Digital Citizenship

During the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time learning about and exploring new technologies. I have been attempting to incorporate new websites, online resources, and technology-based tools as part of my classroom instruction and as part of my own learning. I have seen how abundant this online world really is and I have begun to experience just how powerful it can be. However, in the midst of my excitement around the positive impact the internet can have on learning and sharing information, knowledge, and insight, I was reminded of the dangers of the web. 

This week, I experienced cyber bullying happening in my classroom. Though bullying has been around forever, the internet has provided a means for instant and viral attacks, insults, or harassment. The internet also removes the school day time restraints of traditional bullying, as it is available around the clock. Additionally, the bully doesn't even have to have a face-to-face interaction with the victim, meaning that it may be easier to act as a bully or that the bully can remain anonymous. The problem of cyber bullying is widespread and extremely detrimental.

So, how can we help ensure that the internet and all of the technological tools that we give our kids are being used safely? In a school with 1:1 iPads, concerns around online safety and responsibility are constant. I think there needs to be more teaching around bullying and the power of our words, in person or through technology. Check out Common Sense Media for more information about how to teach digital citizenship. The site includes videos, curriculum, lessons, and age-specific teaching tools.

Seth Godin Tribes Story

Visitors and Residents

David White's "Visitors & Residents" talk distinguishes groups of web users based on their ideas toward the web and the way in which they use it. At first, when he presented the terms visitor and resident, I thought that I was definitely going fall in the resident category. I have a Facebook account, which I use regularly, I use the internet as a tool for my own learning as well as the teaching that I do in my classroom, I have and use email regularly, I go on Pintrest to find ideas, I get almost weekly deliveries from Amazon.com, I watch TV through Hulu and Netflix, I'm a pretty active internet user. However, when he got further into what it really means to be a "visitor" or a "resident" I felt more comfortable with the visitor label. I mostly see the web as that messy toolbox; I find the tool I need, and I leave. I certainly have come to rely on the internet as a tool, but I see it as just that, not a "space" and certainly not a park with groups of people hanging out and chatting. I definitely relate to the idea of privacy making me resistant to creating a web presence. I have never liked the idea of having a lot of information about myself out there on the internet - my ideas written and out there for strangers to see. White points out, though, that most of this exposure is, really, to people I already know. This I am comfortable with. It is why I use Facebook - to maintain or extend relationships, negating the distance between friends and family. I think that in White's own reflection of his web presence, I gained a better perspective on how I can find a balance between maintaining privacy and adapting to the "resident" culture of the web. He explains that he falls on different ends of the spectrum based on context. Like White, I'd like to maintain personal privacy and continue to use the web in the way that I have been - as a tool. However, professionally, I can become more of a resident. I am open to using social media and blogging to create a web presence that allows me to be visible, social, and networked in order to help me develop professionally - to be a better educator.

What are you passionate about?

When I decided to pursue a career in education, I did so because I love working with kids, I love learning, and I thought I could help inspire kids to love learning. One of my major interests in education lies in this idea of learning - how do we learn? how do kids learn? how I can help kids learn? how can I help kids want to learn? Since starting this graduate program, I have learned so much, and not only about what I thought I was going to learn, but all of these new ideas and new questions. My passion for teaching and education has developed so much in the last 8 months. I still have a desire to learn about kid's brains, and how they learn, so I can understand how we can best teach them. I hope to further my own learning in this area through further coursework (another degree..?) in psychology or maybe even neuroscience. I'd like to make some new connections about the way we teach our kids and help transform our practices for the better. I, now having been in classrooms, have started to also think more about how we are preparing our students for the world that they are entering. Do our methods of teaching truly prepare students to be holistic thinkers, successful collaborators, problem solvers? I want to teach in a way that addresses the needs and skills specific to this new generation of students. I hope to be an advocate for student's needs and for positive and necessary changes in the way that we educate them.

Communities of Practice

In reading about Lave and Wenger's idea of 'Communities of Practice', I found myself reflecting on my own participation in communities of practice and my role in facilitating communities of practice for my students. Though I hadn't realized, prior to reading these articles, that I was a member of communities of practice, I very much am. We all are. As a student and an emerging teacher, I rely on these communities daily. Through the support, ideas, and help from my peers, colleagues, and mentors, I have been able to develop and practice my skills and style as a teacher. Through collaboration, I am able to both learn from others and share my ideas. As I have been establishing a more public presence in my communities of practice, I have been able to expand my network, opening myself up to more ideas, perspectives, and thoughts. I remember my advisor telling our seminar class that when she started teaching, there was no professional development set in place by the school, no new teacher mentors, no sharing lesson plans or activities in the break room. She described the school as a house for many individual classrooms, with individual teachers, and individual classes of students. I remember listening to that and thinking about how thankful I am to have so much support around me through my own learning and development. These communities of practice will allow my learning to continue, well after I finish my classes and graduate. Learning is constant and through communities of practice, we are able to foster our learning.
This idea brings me to my reflection about my students and their communities of practice. In Wenger's "Communities of Practice, A Brief Introduction," he says, "From this perspective, the school is not the privileged locus of learning. It is not a self-contained, closed world in which students acquire knowledge to be applied outside, but a part of a broader learning system. The class is not the primary learning event. It is life itself that is the main learning event. Schools, classrooms, and training sessions still have a role to play in this vision, but they have to be in the service of the learning that happens in the world." I love this. I think of school as a place where we can foster learning. We can answer questions and inspire interest in the world and all that there is to be learned. Students have their own communities of practice. As a teacher, I hope to encourage their participation in these communities and help them develop the skills to have positive and effective interactions and experiences in their communities of practice. 

A Whole New Mind

In Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, he discusses the roles of L-Directed, or left brain, and R-Directed, or right brain, thinking. He explains that our left brains are responsible for linear, sequential, and logical thinking. The left brain analyzes, computes, and categorizes. Our right brains, on the other hand, are holistic and imaginative. Our right brains synthesize and create. Though we all have and use both sides of our brains, Individuals tend to be either L-Directed or R-Directed in their thinking. Our skills, ideas, and styles tend toward logical and linear or creative and holistic. However, as a society, we require balance, a whole mind, for efficiency.
In the United States, our need for L and R-Directed thinking is shifting. We no longer have the need for strictly L-Directed thinkers. The logical, analytical skills of our left brains are either being replaced by computers, which can do what we can do, but faster and better or by other humans in Asia, mainly India, who can do what we do, but cheaper. Additionally, in our society of abundance, we require innovation and creativity to satisfy our addiction to having more and new and better. L-Directed thinking, alone, is no longer a viable skill. 
In our schools, we rely on standardized testing as a tool for measuring achievement and knowledge. We focus on linear thinking and computation in our instruction. Our students are praised for L-directed thinking, and taught that art, music, and other R-Directed skills are extras, if we have time, maybe on Fridays. 
Pink points out that we are now in the "Conceptual Age," where creators and empathizers will strive. He gives a set of three evaluative questions to consider regarding your profession: 1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper? 2. Can a computer do it faster? 3. Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?
In order to be valuable in the economy of the Conceptual Age, you must offer something else. In order to prepare our students for the evolving needs of our society, we have to be mindful of it's needs. We must teach our children to be holistic thinkers, to be problem solvers and creators. An education system that values only IQ promotes individuals with L-Directed skills and devalues the R-Directed thinkers. We need both. We need to encourage both types of thinking, praise students for what they contribute to our community, and celebrate the fact that thinking and knowledge are displayed in all different ways. We need to foster R-Directed thinking, too. Our education system plays a critical role in shaping these minds, so we ought to focus on making them whole ones.