Activity 9: Digital Citizenship

For this activity, each scenario poses major repercussions and should have been dealt with differently. However, hindsight is 20-20. Teachers go into each lesson with the best of intentions. The longer I teach, the more I realize I need to be more proactive and look at activities from a student's perspective before going through with the lesson. I have caught several potential problems before they happened using this approach. This is not to say that I don't wish I did things differently, very often, after teaching lessons. There is always something I wish I would have done differently, or ways I see myself improving, but in this profession I don't expect that to ever end. It's in the students' best interest that we are always questioning and reflecting upon best practices. 

In my experience:

Last year was my first year using a class set of Chromebooks. I learned so much! There were obstacles along the way, and I found different ways to streamline processes throughout the year which I will continue to tweak depending on my classes. The biggest learning curve happened when several 4th grade student accounts were hacked into and inappropriate emails were sent to innocent students, as well as some to teachers. The problem was that they learned that everyone had the same password, so the hacking was simple. I don't think the district thought the kids would take this approach. We carefully discussed the importance of being responsible and that accounts were a privilidge they could lose, but it still happened. One of my students has a middle school sister who emailed multiple students through her 4th grade sister's account. The very unfortunate consequence was not only that many students were exposed to inappropriate language, but also that my student, as well as her sister, lost their accounts for 6 weeks. Fortunately, the district technology support crew helped us out through the use of our skilled tech person at our school, and each 4th grader created their own passwords in response to all of the hacking. This was not a proactive approach, so in the future, I plan to be very careful how I approach the use of technology in my classroom.

Within my classroom, in my PLC, and across the building, I would love to create student-friendly, simplified expectations. These would be similar to PLC norms, where each member can state them from memory because they are ingrained in them. In the technology age, students live and breathe technology, so they need to be just as comfortable with safeguards as they are with what they are doing online. Creating common language and statements to post around the building and on each Chromebook would simplify this process and make expectations clear for everyone. This way, when students enter kindergarten they may be new, but by 5th grade they've heard the same expectations, or maybe had some added depending on advances in technology over the years, but are comfortable with and aware of what they need to do to stay safe.

Scenario 1

Miss Starbuck decided to have her reading students use Blogger to create blog posts.  The students were really excited about the idea.  Many started to log in from home to create posts and comment on each other's work, but their posts quickly got out of hand.  One student figured out how to post photos and included dangerous details like names and locations.  Other students posted mean comments about classmates.   An angry parent complained to the principal, who was unaware that Miss Starbuck was using Blogger in the first place.  

Reflection:

Miss Starbuck had a great plan with some flaws. She saw blogging as a great community building activity with her students which would gain excitement from most, if not all, of her students. Unfortunately, she did not put safeguards in place before opening up this new door of technology with her students. The safety of her students is at stake. Once names are posted online, others outside of the blog could be monitoring them. The same problem exists with posting pictures, especially of minors. Our students need to remain nameless (surnames are best) and faceless (emojis and characters can be personalized and fun!). Bullying could happen, which takes not only a short term toll on students emotionally, but others suffer long term emotional scars.

She should have been clear with her principal of her intentions to begin with, as well as notifying and getting parent permission for her class to participate in a blog, especially if they are 13 and under, and if they were older, parents should still be notified and made aware of her intentions. There are restrictions she could have put in place on the blog so students could not post photos or comment, which would have kept this from happening. If she wanted to open blogs for commenting, she would have had to much more closely monitor it and close it down when things began to get dangerous.

To follow up with this event, the students who misused the blog should lose all technology privileges for several weeks, as well as meeting with their teacher and parents to discuss the situation and possible outcomes of the bad choices they made. This could be turned into a learning opportunity where the student must write a paper or pamphlet for students to learn about how to use technology in positive and safe ways in and out of school.


Scenario 3

Mr. McFly has decided to get with the twenty-first century and have his economics students create videos for their final project.  He has each student create a YouTube channel to post their projects, without notifying his principal or his students' parents.  He also didn't teach students how to change privacy settings, so kids start getting inappropriate comments from unknown users.

Reflection:

Mr. McFly once again had great intentions with this project. Including technology for students to present what they had learned on a video is a fun and interactive final project, instead of writing a paper or giving an overdone presentation. However, creating YouTube channels without any notifications or permission from the principal or parents is only the beginning of how he went wrong with this.

To begin, Mr. McFly should have been proactive and taught his students safe use with the internet, modeling appropriate use with his own channel which he probably uses to show videos in his class. Next, he should have the district acceptable use of technology policy printed and posted, whether on a prominent wall or on each Chromebook. Posting this is not enough though. This would have to be thoroughly reviewed and discussed, as well as being given a purpose so students know it is in place to protect them. If not, it will be ignored.

Secondly, Mr. McFly should have definitely asked his principal his or her thoughts on doing such a project. It sounds as though this is quite new to him, and whenever venturing into new territory it would be smart to check and make sure there are not safeguards in place to protect both him and his students. 

Lastly, Mr. McFly should have made parents aware of, and gotten permission from each parent to allow his or her child to create an online video channel. Being that this is something both inside and outside of the classroom, parents need to be made aware of it so they can monitor at home use as well. Their child's videos will be posted on the internet, something not to take lightly. They should also be aware of the district acceptable use of technology policy so they know how he will be protecting them, but that they can also be aware of what their child will be doing online.