During the past 18 months in this DLL program, I have learned more than I ever thought I could through an online program. Every single course led me to grow as both a learner and a leader within my organization. The video of the Prezi below will guide you through my journey. For specific information about each course, visit the Digital Learning and Leading section of my e-portfolio.
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My innovation project has definitely grown, developed, and overall transformed since its creation in EDLD 5305. For me it began as a theoretical project, but the more I researched and developed this project, the more real it became for me. Every course allowed me to not only build on this “project” but also build my self-confidence. The DLL program has had me thoroughly think about and plan for things that I would have probably never taken into consideration. At best I would have developed a proposal and learning objectives, but I wouldn’t have given any thought into having literature to back up my proposal, developing an influencer plan to have a strong functioning team, planning corresponding professional learning opportunities for staff, providing resources via an online course, creating videos to reel staff members in, consider copyright issues, or go beyond the digital citizenship videos our district has always shown. The experience of completing these authentic “assignments” has proven to myself that I am capable of leading change within my organization.
I consider COVA to be the heart of the Digital Learning and Leading program. The significant learning environment created by each and everyone of the professors that are a part of this program have led me to learn much more than just content. Through this program I have gained more skills than I ever imagined possible to learn via an online program. More importantly, I have begun to apply these skills in my classroom and pass them on to my students. The video below will walk you through my journey with COVA.
EDLD 5316 was a course I had been dreading since I began the Digital Learning and Leading Program because I was intimidated by the topic. During this course I learned that digital citizenship extends far beyond rules for using technology. I define digital citizenship as the norms of suitable behavior to interact with others globally via the use of technology, however these norms can apply to the non-virtual world as well. Unfortunately, when most people hear about digital citizenship, they think about the negative outcomes of malpractice, such as cuberbullying and lawsuits. As Ohler (2012) mentions, assigning consequences for cyberbullying or other violations of digital citizenship is addressing the symptoms, not the issues themselves. It is time for this to change. We shouldn't wait until our school is sued for copyright infringement or until one of our students takes their life due to cyberbullying, we need to act immediately. Ribble's nine elements of digital citizenship provide an organized, topical way to proactively address digital citizenship.
After taking thecourse EDLD 5316, I have realized the importance of digital citizenship and the urgency in teaching these skills to our students to have them be contributing members of society. In order to pass on this message to fellow staff, I would hold a professional learning session on an introduction to digital citizenship. The Prezi presentation below would be used as a tool during this session; it would not stand alone. At the beginning of the session, I would share multiple definitions of digital citizenship and inform them that the wording of the definition is not the focus of the day, which would lead us into reading our learning objective for the day: Describe how the nine elements of digital citizenship affect our students via a Gallery Walk in order to gain an understanding of our roles as teachers.
People cope in various ways to the "shame game" that tends to play out over the internet. Some people continue to feed the beast by clicking on the links, giving it likes, sharing, commenting, etc. In her TedTalk, Lewinsky (2015) brought up an interesting point I had never considered, which was money from advertisements. When it comes to online gossip, I thought I was doing good by not liking, sharing, or commenting. By simply clicking on those links, I am encouraging those type of posts by showing advertisers that these are the type of posts they should be investing in. As Hinduja and Patchin wrote, "inaction is action" therefore by not standing up for the person being victimized, I am contributing to the problem (2014, p. 112). There need to be laws and policies in place that protect citizens from an overzealous government demanding private data and information. In the case of Monica Lewinsky, the audio recordings should not have been allowed to freely circulate the media. If the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal broken on social media, the humiliation for Clinton, Lewinsky, and their families would have been much worse. The audio recordings of the phone calls would have been at everyone's finger tips along with pictures, memes, and comments.
Copyright has been around for centuries and its role has become even more important as the internet has facilitated the sharing of various works. It is especially important for teachers to learn a bit of the history of copyright, become aware of the laws, and act accordingly. Yes, Fair Use and the TEACH Act do protect us in most cases, but we should not simply assume. It is our responsibility to assess each situation independently and model good digital citizenship by abiding by the copyright laws.
Common Sense Education's Digital Life 101 Animation video really spoke to me because it was such an accurate representation of how much I use technology daily (2014). I realized how "connected" I still am even when I think I am "disconnected" by keeping my phone away. This technology is not going away, therefore I believe that part of my duty in getting students world ready is to teach them how to use that technology appropriately and develop a positive digital footprint.
I define digital citizenship as the norms of suitable behavior to interact with others globally via the use of technology. With digital tools becoming more ubiquitous each day I see an overlap of the elements of citizenship and digital citizenship; the skills for one can and should be applied to the other. Ribble (2015) and Curran (2012) both share similar ideas that digital citizenship extends far beyond the physical barriers of a classroom. The mission at my campus is to get our students college, career, and world ready. If I am not teaching them the skills necessary to function in a digital world, then I am failing in getting my students world ready. During my time as a classroom teacher I have seen more of a reactive approach than a proactive approach to digital citizenship. As Ohler (2012) mentions, assigning consequences for cyberbullying or other violations of digital citizenship is addressing the symptoms, not the issues themselves. It is time for this to change.
For the past year I have been researching and developing a student e-portfolio initiative for my campus. I've worked on bits and pieces at a time as I have developed this initiative. I am eager to share this initiative with others and would greatly benefit from their support. From experience, I know that if people have to search for the information or feel overwhelmed with links, they are more likely to stop reading. For this reason I have consolidated the most crucial pieces into one page: Student E-Portfolios Initiative. As always, feedback is welcomed and very much appreciated.
A lot of thought and planning has gone into the student e-portfolio initiative and developing the e-portfolio implementation plan. Is it worth putting forth the effort to follow through with this plan? What can we expect as a result? What will be needed for it to be a success? While we may not be able to answer those questions with certainty, we can take a look at other educational institutions that have implemented student e-portfolios and learn from their experiences. The literature review addresses a variety of experiences other educational institutions have had.
Student portfolios have been around for decades. With the increased use of technology in the classroom, student e-portfolios have been an area of interest for many educational institutions around the world. Student e-portfolios involve more than just creating an electronic filing cabinet to store documents. Educational institutions have been using them in various ways to fit their needs View the video below to see which results are typical from the implementation of student e-portfolios and what structures are needed in order to set up for success.
In the past, my campus attempted to have a microcredentials professional learning opportunity for the teachers. Due to hastily development and lack of follow-through, it was forgotten after the first session. When pitching this idea, I need to make it very clear that this time around developing this professional learning will be a process and that there will be structures in place to ensure that this is not “forgotten” once again. The outline of this microcredentials professional learning, Power Up¸ is only one of many resources that will be shared with potential leaders of this initiative and participating teachers. The other resources embedded in this blog post will be shared with the appropriate audience at the appropriate time. I do not want to overwhelm my colleagues with information, however I do want to ensure them that there has been a lot of thought put into this. Another important message I want to get across to them is that the ideas presented are not final, they can all be adapted to best fit our needs as a campus, and that their ideas are highly valuable. The first step will be to bring this idea to the administrative team.
When I saw the microcredentials format for professional learning, I knew that this was a format worth looking into to. At first glance it seems rather simple but once you start looking into the specific aspects of it more questions surface. The first step to creating this year-long professional learning was creating an outline to guide the planning and developing process. Just creating this outline alone brought up so many questions that I had honestly not considered before; it was great to be able to write down my thoughts and begin to organize them. Below you will see the professional learning outline that I developed which is by no means a finished product, rather it is a starting point.
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September 2018
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