The Complexities of Digital Citizenship (ISTE 4)

Reflecting on ISTE standard 4, my overall impression is that this standard covers a huge scope. Digital citizenship is an ever-evolving, complex task that ranges from civil discourse online (part c) to giving credit where credit is due (part a) to ensuring all students have equitable access to resources (part b and d). For this reason, I found it difficult to focus my research this module.

Reading the provided resources, two stuck out to me. "Navigating the digital rapids" (Lindsay & Davis, 2010) emphasizes the growing importance of tech education, not just use. Just as my grad school program has me using this blog to demonstrate my learning, Lindsay and Davis assert that "it is only a matter of time before colleges begin requesting hyperlinks for e-portfolios and other online work" and that it is our duty as teachers to prepare our students for these requests. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to practice this skill for my classes. Perhaps my students could use the OneNote notebooks we build throughout the year in my class if they are asked for digital examples of their work. However, the move to digital expression highlights the importance of social media policies. "The need for student social media policies" (Junco, 2011) discusses both the positive and negative aspects of social media use by students, but ultimately concludes that "although certain uses of social media can propagate negativity, appropriate uses can support student development." My school, like most today I am sure, has an Instagram account, various electronic newsletters, a website, and a twitter account for athletics. Since the school is interacting on social media with a variety of audiences, it makes sense to me that schools should have policies in place. I try to keep my online persona separate from my teacher persona, but it is at times very difficult. Even if students do find my online accounts, I think I am being a good digital citizen by modeling responsible social interactions.

In a study carried out by Z.A. Gazi, a professor at Near East University in North Cyprus, Gazi found that teachers initially defined digital citizenship as "knowing ones [sic] role on the internet" (2016) but that within that broad definition there were many more nuanced understandings of what digital citizenship actually looks like. The pervasive nature of technology use, along with the sheer amount of information available, has created many dilemmas about how to use these tools.

A classmate of mine, Michaela Clark, shared an article on the use of Turnitin.com in her efforts to understand digital citizenship. As referenced on this blog previously, I use Turnitin in my classroom, but I had only thought of it in terms of writing skills, not digital citizenship. Because of the way students now access information, the authors of the article acknowledge that "not all incidences of plagiarism are the same, and treating them all as academic misconduct may not be appropriate as some students struggle to acquire the skills of academic writing" (Graham-Matheson & Starr, 2013). I see this in my classroom especially with my ELL students who not only come from other cultures, but who struggle with understanding the sources in the first place. It is gratifying to see my students' citation skills grow from the first draft to the final draft, and I can now help them see citation in terms of being a good digital citizen.

My question for this module was: What does good digital citizenship look like, and what strategies can I use in my classroom to prepare my students to be good digital citizens? While I still feel that digital citizenship is an often confusing concept, I think I am doing a better job in my classroom than I thought. I will continue to help my students develop quality research skills and I will make an effort to use some of the new language I picked up from reading these articles to help them understand their role in the digital world.

References:

Gazi, Z.A. (2016). Internalization of Digital Citizenship for the Future of All Levels of Education. Education and Science, 41(186), 137-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.15390/eb.2016.4533

Graham-Matheson, L., & Starr, S. (2013). Is it cheating or learning the craft of writing? Using Turnitin to help students avoid plagiarism. Research in Learning Technology, 21. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.17218

Junco, R. (2011, February 7). The need for student social media policies. Educause Review, 46(1). Retrieved from

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2011/2/the-need-for-student-social-media-policies

Lindsay, J., & Davis, V. (2010, March/April). Navigate the Digital Rapids. Learning & Leading with Technology, 12-15. Retrieved from www.iste.org

Communication and Technology (ISTE Standard 3)

As a teacher in the digital age, communication is becoming an increasingly important issue. So much information is available at all times through digital grading platforms, email, class websites, and even in-class tools like OneNote. While so much is said, a lot of important information often falls through the cracks. This led to my question around ISTE standard 3: What tools are available to communicate effectively with parents, and what are the benefits of using those tools?

Reading the provided resources this week was not super helpful for my question, and I'm not sure if I should be skimming these articles before I come up with my question, or if I should continue to do my own thing and just look for broader connections. Regardless, I enjoyed the article "Evaluating learning the 21st century" (Starkey, 2010) because it emphasized the importance of feedback. A takeaway from this article is that what teachers hope students are getting out of a lesson is not always what is really going on, so getting feedback from students about learning is just as important as it is for students to get feedback on assignments from teachers. I am a supporter of standards-based grading, even though I don't get to use it at my school (and need a lot more training in it if I were to do so!), this article demonstrates how assessments should look for completion of learning standards, rather than having an end product. Technology is useful in this regard because it makes the feedback loop easier. However, training in that technology is important; teachers must know the best way to use the tech, and not just know that it is available. This idea is explored in the blog post "Digital literacy vs. fluency" (Briggs, 2011).

So, I wanted to find out how I could be more fluent in my use of technology to communicate with parents at a school where parents receive a ton of information all the time. I read "Using technology to increase parental involvement" (Olmstead, 2013) and learned that it is very important for parents to feel informed about what is going on at school. Students with engaged parents do better, and technology is one way for parents to move from reactive engagement to proactive engagement. However, engagement wasn't my problem. I found a second article, "The changing nature of parent-teacher communication: mode selection in the smartphone era" (Thompson et al., 2015), that tackled the how of communicating. Published in a journal on communication, this article examined the effectiveness of different modes of communication and reported that theoretically, people should choose different modes of communication depending on the sensitivity of the topic at hand. What they found in a study of parents, however, is that convenience trumps sense, and that most parents choose email every time, only shifting to other modes when a situation has not been handled effectively through email. This is what I have seen at my school, and I now have a better appreciation for why we communicate in the manner we do. If I would like to investigate other modes of communication in the future, my classmate Alyssa Davidson posted a link to an article "7 free apps for keeping parents and teachers connected" (McCrea, 2013) that recommends apps like Remind101 and BuzzMob. I teach high school students, so mostly my concern with communication is helping my students learn to communicate effectively with me and build independence. Communication with parents is an important aspect of my job, though, and I will continue to search for ways to communicate in an effective manner.

References:

Briggs, C. (2011, February 5). The difference between digital literacy and digital fluency [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.socialens.com/blog/2011/02/05/the-difference-between-digital-literacy-and-digital-fluency/

McCrea, B. (2013, June 11). 7 free apps for keeping parents and teachers connected. THE Journal. Retrieved from https://thejournal.com/Articles/2013/06/11/7-Free-Apps-for-Keeping-Parents-and-Teachers-Connected.aspx?Page=1

Starkey, L. (2010). Evaluating learning in the 21st century: a digital age learning matrix. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 20(1), 19-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2011.554021

Thompson, B.C., Mazer, J.P., & Grady, E.F. (2015). The changing nature of parent-teacher communication: mode selection in the smartphone era. Communication Education, 64(2), 187-207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1014382

Olmstead, C. (2013). Using technology to increase parent involvement in schools. TechTrends, 57(6), 28-37. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=91587612&site=ehost-live