Collaboration is a very important aspect of the learning process. With the digital learning age we are facing online tools have become essential in the classroom. With my High School students I try to utilize any online tool I can to allow them to collaborate remotely and in person. Usually this involve presentations on cultural comparison topics where the students take different cultural aspects of a country and combine their findings comparing and contrasting the two. I use Google Slides most often because this tool allows the students to work together in the same presentation while giving each other feedback on the topics at the same time. Canva is another tool with which I became familiar. This tool has a ton of templates and you as a teacher can create groups where they can work together and collaborate in the project. The video platform Flipgrid is a tool that I am using at the moment with students. They watch the videos of the other students and provide feedback on the discussion. Another tool I found was Kialo. This is a free message board type tool that allows the students to provide comments and feedback in real time without having to interrupt the speaker or get in loud discussions about the topic. This tool is great because with the comments, students can select the best comments and those appear at the top of the chain of ideas, this way if a student is late to the conversation, they can catch up easily because the best comments will be at the top and they can just jump right into the conversation. With Kialo you create a topic of conversation and the students weigh in the topic with their own comments and perspectives on the subject. This tool is great for developing critical thinking skills because the students must think about their answers/comments before they respond to the inquiry. One challenge the tool has is that the comments appear immediately on the screen, however, the teacher has the capability of seeing who is commenting, can comment on each of the responses and even delete inappropriate or offensive content that may appear on the screen. This is one of the most important reasons we should teach our students about internet safety and digital citizenship. As the video The New Digital Citizenship: Empower Proactive Digital Learners suggests, students should focus on making sure that they are respectful and compassionate when commenting on other's ideas. Also the video shows that as a digital interactor, students should communicate with empathy and authenticity while collaborating with others online. Below is an example of how a digital conversation flows with all these components.
Digital Citizenship
In my district we are currently in the process of providing 1:1 ratio device for the students, however at the moment, students are encouraged to BYOD. Even though we have 2 computer labs, the media center and 11 computer carts, students prefer to use their own devices whenever possible. This may create a challenge for teachers when monitoring student progress and on-task behavior. Since the device is the student’s, we are limited on what we can monitor during device use time. I manage the students when using technology by reminding them that this time is for class task usage of the device and I monitor as well as possible that the students are on task. Since most of the time we are using technology in live situations, I can usually monitor the students who are on task and participating through the screen, this shows progress on their part, so if I see a student who is not on the screen or not progressing at a steady pace, I can communicate with that student and the issue is resolved. For the troubleshooting strategies we would need a better Wi-Fi for the internet connections. Also making sure that everything is working on our end as teachers is imperative, sometimes we assume that the problem is on the student’s end when teachers sometimes forget to “publish” the assignments or place them in the wrong modules. I have seen this type of errors while helping colleagues troubleshoot during class time as a member of the Technology Committee at my school. Awareness is the most important tool we have to keep students safe on the internet. If students know that this digital footprint will last longer than they will, this may encourage them to become more careful and better digital citizens. Microsoft Digital Citizenship Educator Toolkit has great strategies and ideas for students on how to keep students safe while online. These strategies I researched include several Instructional Technology based projects for students of all grade levels. I chose to provide the High School project as an example because that is my demographic, however, there are projects like this one for all students. The ISTE has great ideas on how educators can provide a safe environment online for teachers, those can be found here. Another platform for teachers to get information on Digital Citizenship is on the Teachings in Education YouTube channel. This channel is full of information with videos providing strategies on how to become a good digital citizen.
References:
Teachings in Education. (2019, September 18). Digital Citizenship Lesson [Video]. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B0q2oOLbs&t=629s
ISTE. (2018, August 21). Being a Good Digital Citizen [Video]. YouTube https://youtu.be/ju9aOc2MLyo
ISTE. Digital Citizenship. (2021). Retreived March 26, 2021 from https://www.iste.org/explore/topic/digital-citizenship
Microsoft Digital Citizenship. (2021). https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/resources/microsoft-educator-digital-citizenship
References:
Teachings in Education. (2019, September 18). Digital Citizenship Lesson [Video]. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B0q2oOLbs&t=629s
ISTE. (2018, August 21). Being a Good Digital Citizen [Video]. YouTube https://youtu.be/ju9aOc2MLyo
ISTE. Digital Citizenship. (2021). Retreived March 26, 2021 from https://www.iste.org/explore/topic/digital-citizenship
Microsoft Digital Citizenship. (2021). https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/resources/microsoft-educator-digital-citizenship