I learned so many great things from this course but the most important was the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship for Schools by Mike Ribble and published by ISTE. Those nine elements have helped me have a framework for my new current role as a digital learning coach. The three elements that I spend a lot of my time on is digital literacy, digital communication and digital access. However, the other elements are just as important and being able to learn how the interconnect but also serve their own purposes is beneficial. The overall lesson I learned was that digital citizenship is and will continue to be a work in progress as we grow as a society.
My biggest accomplishment in this course was in Week 2 when we discussed Net Neutrality. I had a chance in the discussion post to reflect, share and educate my colleagues how Net Neutrality is repealed at this time and its effects on us as educators. I enjoyed reading how others felt it was important to have Net Neutrality set in place. My biggest challenge was also in that same week and it was in learning how to use PowToon. I did not have the prior digital knowledge in using any of the platforms we were required to use. So, I had to learn a whole new software platform which was a challenge but once I learned the basics, I enjoyed it. I now have new knowledge to take with me. I believe my best work has come from creating the PowToon video because I was able to be creative with the approach I took while also learning from the experience of creating the project.
What I learned in this course will be the base line of what I share as a digital learning coach and as I continue to support the community I work with. I am very passionate about digital and technology initiatives. Currently, I am part of a pioneering team of digital learning coaches at Spring ISD. We are working to create the role and I believe everything I learned in this course will help me and others navigate what are role is plus will be in the future. The most useful and impactful thing I learned in this course was how social media impacts our lives. Social media in regards to cyber-bullying is definitely something we need to take into account as adults. We must help this next generation in this digital age when they use digital means to understand their digital health and wellness. As an educational leader, I believe I have a responsibility to support others in staying health and role model this as technology becomes a greater part of our daily lives. My favorite aspect of this course was the readings and videos with the chance to discuss with my colleagues. It helped me add to my educator toolbox and there are resources that I can share with others.
Some suggestions I would give other future students is take the change to read and watch the videos. Also take time to research on your own outside of the course readings and videos. Since technology news is always changing, it is important you look up the latest trends/data regarding the topics discussed in this course. If I had a chance to redo an activity, it may be the PowToon video. I only had a free account which limited my to only having 3 minutes. If we were provided a student account that gave us more time then I would definitely want to add more to that activity. The most important thing I would do to change is I would want to highlight examples of negative/positive digital communications on Twitter. I currently am and will continue to share with friends’ topics I have learned in this course. I enjoyed being able to get the chance to reflect on what we were asked to learn. The reflections and discussions will continue as I grow as an educational technology leader.
Cyberbullying is and should be a concern of all educators worldwide as it can affect students mental and physical health (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015). Unlike traditional bullying, cyber-bullying does not stop when you get home but can continue due to our individual reliance of the internet and social media (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015). I believe social media has exacerbated cyber-bullying on a whole new level than we have experienced as a society (Netflix, 2020). We as a society need to take into account how much we depend on social media and educate each other on how to prevent cyber-bullying in our own communities (Government, 2020).
I read from the Bullying: Beyond the Schoolyard book and watched the new documentary from Netflix called The Social Dilemma that both reflected upon social media and its effects. Social media has been left unchecked for a while and has led to the younger generation becoming reliant on it for social communities (Netflix, 2020). While the intention of creating social media platforms was not to cause harm, we are seeing cyber-bullying take place on these platforms with no real accountability to stop it yet (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015). As a young educator, I feel I have a role to bring up cyber-bullying conversations with my students to help them understand how to be upstanders and protect themselves in this new digital age. I do this by talking about digital ethics and how it is important to be compassionate towards your fellow human being (TED, The price of shame Monica Lewinsky, 2015). Since I teach a technology class where students learn to code, we have several lessons where we talk about new technological advances but we also reflect upon how this may affect humanity and our ethics. Students enjoy these conversations and I remind them that they need to be part of the conversation because we are creating their future.
We as digital citizens need to understand how to use technology and know are own rights on these mediums. I believe we trust to easily these big tech companies and we need to ask tough questions of accountability to protect ourselves. We are letting technology into our lives and our children’s lives on a daily basis so we need to have basic digital literacy regarding our cookies, location sharing features, incognito mode etc. to keep ourselves safe. We need to ask our lawmakers to create digital laws that will protect the average citizen and not infringe upon our digital privacy. This education can start at schools through community town halls and should happen to move our society forward in a positive manner.
Overall, I feel everyone has a role to play as we can all work to prevent cyber-bullying. From students to adults to lawmakers to politicians we all have an important role in this puzzle. We must role model good digital citizenship and teach each other. I learned this week that this cannot be solved overnight but it can be solved if we are aware of the problem and work in our own roles to combat it. As an educator, my role is to guide and educate others in regards to what cyber-bullying is and how to prevent it. I can make myself available to the community to have these conversations and offer resources from my own experience/knowledge (Media, 2020).
References
Government, U. S. (2020). Stop Bullying: Cyberbullying . Retrieved from Stop Bullying : https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/cyberbullying-tactics
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Bullying: beyond the schoolyard . Corwin.
Media, C. S. (2020). Digital Citizenship Curriculum . Retrieved from Common Sense Education: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/curriculum
Netflix (Director). (2020). The Social Dilemma [Motion Picture].
TED (Director). (2015). The price of shame Monica Lewinsky [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/H_8y0WLm78U
My main learning from this week of Copyright and Copywrongs was the importance of fair use policies, copyright law, the Teach Act, plagiarism, public domain, creative commons licensing etc. Copyright was created as a way to give rights to the original creator of work (CrashCourse, Introduction to Intellectual Property Crash Course IP 1, 2015). However, fair use policy was created to allow for others to learn and experiment with the information (Education, 2014). I believe the education system is based off the exchange of information so copyright is very important for educators to know and be up to date with. When remote learning started because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Teach Act needed to be revised to fit the needs of remote learning (Piculell, 2013).
Digital Law is part of the nine elements of digital citizenship and is something I believe we should teach our students (Ribble, 2015). When I taught Introduction to Computer Science and Principles of Information Technology, we had lessons and units that covered the importance of intellectual property and copyright law. Once the lesson was taught, it is important to hold students accountable to these standards as they create in their academic work moving forward. Under Fair Use policy, students can use resources but it is important to cite their resources and give credit. For example, when students would create websites using HTML, they would ask to use images on their sites. While it was encouraged, students were taught how find images online that they were allowed to use and about creative commons licensing (Code.org, 2020). As the instructor, I would ensure they cited the images correctly and help them make their own amazing websites. Copyright infringement is of great concern that our students should know to be aware of as they create (Copyright photostory , 2010). This same lesson could be used for the creation of student ePortfolios.
During these lessons, we also talk about digital ethics and why it is important to give credit. While there is two schools of thought, I default to the side that states we need to teach and learn about digital ethics as it needs to adapt from traditional ethics (Ohler, 2014). With the ease of the internet and being able to screenshot and share, the questions of what is right and wrong in this new age needs to be discussed (CrashCourse, Copyright Basics: Crash Course Intellectual Property 2, 2015). We want to protect work but not to the extent that there is no creativity (A shared culture, 2008).
As I have reflected upon the students, I believe it is important for educators to know what Fair Use is and how to use information in the classroom. These conversations were being had at the beginning of remote learning and it should continue as we proceed. I believe trainings to help educators know about Copyright as educators will be beneficial and help them feel more confident. Lack of confidence could be leading to some educators not wanting to risk copyright infringement. From the case studies, I learned I have an important role as the Digital Learning Coach on my campus to bring this to the campus I serve. While I will not be able to accomplish this alone, I can still assist with empowerment of others. I want to empower my own staff with the steps provided from Common Sense Media as they create lessons on our campus (Education, 2014). Overall, copyrights and copywrongs are important with great significance in the digital age.
Reflections
A shared culture (2008). [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DKm96Ftfko
Code.org. (2020). Lesson 8: intellectual property . Retrieved from Code: https://curriculum.code.org/csd-20/unit2/8/
Copyright photostory (2010). [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkezkMM9dxc
CrashCourse (Director). (2015). Copyright Basics: Crash Course Intellectual Property 2 [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tamoj84j64I
CrashCourse (Director). (2015). Introduction to Intellectual Property Crash Course IP 1 [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQOJgEA5e1k
Education, C. S. (Director). (2014). Copyright and Fair Use [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suMza6Q8J08
Ohler, J. (Director). (2014). Two Camps when it comes to digital ethics [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vCMqPOm9A0
Piculell, A. (Director). (2013). Teach Act [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flvmGgyJvEI
Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: nine elements all student should know. International Society for Technology in Education.
Talks, T. x. (Director). (2011). Copyright in the Digital Age [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmDeBYosaJU
The major learning, I had from this week is how important Net Neutrality is for education. Net Neutrality is a new term that was brought by the FCC called the “Open Internet Rules,” (C-Span, 2015) to assure all citizens had equal access to the internet and ISP companies could not set different prices for different website access. Overall, if a citizen were to purchase the internet from an ISP, the citizen could choose what websites to go to without worrying about access. However, since the repeal in 2018 we now worry about ISP companies engage in “throttling” practices and unfair competitive business practices that can harm the user/citizen (Dinha, 2019). This repeal affects every citizen but I find it very concerning for the education system because of potential throttling practices.
How does this affect education? Well as Digital Learning Coach, I have had conversations with families in regards to their Wi-Fi/Broadband access as we take on remote learning from home. If a family has 3 people (mom, dad, student) and they are all working on the same internet access, this can create slow down of service. Currently, this is taking place as some try to work from and have their child work from home due to legitimate public health safety concerns. Some families cannot afford high speed internet access. But even if this family did have reliable access, Net Neutrality can still present a problem as this is a hypothetical example: let’s say ISP company #1 is partnered with Google. The teacher wants to have Google Meets with her students and those with ISP company #1 can get on easily because the ISP is providing high speed service to the site. However, ISP company #2 is partnered with ZOOM, so a student with ISP company #2 tries to get onto Google Meets but is having a hard time as the service is being “throttled.” Throttled in this scenario is when an ISP company purposefully slows down access to a site to promote use of a competitor site. This can lead to the students with ISP company #2 not being able to attend class and missing out on a learning opportunity which can then lead to a greater digital divide (Long, 2015).
The scenario I shared above was only a hypothetical example. However, if something like this does happen then as educators, you can understand that academic problems that the repeal of Net Neutrality can cause. I believe treating Wi-Fi/Broadband access as a public utility will lead our nation and academics further as the creation of the internet was to share information (Code.org, What is the internet?, 2016). As an educator, the digital divide and homework gap is the greatest concern at this time and it should be (Amina Fazlullah, 2019). We need to be working to advocate for our lower income families and get them the access they need. Yes, we can ask school districts to provide Wi-Fi hot spots and this is one solution. However, we also need to advocate to bring Net Neutrality back because without it, we have allowed the big ISP companies to control the access to the information.
Please check out these videos to learn more about Net Neutrality:
What we lose when we lost net neutrality by MIT Media Lab
Why Net Neutrality Matters by Tech Insider
FCC Chari Tom Wheeler on Open Internet Rules by C-Span
References
Aleksandr Yankelevich, B. C. (2017 ). Wirelessly bridging the homework gap: challenges in getting broadband to disconnected students. Quello Center, Michigan State University.
Amina Fazlullah, S. O. (2019). The Homework Gap: Teacher Perspectives on Closing the Digital Divide . Retrieved from Common Sense Education: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/kids_action/homework-gap-report-2019.pdf
Brandom, R. (2017, July 21). Verizon admits to throttling video in apparent violation of net neutrality. Retrieved from The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/21/16010766/verizon-netflix-throttling-statement-net-neutrality-title-ii
Code.org (Director). (2016). What is the internet? [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Dxcc6ycZ73M
C-Span (Director). (2015). FCC chair Tom Wheeler on Open Internet Rules [YouTube]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfVR0C2HHSI
Dinha, F. (2019). Reflecting on one year without net neutrality. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/06/25/reflecting-on-one-year-without-net-neutrality/#37f338a94edc
Long, C. (2015). What net neutrality means for students and educators. neaToday. Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2015/03/11/net-neutrality-means-students-educators/
My major learning from this week was how it is important to have a framework for digital citizenship to help guide this large topic with character education being at its center (Ribble, 2015). With technology advancements evolving at a rapid pace because of computer programming, it is important we begin to research, discuss and adapt systems that will better our global community (Harari, 2018). We are all humans that are part of this global interconnected network so we must work together in deciding what we want our current and future to look like while learning from the past (Curran, 2012). Since digital citizenship is so much more than just acceptable use policies, we need to start having these important discussion of what it means to be a positive contributing citizen and continue having these discussions (Anthology, 2015).
So how do we begin to have these conversations? We use the tools, resources and strategies that will enable us to build character development in an online setting. We must integrate digital citizenship, not only once at the beginning of the year but throughout the whole year in many classroom settings. We should empower educators and parents to learn these skills so they can efficiently help their students/child (Ribble, 2015). But we should also encourage the path of two-way street learning where the educator will learn along with the students (Curran, 2012). In Ribbles book there are lesson plans of how to begin these conversations and have activities that get everyone from adults to young children involved in being good digital citizens. Too often we receive a new piece of technology and are left to figure out how to use it on our own by trial and error (Ribble, 2015). While this is a great way to learn, in education we should have a dedicated person that can plan, coach and constantly empower everyone else in the community to be good digital citizens. The reason is because we cannot assume that everyone knows how to be a good digital citizen just because they were taught it once or they are an adult (Polgar & Curran, 2017 ). As a new digital learning coach, I will be using the framework to help me start planning how to do this on my own campus. I really enjoyed seeing a professional development lesson plan where the objective was to empower educators to create a professional learning network with Twitter so they can stay update to date on the latest educational technology tools. I loved it because I currently am part of this community but do want to see more educators on my own campus as part of this.
Overall, it can be overwhelming to be the leader responsible for engaging others in digital citizenship since it is a large topic. However, I have learned that if you involve everyone in the process then this will lead to real change and empower others. We should all want to learn and be good digital citizens but too often we do not know where to begin. The nine elements, three categories and REPs that ISTE has developed helps us to begin. There are many free digital citizenship resources out there from Common Sense Education, Google Education, and GCFLearn free. I am excited to begin this on my own campus and feel prepared to start.
References
(n.d.). Retrieved from Google for Education: https://edu.google.com/?modal_active=none
Anthology, T. B. (Director). (2015). Digital ethics and digital citizenship- "persistent kindness" [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbMsbxYvr4E
Communication skills: being a good digital citizen . (n.d.). Retrieved from GCF Learn Free: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/communicationskills/being-a-good-digital-citizen/1/
Curran, M. B. (2012). iCitizen: are you a socially responsible digital citizen? . West Hartford: University of Saint Joseph: School of Education.
Harari, Y. N. (2018). 21 lessons for the 21st century . Signal .
Polgar, D. R., & Curran, M. B. (2017 , December 5). We shouldn't assume people know what digital citizenship is . Retrieved from Techthought: https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/we-shouldnt-assume-people-know-what-digital-citizenship-is/
Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: nine elements all student should know. International Society for Technology in Education.
Teaching digital citizenship. (n.d.). Retrieved from Common Sense Education: https://www.commonsense.org/education/training/teaching-digital-citizenship