EdTech 543 - Social Network Learning - Social Networking Policies for Today's Schools

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Children’s Internet Protection Act were developed to address concerns about children's safety in an online atmosphere. Although they deal with different matters, the safety of students is paramount in each of these policies. Schools have taken these laws and have gone even further in the protection of their students. Most if not all school boards have implemented an acceptable usage policy (AUP) document. This document discusses policies on the usage of technological devices and their applications.

My school board uses a document called The Digital Technology Acceptable Use Policy. Here is a link to the document. The document states the following:

Students are encouraged to use our network and digital learning tools to collaborate with others to change the world in meaningful, positive ways. By utilizing the school’s computers and/or the network, students agree to the guidelines for digital technology use outlined in this document.

Students are encouraged to use digital technology to:

• Access, critically assess, and communicate information and understanding
• Seek alternative viewpoints
• Collaborate during inquiry
• Construct personal knowledge and meaning
• Demonstrate understandings
• Organize and manipulate data
• Interact with others

Prohibited acts include:

• Use of someone else’s account or access to network
• Sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures
• Using obscene language
• Harassing, insulting or attacking another person or their reputation
• Trespassing in other people’s folders, work or files
• Accessing, posting, sending or downloading inappropriate material
• Assuming the identity of another person to gain information In any way, moving, opening hardware or computer accessories
• Any attempt and/or threats to harm a person
• Plagiarism of online content
• Posting, publishing, circulating or distributing personal information about oneself or others without the supervision and consent of a staff member
• Use of technology or the network to access sites/software not approved by staff

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b402/pdfs/digital_AcceptableUsePolicy.pdf

Use of technology or the network to access sites/software not approved by staff Violation of policy may result in:

• First Incident: Student will be reminded of the Acceptable Use Policy and how his or her behaviour was not appropriate. Parents will be informed of the incident of inappropriate use. Removal of digital technology privileges will be for a day.
• Second Incident: Removal of digital technology privileges for a week. Parents will be informed of the incident of inappropriate use.
• Third Incident: Student will lose open access and will be fully monitored when using digital technology. Parents will be involved in creating a plan for ensuring appropriate use at school. A student who engages in inappropriate use with a personal device will lose his/her student access for the remainder of the year and will not be allowed to bring in their own devices to connect to the school board’s network.

As there are no direct rules in regards to social media, I am proposing to add the following to the AUP document. Hopefully, these policies will be included in school board AUP document and appear every time someone connects to the school network or Internet. In order to get approval for these changes, there must be review process. The goal is to have all of the stakeholders involved in the process to ensure buy-in. The process will include the following:

1. Discuss idea with Principal.
2. Complete the document with input from teachers and the IT Specialist.
3. Discuss with student focus group - engage in discussion.
4. Discuss at Parent council meeting.
5. Make changes where appropriate.
6. Approval from Principal.
7. Give to Superintendent of Learning Technologies for approval.

If not approved by school board, hopefully it will be accepted by our specific school.

Social Networking and Communication:

While currently social networking websites are not strictly disallowed, their personal use be condoned. They are to be used for educational and learning purposes only.

• Students must ensure that privacy settings are maximized to avoid unwanted solicitations or viewing by others whose motives may be questionable.  
• All posts must follow proper netiquette rules and must be proof-read and edited before publishing to the Internet.
• Posting of specific personal information is not allowed.
• Students will not post personal information about other people, including family members, fellow students, teacher or friends.  
• Proper attribution must be given to all information and posts. Students must use Creative Commons to use images and music for open use.
• Internet predators exist who misrepresent their age, sex or personality in order to meet children and young adults. Students should under no circumstances meet with an internet acquaintance without parent or guardian permission, and with adequate supervision.
• Students will not engage in cyberbullying, which is defined as the “use of communication technologies to support deliberate and hostile behaviour by an individual or group that is intended to harm others." This may include sending hateful or insulting remarks to others, posting unwanted pictures for others to see on the internet, sending threats or even as simple as continuing to send email to someone who has requested no further contact. Cyberbullying is a criminal act and will be dealt with accordingly.
• No personal accounts will be used in any social media platform. Separate group accounts will be created and used for classroom learning and collaboration. These will be monitored by the teacher.

Social media is here to stay. Students use social media daily and, in fact, it has become an essential part of their PLN. Students use social media to collaborate, discuss, reflect and research information - the skills needed in 21st Century education. It is up to our learning establishments and us as educators to aid in students learning but, at the same time, keep our students safe. Technology is changing. As well, our policies should reflect that change.

References

Blankenship, S. (2012, April 20). Social media and two-way communication. Connected Principals. Retrieved from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/5710

Children’s internet protection act. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

Children's online privacy protection rule ("COPPA"). Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved from   https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule  

Digital technology accepted use policy, Calgary Board of Education. Retrieved from http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b402/pdfs/digital_AcceptableUsePolicy.pdf

Varlas, L. (2011). Can social media and school policies be "friends"? ASCD Policy Priorities, 17(4). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/policy-priorities/vol17/num04/Can-Social-Media-and-School-Policies-be-%C2%A3Friends%C2%A3%C2%A2.aspx

EdTech 543 - Social Network Learning - Social Media in Learning

The use of teaching and learning strategies are changing exponentially as we move further along into the 21st Century. As teachers we must embrace the change and use new technologies that will help students learn. Only a few short months ago, I was against social media in the classroom as I felt there were too many distractions that could affect student learning. EdTech 543 - Social Network Learning has shown me how wrong I was.

Social media offers so much in terms of collaboration, content knowledge and student engagement. Students learn much differently than only a few short years ago. Student PLNs consist of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many other social networks. In fact, it seems the newer the platform, the more engagement to learning there is.

This artifact required us to research projects that are correlated to our subject area and are used in the classroom. Each of the projects needed to use social media as an important part of the learning of the students. My topic area was Social Media in Career and Technology Studies. Here is link to my Scoopit curation. Although there were hundreds of articles giving suggestions and ideas on how to integrate social media into a project, I had trouble finding actual online projects that were used in this type of learning. In fact, I did not find many that were better than the lesson I created for EdTech 541 - Integrating Technology into the Classroom. I used this as one of the elements of my curation as it used social media directly in the design of the lesson.

After many hours of research, I realized that many projects, although not directly related to my subject area, could be used in a variety of curricular areas so I chose examples that I could adapt for my classroom. I found social media can be used for a variety of learning outcomes in the classroom. These include collaboration of student to student and student to teacher, the celebration of student work, the creation of student learning networks and the engagement of students in the classroom.

Social media is here to stay and it is time to get rid of the “walled gardens” surrounding the use of this technology. It is vital to engage our students in anyway possible to create learning. It is up to our school boards, administrators and teachers to see past the possible negatives associated with this technology and understand the learning that can occur.

EdTech 543 - Social Network Learning - Personal Learning Environments

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are systems and applications that help individuals manage their own learning. Today, it is mostly digital but there are many elements to a PLE. The following is an illustration of my personal learning environment.

In the creation of my Personal Learning Environment, I wanted to depict that my PLE is a very small piece of the connected world. The black dot (in the connected globe) represents my PLE as compared to the amount of connections worldwide. As my PLE grows, so to will the connections I have with others around the world.

The magnified area of the illustration describes my PLE. I am in the middle and attached to each of the main categories of my learning environment. As well, each of these categories are connected to each other as certain elements and applications of the PLE can be used in many or all of the areas. An example is the use of Google Docs. Not only is it a creating, reflecting and sharing tool, it could be used for all other technology based areas. The learning environment is split into seven main areas: Networking, communication and online communities, organization and storage, presentation and multimedia, creating, reflecting and sharing, research, traditional media, and face-to-face. Each of these is important to my network of learning in some form or another.

While designing the illustration, I tried to think of as many ways that I obtain, share and store knowledge. I now realize how far behind I was in the use of technology. Before I started the MET program, most of my learning came from traditional (conferences, newspapers, magazines, etc) and face-to-face methods (colleagues, professional learning communities, meetings, friends, and, of course, family). Yes I used Google Apps and YouTube but only on a very limited basis. Today, I have so many more connections. My learning has grown exponentially in many different areas. Social connections such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LInkedin were not a part of my strategy, either personally for professionally. Presentation material was only evident in PowerPoint. YouTube was only for watching movies, iTunes was for music downloads and reflection did not exist. This program, and this artifact, truly has changed my views on learning and technology.

It was valuable to look at my colleagues’ illustrations for the creation of my PLE. It helped me gather my thoughts about what was important. Although all different, most of the illustrations from my colleagues had some similarities. The two main similarities included the following: The individual person was at the centre of the environment, and the social networks were often the same - as expected as we are in the same course - (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, either WordPress or Blogger).

I looked at many of my colleagues’ work on this concept. Here are some thoughts.

Kjersti Withers put everything into a mixing bowl. This is the best example I saw in how the PLE is a mixture of different ingredients. Although some may be more important - as shown by the size of Facebook and Pinterest - all are essential to the final project.

Kimmy Davis had an excellent diagram where she is juggling all of her learning networks. It is easy to tell about her love for Facebook - not only in this diagram but from her posts. She is experienced and very confident with this social network. I agree with her analysis in that it is hard to keep everything in air. There are so many elements to social media, it is hard to know which one to use at any particular time.

Megan Apgar was one of the diagrams I used to help in my design. It was one of the first designs that split her environment into categories. Although the categories were different from mine, I used the idea of connected categories to enhance my diagram.

Joanne Matibag discussed the fact she did not want to use some elements because she just started using them. It really got me thinking about my lack of a PLE before I started the MET program. I listed many of the elements I do not use often but I feel that these are still important to my learning. Like her, I will get better with more practice. The ones I will not use, I will discard.

Amy Mitchell’s illustration is the one that mostly resembles mine. As well, it was similar to Megan Apgar in that she has herself at the centre and uses categories to distinguish the areas of importance. Although both of their categories are different than mine, it adds a sense of organization to the PLE. I need this type of organization.

Brian Betteridge’s illustration is one of the only diagrams that adds traditional methods to his PLE. I use this idea as categories in my PLE. The use of professional colleagues in a face-to-face setting, in my opinion, is still one of the best ways to engage in learning.

The creation and analysis of this assignment has shown how far I have come as a connected teacher. Although the path is never-ending, I can now, at the very least, move ahead with 21st Century education and bring this knowledge forward into my school and school board.

EdTech 543 - Social Learning Networks - Online Learning Communities

Online communities can be valuable to expand our PLE (Personal Learning Environments). According to Millington (2010), online communities are similar to following large social networks like Facebook and Twitter but do have distinct differences. Some differences include the following:

1. Communities have long-term involvement rather than short-term involvement.
2. Communities focus on engagement rather than growth.
3. Communities have a limited number of members - thus promoting a greater number of interactions between members.

As teaching professionals, learning communities give us the opportunity to learn, reflect and discuss current issues in the educational field - depending on the group’s shared interests. Some advantages of communities may include professional development, the ability to collaborate on an issue and/or create a larger network of learning new pedagogy in a variety of areas in the education field.

Other than the groups within the EdTech 543 - Social Network Learning course - Facebook, Diigo and Twitter - I have now also joined a variety of educational groups or communities on four new platforms. These include Google+, LInkedin, edWeb.net and Edmodo. In all of the groups, I have introduced myself and am currently continuing conversations with the community or group.

The following shows my initial involvement in each of the groups or communities. I have provided screenshots of some conversations.

Google+

Technology in Education - this community is home for discussion, collaboration and sharing of resources on technology in education. It is a public community with over 198,000 members.

Google Apps in Education - this community is for educators who are passionate about Google Apps in education and want to share their ideas and learn more about the use of Google Apps in our classroom. This public community has over 127,000 members.

edWeb.net

Digital Classroom: Teaching with Tech - this community is a place where educators share ideas and best practices around meaningful integration of technology and teaching. Members may participate in lively monthly webinars and community discussions to learn how to transform teaching and instructional design with technology.

Tech Tools for the Classroom - this community is a place where members can find new resources, free technology, and great ideas for integrating technology into the classroom to engage and inspire students. The community hosts free monthly webinars and live chats that are highly engaging and interactive.

Edmodo

Project-Based Learning - this is a community of only 982 people who share an interest in project-based learning and how it can be used in all subject areas.

Linkedin

After watching a webinar on Linkedin, I have a real interest in using Linkedin for my that just another networking site. There is so much more to this platform. I have asked to join three different educational groups in LInkedin but so far I have only been given approval in one.

ISTE - International Society for Technology in Education - this group is way for educators to connect with peers, to gather in a variety of forums to share the challenges and excitement of teaching and to be part of a community. This community has over 100,000 members, mostly education leaders and emerging leaders throughout the world.

I am currently waiting approval to join the following groups - TechinEDU (Technology in Education) and Education Technology and eLearning Professionals. I plan to try these communities as they seen to have a lot to offer.

Reference

Millington, R. (2010, May 5). Clarity-What’s a Community? Retrieved from https://www.feverbee.com/clarity-whats-a-community

EdTech 543 - Social Network Learning - Live Virtual PD - Webinars

Professional development for educators has changed immensely over the last 10 years. Money has been tight. PD funds are not available as in the past so we, as teachers, have to find different means to keep up-to-date with the ever-changing education landscape. One way to do this is with the use of Webinars - virtual live PD. These webinars are effective and efficient ways to introduce our teachers to the knowledge needed to learn teaching content and pedagogy needed in today’s education.

A webinar is basically a live conference over the Internet. These webinars can save the participant money is so many ways such as travel, conference fees, hotels etc. The information is live and there is usually the ability to ask questions just as if you are in person.  They can be viewed no matter where you are, as long as there is Internet and you have a device.

During the last couple of weeks I was fortunate to be involved in four webinars dealing with topics of my choice. Some were good, some not so good. Here is a snapshot of what the virtual PD entailed.

Webinar 1 - New Apps for Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Other Learning Issues

Here is a link to the original post on Facebook complete with screenshots of my involvement in both the webinar and the backchannel.

What I Saw: Last week, I completed a webinar on New Apps for Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Other Learning Issues. Accessibility and diversity are two issues in education that are at the forefront of high school redesign. I thought this webinar would be a good fit into the ethics behind “education for all.” This webinar was hosted by Andrew Lee from the Understand Content Team. The webinar was given by Jamie Martin - a technology expert for this company. The presentation itself was not great. The feed was interrupted on occasion because of loss of video or audio or both. I think as technology teachers, we have become familiar to this type of thing happening as everyone, for the most-part, was patient. The webinar discussed a variety of apps that can help student with learning issues such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. As well, the apps were presented and explained for the audience. The chat section was open where we had the ability to ask questions or start a backchannel chat. Some of the questions were not answered and caused frustration amongst the participants.

My contributions. Since this was my first webinar, I basically just listened and added a little to the backchannel by asking questions that I thought were relevant. It seemed the presenter was struggling a bit and the engagement was low so I asked a few questions to try to spice up presentation. As well, I tried to influence the negativity of the backchannel.

Learned concepts and processes: Many of the participants were looking for something else as you could see their frustration in the backchannel talk. People were coming straight out and asking if there would be anything of older aged students but they would not answer this question. The apps were developed for young children - grades 1-4 - and many people were getting anxious as to whether the webinar would lead to a discussion of older students. This question was never directly answered. As for my learning, the information of the webinar was not what I was looking for as I teach older students. The apps were not relevant for a higher level of education. However, they had could have some value to ELLs. Overall, this webinar was not what I thought it would be. Good information but for sure the wrong grade level. As for the process, I like the fact that discussions can happen during the presentation. It this particular platform, both group or individual chats could happen. The negative to this, it became a complaint session. Personally, in the future, I will research more about the webinar so as not to potentially waste my time. Here is a link to the webinar.

Webinar 2 - Leveraging LInkedIn: Learn How to be Visible to Your Employers

Here is a link to the original post on Facebook complete with screenshots of my involvement in both the chat and the backchannel.

What I saw: A second webinar I was involved in last week was on the social network, LinkedIn. I chose this webinar for two reasons. First, to learn more about the importance of profiles and second, how to increase my digital footprint in this social network. The webinar was entitled, Leveraging LinkedIn: Learn How to be Visible to Your Employers. The presentation platform was very clear. Compared to webinar #1, both sound and audio were excellent. One disappointing thing on this webinar was the fact that there was no ability for backchannels. There was, however, the ability to ask questions via a “raising hand button” or a question area. The moderator did a good job of bringing the questions to the speaker and the questions were answered promptly. There was also a PDF that all could download. It was the main organization segment of the webinar as the speaker followed this PDF to a tee.

My contributions. Since there was no ability to engage in backchannels in this webinar, my contributions were limited. I did ask a question and received an excellent answer.

Learned concepts and processes: Many concepts were covered in this webinar - all in context of using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool. It was not what I had in mind when I joined the virtual live PD but it was valuable in that I am new to LinkedIn and many social media platforms. The main concepts covered were how is LinkedIn used by recruiters, how to get to the top of the LinkedIn search and tips on building your profile to increase your digital footprint on LInkedIn. I especially liked the tips on how to improve your profile to get optimal results when being searched. I did not like the fact that backchannels could not be used but considering the backlash of the last webinar I attended, maybe it was a good thing. Here is a link to the webinar.

Webinar 3 - Young Children and Technology

Here is a link to the original post on Facebook complete with screenshots of my involvement in both the chat and the backchannel.

What I Saw: This webinar, Young Children and Technology, was housed through edWeb. This webinar discussed the use of apps for children in the classroom. The speaker gave his opinion on 11 of these apps but because there are over 1500 to choose from, he also gave a link to the Children’s Technology Review Exchange (CTREX) where teachers could go and find many resources for technology. The webinar itself had over 300 participants, by far the largest that I have ever participated in. As you would expect from such a large participation base, the backchannels were going. Some of these topics were “should smartphones be allowed in class” and the “dangers of the Pokemon Go app which led to texting and driving.” Neither of these had much to do with presentation - except the app - but this is what backchannels often do. The webinar was set to listen only however there was a section for questions to be asked. These were covered at the end of the webinar. I found the webinar speaker knowledgeable but he rambled on at times.

My contributions. As I said earlier, this webinar had over 300 participants. The backchannels conversations were varied but for the most part, completely off topic. There was one interesting conversation about the Pokemon Go app so the speaker took some time to discuss its value to education and our students. I was a part of two backchannel chats but then wanted to concentrate more on the presentation so I backed off of the side chatter.

Learned concepts and processes: I learned a lot about webinars with huge participation. It can be hard to concentrate on the presentation as there are so many other conversations that go on at the same time. This backchannel reminded me of a Twitter chat that was not organized. I think it is important to pick and choose your discussions because you can lose the gist of the presentation itself. In this presentation, I was fascinated by some of the apps that are out there for children. Although most were pay apps, some could definitely by incorporated into the classroom.Here is the link to the webinar. Use ryan olynyk and ryanolynyk@u.boisestate.edu to enter the webinar.

Webinar 4 - Top Tech for Teachers to Start School Year

Here is a link to the original post on Facebook.

What I Saw: This webinar was part of the CTL Education Professional Development Webinar Series. CTL has worked with Google to introduce a line of Chromebooks and is a proponent of Google Apps for Education. This particular webinar gave a variety of PBL projects that could be used in the classroom. The webinar showed how apps such as Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Draw, Google Forms and Google Classroom could be used in the implementation of projects in the classroom that allow for great collaboration between students and teachers. There were many great projects. These are shown on the following PDF document complete with links to these projects. The webinar started with an introduction of how the webinar interface worked. All participants were locked in listen mode only - participant audio was muted. Questions could be asked by typing into the area and were addressed at the end of the webinar. There was no place for backchannel talk in this presentation.

My contributions. As there was no ability for backchannel discussions, my main contribution to the webinar was to ask a question. The speaker did ask for a short poll which I participated in but mainly I just followed along with the presentation. The question was answered in the Q and A at the end of the webinar.

Learned concepts and processes: The webinar was very valuable as I use PBL in the classroom quite often. I liked some of the projects and the usage of Google Apps in areas I did not think of in the past. One concept I will be bringing into my classroom is the students’ creation of individual websites. The students will use Google Sites to create their website and thus, learn about digital citizenship and start their journey into creating a solid digital footprint. Here is a link to the Webinar.

I found the use of Webinars to be a valuable PD platform. The ability to be involved in the the presentation by asking questions make it more engaging for the user. As well, the backchannels are valuable however, not all of these webinars give access to these two features. The use of virtual live PD is great because of the abundance of webinars on the internet. PD can occur anytime, anyplace - no longer will the educator need to wait months to learn about current topics.