Google Site Check in –
The following artifacts should be on your Google Site (with a short description of the assignment, process and relevance to your future instruction) by now.
- Pixlr Photo Manipulation image (optional)
- UDL MindMap (in-class assignment)
- LOC Certificate
- Digital Story
Soon to come –
- CommonSenseMedia Certificate
- Podcast/Flipped Lesson (including interactive support materials)
- Social Learning Tool presentation
- Unit Plan (including lessons and assessments)
SMARTBoard Resources
TeachersLED – Online Resources
Illuminations – Online resources for teaching Math
Diigo Bookmarks tagged SMART board
SMART Exhcange – free and purchase lessons/Widgets/Manipulatives
SMART Notebook Express – create and view Notebook files
Intro to SMART board video by me and Dr. Langran
SMARTClassrooms YouTube Channel
Download SMARTboard Notebook 11 (Installation code – Marymount Students only).
Required Reading/Exploring/Watching:
After watching the video above, choose one of the questions to answer and post your answer to the comments on this post. Please read and reply to at least one of your classmates answers.
1. What are specific ethical issues you see kids struggling when they use digital media?
2. How is our sense of identity changing in the digital world? How can adults learn from kids and guide them at the same time?
3. How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
Equity:
“Free Computers Don’t close the Rich-Poor Education Gap” by Gregory Ferenstein, TechCrunch, May 20, 2013
“Digital Divide is ‘Major Challenge’ in Teaching Low-Income Students, Survey Finds” by Betsy Isaacson, The Huffington Post, February 28, 2013
Bridging the Digital Divide by Comcast
Black Girls Code: Crashing the Digital Gender Divide video
BYOD to Bridge the Digital Divide by Michael Mills
Post 1 responses on your blog/Post 2 products on your GSite/class preparation:
– Answer one of the questions under the Gardner video in the comments section of this post. Read and reply to at least one if your classmates.
– Post at least 1 response about the discussion on equity. Include strategies that you can use in your classroom.
– Embed/Link your Social Learning Presentation on a new page of your Google Site.
– Embed/Link your Podcast/Flipped lesson (that includes at least 4 paragraphs of description of process/experience) on a new page of your Google Site.
Week 9 Online Class
Complete the two online learning modules anytime before 6:00 pm on Tuesday, July 21st. It should take you approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete (including a 15-minute break).
- Online Learning
- Digital Citizenship and Online Safety
ED554 Summer 2015 
I’ve chosen to respond to number 3, which reads “How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?”.
I think this answer comes directly from Howard Gardner himself in the video we just watched. He says “teachers will be more and more as coaches or role models in the digital environment.” In my opinion, he couldn’t be more right. Since information is now so readily available in the form of digital media, students are able to acquire information directly, instead of waiting for information to be delivered.
This challenges us as educators to serve as mentors in digital media, and understand how certain tools can be used to enhance a student’s learning. Furthermore, if students are able to acquire the knowledge without our help, it’s up to us to build their skills above knowledge (for example, the stages above knowledge on Bloom’s Taxonomy, including synthesis and evaluation.)
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Right on! We used to send kids to the library for credible resources (still should include print-based research for as long a libraries keep those resources), now we need to continue to guide kids to the credible online resources. Helping them curate these resources (so they can quickly recall) is a big part of what our facilitator role should be:)
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I was planning on answering this question, too. I think it’s a great one…this idea that teachers are becoming less the givers of information and instead have become “guiders” of students’ education.
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Hi Geoff,
Yes – I see it happening in my elementary school every day. Our librarian does a great job teaching students to evaluate sources, rather than just googling. It’s tough to do, since google is so easy and fast for kids to use. I use it all of the time too! But as adults and teachers we know that including methodology in research will serve our students in the long run.
Thanks,
Sue
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I totally agree with you, and I think Mr. Gardner said it really well in the video. I think our students know a ton about the digital world already, but it is our job to bridge that world with the world of education. Hopefully in doing so, we can make school more engaging and instill in our students the love of learning.
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In this short video, Dr Gardner introduced his research on what it means to be ethical in digital media and identified 5 topics, specifically a sense of identity, a sense of privacy, a sense of ownership/authorship, trustworthiness and credibility and community participation.
Personally, I think many youth on digital media struggled a lot with the ethical issue of ownership. They do not appear to have a clear understanding of the the intellectual property concept of “fair use” and seem to believe that everything on the internet is “fair game.” For example, if they can find a site that allows them to watch a current movie for free, they will watch the movie without concern for who owns that content. It was easier to understand ownership when the movie was a physical object. If you bought a bootleg DVD from someone on the street, it was hard to pretend that it was okay. For those who spend a significant portion of their time in the digital world, “just watching” a movie on your computer seems perfectly normal.
Dr, Garner mentions that being good role models will be a major responsibility for teachers in the future. I agree. Teaching fair use and modeling a respect for copyright in our own practice will help encourage our students to develop a more respectful understanding of the rights of content creators.
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Rob – you and I made very similar points. I think one of our greatest challenges as future teachers is modeling good behavior when we access online content. In fact, I feel this is one of the central themes of this semester’s class – the expanding use of technology in schools and classrooms is challenging teachers to not only learn more about these tools, but also, modeling their effective and ethical use.
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Thankfully I am seeing less time taking about Internet Safety only…and more time teaching about digital literacy and citizenship. A good citizen will not steal, so why would a digital citizen steal music/ideas/art? More parents are involved in the Internet dangers convos, which gives teachers time to teach this new literacy.
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I liked your post and have recently spent 15 out of the past 20 years living in Asia where copyright laws are definitely interpreted differently. We are very privileged to care about authenticity in America. And as educators we have to uphold high standards so that our students understand ethical decisions. But we also must recognize that a huge portion of the world does not operate this way and the lines are blurry when it comes to bootlegs and copies or authenticity.
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(Hmmm I was attempting to leave a reply to a post and now realize that I should have just responded to a question as well…here is the expansion…)
I’m hoping that we can teach our students how to create their own work while being inspired by others and using their digital world as a reference, and not steal other’s work. There is more to life than being Rich and famous and I think students understand that stealing never ends well.
In terms of who ultimately polices this practice of gleaning information off the web or from search engines I think it takes a community as a whole and people must be vigilant in order for our youth to get this message. Unfortunately I think these matters of authenticity are mostly adhered to in academic circles and are largely ignored by much of the world.
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I agree. I think that this is a really hard concept to understand even for adults who are coming into learning about digital ownership. I think this goes into our role as educators, who else is going to teach them the importance of pride and ownership and why its such a serious offense.
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3. How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your finger tips?
In part, I agree with Dr. Gardner. So much information is at our fingers in this digital age. Dr. Gardner suggests that teachers are less the givers of knowledge these days and should take on more of a role of coach/role model. I think this is true; however, I clarify this more by saying that teachers need to still work with students on how to discern what information is most accurate or helpful. If students are turned loose to research something, do they really know how to research, or where to find the best information? So, I would agree that teachers are coaches and role models in this way. They might not be the ones always providing the information, but they do need to help students in researching techniques and to question the material they find.
Teachers have always had to be good role models, but I do think that it’s important for teachers to be good role models when it comes to the use of media. Not only do teachers need to be careful about what they are putting out on social media sites, but they also need to model how to fairly use media (copyright, etc).
I still feel somewhat uncomfortable with the thought that teachers won’t be seen as imparting the information quite like they have in the past, but I also think it’s a reminder that with technology, comes the opportunity for teachers and students alike, to continue learning. Teachers can model for students how learning is not limited age.
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I like the perspective you have taken for identifying teachers as role models. Where as I perceived teachers actually modeling and practicing the respectful, credible, and safe way to find information through lesson planning, you took on more personal role. It is the responsibility of the teacher to model the appropriate behavior for social media sites and Internet communities.
I too am apprehensive about the changing foundation of the role of teachers. Because there is no universal handout or guide to implementing our technologically based society into the classroom, I have a feeling that we will make many mistakes before understanding exactly how to use these new resources. However, I hope that as we make and fix our mistakes, that technology becomes more adaptable and student/classroom friendly.
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I like that you bring of the fact that students still need teachers to guide them in their research and learning. Although, it is believed that teachers are not needed as much as they used to be in the classroom, I believe that it all depends on how the teacher chooses to implement instruction. Even though students have knowledge at their finger tips, this doesn’t mean that they now “know” everything. It is up to the teacher to organize and use leadership skills to implement how technology can maximize student learning while continuing to teach values and ethics.
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I agree that teaching students how to do research is a critical skill. Google is a great tool for quick answers to simple questions, but research requires more. We need to teach our students how to analyze and break down the question so they know what topics they need to research, how to create useful searches, and how to evaluate the information they find.
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How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at our fingertips?
Teaching and learning in a world where information is at our fingertips has changed what, when, and how teachers teach and students learn. Digital technologies are interwoven throughout the school day, no longer relegated to a computer lab with isolated lessons on keyboarding. However, the task of evaluating the changes is daunting because the topic is so vast.
A good place to begin is by reading and reviewing the Virginia Computer and Technology Standards of Learning (SOLs). http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/computer_technology/index.shtml Technology standards were first established in 1995, but after three revisions, are in their current mode. Updated in 2013, there are four distinct grade-level segments: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. Each grade-level segment has the following criterion: Basic Operations and Concepts; Social and Ethical Issues; Technology Research Tools; Thinking Skills, Problem Solving and Decision Making; and Technology Communication Tools.
The Board of Education didn’t intend for teachers to merely instruct students in the Technology Standards, but rather to gradually and progressively integrate skills and knowledge into content instruction. Digital literacy instruction is meant to enhance content instruction and student engagement individually and collaboratively, rather than provide explicit technology lessons in a vacuum. How teachers and students adapt to these new standards and realities are being studied by many different researchers.
Dr. Howard Gardner, a psychologist widely known in education digital media in education in the YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9GSj3Hi8y8 . His research project, The Good Play Project, examines how students are taught ethical behavior in digital media.
He focuses on five areas on ethical issues as the sense of: identity, privacy, ownership/authorship, trustworthiness/credibility, and participation in an online community. He theorizes that teachers will behave more like classroom coaches, due to the lack of requirement that teachers have vast storage of knowledge, but rather a greater responsibility to guide students in critical thinking required to evaluate digital information. Teachers’ roles are to instruct students of all ages in the specific vocabulary associated with age-appropriate ethical issues of digital literacy, such as evaluating content for credibility and authenticity. For each new advantage, there is a new challenge for teachers and students. These challenges have been examined by many others.
David White of the University of Oxford discusses the concept of teaching students credibility with online sources in his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO569eknM6U entitled Visitors and Residents: Credibility (Part 2). Students, who are often thought of as what Mr. White terms digital residents, must be taught how to evaluate the legitimacy and accuracy of digital information as opposed to the convenience or ease of retrieving the first entry in a Google search. The digital world that students experience trust in the speed and prominence of sources, rather than critical judgement. Both researchers explore the underlying concepts of what it means to learn or know in regards to ethical behaviors in digital literacy.
What this means for students is that while the mechanics of digital resources may be perceived to be intuitive to their generation, the cognitive demands necessary for critical evaluations are likely beyond their developmental stage. Students have to learn these skills explicitly from teachers in age-appropriate, developmentally appropriate layers. The SOLs provide an excellent framework for this instruction, and educators should be cognizant of the ethical concerns that Dr. Gardner and others are researching. Learning to differentiate between credible and incredible sources will be a lifelong skill for all students.
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3. How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
After watching this short Edutopia video, I was pleased that Howard Gardner touched upon the changing role that teachers are taking in the classroom due to the vast amount of free and immediate information available to students. If the Internet can provide the knowledge that teachers have traditionally spent the entire school day incorporating into their lesson plans, what becomes of the teaching profession? I believe the answer to this question was partly provided by Dr. Gardner: teachers will take on the role as coaches and become role models for ethical and moral behavior. More specifically, I believe the job of teachers will become more expansive and interesting. Because the information that students crave is readily available to them, teachers become responsible for the application, expansion, and ethical execution of knowledge. In this way, the foundation of teaching and learning has changed, but the outcome has stayed the same. Information + Application = Knowledge and Power. Focusing on the five ethical issues that Howard Gardner has identified, the path to achieving this equation is ensured by teachers. Educators provide information access, instill an understanding of identity, teach the importance of credibility, and create a sense of classroom community.
I am excited that as a new teacher, I have the opportunity to embark on this change and learn to understand the perspective of a child born into a world without boundaries. I anticipate challenges, many challenges on all arenas in education. However, in order to positively mold the traditional classroom into a space (real time or virtual) where technology as a resource is common place and children are expected to expand the boundaries of their own knowledge, these challenges will need to be overcome.
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I am excited too, to see where all this takes us as teachers. It makes me nervous sometimes — that I won’t be needed anymore — but it seems that we will just be teaching in a different way!
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After watching this video, I chose to respond to question #1: What are specific ethical issues you see kids struggling when they use digital media?
Many of you all have already commented on this question, and I have had similar experience with it. I definitely think that ownership/authorship is a huge issue with students today. In the class that I aide for, the students had to write a series of short papers on different countries throughout the year. Each time, one or more students had copied and pasted a large portion of the paper. We had talked to the students about plagiarism many times before, but it was still always an issue. Interestingly, after talking to the students, it’s not that they were trying to be lazy or didn’t care, it was more that they didn’t understand that it isn’t right. In some ways they do get that they cannot just take someone’s words and make them their own, but they don’t really understand why. I think that is the reason that they often “copy and paste” — they don’t see the real problem with it because information on the internet is, like Rob said, “fair game.”
Another issue that I often think about is the concept of identity. There is so much available to us at the touch of a button, I wonder how we are to add to that and stand out. It’s almost like everything is moving so quickly and everything has been done already. How can we make our own ideas unique? Sometimes I think that maybe our students feel the same way. Anything they can type into a search engine, seems to come up. How are they to fit into that? How do they make their own place in the world?
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Awesome response, I agree! I think you made great points about students identities getting lost and having a hard time standing out. When making lessons, I often think about how my lesson can be original and unique instead of being repetitive and similar to all the available lessons online! The internet is such a great resource but like you said, everything is done for us already- how can we create it to make it our own?
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I found it interesting that students didn’t see the problem with simply copying information from the Internet. I think this just further proves how important it is to teach our students that citing information is a good thing and something they should be doing on a consistent basis. By citing information, students may also start to realize what a valid source looks like versus a bad website with inaccurate information.
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I chose to answer question 3: how does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
In this short clip, I learned a lot. Howard Gardner did a good job expanding on the 5 ethical issues and how these ethical issues are relevant towards digital youth.
To answer the question, it is important for teachers to understand that so much is available and easily accessed on the internet. Instead of spending a multi-day unit on shapes, a student with internet access could teach it to themselves in a single day. Because of this, teachers need to figure out a way to teach academics in a way that students won’t be able to do on their own. This may involve doing hands-on activities in class, partner work, a flipped classroom lesson, or having the students teach the class. Like Dr. Gardner also pointed out, no longer do teachers just need to be teachers, they need to also act as coaches and role models to their students.
As a teacher, I plan to not only teach my students academics, but also teach them important life skills and lessons that they can use the rest of their life. Since so much information is available at your fingertips, it is essential for teachers to find a way to enhance the information and distribute it in a way that will make students eager to learn from their teacher, and not the internet.
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I found myself constantly stopping, jotting down quotes, and replaying this video of Howard Gardner. It reminded me ethical guidelines belong in every field, and therefore must be discerned with new fields or new discoveries. I think of the new technologies of nuclear warfare and stem cell use, for example. One of my favorite quotes by Gardner along these lines was: “No medium is benevolent or malevolent in itself. You can use pencils to write sonnets or poke people´s eyes out”. I also happen to be rereading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley at the moment so how to use new technologies ethically is very much on my mind!
As far as using new digital media in education, I think Gardner hits it on the head when he says “It is up to those of us who care about young people or care about the future of the planet to understand these forms [of digital media] but not to let them dictate what´s right”. The trouble here is, society has yet to agree on “what´s right”! For example, for certain groups of people, exposing specific parts of the body is unethical and for others not. This goes for the pictures we publish, the language we use, and everything else we share on digital media. So in that respect, the conversation of ethics is not new, but it must depend on the family and the local culture of the school.
Another point Gardner made was about how education must change since so much information is so readily available. He says teachers must become more like coaches: “didactic aspects of teaching are not as important because the information is so prevalent”. I think many educators see that as at best a challenge, and at worst a threat. Technology may scare many teachers who felt secure “having all the answers” if you will. I had a recent example a bit ago that informed my opinion on this.
I was teaching a Spanish class on numbers to second graders. We were looking at the connections between number words and other words. We started looking at three/tres and its related words: triangle, triplets, etc. Then, we looked at siete (7), ocho (8), nueve (9) and diez (10) related to the months; September, October, November, December. The students soon noticed that September wasn´t actually the seventh month! They of course wanted to know why. I knew that the calendar had been changed many times over the course of history, and had the basic facts, but each child had an iPad, so we looked it up and pieced together the history of the evolution of the calendar as a class. One one hand, the class derailed a bit from simply Spanish, on the other hand, the students would have never thought to randomly google “history of the western calendar” if it hadn´t been for the connections I had been helping them draw.
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I agree with your comment on “what’s right”. No clear definition has been created that states what is right and wrong. Everyone has their own opinions. So how do we as educators or parents teach the children what is right? Educators may say one thing but then the parents may say another. The fact is, like you said, there is no clear right or wrong answer but I think it is the values, culture, and lifestyle that dictate what someone feels to be right.
Within the school system, I do feel there is a line of right and wrong in the digital world. Educators have an important role on portraying how a student should be ethical on the internet based on the schools idea of ethics. The teacher may feel a little different but with the growth of the digital world and the protection of the students, the guidelines created by the school is the “right” way to be ethical online within the school.
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I appreciated the idea that teachers must become more like coaches. This gels nicely with the ever-more-popular idea of teachers as “the guide on the side” rather than “the sage on the stage”. I have been heading more and more in this direction in my classroom (be careful, though: there are still some parents who think if you don’t lecture, you’re not teaching). This is why the flipped classroom is so appealing to me: I have had students tell me they prefer lecture, and miss it when we don’t have it. So if I flip they still have that, only better, because they can pause and watch again whenever and however many times they want. I also like this approach because it puts the responsibility of learning on the student, and we are there to help them along the way, rather than spoon-feed them the information. It also allows us to be more flexible and meet the students where they need us, and we can use technology to improve our teaching and their learning. I am still in the phase where this is all very new and uncomfortable, but digital media opens up so many more possibilities for best practices and authentic learning. I am excited, and a little scared. But, onward! If you’re not going forward you’re either stagnating or going backward.
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How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
Teaching and learning are continuing to change as more information and technology becomes available. I think new innovations and having information available to students 24/7 is going to benefit students and take education where it has never been before. In the time of 21st century learning, I think it is important for teacher to embrace the knowledge and technology available for our students.
Teachers are going to have to modify their instruction and homework styles to hold students accountable for their learning. I have found in today’s classroom it is important to provide assessments during school hours to make sure students are actually learning the information instead of just copying answers off of the Internet. I think it is wonderful that many students have developed research and navigational skills through the use of technology however, it is important the teacher creates assignments that go beyond simple question and answer. Since students can find almost any answer online, it is up to the teacher to design higher order thinking questions and projects that force students to think in different ways.
I think the most important thing to remember as teachers is what is the best way to meet the child’s needs. Dr. Gardner mentions that teachers are beginning to take the role as coaches and role models guiding ethical and moral behavior. Although teachers may see this as a loss, they should embrace this change and impact and challenge students in more abstract ways.
In my future classroom, I plan on learning from my students as much as they learn from me. I hope to take the knowledge that is all around us and apply it to their personal lives so that it becomes relevant to them. I hope to guide my students in every lesson, by modeling good character in a fun loving atmosphere, while also incorporating technology into our day to maximize my students full potential.
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I completely agree with your post. I love your optimism and positivity. As our lives change with new technology, we too can change and it can be for the better. Your ideas about enrichment and higher level thinking hit the nail on the head. Students may be able to find factual information more easily today than 20 years ago, but they still have to think and process what that information actually means. Teachers still have a valuable role to play in the classroom and lives of children – technology does not change that.
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I agree with your point about how having information at you fingertips will change how we assess students. There will have to be more in class assessments because students very often can just Google an answer. To me, this dovetails nicely with the flipped classroom. At home, students are free to gather all the information they can/ want to about a subject, but the true understanding of the information is demonstrated in class by what they can do with that information. This also supports the idea that education is not simply memorizing facts. Now that we have all those facts at our fingertips, using higher order thinking and other “21st century” skills are what we need to be teaching students to do.
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I chose to answer number 2. I thought this was an interesting question to answer and a difficult one. I didn’t want to get too in depth because of the topic I chose to relate it to, but this is how I took the question.
How is our sense of identity changing in the digital world? How can adults learn from kids and guide them at the same time?
When I think about this question, the first thing that comes to mind is bullying and how much it is affecting students today. Children are being bullied about the littlest thing and many of these kids need an outlet where they feel accepted. Many times this avenue is through the digital world. Through the digital world, children are able to create different personas. Students can play different roles through the internet and create different profiles based on what they think people will like.
Growing up, it is about exploration. Figuring out who you are. Today though, students are more involved in the digital world and the “figuring out who they are phase” is taken to a different level. Maybe it gives the students many different opportunities to explore and figure themselves out but today it also can be a scary thing. Students create these different identities through the internet and they live those lives and not their own real life. Students who are bullied just do the rounds through school but do not really feel alive until they are on the internet playing they role of the other person they created.
Adults can take the information gained from the identities created by the student and determine their interests, what makes them happy and sad, what skills or talents they may have that they don’t show, and also can see where there may be problem areas. Adults can guide children on what it means to create an identity in the digital world. This identity is whom they are and can be seen by everyone. This can be a place for students to hide and maybe explore different things without their friends knowing, but it should not be a place where the students are trying to harm himself or herself or where they only feel life their real self. Students need to realize that the digital world is not always real life, and they can’t always hide behind their created alter identities. It is important for adults to keep an eye on what the students are creating on the internet because sometimes this can be a clear sign to problem areas that the students are asking for help with. There should be a healthy balance on being the person you want to be everyday and then having your digital identity.
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I agree with you. However, children before also needed to find their identity and it was hard as well. The difference is that now children create different profiles and identities online and they need to keep up with them. On the other hand, before the internet children watched a lot of TV programs and shows and imagined themselves being some of the characters on TV or even farther, they imagined being part of that program or show as a different character. Youth identity has always been an issue. Young people, and even sometimes adults, are trying to find their identity, their place of belonging,and their way of life and they try out many identities before they come up with one that they like and is their true self.
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I like that you mention what a great opportunity it is for our youth to go online and feel apart of a digital community. After being bullied or “put down” in the school community or social community, the internet provides a great outlet for young people to find acceptance and discover themselves in another kind of community. That is why I mentioned in my post that it is very upsetting how many insulting comments one sees when viewing tweets or Facebook posts or article comments. People, especially young people, turn to digital media to escape the harsh words of their peers and find some new peers who will be more accepting of their thoughts and opinions. And then I see people being so mean when responding to an article comment on ESPN or a political opinion on Facebook. As teachers and parents, we need to talk with our students and children and find out if becoming part of a digital community has provided them with the positive feedback and acceptance that they are seeking.
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3. How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
The roles of teachers and students are being altered due to the vast amount of information that is readily available. In the video, Howard Gardner tells us that teachers are not needed in the same way they use to be and that their roles are changing from teachers to role models and coaches. Because there is so much information readily available, it makes obtaining information easier for students. This allows students to learn more information in a shorter amount of time, therefore it is our job as teachers to ensure that the information they are receiving is accurate and that they really understand the information they are obtaining. I believe that teachers are still very important and that a good teacher cannot be replaced, but with technology comes new challenges and as teachers we have to embrace those changes.
As more technology is used in the classroom, teachers will have to alter the way they teach, as well as the way they assess students. It will be important to ensure students are actually learning the information and not simply finding the answers to homework online. This will make in class assessments much more important. It will also be important to teach students the proper ways to find accurate information and how to cite that information appropriately. I believe that we should use the Internet and its information as a tool to enhance our lessons, and that with this tool we can improve our classrooms.
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I think teachers will find it most difficult to find that balance of teaching content and finding a way to integrate current technology and not just use technology for the sake of using it.
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For this assignment I decided to answer question number 1, what are specific ethical issues you see kids struggling when they use digital media?
In his video on digital youth Howard Gardner explores five ethical issues 1. sense of identity, 2. sense of privacy, 3. sense of ownership, 4. trustworthiness, and 5. credibility. Howard Gardner says that it is easy to pretend to be someone else online. However, he also states that this can be both good or bad. He says that as long as you do not hurt anyone it is fine. On the other hand, it gets out of control when you start deceiving people. Howard Gardner also mentions that there is a lot of information available on the web. He continues to say that the amount of information we have access to nowadays and all the people we can be in contact with is an advantage. He points out that it is not bad and, in fact, before we used pen and paper and could also do a lot of harm with that by writing nasty things to other people. Furthermore, Howard Gardner is of the opinion that in the internet era people need to learn how to synthesis more because they encounter more information and not all of it is useful all the time. On the other hand, before people had one or two sources of information that were out there for them to use.
I agree with Howard Gardner that as teachers we are role models and coaches. We have to guide our students to use the internet and all the information available on the web appropriately. Children need to learn good practices online. They need to know what each peace of information available online is useful for. Moreover, children need to learn how to express themselves appropriately online without offending anybody and using correct grammar. In addition, children need to learn that there are times when technology is useful and should be taken advantage of and others when it should be put away. Finally, I think that children need to learn the different uses of technology and when to use it in the different ways (education vs. entertainment).
Technology and all the information available for us online is great. We need to use it to our full potential and in ways that are going to help us achieve our goals. On the other hand, we need to use it in a correct and appropriate way depending on the function and the purpose, educational vs. for entertainment.
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2. How is our sense of identity changing in the digital world? How can adults learn from kids and guide them at the same time?
When I was a youth, I tried on many hats. This is a natural, normal part of growing up. I made mistakes, too, and lots of them. Children explore and practice being other people, or being grown-up, as a way to internalize who we are and who we want to be. They emulate the behavior and affect of people they interact with or see represented. It’s practice, and it’s fundamental. Sometimes it was fun, other times it was painful, embarrassing, or I simply moved on to try something else. Most of it was modeled by the adults around me, and some of it was from peers, or in the community, or TV. This process of trying and discarding and fine tuning is vital for the healthy development of our persona.
Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like if there was a digital record of all that, and shudder. Today, kids are leaving a digital trail that will always be there, and every misstep, every mistake, every cast off aspect of personality they took out for a test drive will not be relegated to the mists of distant memory but recorded for posterity. It is our job as educators and parents and other adults to help them learn how to be mindful of that and operate accordingly. They have to be much more careful and thoughtful of what they’re doing online, which makes me a little bit sad as that thoughtless childhood spontaneity is lost, at least digitally.
I was struck by Gardner’s comment about how digital media is neither benevolent nor malevolent- it is up to us to provide that guidance. Kids have much more at stake now than we ever did with their every post and comment being permanent, and have to be much more careful and purposeful in their digital lives. This could be fraught with negativity or be incredibly empowering. Just as before they are learning from us, and if we’re not in their digital lives then it’s like the Wild West- dangerous, and no place for a child. Kids as digital natives can help adults navigate the digital media world, but we must be a moral compass for them along the way until theirs is fully developed. So this isn’t new, just different. We need to model an appropriate digital world for them, and make an effort to be in there with them.
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3. How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
When I was a student if I needed to write a report or conduct research, I would go to the library and open an encyclopedia. If perhaps I wanted to read a book for a report, I would find its location using the card catalog. Times have certainly changed! Students can now Google any topic and instantly have more information than they could possibly ever need right at their fingertips. Information is just a click away. And, I think it’s fabulous! I love it when I’m having a conversation or discussion and wonder about something, I quickly Google it, and have instant information gratification.
Howard Gardner discusses in Digital Youth that teachers’ roles have changed as a result of information availability. Teachers are now seen more as coaches and role models because the didactic notion of education has changed. While I agree with the notion that the role of teachers has changed, I do think it is imperative to remember what teachers continue to do: teach and model good ethics and citizenship, teach children how to read, and importantly for this discussion – how to glean useful information from text. These skills are not taught by computers, they are taught by we the teachers. Teachers and technology should work together, hand-in-hand, so that students can have information at their fingertips while having the skills to understand that information.
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3. How does teaching and learning change in a world where information is at your fingertips?
The most profound quote from this video is, “A pencil can be used to write sonnets or for poking someones eye out.” Through this whole semester, I think that explained the role of using technology as a tool in the best way.
As teachers we are guides in helping kids navigate this tool. We can teach them the right and wrong ways to use it. We can act as role models in the way we use it ourselves. Ultimately, we are teaching our children how to be good, ethical people and hopefully those values and traits will carry over into all aspects of their lives including how they conduct ethical behaviors online.
Learning changes in a world where information is at your fingertips because now we need to learn how to distinguish what is helping us learn and what is not. We also need to distinguish what are our own ideas and what are other peoples ideas. Regarding ethics, having vast amounts of information at our fingertips can result in ideas being stolen. It is our job as educators to instill this code and help our students sort through material.
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I chose the question, “What are specific ethical issues you see kids struggling with when they use digital media?” This question interested me because one thing I have noticed when I see tweets, posts on Facebook, and comments on articles on websites like ESPN.com is that people aren’t choosing their words carefully when they put something out into the digital community, especially young people.
I have seen the nastiest comments on Facebook if people are having a political discussion. The political discussions on Facebook that I have seen can get surprisingly heated and insulting. The article comments on websites such as ESPN.com and even entertainment websites such as eonline.com are also surprisingly offensive and insulting at times. It seems to me that there has to be some way of limiting and editing article comments by websites so not anyone and everyone can post anything and everything. Facebook is different because people are posting and responding on personal pages that are limited to your Facebook friends. But, it seems that people feel that if they are not talking face to face with someone, that gives them the freedom to write anything.
So, in my opinion, one of the most challenging ethical issues that our youth is faced with concerning digital media is to think about what you are going to write before you write it. Words can hurt and I have seen very hurtful comments on digital media, especially social media. Also, another ethical issue that our youth faces when researching a topic on digital media is verifying what you have read on the internet by turning to another source to confirm what you have read. We must be very careful not to just repeat what we have read on the internet. I know that when I am researching a topic or a person’s bio on the internet, I make sure I turn to many different websites to confirm what I have read so I get the whole picture, so to speak. We don’t have to think about that with newspapers so much because we can trust that the journalists for newspapers are checking their facts. We can trust websites such as CNN but from my own experience, when researching a topic on the internet, we are directed to so many different websites from one article to the next, that it is easy to read something that hasn’t been adequately verified and to repeat it as the truth. As teachers, we need to teach our students to always verify what you have read on the internet by turning to other sources to get the “whole story”.
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I completely agree about your comment about commenters on Facebook. I’ve always been told that there are certain things that should not be openly discussed at work which is politics and religion. But I have to say, the same thing goes for social media. I have seen comments from friends who admitted to “unfollowing” others because of certain opinions or “nasty” comments. I know my friends list consists of many people with different religious backgrounds, political beliefs, yet, I know where to draw the line and what to say. There are certain sensitive topics where people are split and it is best to keep those opinions to oneself.
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What are specific ethical issues you see kids struggling when they use digital media?
Listening to Howard Gardner provide ethical issues such as identity, made me think about to the MTV show, Catfish. This show followed someone who was online dating for an extended amount of time but never met the person. The end of the show often resulted in the “other” person being someone else with a fake identity. This is a perfect case of identity gone wrong and hurting others.
Other issues that came to mind is cyberbullying, whether a student is the bully, the witness, or the one the one getting bullied. For a student to witness cyberbullying it may leave them confused of what action to take. Often they are aware that it is wrong but fear that they will be picked on for reporting the unwanted behavior. It is important for teachers to explain to the students about these very real situations and explain what they should do. It is also important to inform students that the reporter will remain confidential. Another issue is plagiarism. Students may define plagiarism differently than others. We can educate students by explaining what plagiarism is and by providing examples. It’s important to establish ethical behavior early in their education.
There is such a thing as cyber etiquette. Students need to be taught these behaviors and what constitutes as appropriate conversations.
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I thought the question of how is our sense of identity changing…how can adults learn from students while guiding them is a really thought provoking question. We often think of ourselves as the teachers and us being able to teach our students things but there are certainly times where our students are the ones who are teaching us things. The first thing that the video mentions is that changing identity, putting on different masks and pretending to be someone different is in no way a new phenomena. I agree with him that its a very common occurrence even before the age of the internet; however, its now easier to portray those identities and to be consumed with a self that is not actuality real. So in a sense, our sense of identity is really not changing per se, but our ability to do more, go further with that identity is more accessible.
As parents and as educators, we must be in a position where we can teach our students and children positive ways to interact with the internet and our peers in those circles just as we would teach them to get along with friends and neighbors in a face to face situation. Its the teaching of correct habits that will allow them to navigate the online world. The generations to come might be a step ahead but we can guide them on correct usage. Its how you use the technology that makes the difference.
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