Learning Activity #2 – Comparing District Policies
Prezi (http://prezi.com/) The CBE district states the reason for not allowing Prezi to be used in their district as the user needs to be 18 years or older. This is in fact not quite what the privacy policy of Prezi says. It states the part about needing to be 18 or older, but also states … “- or who have obtained the consent of their parent or guardian to use the Prezi Service.” The Surrey District would be able to use Prezi because their policy clearly stated that many Web 2.0 tools are housed outside Canada and therefore subject to the laws of that country. Parents are informed about avoiding posting their child’s personal information. Therefore, parents can give informed consent. My school district’s policy supports “the implementation of those applications of technology that result in more effective learning and teaching situation; the efforts of teachers to keep abreast of developments in technology that affect the content of the courses they teach.” Also, “The Board shall support all teachers in their endeavours to keep abreast of, and incorporate, changes in subject matter brought about by the application of computer technology.” Therefore, if my parents are informed of the risks and I have given a sound educational rationale for using the tool, my district will support my use of the tool. One use that I may use Prezi might be to have students collaborate on a presentation where they needed to use Prezi. If there were student of whom I did not have parent permission to use Prezi then they could use Powerpoint or a paper based presentation with another student. Another use of Prezi might be to produce an individual presentation using Prezi. If a student did not have permission to use Prezi then using Powerpoint or videotaping their presentation would be an alternative. Facebook (www.facebook.com) The CBE District states the reasons for not allowing Facebook because it “is a social media site. Protection of student personal information is not possible on this site, and students could be exposed to inappropriate information, material and advertising. Teachers are not able to block inappropriate material.” The Surrey District states in their pamphlet that, “[e]very one of these users has a profile that they create and decide how much information they are willing to share. Names can be searched and networks are created by ‘friend’-ing. Privacy settings allow users to restrict the ability of others to see details such as posted messages, photos or lists of friends. Facebook provides information on its site about privacy settings and has a policy that users have to be 13 years old.” My school district’s policy supports “the implementation of those applications of technology that result in more effective learning and teaching situation; the efforts of teachers to keep abreast of developments in technology that affect the content of the courses they teach.” Also, “The Board shall support all teachers in their endeavours to keep abreast of, and incorporate, changes in subject matter brought about by the application of computer technology.” Therefore, as long as there is informed consent from parents, Facebook could be used. One use I may use Facebook for would be for asking or following institutions for information about a concept being taught. An alternative activity for this would be to use Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) to find the information or to contact the institutions through email for information. Another possible use of Facebook might be to post journal entries and possibly share with the class via a class page or group. An alternative for this activity might be to write a paper based journal. Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) The CBE District has placed Pinterest on its unacceptable list for the following reason: “This is a social media site. Protection of student personal information is not possible on this site, and students could be exposed to inappropriate information, material and advertising. Teachers are not able to block inappropriate material.” Again, the Surrey District’s permission slip and pamphlet allow for the possible use of Pinterest. The permission slip enables teachers to add any other site to the list as needed. The pamphlet states that, “this list contains information about some of the commonly used tools. It is important to consider that as needs and technology evolve, learning tools will change.” My District would approve the use of Pinterest if there was a sound educational rationale for its use, again as mentioned previously, will support teachers in their efforts to implement technology in the classroom, and if the parents were fully informed of the risks and storage issues. One use for Pinterest could be to find and pin items that would correlate with a unit of study. Students could also repin someone else’s pin to their own board. An alternative activity may be to find the pertinent information in magazines or from Google searches and then “pin” them on a poster board. Another use for Pinterest could be to do a photo journal of an event or trip. An alternative activity for a student of whom may not have permission to use Pinterest might be for them to do a photo journal using actual pictures they have taken or pictures from magazines. They could make a hard copy collage. There are positives and negatives when comparing the Surrey and the Calgary district policies as far as what is best for teachers and students. It depends on how you look at it. I can see how the CBE’s policy could give parents some reassurance in that it is very restrictive, thus giving parents a sense or possibly a false sense of protection for their children from sites that may or may not be appropriate. However, with regard to what I feel is best for teachers and students, I would have to choose the Surrey Districts policy.
I feel that the Surrey School district’s policy is best for teachers and students. The Surrey School district’s policy is less restrictive than the CBE’s policy. I believe that for learning to be truly reflective of the world we live in today, we need to embrace the tools of today. To limit the use of some tools is limiting learning in all sense of the word. For a small panel to decide what is acceptable and what is not acceptable for use, to me, sounds almost like a dictatorship. Do I understand the challenges that are faced with the use of some tools? Yes. I think we have to be careful. It is really important to make sure that the tools we are using are well researched and that we have a good rationale for using them. We also need to make sure that we inform parents of the possible risks of the tools we are using so that they can make informed decisions regarding if they want to allow their child to use the tool or not. When I read that the CBE district did not allow Twitter, for example, to be used, I was actually quite shocked. Why? Because you can be sure that most of the students in their district are already using Twitter. Would it not be better to have some guidance and support through educators with the use of this tool? Instead what the CBE district is doing is giving the impression that Twitter is not acceptable, when in fact, it can be a tremendous learning tool. If educators are not using Twitter to show students that it can be used as a debating tool, or for sharing links, and ideas with others, then those students will have missed out on a very valuable tool which could further their learning. Children will use tools that are “in” so why not be “in” with them? I make the analogy of if a child sees something on T.V. that may be deemed inappropriate, do we freak out and put a lock on the channel and never let that child watch other programs on that channel? Well, maybe there are good things on that channel in which he/she could learn a lot from. Or do we guide the child with discussion around what they saw, and teach them to be self-directing and discriminatory in the shows they watch. Is it not better to teach children the skills to know what is ok and what is not ok and to make the right choices in life? We do this in all other aspects of raising/teaching children, why should using Web 2.0 tools be any different. In conclusion, I feel that educators are the best people to make qualified decisions on what and how tools are used in their classrooms. Of course there needs to be guidelines with which to follow, however why limit the possibilities because a panel of a few deems something to be unacceptable for the whole. Discussion post: Unit 1
I believe that using cloud tools would be extremely beneficial for online courses and face to face classrooms. I am a face to face teacher, so I do not know all the ins and outs of building a fully online course, however, I think that anytime we can use a tool to enhance learning, we are only going to enrich the learning environment for our students. I loved the “TedEd Lessons Worth Sharing” (http://ed.ted.com/) tool. I started to put together a lesson for my grade three class. TedEd is so easy to use and has many benefits for students. I was able to find a video and start adding questions within minutes. What a wonderful timesaver. I found it to be highly engaging and thought provoking. I can see this tool also working very well for students who do not like to write or who have small motor difficulties that inhibit their ability to hand write answers. Also, students can go back to the questions later if they can’t finish the questions in one sitting, as I had to do for the TedEd lesson about Adora Svita. TedEd can be used at various junctures of a course of study. It can be used at the beginning of a course or lesson to introduce a topic by evoking interest from the students. The questions that are posed can be ones that are comment based to promote ideas about the topic. It can be used as a part of a series of lessons within a course of study as a summative evaluation. It can also be used at the end of a unit of study as an extension of thinking. I also liked the “Voicethread” (http://voicethread.com) tool. I thought this tool was great because it allowed students to collaborate in a different way than with “Blackboard Collaborate” (https://www.blackboard.com) or “Google Docs”. Voicethread was easy to set up and would be easy for students to add their thoughts and ideas to. I see this tool as a great way to engage students who are reluctant to write or type answers or comments. The ability to respond to another’s comments is a great way to extend the activity to receive feedback from fellow students in a meaningful more personal venue than with text based tools. Again, as with TedEd, Voicethread can be used throughout a course of study at different intervals for different outcomes. It is not tied to one use. I feel that cloud tools can be more beneficial than not, in online and face to face learning environments. There are so many tools in which can enhance learning. Collaboration, as an example, through the use of cloud tools such as Google Docs, Blackboard Collaborate, and Voicethread, to name a few, are wonderful examples of the different ways that students can work together to further their thinking. They have the same idea in mind, but use different platforms to facilitate the collaboration of students. There are, however, some drawbacks. Some of these drawbacks are if the tool is not used to enhance learning, but as something to put in, just because. I think we need to be careful to make sure that the tool that we are using is relevant and useful to what we are teaching. Also, we need to make sure that all learners are engaged. I can see, as with Voicethread, that some students may feel intimidated by having to record their voice. I think we need to be cognizant of how cloud tools, and any other tools we may use, may cause some students to be disengaged rather than engaged. Careful understanding of our students and their learning styles is important for full engagement. In conclusion, I am on one hand very excited about discovering and using the myriad of amazing cloud tools that are out there. On the other hand I am a little overwhelmed by the vast amount of tools that are available. I wish I could have a good chunk of time to just play and discover all the tools that I would like to use in my classroom and have time to fully immerse them into my program. Jane C |