It is important to me personally to be a quality educator, to use research based effective strategies, not just because it is the ethical path to take but because I constantly think about what kind of teacher I would want my own children to have. iNacol have given us parameters of what quality online teaching looks like, and just as we have for our students, we have standards to define what we do.
Standard C discuss our plans and designs. Because our curriculum is mapped out and given to us via GAVS, we can spend our time supplementing, providing different ways to apply the knowledge, new ways to interact online with the information that we want the students to learn. Knowing what resources are factual is necessary when choosing these supplementary activities and plans. Standard E reminds us that we need to teach the students how to be responsible digital citizens. We cannot just assume that students know how to be responsible online. Direct instruction is not only necessary in for the content material but also about technology use. Standard J is where I have to say that I have made the most growth while working through the Participate section of TOOL. I have had previous problems with students and their interactions via email, as well as issues with interactions with parents on the phone and via email. Now, I am not using this as my confession to say that I have communicated inappropriately with parents because I would certainly like to think that I modeled professional behavior, but I have learned that how I approach people, how I say what I need to communicate is often what provokes the response that I get. I have certainly learned that front loading with positivity will create a positive relationship. That relationship will be what spurs support in later situations. Also, teaching students what Netiquette is from the beginning of the course will help them understand what is expected of them. Since most students aim to please their teachers, this will motivate more positive interactions. Modeling correct behavior is absolutely a plus, but simply being straightforward about the expectations with students will spur compliance because they want to do well!
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. My family As online workers, it is easy to get sucked into the digital world and getting stuck there. I have to admit, it happens to me. I have to limit my time on social media, time myself when grading, and only check email at allotted times. Stepping out of the schedule could mean problems with balance, and perhaps even issues with health. All aspects of our lives need balance. While it is important to get all of our work done, it is also important to spend time with our families, and also to decompress. Sometimes, however, life picks up and it is difficult to maintain that balance. This is when it is most important to try to keep it. For me, that time has come. My family is moving in the next week and a few days, so there are items that I need to keep in order... like, EVERYTHING! I have a calendar put together to help me keep life in balance. Take a look: During this particular week, my technology habits were modified in that they were scheduled at specific times. Because it is summer, I can schedule that time during the day. I will also modify it by spending my work time in my office rather than in common areas of the house to limit distractions and maximize productivity. This will also help me sit in a position that helps my posture; rather than relaxing on the couch and being distracted by the television, children, dogs, phones, etc., I will hold proper posture at my desk in my ergonomic chair. As my productivity will be heightened, this balance is what will help me keep my entire life together. If you notice, there is time schedule in for my kids during the week where all technology is put aside. All of us need this balance, not just me. Let's face it, my children have their iPads, their tv shows, their game systems... and I have two jobs, both of which require me to use a computer. Also, notice that Sundays are scheduled as tech detox days. This is a time scheduled so that we can be active, outdoors, and together. This particular Sunday we will go bowling with our extended family and then enjoy a cookout together. For a balance of work and play, business and pleasure, this is what is necessary. All of us need time away from the tech. This way we get our work done, but we are safeguarding our health, as well.
personal details such as address and phone number- can compromise online security but also physical wellbeing. To ensure that students keep digital safety at the forefront of their minds, we have to saturate their surroundings with the information. Posting a graphic on the classroom bulletin board would be one way to begin. Since we send Biweekly Newsletters, adding a new graphic to each edition would draw attention and remind students of how important it is to be safe in the online environment at all times. It would also be a good idea to begin the semester with a discussion about online safety, be it for credit or for enrichment points, so that students start the course understanding the importance of the issue.
In education, we are constantly using acronyms that those in the outside world rarely understand. Online education is even a step beyond the brick and mortar with the acronyms used that we must understand. To assist in this, let's straighten out a few...
Acronyms important to Online Education AUP- Acceptable Use Policy An agreement signed by students and parents expressing appropriate conditions of use of the Internet. It will also cover consequences and penalties of violations of the system. CIPA- Children's Internet Protection Act A law that states that all media provided by a school must comply with E-rate requirements. Educators must be careful in creating a stimulating but safe learning environment following these laws as well as providing an AUP. CCL- Creative Commons License A copyright license that allows others use of the product but also gives credit to the creator. There are different types of licenses that allow different types of usage. It is important to know what type of copyright each item has so that your use follows the law of what is allowed- does it allow you to distribute? Remix? Tweak? More important terms Fair Use- Anyone can use a portion of created work (a certain percentage) even if it is copyrighted, but only for specific reasons including education. A few questions... How can a DLC ensure that citizens within the community have access to an environment where an AUP protects members as well as the community itself, where individuals uphold laws, and a cooperative/collective venture provides robust, safe, and ethical resources and opportunities for learning?
What is the best way to establish and maintain a flourishing DLC where citizens understand, observe, and are inclined to willingly support and ultimately benefit from Digital Rights and Responsibilities?
A Specific Plan It is important that there is a specific plan in place. With each curriculum group, it is essential that each teacher respond in the same manner. In our particular department through GAVS, we leave feedback immediately stating that the incident has occurred and that, if a grade is attached, credit will not be awarded unless it is resubmitted. A note sent via Thesis is an important response, as well, so that documentation is provided for administrators if the actions continue, but also so that other stakeholders can be award of the issue. If the issue occurs again, the issue should be handed over to the ILT and possibly to administration. Following consequences are spelled out in the AUP which can be found in our Teacher/Student Handbook. The digital realm is a whole new world. It's not a given that students are aware of how to navigate it nor how to behave within it. One of the most important aspects that I have seen in the online course when it comes to behavior is the lack of netiquette that students have unless they are directly instructed about it. What might seem to be common sense to an adult is not so obvious to a student. I plan on using the following video that I made for this course to introduce students to the manners they should be using online at all times. Take a look, and feel free to use it!
It can be difficult to tell if sites on the internet are giving 100% correct information, or if there are errors in the knowledge they are attempting to share. The question comes time and time again: how can we know. As educators, we are charged with not only using reputable sources and providing those to our students, but also with teaching our students how to make those decisions, as well. This can be a difficult task. We learn the tricks: using information from domains that end with .mil, .gov, .edu, and .org.
I have collected some resources to demonstrate sites that provide factual information, and lessons that are safe to share with our students in the world of online learning. Many different content areas and topics are covered in the resources collected below. Take a look!
It is true that the spikes in income begin to dwindle on the lower end of the graph, possibly signifying a correlation between lower income and unavailability of internet access. However, there are counties with significant income that have very limited access. As an online teacher, it is important not just to understand what types of issues could stand in the way of internet access, but to have an idea of where internet issues most likely occur. I am no techie and definitely not an expert in the area of technological jargon, but I do know that without internet accessibility is reliant upon providers and what they offer in our areas. Looking at the list from the Federal Communications Commission, I created a map of Georgia coding by color the counties and by their access ranking. The rank is listed to the right with the name of the county; number 1 being the county with the best internet access, highest bandwidth, and most providers to choose from. I find this important because we have students spread not only across the state, but sometimes across the country or even the world! If the distribution is this uneven just within the state of Georgia, it is obvious that the accessibility issues will go much farther. It is common sense that internet access will not be 100% consistent in different areas, but this visual really brings it to life. Other obstacles to accessThere are many other issues that can stand in the way of accessibility to what is available on the internet, and it took this WebQuest to make all of these things come to life in my world. The testimonials by students with disabilities were amazing and made me feel inadequate as an online instructor. While students with IEPs are always afforded the accommodations that they need, there are many aspects I have not taken into consideration for students. For example, when I post News Announcements as images, I do not put a text only option for those that need it. This would be important for students with visual impairments, but it could also be important for someone with lower bandwidth and the inability to view large images. This is something that I will need to change as an online instructor. This is only one example of a disability that would affect internet accessibility, but there are many more. The modifications to our regular routine would depend on what the needs of each student are, and the only way to know that is to take the time to get to know each individual student. The last resource I am providing here is a video that discusses accessibility of the internet for people with disabilities as I believe it opened my eyes to an important matter; everyone should be exposed to this information! Searching through different Digital Learning Communities, we all have opinions on what works best and what each forum needs. I definitely formed opinions about the DLC's that I explored! I simplified my list of requirements of the ideal forum into 8 traits.
The Texas Coalition of Essential Schools defines a Digital Learning Community as "a technologically supported classroom where teachers and students use a variety of digital tools to enhance instruction and create an environment conducive to quality communication, creativity, and collaboration" (2016). It sounds like a fancy way of saying an online class, right? In a sense, it could be, but it's amazing to see all of the different online courses available for the general public to take for FREE! Of course there are others that one could pay to participate in (including those that lead to degrees and certification in different professions) but if you are in it for the knowledge alone, there are plenty of options out there! For this assignment, I found 13 digital learning communities that I am personally interested in (a task that, at first, was difficult, but once I found a few, the rest fell into my lap... or, onto my computer screen). Of these 13 DLC's, I have chosen 5 to discuss and have participated in more than one of them! As a language teacher, I wanted to find something that was along those lines in some way initially, later looking for different topics of personal interest, and finally for information that I felt would be limited in such learning communities. Everyone knows about apps like Duolingo that take students through one computerized lesson after another, and those have merit in language learning (and the learning of other topics) but what we are looking for is a class where one can learn, practice, and assess new knowledge as we can in a learning app, but also communicate and collaborate with classmates. I set out in search of these communities, whereas I am not sure many do the same. I would say that generally, people would need to be directed to such sites; otherwise, they will look for 'how to' information on sites such as eHow or YouTube. MyHappyPlanet is a Digital Learning Community that met all of the criteria outlined in the above definition. It claims to be a free language learning program where you can also interact with native speakers of the language you are learning via written messages and videos exchanged. Unfortunately, I could not get the site to work for me. As I opted to sign up, the website routed me to an empty page. I am a little disappointed that I don't get to participate in the DLC; I suppose there could be a server issue, so I will try again later, but for now I have had no luck with this one. Feel free to use the link above and try it out yourself.
Busuu is another language learning program that I found, but I don't see how it is collaborative. So far, I am learning Portuguese, but the interaction is limited to a computerized program. The good news is that you can learn 1 of 12 different language (unless you purchase Premium version, and then you can learn ALL 12!). edWeb is a Digital Learning Community for educators in general. It is described as a free online community for professional educators, offering networking, resource sharing, collaboration, and professional development webinars. I like the idea, so I joined to see what types of resources the site has to offer. I found 15 different communities specifically for language learning! I was immediately attracted to one of them: Critical Pedagogy for World Languages. Within the community, there are blogs, discussion forums, a resource library, webinar archives, assignments, a help chat room, a shared calendar, polls and quizzes, a wiki, bloglinks, and weblinks. I have already started assignment 1 and contributed in the group discussion forum! I like that these particular communities are set up to be whatever you need them to be. For example, if I don't want to participate in completing assignments, I don't have to, but I am welcome to still participate in the discussions. I can pick and choose what I do and it does hinder what is available to me. Any of the DLC's that I have explored should do better at advertising what they have to offer for maximum participation. I frequent sites that deal with language learning and I never knew that this site existed. As I mentioned before, it is not easy to 'happen' across these sites. Other than that, I would not change a thing from the perspective of the student. I have seen many online courses, and this one is set up in a very user-friendly manner with easy access to all different aspects of the learning community. I decided to stray from education at this point and move toward some personal interests. With the turn toward technology, I think it is important to use that technology to lessen our dangerous impact on the world. Having said that, the DLC that I found that can help members calculate and reduce their carbon footprint, save money, encourage their friends, and help their companies and organizations go green is MakeMeSustainable. This site will be very interesting to explore! The last DLC I explored is edX. This DLC interested me because it contains courses from a conglomerate of universities world wide such as Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, Delft Unversity, IIT Bombay, and Seoul National University. Those are just a start! I was amazed that so many institutions would add learning opportunities to the same site! There are over 30 subjects to choose from, including language courses, education courses, and environmental science courses (which covers my interests listed previously). I would love for you to comment with different DLC's that you have tried and enjoyed; I would also like to try them! As an online learner myself, it is amazing that there is so much learning happening online that I was unaware of! Let's all learn together! Being an exemplary digital citizen is essential today no matter who you are or what role you play in the online world. Many traits With that in mind, we can narrow this down to a few points to make sure that we demonstrate only the traits of an exemplary digital citizen. 1. Who do you want to be? From parents, friends' parents, to future employers and college admissions offices, everyone will view the type of digital citizen that you choose to be. If you portray yourself in a different manner than reality, those that view the online "you" are going to make judgements based on what they see there; we must all be aware of the ideas we leave online about ourselves. Our "online escapades" are not private. Also, remember, once it is online, it is always online. There is no such thing as completely deleting information that we have posted online; that information becomes shared property! Teachers Alliance states the following about our online posts: "Have you heard the saying the “Internet is forever?” You may think you can easily hit delete, and what you sent goes away. But it truly doesn’t. Be aware and learn why the Internet is permanent" (2016). I always give my students the same piece of advice, whether they are online students or in a brick and mortar building- you are the person you are when no one is watching. Nothing is completely private, so always be the person that you want to BE. 2. Would you sign your name to it? Along the same lines, there are many ways to post information to the internet anonymously, and in my opinion, there is no reason we should want to leave information without our name posted to it. While we must be very careful and private with our information, we must also remember that we should never post something that does not make us proud enough to sign our name to it. I tell my son this about every day of his life: don't walk away until the job is done so that you feel proud signing your name to it. This is important. Are you embarrassed of it what you have said/done? Is it done to the very best of your ability? Do you mind anyone knowing that you said it/did it? Maybe you would say, "well, I don't mind that my customers see it, but I don't think my boss would like it." Then change it! If you are not proud enough to put your name on it, it is not what you want it to be! And that is not who you want to be! 3. Says who? Always treat information found on the web with question marks. Look everything up, use multiple different sources. Just because the information is out there, does mean it is true. Being honest is a trait that all people should strive for, and repeating information that is false looks just as bad on you as the source where the information originated. Researching something means questioning everything. As a personal anecdote, my husband always jokes with me when he gives me information that he found online. Hours after he shares something with me, he will ask "What did Google have to say about it?" because he knows that I will check all information. Now, I am not relying on one specific source, but I am always certain to check multiple sources if those sources are unknown to me. If the sources are known, I must consider who they are and their reputation as I come to my own conclusions. 4. Does it feel right? Many times we have "gut feelings" about situations, and most of the time, we are right. Always think things through, but you know when something feels eery, it's not ok. This can go for anything... communication with people that you do not know, sharing too much personal information, giving out names/information about others, people that know a little more about you than you are comfortable with... there are many circumstances that will leave us with an uneasy feeling, and we should always heed those instincts. Just because it is "just online" does not mean that no harm can come of it. In fact, it is quite the opposite. When something does make you feel uncomfortable the next question you should ask yourself is: What should I do about it? Report it. Tell someone. Copy the interaction and save it. Don't think that just because it is based on only a feeling that it is invalid! At least share the incident with an adult and allow them to pursue it! Your digital footprint is your legacy. Remember that. Is it what you would want others to think of you? Does it exemplify the person you want to be? Teachers Alliance (2016). Teachhub.com: 10 Things your students should know about their digital footprints. Another image I found that incorporates the traits of an exemplary digital citizen is the following: |