I really enjoyed Nadine Gikison's presentation: Ignite Insta Influencers: Teaching with a Social Media Frame of Mind outlining the book , InstaBrain: New Rules for Marketing to GenerationX. When I first thought about the idea of social media in the classroom, images of students not saying nice things to other students and parents getting upset by posts by the teacher. However, as explained in the article, Social media is 'Tearing us apart,' Middle and High school say by Allyson Klein that "sometimes it just feels easier to talk to someone through the safety of a screen." Yes, there are negative aspects of social media, but if the educator trains herself on the guidelines and parameters of social media; I can see the great benefit of using social media. In Ms. Gikison's presentation, all of her slides were so detailed and colorful, but the content contained on each slide is essential to understanding social media. The quote that really got me excited was on slide 2 that simply had three words that jumped out to me, "foster active consumption." This is how I am facilitating in my teaching right now, I want to engage my students during synchronous time and promote higher level thinking. Now, I understand how my students brain's are working and that after eight seconds, their brains can turn off to an idea or concept. All of Ms. Gikison's ideas were just perfect from the slides stating students crave visual design, teachers need to set the stage to engage, allowing the students to curate, make it worthy, mixing it up, choice and voice, play the game, and being aware of the weaknesses. This whole presentation got me so excited for my upcoming teaching week; that I am going to leave this blog and go back and redesign my lessons for the week. For my second graders, I will start small and then move into bigger concepts, by I feel very engergized about the possibilties of my lesson designs.
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This week's reading helped me to clarify more of my driving question, "How to teach computer language to second graders in the format of teaching a student how to read?" (Still working on the verbage of the driving question) I do admit, I have struggled with this question, but after Clark's principles reading; how to design for technology use and the SITE model for putting new learning into a bigger context; I am feeling a bit more confident in my question. As outlined in the SITE model, it is key for me to understand my learners prior knowledge. When it comes to technology, a second graders prior knowledge is in the form of a tablet and or a smart phone. Then, when the learner arrives in second grader, I remove the tablet and smart phone and present to them a laptop. I always assume the students has some basic knowledge. This is wrong. The student may never have used a tablet or smart phone to become an expert or even a novice on a tablet. I also assume a student know what a keyboard is; this is false information that I have assumed my students have mastered. Some of my students may have never touched a keyboard prior to my classroom. So, when I say turn on the device; they may not know where the power button is or even to how to use it. Additionally, what helped me with my driving questions was the process of learning how to motivate the learner. This was helped by reading Clark's principles of designing with the idea of concepts and factual information. Also, Clark's statement, "you need to write a supporting learning objective for the learning goal" allowed me to rethink the end goal of my second graders. I want them to be a functional laptop user with computer concepts and facts. So, the first part for me I need to redefine what I think is a concept of computer language and what are facts. This is the part where I started writing lists of what is a concept and what is a fact... In breaking down computer digital literacy for second grader; what is a concept? and what is a fact? Seesaw- seesaw is a great engagement tool for students. Teachers post assignments for students and then students can respond with text, video recording, audio recordings. Teachers can link reading assignments to our language arts program including phonic games. It is very user friendly for students and parents. Parents can receive announcements from the teachers. Teachers grade the assignments. The tool is amazing for students to do work remotely and to process information that is comfortable and fun for them.
In order for me to begin to teach digital literacy with an equity focus to my second graders, I would use the suggestions outlined in the website by: Blomseth, Danielle. Social justice for primary kids.(2020). The lessons outlined on this website are wonderful for seven and eight year old children. The idea of fostering identity is a great way to have conversations about respect and respecting identity. In the climate of my classroom, we do talk about our own personal identity, but I don't think I thought about exploring it the way the website Teaching Tolerance outlined in creating identity posters. The students create a self-portrait poster, then the teacher puts the posters up around the room and every day focuses on a different student. Even though this lesson would look different during this time of virtual learning; I know my students would love to draw themselves and to have their posters featured in the classroom and celebrated. As I read this lesson plan idea, I went straight to my Seesaw account and started to design a poster activity for my students. This asynchronous learning format will be very rewarding to my students. As stated by Danielle Blomseth, students need to "develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society" In order for me to create equity I need to teach empathy and understanding. Another great lesson that Danielle Blomseth sited was the Name Story. I love this concept of hearing about the cultural background of student's names. I ordered quite a few books from Scholastic about different name stories and will read the stories to the students and then have a Seesaw assignment for them to give an oral history of his/her family name. I know my students would love this activity.
After teaching these lessons and more about respect, cultural identity and equity; I then would focus my students on digital literacy. As discussed on Common Sense website, "News and Media Literacy Resource" I would teach my students how to navigate the internet and to be critical of information being communicated to them. I can't teach my students how high schoolers can analyze a website by looking at the user name or whom sponsors a webpage. However, I can teach them how to incorporate information in positive ways as suggested by Common Sense: What new research on young kids' media use means for teachers.www.commonsense.org/education/articles/what-new-research-on-young-kids-media-use-means-for-teachers I also would include Mike Caulfield's format of filtering fact from fiction using SIFT; “Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.” For my students I also would recommend news sites I trust as my students are beginner learners in the digital world; some I have used are "Time for kids", National Geographic for kids, and Kids scoop. Overall, I really want my students to understand they are "engaged participants" as stated by the Stanford Civic Online reasoning. I would say to my second graders, you are active learners and listeners be mindful of your footsteps when you are online. The Visual Connection by Dr. Bobbe Baggio
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