Embedded Files
In the connected era, students will be most successful after college if they have a digital presence that promotes their unique abilities and strengths. Online instructors are poised to play a powerful role in the development of our students’ digital footprint. Students aspire to be like their instructors who actively model safe and professional use of digital tools and resources. Effective online teachers understand that engaging students in the web is an important part of becoming digitally literate and, as such, learning is not tied to a textbook.
Reflections
Reflections
Where I was.
Where I was.
My idea of digital citizenship was how people present themselves online. Given that my courses consist of providing students with the tools necessary to be successful both in college and beyond, I felt it was my responsibility to help them recognize the importance of their digital footprints. With just about every student on several different social media platforms, I knew it was important for me to teach them that the information (and the photos!) they put out there can potentially jeopardize their futures. The guise of privacy is a scary one.
When it came to social media, I also knew that the ads I saw were tailored to me based on my previous searches and viewing, but that's about as far as my reach went where big data was concerned. It never occurred to me to question what determined the order in which information was presented.
Where I am.
Where I am.
It's terrifying to think of how little control we have over our online experience. I can't help but wonder how much of my experience online has been grounded in reality, or has it been a reality crafted for me by companies looking to make a profit? I'm glad I learned this information, however, because I'm now a more informed digital citizen. I don't know if it will help much, but I'm definitely being more mindful of what I view and what I "like." This awareness will impact my teaching practices, in that I want to share this knowledge with my students so that they too are informed digital citizens. The more that people question the use of their data, the more likely change will begin to take place.
I have learned so many new concepts, and I am so grateful to have learned more about OER and open pedagogy.
Where I'm headed.
Where I'm headed.
I'm going to cancel all of my social media accounts and tell my students to do the same! Just kidding... I do intend to inform them that their experience online is one that is catered to them and to question its validity. I want them to be informed consumers of information. I want them to recognize that their online presence is important and that their behavior online can impact life offline.
I am definitely going to be using OER. I intend to use the various resources we've learned about to search for materials that I can use in my upcoming courses. I'm thinking I might have to piecemeal several, and that's okay! I also plan to have students create content, such as in the "non-disposable assignment" example below. It is my goal to become better versed in the Creative Commons licensing because I fear the old me may be guilty of using images from Google without proper attribution (oops!). Please note that the new, digitally-aware me used images that do not require attribution for the purpose of this website. :)
Examples
Examples
DIGITAL LITERACY
DIGITAL LITERACY
Given that I teach college success courses, one of the topics we cover is information literacy. What I like to do once we’ve established a list of the more credible URL extensions is show students some websites that they need to consider for bias and/or downright misinformation. One of my favorite websites to use as an example is martinlutherking.org. I let them examine the homepage for a bit and ask them if anything stands out to them. After some time, they realize something is off. This is when I show them that this website is run by StormFront, a white supremacist group. It’s a really impactful website because oftentimes people assume that .org websites are always credible. I also show them different organizations with a bias to let them know that the information they find on these sites will be one-sided and shouldn’t be taken as the objective truth. After taking this course, I've decided that I want to take it one step further. I plan to provide students with a false claim, and we would work through the four moves as a class to determine its validity.
DIGITAL ETHICS
DIGITAL ETHICS
Something else I’ve done is have students read an article about how some employers are using Facebook in their hiring process. Once they’ve read the article, we have a discussion about whether they agree with the practice or not. I plan to expand on this and have students watch the Ted Talk by Jennifer Golbeck, so that they recognize that there’s more to social media than what is on the surface. They are not solely being judged by what they intentionally post; a profile is being created based on their clicks, friends, etc. They should know this and be informed users. After reading the article by Tobias Rose-Stockwell, I know that I also want to spend some time informing students of the algorithmic bias they experience when on various social media platforms, and that what they see is tailor-made for them to incite extreme reactions to keep them engaged with the platform. I hope to help them realize that reality as they know it online might actually look a lot different than what is presented. By discussing their thoughts, they will be exercising their critical thinking muscles, which is another element we cover in the course.
NON-DISPOSABLE ASSIGNMENT
NON-DISPOSABLE ASSIGNMENT
A concept that was incredibly meaningful to me was the "non-disposable assignment." Teaching college success courses, I like to think that every assignment I give to students has real world applicability because they're intended to help them succeed in college and beyond. With that said, the topics covered are often seemingly "common sense," so students incorrectly believe they already know everything, or just don't see the value in the course altogether. I want students to feel the assignments have value to them and their lives outside of the classroom.
An assignment I plan to give is one in which students conduct an informational interview for a prospective career and then share their findings via some form of video such as Adobe Spark or PowToon—something free and easy to navigate. They would then share their videos on Padlet . Because this video will be made available to students in both current and future classes, it will also slowly develop a repository of career information that can be informative to other students as well.
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