LET.IT Happen!

I don’t know if anyone else had the opportunity to watch PBS’s FrontLine Special: Growing Up Online that aired on Jan. 22, 2008. If you missed it, I strongly urge you to take the time and watch it. You can watch the full program online here.

The program is phenomenal. That’s the only word I can think of to describe the way it hit me. It really opens your eyes as to what is happening out there in our students’ daily lives. The stories/chapters within the program truly amplify just how “out of touch” we are as, so called, “digital immigrants.” It blatantly points out the huge generation gap that continues to exist between adults and children growing up in this era.

So I wonder - how do we protect ourselves? our students? our children? But more importantly, how do we prepare them to live in an online world where there are no true “boundaries” or “rules”?

With all the activity happening online there are no immediate consequences to one’s actions. Kids will say things online that they will not say to a person’s face, for instance insults and threatening remarks. People will post pictures somewhere online for everyone to see that they would never show in real life. We ask ourselves why? One answer may be clear, we have inhibitions for a reason. There are certain places and situations where we should not tell dirty jokes, there are things that you do not allow others to see. However, the internet and online social networking permits and even encourages people to engage in what we have been taught not to do. People can talk nasty and dirty without knowing the hurt they caused by seeing the look on the other person’s face, or getting “red-faced” themselves. Knowing when it’s appropriate to cut into a conversation or when to just listen; knowing what you can say to your best friend verses what you can say to someone you hardly know are all social skills that are developed in “real-life” - face to face - society. The internet makes bullying, insulting, threatening, and picking on or making fun of someone easy to do. Yet, these same acts are very hard to do in person. Therefore, kids are turning to cyber space to engage in these hurtful, disruptive acts.

My questions still remain the same. What now? How do we prepare our students, children and each other to live “protected” and “safe” in an online world?

I know we (the “digital immigrants” - both parents and educators) need to embrace the tools that they (the “digital natives”) are using; including social networking sites (myspace.com/Facebook), blogs, wikis, IM, etc… I have never denied that fact. The first steps is to embrace these tools and utilize them in the classroom and to our advantage, yes, but what are the next steps?

What about preparing our students/children to deal with the “dark side” of being online and clickable? How do we prepare “the future” to handle negative, but impactful, situations online? How do we teach ourselves and our students to live in a society where these factors are fundamentally a way of life?

I am currently taking part in an online professional development course offered by CyberSmart!. During the second week of the course, we were given the opportunity to explore issues related to privacy and safety by watching video clips of experts in their CyberSmart! Knowledgebase. 

I watched a number of video clips interviewing Bill Modzeleski and Dr. Ted Feinberg about cyber bullying and the responsibility of educators concerning online safety. Bill Modzeleski is the Associate Deputy Under Secretary for the U. S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Dr. Feinberg is the Assistant Executive Director for the National Association of School Psychologists.

They both define what cyber bullying is, characteristics of cyber bullies and their victims, and how it differs from the traditional face-to-face bullying we are accustomed to seeing in schools. They also provide their views and opinions on what can be done by educators and the community to help address the issues and concerns about online safety.

On the question of how we can address our concerns about online safety without “closing the door” to online learning opportunities, Bill Modzeleski makes a solid point by saying:  “The balancing act is to protect our kids without going so far overboard and we’re so protective that we don’t allow our children to engage in the effective use of the cyberspace tools that we have.”

 I feel this is a very powerful statement and completely agree with his point of view. I have often found myself making this point to fellow teachers and to parents inside and outside of my classroom. Everyone’s gut instinct is to “shut it down” when they hit a “bump in the road”. Simply denying our students access to these online learning tools is not going to protect them, but rather hurt them in the long run. Instead of “shutting it down” we should be teaching them how to deal with cyber bullys or inappropriate things that may occur while utilizing the internet and all the tools it makes available to us. The more we can teach them about how to deal with situations the more prepared they will be when the inevitable happens and they come across unwanted situations. By not allowing them to experience the tools and opportunities available to them, and teaching them about how to handle certain situations, we are denying them valuable learning experiences, opening them up to possible harm and danger and making them vulnerable to these situations.

Creativity is an essential 21st Century Skill. Get your creative juices flowing in the space below and go crazy, Jackson Pollock-style!

Simply move your mouse around in the blank space below to “paint”! Change the paint color just by clicking.

Share your thoughts and ideas of how this creative tool could be implemented in the educational environment. Do you feel it is a valuable resource to encourage creativity in children? 

In my current role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I support and encourage teachers to actively integrate technology into their classroom environment. Because technology integration serves as the primary basis for my professional role, I am often presented with articles from various sources that attempt to persuade the reader to either support or, more commonly, oppose the use of technology as a learning tool in the classroom.

Recently an article entitled Does keyboarding help or hurt a child’s writing? was placed in my mailbox with a handwritten note “Please read” scrawled across the top. Immediately I was overcome with a sense of dread at the thought of reading yet another article that focuses on how the demise of education at the hand due to technology integration. Nevertheless, I sat down to read the article, ready to debate every point it made as to why technology was supposedly hindering a student’s development of writing skills.

The article presented the findings of an extensive study conducted among elementary-age students to determine if using a keyboard or pencil and paper could actually improve a child’s writing and their ability to learn the process of writing. The study, entitled Organization and Quality of Children’s Written Language and Computers, used a story-writing test to examine a student’s handwritten work versus their work done with the use of a computer. The first half of the article explained the process of which this controlled study was conducted. About half way through reading, I was both surprised and elated to read that “Keyboarding clearly improved the quality of the writing.” The statement itself did not surprise me, what surprised me was the fact that the article was actually written in support of the very thing I advocate daily to the teachers of Trinity School.

Based on my own experience as a classroom teacher, I believed this statement was true long before reading this article. Over the previous three years I began integrating the use of technology in teaching the writing process to my first and second grade students. At the start of each school year, I would set up a classroom blog for my students to post their reflections and original writings to throughout the year. The students also kept a written journal in their desks, but often times, as the year progressed, the students preferred to write using only the computer. The students claimed that the use of a computer made it easier for them to revise and edit their work. Whenever I sat down to read their work, both written in their journals and on the classroom blog, I found myself enjoying their blog posts so much more than their handwritten work. Often times the writing was more detailed, descriptive and engaging. The work was clearer and easier to read with fewer “bloopers”. The students took pride in their work that was “out there for the world to see” and encouraged their fellow classmates and family members to read and comment on their writings. They never seemed interested in sharing their journals inside or outside of the classroom. The pride they felt in their work, if nothing else, proved that the integration of technology in the classroom was both necessary and important for the development of a student’s writing skills.

Today’s children will undoubtedly use keyboards and yet-to-be-invented input devices when they enter the workforce in our increasingly digital world. Penmanship and handwriting skills are still important to develop motor skills and cater to kinesthetic learners. However, the fact remains that it is the encouragement to read and write and the praise, support, and validation of their ideas that is the largest factor impacting students’ willingness and ability to write.

I believe that the terms education and technology� are synonymous with one another. I envision a future where everyone will share this belief and you will no longer be able to determine a clear divide between the “world of education” and the “world of technology.” We are living in a time where new technologies are emerging, and old technologies are improving, on a daily basis. The children of this era, the “digital natives”, will never know a time when they were without technology in their lives. It is our obligation as educators to teach the students of today, and our leaders of tomorrow, in the modality of learning that is most conducive to their technology-enriched learning styles.

My goal as an educator is to empower students to learn through the use of technology. I want them to view school as a place where they can explore their curiosities and expand their knowledge, not only through books, but through the use of technology. I want to instill in students a life-time love of learning. I believe the only way to accomplish this goal is to show them that education and technology are intertwined; they are not separate entities.

My goal as a professional is to empower educators, parents, and school/government officials to encourage and actively support the use of technology in education. I aspire to develop and distribute best practices, ideas, lessons and resources for the integration of technology into the 21st century classroom.