Thanks to Jenny for helping me figure out how to embed the Popplet I showed you today. I’m going to continue to to update it to help me sort out all of my personal issues – if you want to be a collaborator on my Popplet (a.k.a. be my personal ICT therapist) please let me know and I’ll figure out how to add you.

Module 4 Questions

1. What would you say was your key defining ICT quality when you filled out the questionnaire at the beginning of the week?

I’m not sure I understand this question, so I may not actually end up answering it correctly. When filling out the survey I was comparing myself against some imaginary ideal of what it means to be a competent ICT user. I am embedded in a world, a school community, a circle of friends, and now a class full of learners. Within these circles there are people who know a lot more than I do and people who know a lot less. In many ways it is useless to judge yourself based on what you think you should know. I’m not going to know everything. I may never even know everything about one thing. The important thing I have to remember about my connection with ICT is that I need to know enough to accomplish what’s important to me and focus on the things that will best serve my students. It seems I definitely didn’t answer that question!

2. How were your ideas about ICT in school settings influenced by Will Richardson’s book, “Why School”?

It would sound jaded to say “I’ve heard it all before” so I won’t! I attended a workshop series last school year called “Engaging the Digital Learner” and many of the themes from “Why School” were discussed. I was aware of some of the cool things that we can do with ICT in schools, and that it’s becoming more important that students can work with information rather than simply knowing things. What this book did was change how I feel about my own role in the picture. As I mentioned in my presentation today, I have a habit of focusing on why something won’t work instead of (a) deciding if it will make my students more engaged in their learning and if so, (b) figuring out how to make it happen despite the time and frustrations. Richardson’s unlearning/learning ideas for educators are actually fairly easy to work into my life. I don’t think I’ll be able to do everything he suggests right away (talking to strangers, for example, will take much more unlearning on my part) but it provides a starting point! In the overwhelming sea of ICT options and theory, I feel that having a place to start will encourage me to do something to change the way I teach. Actually “place to start” is not exactly correct. I’m already doing some things. I now have a place to continue – I’m going to make one of my goals to be better at his first suggestion: sharing.

3. When you think about the cognitive, cultural, and technological dimensions of our connected selves, what stands out for you as a key concept?

I’m still wrapping my brain around these definitions. If it’s about me, I’ll find it more interesting, so I imagine the cognitive dimension being me and my squishy grey brain. I experience the world through my senses and a lens which has developed over time through my history. The way that I connect with the world depends on my skills, interests, genetics, body chemistry, moods, and previous experiences. The cultural dimension is all of my interactions with humans outside of myself, including friends, colleagues, students, authors, actors, historical figures, “society” (whoever they are), and anyone I may have missed. The technological dimension is a part of how connections are made. I find it interesting how the three dimensions interact and influence one another. It seems important to me to remember that ICT is just a piece of the puzzle. Learning happens through each of these dimensions and the technology is a way to enhance what we are able to do through our interactions with each other.

4. How do you define technology and information literacy today?

I found the following image on a blog and I wanted to include it, in addition to the list I posted earlier from the CASL, as part of a definition for information literacy:

It’s interesting how arranging something into a graphic organizer can make it so much more appealing that a list. Especially when there are colours! Technology literacy is a concept that I’m still working with. A definition from the Colorado Department of Education states that technology literacy is the ability to responsibly use appropriate technology to:

• Communicate
• Solve problems
• Access, manage, integrate, evaluate, design and create information to improve learning in all subject areas
• Acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century

I’m not sure I completely agree (point number four is vague), but it’s interesting how similar this is to the definition of information literacy.

5. What are the most important conceptual developments that you will take with you as we move forward in this course?

I don’t think I can know yet what will be the most important until I get there, but I think I need to work on how everything works together before we move further. Some work for the weekend!

6. What issues, interest, or opportunity have you identified as a key topic for your inquiry work next week?

Wow! There are so many of the issues from the mindmeister that are interesting to me and I don’t think I’m ready to decide, quite yet. I’m interested in the pedagogy around specific online resources – I want to know that I’m doing things because they’re good for the students, not just because it’s a fad or that someone who’s a skilled marketer has convinced me I need to. The concept of BYOD, including the challenges and benefits of these policies (and where the policies are coming from) may soon be a reality in BC, according to the BC Education Plan. I’d like to know more about it so I can become a better advocate (either for or against it… I assume against, but maybe I need to look at the other side). I’m also interested in social learning and how social media can be used to improve student engagement and interaction with the curriculum.

In the book Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada, the Canadian Association for school libraries provides the following definition of an information literate citizen:

One of the things we were asked to do on the first day of the course was to think about how we’re feeling and take the time to really reflect on what may be holding us back. When I started to read Why School, I found myself falling back into some familiar patterns. The description of how proficient the author’s son was in using technology to learn did not fit the view I have of my own students. We often hear about how young people are “digital natives” and assume that they are coming into schools with this wide range of skills with digital technology, but this isn’t necessarily the case. They are good at the parts they enjoy – texting, using Facebook, looking up music videos on YouTube, playing games – but when asked to use social media to contact an “expert” for a research project, they become very uncomfortable.

I think that one of the roles of school, aside from preparing students for the real world, is to teach them how to do things that they don’t already know. I’m not talking about the standardized curriculum that Richardson takes aim at. I completely agree that having students memorize facts that they could look up on their phones is not the best use of our time in schools. What I think we need to be teaching students is the skills that they lack when they enter our classrooms. It’s important that they can solve problems, can use information responsibly, can interact comfortably with other people, and can identify when they’re struggling and need some extra help. The technology and the curriculum are really just tools that we use to help them develop these skills.

The other thing that I had to be honest about is my urge to want to minimize the use of technology in my own classroom. I’ve read articles about how screen time effects the development and mental health of young people (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19870199) and I worry that if they’re on their phones during their leisure time, and watching TV at home, school may be one of the places we can draw them away from their screens and get them moving, thinking, and interacting without technology. I’m still not sure how to find a balance between giving them some time away from their screen, but also taking time to teach them how to optimally use technology for learning.