WEBQUEST DESIGN

NET SMART: THE APP GENERATION

According to Howard Rheingold in his book, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, “learning to live mindfully in cyber culture is as important to us as a civilization as it is vital to you and me as individuals.”  But this mindful use of digital media does not happen automatically, so Rheingold takes an in-depth look at five literacies that need to be considered for being Net Smart.  He uses this term literacy as a skill, and with digital literacy, it means skill plus social competency in using the skill collaboratively.  These five literacies- attention, crap detection, collaboration, participation, and network smarts- are connected to and in many ways support each other. The book is meant to be read by persons of all ages, across all intelligences, and with a wide understanding and use of digital media.

Chapter one describing digital mindfulness had many parallels to the book previously read, The Information Diet, as one considers his or her own communication practices such as recognizing which media and mediated social activities one tends to avoid, which ones attract or distract oneself, and which can lead and mislead you, and reflecting on why one reacts in these ways.  Thinking about attention for myself as an educator and then teaching attention to students because I’m an educator can be a daunting task.  In a library with much going on within the large setting and different groups of people there is a recipe for multitasking and can afford distraction.  It can become overwhelming to meet everyone’s needs… Just BREATHE.   Thinking of myself as a student, attention does take much intention, breathing, attending to my focus, breathing some more, and repeating this often.  Suffering from an anxiety disorder, when anxiety is high, like now, attending, concentrating, and completing tasks takes extra intention to attention in order to complete a task.  The last few weeks have been quite challenging, and I have to admit that I have considered dropping out of the program on more than one occasion. I just keep reminding myself to take deep, calming breaths. 

Teaching students how to use “crap detection” when searching for information online is an essential 21^st century skill that was previously explored in the Halo Effect and practiced in our sessions dedicated to sorting and judging, and searching.  This is an area that I will continue to design lessons and help teachers design lessons to do with their students.

Chapter four explores collaboration, how do we work with others and share ideas, resources, and goals online. Jenn and I did our Glogster on collaboration. “Cooperation involves coordination, but it also includes sharing resources and acting in concert towards shared interests.”  Some of our key points included: Contribute and learn from others publicly; Be generour,, flexible, and forgiving when working with others; and When issues arise, participate in finding common interests to negotiate a shared decision.  As we have discovered in examining the design principles, designing lessons using ABCS & ACTeS, and SSCCS with information using, collaboration is essential in preparing our students for the 21^st century and to lead net smart lives.  The skill of collaboration is not inherent in our students and needs to be specifically modeled and taught.  Students need practice to work with others like we have and out of class- to work with others that they would not normally choose to work with in a group.  Skills to foster include, how to make a plan and execute it together, how to handle disagreements and opinions that are different from oneself, how to divide up a workload, give and receive feedback are just a few.   

In conclusion, the more I read for this program and reflect upon it and the implications for my practice, the more overwhelmed I am feeling.  There is just so much to cover, with both faculty and students alike, and I am putting so much pressure on myself that I do not feel like I am doing anything whatsoever well right now.  It is like a never-ending to do list and I just can’t seem to get even the smallest task checked off of my list.  I keep playing Dory’s mantra, “Just keep swimming,” in my head, but have changed it to B-R-E-A-T-H-E Kim, just keep breathing.

COPYRIGHT CLARITY

Educators are challenged to provide students with learning activities that allow them to build creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills in the context of civic literacy and global awareness.  Students of this information age must learn to use multimedia texts, tools and technologies effectively.  They are encouraged to develop new ideas through creative play and self-expression.  We need to provide them with opportunities to apply critical thinking in responding to information and ideas while making responsible ethical judgements.  They must also be allowed to participate in working collaboratively with others to get projects done.  21^st-century learners are now encouraged to share their work with a larger, audience, so understanding copyright and fair use has become crucial to educators and students alike.  However, there is widespread misunderstanding of the so called “educational use guidelines” and much confusion surrounding copyright which has a price.  To begin, most teachers do not teach about it because they themselves do not understand it. They often depend on technology resource teachers or librarians to cover it with their students. It also limits the distribution of curriculum materials and resources, thus affecting students’ overall media literacy learning.  As a result, students do not learn that copyright is designed to protect both the rights of the owners and users in order to promote creativity and innovation.

Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning by Renee Hobbs is a wonderful resource for every educational organization to own. It really clarifies the purpose of copyright and encourages educators to use the legal rights granted them, as well as students, under the doctrine of fair use. The U.S. Constitution says, “The purpose of copyright is to promote the spread of knowledge and innovation.” Copyright law promotes this goal through the doctrine of fair use. “At the heart of copyright law, the doctrine of fair use states that people have a right to use copyrighted materials freely without payment or permission, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research” - Section 107: The Fair Use Doctrine of the Copyright Law of 1776. There are no concrete rules or guidelines, rather, it is an evaluative thinking process that requires one to use reasoning and judgement on a case by case analysis of the context and situation of the unlicensed use of copyrighted material.  There are four factors to consider: 1) the purpose and character of the use; 2) the nature of the copyrighted work; 3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and 4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.  Transformativeness is also a component we must use in ethical decision making, and ask ourselves, “Has the user added value or re-purposed the work? Is the copyrighted work used in a different way and geared toward a different audience than the original audience?”  Additionally, fair use allows teachers and students to use images outside of Creative Commons or “copyright free” images, and use what is necessary to accomplish our goals. We can further ask, “How will my use of the materials affect the copyright owner’s ability to profit from their work? Will my use of this work cause excessive economic harm to the copyright owner?”

Learning about copyright and fair use is an important part of digital citizenship. As a librarian, it is my responsibility to facilitate this learning for both teachers and students, but it is NOT my responsibility alone, nor is it solely the technology resource teacher’s responsibility.  As the book explains, ALL teachers need to play a part. The Loudoun County Public Schools website states, “To leverage technology for learning, students need to understand how to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly online.  As a result of our commitment to student safety and learning, all LCPS schools will implement the nationally-recognized Digital Citizenship curriculum available through Common Sense Media.  Participating BYOT schools will earn Digital Citizenship Certification through implementation of the Common Sense curriculum.”  Now, how each school goes about accomplishing this is different.  Last year, it fell completely on my shoulders, as I know is common in many schools.  I am challenged with working with my administration, TRT, and technology committee to develop a shared responsibility of this curriculum among the staff and outline for accomplishing this goal.

 

THE INFORMATION DIET

When reading Clay A. Johnson’s book, The Information Diet, I found myself taking inventory of my information consumption habits. I would consider my diet to be average. There were areas where I felt no attention was needed (using reliable sources) and other areas where I could certainly be more mindful of balancing (like surfing on Facebook for the latest LuLaRoe designs).  I believe navigating this digital world, with an abundance of information, is a challenge for us all.  Who knew of such things as churnalism, content farming, and media mining?  I do mostly only watch local news, preferably channel 4, NBC news and only watch CNN when something major happens in the U.S.  I had noticed that all of the different local news broadcasts, NBC, FOX5, CBS, etc. did tend to all report the same things, but I’d always assumed that this was because it was what happened, and everyone was on the scene. Now I know it is a result of content farming and not actual journalism.  I don’t even like listening to the news or seeing posts on Facebook, all of the rhetoric and bias out there surrounding this election and the Black Lives Matter movement. I choose to stay in my ignorance bubble.  I do not engage in any of it.  Just look at one person’s posts and links shared and you see information validation at its finest!  I was already aware of the vast social media mining that takes place and that it wasn’t just a coincidence that advertisements and such links showed up tailored just for us.  I just didn’t know the name and how large of a place it had in the industry. Who thought that being a human data analyst or creator of automated software programs to sift through our media usage, online behaviors, sharing of content, (even looking at our connections with friends), and online buying would be such a needed profession?

As I continue to reflect and be mindful of my own practice, I will hopefully more skillfully design learning experiences for both students and the staff with which I work daily.  It is so crucial that we are responsive in our teaching to such things as cyberbullying, having strong passwords, keeping private information safe and what the difference is between personal and private information, and how everything you do on the Internet leaves a digital footprint.  I am continually shocked to learn of nine year olds having Facebook pages, the potential danger of gaming sites and such.  We must not be illiterate citizens when it comes to information literacy and using.

Teaching information using and 21^st century literacy skills to students is a HUGE part of my job. I do lessons on all of these things -research skills, showing students the county’s online resources, web searching, evaluating sources, citing sources, and web safety.  Just last week, I was asked by the third grade team to do some lessons with students on researching and evaluating websites, along with other skills.  My response was that I’d be more than happy to help them plan a lesson or two to coincide with their curriculum, so that they would also be informed about information using and its importance.  Information literacy and digital citizenship is not something that is just taught and acquired in a few isolated lessons, rather it should be ongoing, woven into all subject areas, projects, and interdisciplinary in nature.  Not to mention, these activities should engage students in real, authentic problems so they can make the connection and see the application to their life.  With the adoption of the One to the World initiative two years ago, all librarians and technology resource teachers were required to become Common Sense Media® (CSM) Digital Certified Educators.  We are additionally charged to facilitate the CSM Digital Certification for our school.  This is to be done annually.  The TRT and I are collaborating on ways to help the staff become knowledgeable of what it means to be a good digital citizen, how to recognize reliable sources of information, and how to use information responsibly. Additionally, now I need to figure out how do I get teachers to see these skills as useful outside of a research context and to see how they apply to everyday content consumption?  I can start by sharing some of my own recent learning and tools with them monthly through a library newsletter.  Now I just need to do an affordance analysis to see what technology to use to best meet my goal.  Will it be with Prezi, ThingLink, word publication, an infographic, etc.? 

DESIGN PRINCIPLE 6: STUDENTS AS DESIGNERS

Students as Designers Principle states, “Good learning designs engage students in using content to construct meaningful outcomes by comprehensively scaffolding students’ ability to design.”  This can be accomplished by promoting the Creative Spirit of Design including design processes to allow designers/our students to exemplify these three characteristics: imagination, being creation-oriented, and interdisciplinary action. 

Last week in class we experienced this process of students as designers as we worked in groups to create a promotional video.  We were given clear guidelines/outcome, had solid background knowledge of the design principles and how to make an “in camera editing” video and Priscilla provided us ample opportunities for feedback.  We were allowed to have choice in what type of video it would be.  We also had voice in how we would demonstrate our knowledge of the six design principles covered throughout the course.  This creative spirit of design lead us to be active participants or motivated, engaged students.  We became designers.  Prior to class we had to first write a comprehensive treatment plan to include the purpose, audience, length and style, as well as, brainstorm ideas to get us into focus.  We chose to do a video chat which allowed us to practice the inter-disciplinary action, or collaboration, as we each have different specialties and perspectives to share.  We typed it up and turned it in for feedback before beginning the next step.  Then, in class, we continued to work as a group to map out the storyboard of our two and a half minute video to include the style of the shot, any technique to be used and dialogue between two teachers.  This demonstrated the use of our imagination.  Students should be given opportunities to plan the process around solving authentic problems so they can experience having choice in the best way to go about reaching the learning goal. 

With clear guidelines and expectations for the outcome, opportunity for collaborating with others, and providing students with ample opportunities for feedback, students can be designers too.  Having more ownership of their learning will hopefully lead to more engaged and motivated students who enjoy these experiences to show us their knowledge that is more meaningful to them.  I love the conclusion in the article that stated, “By becoming great designers, as encouraged by the creative spirit of design, all instructional designers are in a better position to develop educational environments that are effective, valuable, inspiring, and powerful.  They are in a better position to develop instruction of the highest quality that they can imagine” (p. 57).

DESIGN PRINCIPLE 5- THE MEANS PRINCIPLE

It was very helpful, once again, to do the hands-on activity of looking at two technologies, the Ozobot and Osmos, and completing an affordance analysis.  An Affordance Analysis is a systematic way of choosing a technology in relation to learning goals. The task paired with the technology allows students to gain certain skills or "affordances."  I learned that the affordance is the convergence of the attributes of technology and the activities of the learning goals.  I further learned that it’s all about the utility, NOT the usability.  It is not enough to use technology just because of how easy it is to use or how well it does something.  The first priority should be to ask yourself, “How can I use this technology? What are the possibilities of using it? What are the constraints against using it?”  Usability can often be answered for you based on what technology is available to you in your school.

Through discussing the homework assignment in class, I learned that sometimes one begins with the technology (tool) and moves towards identifying the educational goal.  I was not alone in having picked a technology tool to use and then working backwards to create a lesson around it. This often occurs with teachers.  They see or hear about this cool new app, gadget, website, etc. and want to use it.  Other times you begin with your educational goal and do your affordance analysis of the task and technology to choose the best tech tool to use.  After doing the partner activity of “Matching Learning Goals and Tool- Considering Affordance,” I now see how it makes more sense to first think, “What do I need to accomplish?” This means having the learning goal clarified. Then, considering, “What tool can help me accomplish these goals?”  This was my biggest take-away from last week. It all goes back to good lesson design- going through the SPDs, ABCS, and AeCTS to identify an authentic problem, activities, then figuring out what technology is best suited for the purpose of the task at hand. 

This leads us to the fifth design principle- The Means Principle which states, “Good learning design reflect technologies chosen after mindful consideration of the cognitive and societal consequences as well as a clear and appropriate connection with content and learning activities.”  This is one more layer to put into practice with lesson design. Being one of the media leaders in the building, I look forward to sharing this with the administration and staff as we work to continue to integrate new technologies into our teaching.  This principle is especially important when it comes to the purchase of new tools.  I feel a little sickened by the fact that I can think of at least five grade 3-5 teachers who are currently goo-goo, gaa-gaa about Ozobots.

THE VICTORIAN INTERNET

Wired city in 1890- New York Utility Lines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Victorian_Internet

  

NOTE: My metacognition, or thinking, is denoted in italicized text.

What I took away most from the book, The Victorian Internet, by Tom Standage was two-fold. First, I truly grasped how significant the invention and use of the telegraph really was in terms of its impact on society in the late 1800’s/early 1900s.  It created an interconnectedness in terms of knowledge, interpersonal, and globalization that had never been experienced before. It had a huge commercial impact, strong military use, and even social use.  The book also explained the diffusion or process of use and then how new technology goes through stages.  In addition to this, the book illuminated the consequences that the use of technology has in our physical, social, political, economic and our intellectual or cognitive world.  Secondly, the book discusses features common to the development and uses of the electric telegraph networks during the second half of the 19th century with the Internet of the late 20th century: : hype, skepticism, hackers, on-line romances and weddings, chat-rooms, flame wars, information overload, predictions of imminent world peace, to name a few.

So how did it all begin and what was the diffusion of the telegraph?  For centuries people communicated across distances only as quickly as the fastest ship or horse could travel. Generations of innovators tried and failed to develop speedier messaging devices. Initially, the success of optical designs was invented, but use was limited because they were so expensive to run, so only the government could afford to run them and their information-carrying capacity meant they were just used for official business.  Also, optical telegraphs did not work in the dark (constraints) so careful selection of location was needed that was not near any water because of fog and mist. (An example of careful design.) In addition to this, batteries and electricity were not available in the early nineteenth century so buy-in for the electric telegraph was slow to grow.  After electricity was invented, and in the mid-1800s, a few extraordinary pioneers at last succeeded. Their invention--the electric telegraph--shrank the world more quickly than ever before.  France was behind in use as the French were reluctant to abandon old technology, the optical telegraph, in favor for the new.  Telegrams were expensive to send so only the rich could afford to send trivial messages so this represents the small group of elites using it.  (Could this be an example of digital divide in history?)  Most people used the telegraph to strictly covey urgent news.  There was also a source of confusion to those unfamiliar with its use and confusion of the electric jargon kept the use to those most curious.  (Lack of understanding often leads to misconception and/or skepticism.)  Once enthusiasm replaced skepticism, the growth of the telegraphic network was explosive. Telegraph lines radiated out from central telegraph offices in major towns – Each telegraph office could only communicate with offices on the same spoke of the network and the central office at the end of the line – Messages from one office to another on the same spoke could be transmitted directly, but all other messages had to be telegraphed to the central office and were then re-transmitted down another spoke of the network toward their final destination- finally needing messengers to take written transcribed messages to the recipient. (There seem to always be constraints with technology.)  Once the Atlantic cable was installed, the volume of traffic increased- the rapid delivery of messages caused information overload, and the telegraph was in danger of becoming victim to its own success. As stated in the book on page 92, “Once you’ve gotten used to being able to send messages very quickly, it’s difficult to put up with delays.”  The telegraph gave rise to creative business practices and new forms of crime as it “provided unscrupulous individuals with novel opportunities for fraud, theft, and deception,” page 105. Romances blossomed over the wires. Secret codes were devised by some users, and cracked by others. This cryptography by hackers created a need for more security systems and security measures. (Attempts are always being made to regulate new technologies and provide security to its users.) The benefits of the network were relentlessly hyped by its advocates and dismissed by its skeptics. And attitudes toward everything from news gathering to war had to be completely rethought. 

Many generalities can be drawn that relate to today’s use of the modern Internet in society and its impact on our educational practice.  Tom Standage states on his website, “The telegraph unleashed the greatest revolution in communications since the development of the printing press. Modern Internet users are in many ways the heirs of the telegraphic tradition, which means that today we are in a unique position to understand the telegraph — and the telegraph, in turn, can give us a fascinating perspective on the challenges, opportunities and pitfalls of the Internet.”

The first generality that has an impact on our practice is that human nature often leads to unethical use and use of technology for life-enhancement.  Choices about use will reflect human nature- good, bad, indifferent.  Tom Standage, himself, stated, “The rise and fall of the telegraph is a parable about how we react to new technologies: for some people, they tap a deep vein of optimism, while others find in them new ways to commit crime, initiate romance or make a fast buck — age-old human tendencies that are all too often blamed on the technologies themselves.”

What this means for us as educators is that our practice has to include empathy, ethical decision-making, and values discussions including personal and interpersonal relations. My building works hard to build leaders by focusing on the 7 Habits for Happy Kids adapted from Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.  I also work in collaboration with grade level teachers to embed digital citizenship activities into their lesson design.  One such activity deals with teaching staff and students to evaluate the reliability of information and sources found on the Internet which goes along with the generalization that technology speeds up the spread of information and misinformation. A third generalization stems from the understanding that to move technology into lives takes social, cultural, economic, and collaborative understanding and initiative.  This points to the importance of human skills as being part of our educational practice.  This leads into a fourth generalization that technology use changes the structure of authority. Teachers have to have a lot of basic knowledge and know how to use conceptual tools. Lastly, technology costs money – It is often available to the haves and not necessarily to the have nots.  We have to be conscious of digital divide both in terms of access, possession, and all the conventions that go with it.

https://tomstandage.wordpress.com/books/the-victorian-internet/