Friday, December 2, 2011
Digital Citizenship in the Classroom
Being out of the classroom for 3 years now, I do not know if there is an issue with using technology in a responsible manner. 3 years of change in technology and new innovations leaves me feeling left behind in awareness of Digital Citizenship needs. As an Educational Technologist, I have presented a number of times to parents, teachers and students on the topic, but have not been on the front lines of technology use in the classrooms like teachers have. So I would like to hear from teachers. Is there a need to teach Digital Citizenship? How is it addressed in school? Are there any concerns about students using technology? If so, what are they? If you have 1 minute, please contribute to the poll created for teachers in the classroom. Click here to participate.
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I don't need to teach digital citizenship, IT does that for me by locking anything of Educational use at random times without issuing any sort of communication to its users explaining why or how long it will last.
ReplyDeleteI know your frustration. Some of the locking does come directly from IT, but some from the filtering service. In our District, a web filtering company (Fortinet) blocks websites that may be tagged with questionable words. The filtering is updated periodically which may mean that a site that was unblocked may be blocked again because of the update. IT cannot keep track of sites tagged with questionable words. Teachers will see that the webpage is blocked and can click a button to request that it is opened. Explaining how the site is used educationally usually gets it back opened. There are exceptions of course. Districts may have policies regarding certain sites like Facebook and other social networking sites. Netflix was our recent complaint. IT has to enforce policies regarding licensing because if audited, can become a legal issue costing $$. A Netflix license is for personal use and not for public consumption, such as a classroom. I hope this information helps somewhat. I guess it depends on your District.
ReplyDeleteThat request to unblock button has not worked in 2 years. It then becomes an issue of a teacher (an educator) having to manually email a tech person to deem an educators evaluation of an educators resource permissible or not. The issue of netflix being blocked becomes IT assuming that everyone is using it for public consumption, again without consultation, and unilaterally creating policies without teacher input to the reality of the situation. I am glad I have such powerful, thoughtful techies to help guide how I teach and the resources I am allowed to use. If we, as trained and professional educators (not to mention adults), are not trusted to have the skills of digital citizenship and responsible use, how can I be expected to teach my students about 21st century skills?
ReplyDeleteHello again, I assume you are the same person as the one who first commented. I also assume you are from the same district as myself. I could be wrong. It sounds like you are doing a good job in your classroom, even knowing what 21st Century skills are. Unfortunately not all teachers are on the same level in teaching 21st Century Skills. You mention that teachers are trained. Yes, but I know I did not have any courses on Digital Citizenship and 21st Century Skills. I also know I never had any classes on inclusion or special education. So no all teachers are trained and ready for our Digital World. If this was the case, there would be no need to filter at all. Many teachers are in fear of inappropriate content on the net. A good example just in the news today is the YouTube video a St. Albert teacher showed her Grade 7 students last week. She is now being reprimanded by her district. I hear from teachers that they do not want to go down that path. So how does one site open for one teacher and not the entire network? Difficult unless all teachers are on the same level of teaching 21st Century Skills. You make valid comments to your situation, but decisions are made on the needs of the entire teaching staff of the district. How does this change? Continual support and education during staff meetings, administrator meetings and even board meetings.
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for a course of action, talk to your administration, or I would be happy to have a conversation with you. Sometimes clarity can come out of talking about it.
ReplyDelete