained on how to properly recognize signs of bullying early on and try to intervene at the earliest stages.  Schools can make safe spaces to help students feel safe in reporting bullying issues either for themselves or others.  Schools can have a hotline, an intervention box, or an online form that can be filled out and if a student wants to remain anonymous, they can.  I also feel that if we can begin a Digital Citizen Class that is required for all students, this may help.  We can teach them how to be responsible and positive citizens in the digital world.  Teach them that although they think their digital words are harmless, they are effecting others in negative ways.  I also believe that administrators should come together and develop a discipline ladder for offenders. 

After this week, I have learned that we need to work with implementing a better system for cyber-bullying.  No child should ever feel that the only way out is to take their own life.  My heart is breaking for these families that have lost their children and my heart also breaks for those families currently going through these issues.

Copyrights or Copywrongs

Our focus for this week was Copyrights and Copywrongs, which honestly is something I have never really gave much thought to.  I can say that this week was definitely a challenge for me.  I feel that all of the information that was given to me to read through and watch is still swimming frantically around in my head and I am trying to piece it all together.  What is copyright, the history of copyright, am I committing copyright infringements or plagiarism, or even both?  What is considered Fair Use and what falls under copyrights and which creative common license does it fall under?  Is your head spinning yet, because I know mine is? 

Let’s start with the obvious, what is a copyright?  A copyright, as defined by the United States Copyright Office, is the protection provided by U.S. laws to authors of “original works of authorship,” including literacy, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.  Pretty simple right? I have learned this week that it is not all black and white, there are some grey areas that help complicate things.  In reading Copyright Basics, it helped shed some light on a few things.  It outlined what can be copyrighted and things that are not copyrighted.  This article also explained who can obtain a copyright, how to secure a copyright, how long a copyright protection last, among other interesting topics.  Since the link is in my college course I cannot link it for your review, however, I invite you to search Copyright Basics on the internet and several articles will come up that will help you understand if you are not familiar with copyrights.

We then had to read the white papers that was produced by the Hudson Institute.  The purpose of this article was to highlight the importance of possible separating the US Copyright Office away from the US Library of Congress.  Although this article is lengthy, it brought up some very good points and after reading it, I could see the argument for this.  The initial copyright law was signed by President George Washington, yes you read that right, George Washington, and even though time has changed dramatically since then, there has been little change to copyright laws.  Our world is not the same world that it was in 1790 and let’s be honest it not the same world that it was in 1990.  With the development of the internet, things have exponentially changed.  So if our world is changing this fast, why not this particular law and where it is housed.

Did you know there is a fine line between copyright infringement and plagiarism?  Me neither, but once I read the article written by Jonathan Bailey, it made more since.  It is possible to be guilty of one and not the other, but it is also possible to be guilty of both, depending on when whatever you are doing was copyrighted.  It’s crazy how this can happen. 

Next up, the Fair Use Doctrine.  This doctrine allows the use of copyrighted materials without permission of the copyright holder for certain purposes, but it has to be limited and for a transformative purpose (Lamar 2021).  Part of our assignment this week, we were given two case scenarios and we had to be able to approach the situation from a technology administrator.  We had to explain what was wrong with the situation and explain how we would fix it.  These were a little rough for me, because I had to spend time looking at each book, website, or movie and reference the copyright table Lamar provided me so that I could come to the determination if what the teacher was using fell under the Fair Use Doctrine or was it copyrighted.

As stated above, this week was a challenge for me, but I feel that I learned a lot about copyright laws and even the history of copyrights.  I never gave it much thought and really had not seen the importance to me or my students, but now, I see the importance and now I feel that I could correctly use media, written works or even audio works in my classroom.  If you are a teacher like me, I invite you to read up of copyrights, you may find out that you are also not doing things correctly.

Reference

Admin, & *, N. (2021, February 5). The importance of copyrights, Patents and trademarks in business. PTes College. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://ptes.edu.in/the-importance-of-copyrights-patents-and-trademarks-in-business/.

Bailey, J. (2013, October 7). The difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism. Plagiarism Today. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/10/07/difference-copyright-infringement-plagiarism/.

Lamar University, (2021, November 29). Week 1 Lecture_Text [Document]. Blackboard.

Understanding the Impact of Technology and the Digital Footprint we Leave Behind

My Week 2 Reflection

This week’s lesson was very informative.  I feel that I learned a lot about my digital footprint and about net neutrality.  After reading this week’s articles and watching the videos, I can honestly say that I have learned a lot and I think it has shed some light on a few things for me.  For example, the concept called filter bubbles by Eli Pariser, is something I could see happening with my own digital experiences.  I would notice the more I would search items on the internet, those items would appear as ads on my feed in Facebook.  I also noticed that when I would be talking about certain things, all of a sudden it would also appear in my Facebook feed.  This is crazy to even think about, and a little scary.

I also learned the concept of net neutrality, which is creating a neutral internet.  I can see the importance of having net neutrality and why the bigger corporations want control and not have the regulations that are in place.  The corporations such as Comcast and AT&T want control over what consumers see and they also want the option to charge more for faster internet.  This is not good for us, schools or the smaller corporations. 

For us, it means that they would have control over what appears in our searches, or it would mean that if we were to search something that the providers were not for, they could simply block it from us.

For smaller corporations it means that they do not even get a chance to grow.  There would be no way that the smaller corporations could keep up financially with the bigger corporations.  I could see how this would be walking a fine line of becoming a monopoly in our society. 

Schools want an even playing field and our students deserve this.  Net neutrality helps our schools accomplish this.  Without net neutrality our students would suffer greatly.  Long (2015) states in her article, What Net Neutrality means for our Students and Educators, that without net neutrality, service providers can charge higher prices for larger bandwidths, which would mean schools that are already struggling with finances would not be able to afford the higher cost which means internet speeds would be way slower than the average schools.  It also means that the providers have the option to sensor material from students.  If a student was wanting to research a topic that the providers did not necessarily agree with, the provider could either make the response time a lot slower or they could block the material and only provide the student with more of a one sided perspective.  As Long (2015) put it, this is an infringement on our First Amendment, Freedom of Speech.  Most of the time, to the untrained eye, people do not even realize that certain content is being blocked, since this happens behind the scenes.  No one should have the power over us to control what information we receive.

One of the most interesting, but also scary, thing I discovered is that net neutrality has different rules for mobile devices.  It is almost like rules do not apply to mobile devices, which honestly I do not understand why.  This part left me with more questions than answers.  I invite you to read the article, An Introduction to Net Neutrality to learn more about this topic.

What is Digital Citizenship? A reflection of my week one learning.

This is my first week in 5316 Digital Citizenship.  Before reading through the syllabus, I honestly did not know what to expect.  I mean I knew it was going to cover how to appropriately represent yourself online, but I did not realize there was so much to it. 

We were asked if citizenship and digital citizenship were the same.  It was then I realized that digital citizenship had a lot more to it than just representing yourself in a positive way.  When looking through all of our resources, I found out that there is not one set definition for digital citizenship; there are several and each of them has its own twist on the definition.  Ribble (2015) deconstructs digital citizenship into nine essential constituent elements. 

The nine elements that Ribble describes are:

  1. Digital access – Citizens have different levels of access.  Full access should be a goal of citizenship.
  2. Digital commerce – Buying and selling online is increasing exponentially, and consumers need to be aware of what to purchase and the legality of their purchases.
  3. Digital communication – There are numerous ways to communicate online, and citizens need to make wise decisions in what and how they communicate.
  4. Digital literacy – Technological literacy requires citizens keep up with digital changes.
  5. Digital etiquette – Citizenship comes with a responsibility to follow etiquette when communicating with others.
  6. Digital law – Citizens have a responsibility to behave ethically and be aware of laws governing them.
  7. Digital rights and responsibilities – The rights of users are shared equally.  These rights come with responsibilities.
  8. Digital health and wellness – Physical and psychological issues can occur when ergonomics and other problems are not addressed.
  9. Digital security – Citizens must take action to protect their information online.

The three categories that Ribble created based on how they directly related to the students.  The first category were the elements that directly affected student learning and academic performance, and the elements were access, literacy, and communication.  The second category were the elements that affected the overall school environment and student behavior, and these elements included etiquette, rights and responsibilities, and security.  The third category was the affect student life outside the school environment, and this included the elements of commerce, health and wellness, and law.

The three principles that branched from this was the principle to respect yourself and others, and these included the elements of etiquette, access and law.  The second principle is to educate yourself/connect with others, and the elements included are communication, literacy, and commerce.  The third principle is protection yourself/protect others and the three elements included are rights and responsibility, safety, and health and welfare.

The element that is probably the most important to me is digital health and wellness.  During the first part of the pandemic we were all at home with little to nothing to do but be on our devices.  I often found myself at times getting depressed because of all of the negativity that I was reading.  My husband gave me some of the best advice, to step away.  He told me that we need a break from things like this or it will suck us in and turn out bad for us.  He was right, I could feel myself being depressed with all of the world issues that I needed a break, so I stepped away and was able to turn my focus back to the most important issues in my life, my family.

I have learned a vast amount of information this week in regards to digital citizenship and saw that it is so much more than acting right online.  I believe that Darren Kuropatwa (2015) said it correctly, it takes more than just not doing bad things to be a good citizen, it also takes someone making positive contributions to be a good digital citizen.

References

Kuropatwa, D. (2015, July 16). Digital Ethics and digital citizenship. YouTube. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMsbxYvr4E. 

Ribble, M. (2015). In Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know. essay, International Society for Technology in Education.

Moving Forward

Where do I go from here?  I feel that the information and knowledge I have gained in this course has been invaluable.  I have ventured into new territories with technology that I never would have tried before this class.  I am starting to see myself become more confident with trying new tools to express my learning, such as using infographics and doing voice-overs with presentations.  Honestly, I am timid when it comes to doing things like this because I am always worried what others will say, so sometimes I find myself steering away from certain challenges.  I know that this is one of the characteristics of the Fixed Mindset that I need to work on (Dweck, C. 2016). 

In this course we were given the task to develop a Growth Mindset Plan to utilize in our classrooms to help shift the way of thinking from a fixed mindset to a more growth mindset.  By clicking on the link, it will bring you to my Growth Mindset Plan.  Probably the most important thing I will be using and I also keep telling myself is the power of YET.  When I watched Dweck’s video on this, it was like a light bulb going off.  I had never really considered the power of this word.  I really took it for granted.  Now, I find myself saying it to myself when I am faced with a hard task.  I also caught myself telling the new teacher that I am mentoring that she may not know everything “yet” but she will.  Growth mindsets do not develop overnight and a person must continually work on transitioning from a fixed to a growth mindset daily (Dweck, C., 2016). 

We must not be afraid to make mistakes.  This is how we learn.  I am teaching a new class this year that is bringing in inquiry-based learning and one of the biggest lessons that this program wants the students to learn is that it is alright to make mistakes and we, the teachers, are supposed to encourage these mistakes.  Honestly, I am very excited about this.  I have told my students in previous years that it is okay to not get the right answer the first time, it is okay to not get it the second time, the important thing is that you keep trying and not give up.  I also live by this.  I am not afraid of making mistakes, my dilemma is making them in front of my colleagues.

COVA, I feel, will help in the development of a growth mindset.  COVA gives the person the choice to choose how they would like to present what they learned, instead of someone telling them how. I show this in action with my Learning Manifesto.  I was really nervous doing this, but I had to talk down my fixed mindset and allow my growth mindset to shine.  It gives the learner ownership in their work.  I feel like my students do with this.  I was pretty proud on how it actually turned out because it was my creation.  COVA also gives the learner a voice in how they want to tell you about their learning and the authenticity of what they learned.

Another great discussion we had was in regards to our learning communities.  Collaboration amongst any group is crucial.  The internet has helped out in this in ways that were never thought imaginable.  We must remember though to have a good balance of being a consumer and a contributor.  I find myself in my learning communities to be mostly a consumer and I talked about allowing myself to be more of a contributor to these communities.

As I mentioned above, the lessons that I have learned in this class have been amazing.  I was skeptical at first, because I was unsure of exactly how this was going to work.  From kindergarten we have been taught one way, the teacher delivers instruction, and they tell us what to do and how to do it.  Using the COVA model alongside with the growth mindset, the possibilities of learning are endless.

Reference

Dweck, C. (2016). Mindset: the new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.

TEDxTalks. (2014, September 12). The power of yet | Carol S dweck | TEDxNorrköping. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-swZaKN2Ic.

Collegial Feedback

Our last week of 5315 and our discussion post is dealing with submitting our Action Research Plan to allow our peers time to give us feedback on it and letting us know how well we addressed the problem. My post is below.

Research Topic/Question

The topic that I have chosen to do my action research over is inquiry-based learning in a high school math class.  I choose this topic because I am an honors math teacher and I have been teaching for fourteen years.  Over the years I have noticed a push for more inquiry- based learning.  I have been intrigued by this style of learning because it allows the students to think on a much deeper level and puts the power of learning in their hands, but I find myself scared to take the leap.  Which leads me to my fundamental research question, “How effective is inquire-based learning in a high school math classroom in developing higher-order thinking skills?

Method of Research

I found that the best method for me to collect data throughout my action research is to utilize the triangulation mixed-methods design.  I will need both qualitative and quantitative research data to help me answer my question.  The bulk of my data will be qualitative, since I found that this data to more beneficial for my research.  The quantitative data will be used to help backup the qualitative data.

Analysis of Data

I will compare the data from this past school year on Common Assessments and the current school year and compare how the students performed on these Common Assessments.   I also plan to provide surveys to them through a Google Form, which I can make their responses anonymous.  I have learned in the past that students will be more honest with you if they know that their identity is anonymous.  I will also take notes in a daily journal on student behavior, engagement, and student conversations through-out the first semester to see if I can see any trends between the two different types of learning.  To help document the research, I will be recording a few lessons so that I can go back and watch to see if I can see or hear any visual clues of higher order thinking present.

Privacy and Ethics of Research

I will make sure that all research carried out is ethical and I will keep the identity of all students private throughout this study.  I will get permission from my principal and the parents to record their children and allow any parent to opt their child out from this part of the research.

Sharing Results

In the end, I will gather all of the data that has been collected and analyze it all to see what the outcome of inquiry-based learning is in the development of higher-order thinking skills.  If it turns out well, I will be sharing my findings with my colleagues and administrators.

Collaborative Discussion on Topic Research

Week 4’s discussion post was to create a small annotative review of at least five of our scholarly articles that we are going to use in our literature reviews. We were tasked with reading our peers’ annotative reviews and compare them with ours to see if we could possibly collaborate with them since our topics were similar. I found one peer’s post that was similar to mine and I replied to hers. We were able to collaborate a bit on our topics, which helps tremendously. The best part of this post was being able to read a brief summary of our peers’ articles and see if any of those articles could possibly help us with our own research.

Collaboration seems to be what is keeping me a float in this class. I feel that this is Lamar’s way in showing us the value of collaboration so that we can give our students the chance to do the same.