“You have used the BC Ministry of Education’s new work on digital literacy and digital citizenship to frame your teaching, but notice that your students don’t seem to be taking up their own engagement with movies, video games, advertisements and social media in a critical way. You wonder how you can use the popular culture and technologies in which they are already immersed to implement a more explicitly critical media literacy education. How might it be possible to move students, teachers and society from passive consumers to active producers of new meaning and identities?
Several ethical issues have arisen – some that you had anticipated and others that you did not. At the beginning of the year some parents came to you with concerns about privacy and security, because their children are uploading content to the internet. You carefully investigated the district and provincial policies and spoke with your school administrator. You came up with a plan, but realize now that you also need to think about disparities in access. Some of your students have multiple computers, tablets and phones to augment their schoolwork, which others have non. And there two ethical issues are just the tip of the iceberg!”
In our blog, we addressed issues of critical media literacy and ethics. As teachers, it is important to teach students to think and engage critically with what they see and do online. Everyday, students are exposed to different ideologies, values, content, and risks, and with the information and resources outlined in our blog, we can better equip students when engaging with these. As teachers, we may also face issues of disparities in access. As classrooms are increasingly diverse in terms of socioeconomic backgrounds of students, teachers need to be prepared to face these challenges, while supporting all students and creating a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment.
Reflections on Access Disparities in a Grade 2/3 Classroom
Hi! Jaspar Here.
One Thursday, I was at my practicum school. My SA was busy, and so a guest teacher was in for the day. There was an inquiry block time set aside where students would do online research for their chosen country culture assignment. Before the time, me and the guest teacher went to find the Chromebook laptop cart and made good our request made earlier to borrow it at the proper time. We checked the cart’s contents, plugs, and left.
When the inquiry block came, I wheeled the cart in, plugged it in, and handed out the laptops. Right away, students reported problems such as computers not turning on, not connecting to the internet, missing software or even hardware. A small group of students had perfectly functioning laptops, and they had to share with usually one and sometimes more classmates. This disparity of assess even within the classroom created an environment of frustration for some, but others, particularly lower-level students, enjoyed being part of a group and having the expectations shared among many people.
Part of this problem, I theorize, is because laptops were seldom used tools in our class and here were taking the place of a visit to a large, well-stocked library. Weston, M. E., & Bain, A. (2010)argue that technology needs to become a cognitive tool that is built into the very foundation of school communities. They argue that questions of whether to use that technology should be met with puzzlement because the technology is so ingrained that not using it would be unthinkable, like pencils and paper are today. So, my class’ problem was that the laptops were still taking the place of something instead of encouraging new formulations, and students had not learned basic internet connection strategies and were not comfortable trouble-shooting other basic software problems.
Next time, I would prepare to be more knowledgeable to show students how to solve basic software problems so that they can troubleshoot themselves, and also spend more time checking out the hardware/software beforehand. That said, I can see why some teachers don’t like engaging with tech. The promise of turning on, connecting to the internet, making sure the proper plug is in the laptop for 24+ different laptops is daunting.
Thanks for reading!
Also, please complete the one question poll about tech usage in your classrooms!
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