Final Reflection on Digital and Media Literacy Class

     Digital and Media Literacy been an invaluable course for me. Talented people whom I deeply respect urged me to skip formal tech classes, believing that issues in the ed tech world are changing constantly and anything can be learned online. But I have benefited immensely from the curation of timely materials, the feedback and professional guidance, and the discourse from my fellow students in the education field. It has felt quite luxurious to learn something one moment and apply it in a practical way the next, over and over. 

     I’m walking away feeling very motivated to argue for equal emphasis and attention to the newer digital literacies. I have a better understanding for the need to balance traditional ways of reading and writing in the primary grades with the new ways of doing these things digitally. I find myself more frequently paging through the assortment of tech standards out there and using them to build my lessons and Professional Development. I see the value to beginning a PD session with a discussion of an Essential Question and I will endeavor to provide multiple, reoccurring PD sessions which give teachers a chance to not only try out a new tech skill immediately but also a supported period of implementing it in the classroom and then coming back to share learning and student examples with colleagues. 

     I tried the Chatterbox app on a classmate’s recommendation and found that to be even more expressive than Chatterpix. My next tool to try must be Realtime Board! We would like to do more around student collaboration at my school, and this tool should work well with that aim. I was at the ICE Conference the other week, attending a Smartboard Amp presentation, and realized that Realtime Board could do many of the same things for free! I would also like to do an infographic project with the 3rd or 4th grade, it could really cover a host of digital literacy skills. Finally, I feel that Sploder would be a good extension activity for my coding club, I would just like to become a little more proficient at it myself, first!

     There are at least two things I would like to learn in the future. One is how to participate in the Maker Movement, including how to use a 3D printer. I should start by purchasing a MaKey MaKey kit since it was featured on the cover of the most recent government tech report no less! I also want to learn how to offer online PD sessions, which might be a good fit for some follow up tech PD sessions in my district. I think our class model is a good start—the succinct, friendly video, some resources posted below, and perhaps an interactive piece like EdPuzzle and/or a threaded discussion. Experimenting with this model with a tech specialist colleague could be a good next step!

Midcourse Reflection: Digital & Media Literacy in the Classroom

     I used to think that technology integration was like icing on the cake, that it was at best supplemental to traditional ways of learning in the classroom. I knew it could be used to generate engagement and to extend learning, and for a long while I have recognized the power of an authentic audience and the fact that technology can be a way to develop stronger home/school connections. But now I think that teaching digital and media literacy should be a central part of reading and writing instruction. To be prepared for college, to compete in the 21st century job market, students need to be able to find and analyze information quickly and generate solutions to problems in a creative way, within a collaborative setting. To be successful professionally and even happy personally, it helps to be a true learner. Digital creation tools, the internet, and social media can be harnessed at any time a learner wants to find out more or communicate what he is learning. It can no longer be optional to learn these skills in any school!

     I used to think that schools were a place to learn the canon, to learn about set curriculum like the Battle of Antietam or the Distributive Property.  Now I think that schools should be places where students begin to find out what excites them, what their passions in life might be. School should be a place for students to learn about what interests them the most, with teachers guiding and facilitating this journey. To echo educator Will Richardson, we need students to bring their passions to our world!  This can be an overwhelming concept for a teacher used to being the “expert” in the room. But how much more stimulating it can be to stand shoulder to shoulder with students as a learner. A classroom filled with engaged and energized students is a vibrant, rewarding place to be. 

     I used to think that Digital Divide only referred to the gap between students with devices and internet access and students without. Now I understand that Digital Divide refers to the difference between students creating digital content and students consuming digital content.  It’s so easy to assume that students are receiving the benefits of modern day technology when you see them using computers or tablets. But if teachers stay primarily at the Substitution rung of the SAMR ladder, students are are not getting the opportunity to utilize their creativity and higher level thinking skills. 

     I used to think that handwriting should probably take precedent over keyboarding in the primary grades, now I think that there should be a balance in learning both handwriting and keyboarding. It’s painful to see a student slowed down by a lack of typing skills. With a little daily practice anyone can learn keyboarding, and once a student knows where each letter is, and is not hunting and pecking, composing at the keyboard can start to feel effortless and give students a sense of efficacy and accomplishment. I do believe this is something that can be mostly assigned for homework, and then a teacher can give a five minute typing test once a week to track student progress. Keyboarding practice could also be an option when a student finishes something early and has a few minutes to spare. Some typing programs have a literacy component, like Keyboarding Without Tears, so this can even be done during the reading block in centers. 

     I used to think that a technology endorsement was not 100% necessary for tech specialists, that anything we needed to learn was already out there and available and that the landscape was shifting very quickly. A tool we learn about today might not be available tomorrow. I was pleased to see that when Jennie Magiera, the Chief Technology Officer for Des Plaines School District 62,  tweeted about an open ed tech position in one of her schools, she only wanted 1-1 device experience and a teaching degree.  There was no mention of any tech endorsement requirement. Now I think that taking a series of educational technology classes can really be enriching and empowering. I have read about the SAMR model countless times, I’ve watched colleagues in other schools give inspired presentations about it, and I’ve visited Berwyn District 100 where every classroom has a SAMR poster and the entire community, including parents, are knowledgeable about each step on the ladder. But something clicked this time when I reviewed SAMR for this course. I am motivated like never before to present and discuss the SAMR model with our teachers. I also appreciated learning about the Pedagogy Wheel, a visual guide where SAMR levels and Bloom’s Taxonomy steps are aligned along with apps that can be used at each level. Threaded discussion with fellow students as well as the professor have helped to refine and solidify my current thinking and practices.

     Finally, I used to think that acquiring new technology should be dependent on the interest or enthusiasm on the part of teachers and/or our tech team. Now I think that we should find a way to measure student learning as a result of the adoption of new technology. We need to look at data within a small group first to help us decide more efficiently if this new technology should be adopted school or district-wide. I read about Rapid Cycle Tech Evaluation in the National Education Technology Plan and would like to learn more about this! I like the idea of teachers conducting their own research to test the efficacy of new technology and to drive professional development.