Are We There Yet?

From spending time with me, or possibly reading my blog, you may have noted that I am a bit confused with the way my district is evolving and a bit unhappy with choices that have been made. There has been a ton of change and it feels like it has happened overnight. Let's just say teachers may be feeling a bit overwhelmed and confused as to why so much is flipping on us right now...

After an extremely looooooooonnnnnngggg couple of years of negotiation, we gave in and changed our schedule to an EXTENDED day so that we could add Problem Based Learning to the start of our day. We are tearing down perfectly good libraries and spending millions to replace them with Innovation Centers. We have provided students with their own devices but that has led to a desperate need to keep up with them so we now offer Tech Academy over the summer...and of course, they want every teacher to attend and better yet, to teach...so I have. 

Now, I am wondering why our administration did not just hand every single one of us a copy of the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition!

All school year, we have been asking WHY? Why do we need to incorporate PBL? Why do we need all of this training? Why do we have to extend our day? Why are we holding STEM camps? Why do we need an Innovation Center when students already have their own devices? Why can't you just let us catch our breath???

And now, finally, I can understand WHY. Sure, I had to always assume we were trying to do something right. But we have never been presented with any solid evidence. 

I went from feeling angry at my district to a feeling of pride as I read the Horizon Report. This report examines emerging technologies and trends in order to determine how schools can best meet the challenges involved such as:

• create authentic thinking
• provide tech training for teachers
• personalize education for their students
• reconsider the role of the teacher
• solve teaching innovations
• determine how to teach complex thinking

While I now see that my district is really heading in the right direction, there is one trend that I would hope that we can seriously continue to improve. 

Rethinking How Schools Work is a Long-Term Impact Trend noted in the Horizon Report. Here, examples are given where schools no longer use bells to separate individual academic areas, mastery of technology is critical and student's have a voice in technology decisions. I would love for my district to move away from our strict, dictated schedule so that we could increase our to opportunity to integrate studies. I envision that the role of the librarian will become more powerful as the goal to include technology mastery within the curriculum is established. The librarian can lead classes, co-teach, or hold small groups to ensure students (and staff) are able to use the latest technology resources. In addition, I would love to include students in our decision making. This is definitely something that I would do as a librarian. Students could form a committee or feedback can even be collected using a simple resource, such as Google Forms. In addition, I think parent feedback should also be included. And last, but certainly not least, I would hope...and beg...for more teacher influence. 

While I can see now that my district is doing some great things, there is still much room for improvement. 

So, are we there yet? Nah. But that's ok. We're getting there!

Reference:

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Cyberbullying

Bullying is a growing issue that most teachers and librarians have seen before. While the development of technology and its integration into the school setting has provided many benefits for our students, the concern of providing a tool for the cyberbully to do their dirty work is quite bothersome.

This topic affects me not just as a teacher or librarian but also as a mother of two 13 year old children who are at the heart of learning social media and yet still young enough to need help with this new world. While reading, Cyberbullying Internationally Increasing: New Challenges in the Technology Generation, it was challenging to fight back my emotions in fear that my own child or student could someday be a victim of this form of bullying. Reading about young children committing suicide as a result of cyberbullying is an image that I just cannot stomach.

Cyberbullying frightens me because it can be silent. It may be hard to witness. It can often be deleted and hard to trace. It can be repeated and repeated without anyone knowing.

With this in mind, a couple of thoughts immediately come to mind. First, as leaders and parents, we need to ensure that the technology we provide can be monitored. We need to research the products to determine their ability to keep our children safe. We also need to look closely at the benefits of the tool and decide if it truly is a necessary component vital to our children's education and well being.

Once we determine that new technology is going to be introduced, it cannot simply be handed over to our eager and digital-loving children. As adults, we need to spend time learning all that we can about a new program or application. As we do, we need to think like a child, like a student, and even worse, we need to think like a bully. What would a bully want to do? How could they use this to hurt someone? Can we trace it? Can we stop it? Can we prevent it?

Education is key when using new technology. Sure, this will include the necessary lessons on use and benefits. But, we need to go further. Aside from our procedural lessons, we must teach life lessons. Our message that cyberbullying will not be tolerated and is not acceptable needs to be sent loud and clear. It may not stop the bully from attacking through the cyber world, but I would hope that this message would increase awareness while decreasing tolerance.

Within my current district, we offer well researched, standards based, curriculum aligned, safe programs. Yet, with the internet, is anything ever 100% safe? As adults, we know that we cannot answer that it is. So, it is more important now than ever to teach caution to our students. If something doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't. If something doesn't seem true, than it might not be.

While all of our technology has the capability to be monitored, I am not sure that anyone can actually watch over every keystroke from every single student. For that reason, our principals do unannounced device monitoring. They visit classrooms and simply take the students' devices. Sometimes they sit at the back table and just go through recent use. Other times, they may collect the device and return it later. Students see this happening regularly and I believe it helps. Students are not allowed to ever clear history. If they do, there are school consequences and can be at risk for losing their device. Last, we also provide an anonymous, online service for students to report any unsafe behaviors that are occurring both in and out of the classroom.

The internet has provided a new open forum for us all. We can explore and gain knowledge that was not conceivable before. But, to keep our children safe, we need to be aware of its equally disturbing opportunities. The more we learn, the better we can prepare and plan for this unfortunate downfall.
By preparing for all aspects, both positive and negative, we can hopefully continue to provide our children with the latest technology and all of its many wonderful opportunities.



References:

Cyberbullying Internationally Increasing: New Challenges in the Technology Generation. Aoyama, I., & Talbert, T. Cyberbullying Internationally Increasing: New Challenges in the Technology Generation [Electronic resource]. The University of Arizona [Official website]. URL: http://icbtt. arizona. edu/sites/default/files/Aoyama_2010_-_Adolescent_Online_Social_--_Zheng. pdf (accessed: 10.04. 2015).

Social Media in the Library

When I was 4 years old, my mom worked at Portillo's. If you have ever been in one, you have seen the staff speak your order into the long, bendy, shiny microphones. When we would visit my mom at work, I could not wait to take the stage and serenade the customers with my own version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" loud as can be on those shiny mics.

When I was 8 years old, I danced...and danced...and danced some more. Tap, ballet, jazz...just danced. It is all I wanted to do. And I would do it anywhere, anytime. All you had to do was ask.

This led to my dream of one day being a Disney dancer. When I was 14 years old, Disney came and presented at a competition and I knew that is where I was meant to be. Oh yeah, once I turned 18, I would audition and be on a plane to Orlando!

When I was 16, I wanted to be an actress. More specifically, I wanted to be on a soap opera! Monologue after monologue, I would practice day and night. My favorite classes were Drama and Play Production. I wanted to be a star!

Right now, I bet you probably think I am an outgoing person.

But I am not. 

As I became older, somehow, that part of me changed. Almost disappeared. I no longer want to perform or entertain. I do not always have the confidence to speak my mind or present to large groups. I don't really know how or why this happened, I just know that it did. Poof! Just like that.

And as you look around your school, or your classroom, you will see that there are many students just like me. Students who, like me, have a lot to say and great ideas to share, but may not always be able to. Inside, they are thinking how they wish they could get up there and share all that is spinning around inside their amazing brain, but on the outside, they sit silent.

Social media can give teachers and students a new platform filled with new opportunities. As a teacher and future librarian, social media can allow me to collaborate with staff and students in ways that were not possible before. Using resources, such as Edmodo, I can facilitate book clubs and discussions. Using Twitter and Facebook, I can increase parent involvement. By launching and maintaining a webpage, I can keep all stakeholders up to date on the latest and greatest trends in the world of libraries. Better yet, my students can assist in running my webpage and Twitter feeds...the possibilities are endless.

For those reasons, I agree with the author of The Educational Promise of Social Media, that social media can provide many benefits to our educators and students. Social media is not just about communication within the classroom. It can provide a more simplistic process in communicating and sharing outside of the classroom. Students can create blogs and share their thoughts with the WORLD. THE WORLD! Or, I can just as easily remind my class to wear school colors tomorrow. It is really up to us. How far do we want to go? How can we best use all that we have access to in order to best meet the needs of our students now AND prepare them for THEIR futures? Teaching proper use of social media is key to making those decisions as educators.

Social media can provide students with a platform to speak freely without having to be up on stage, singing into the shiny, bendy microphones. Social Media gives everyone a voice and a chance to be heard. Those who were once quiet and powerless are now vocal and powerful.

But, as we know, with power comes great responsibility. The more power we give to our students, the more planning and preparing we must do as leaders. We have to try to be one step ahead of our students...well....at least half of a step... We have to anticipate where obstacles may occur, what technology we have available, and what could possibly go wrong. And it will go wrong. Technology will fail, second grade students will post about farts and butts, and your principal will always walk in when both of these are somehow happening at the same exact time. Trust me.

But we also have to be prepared for what can go right! We have to prepare ourselves to be amazed by just how far our students can go once we give them this freedom to explore and grow. We have to prepare ourselves to change our perceptions of who we are as leaders as we transform into facilitators. We have to be ready for that wondrous moment when our students become the teacher. And yes, we have to be ready for that time when the student who sat quietly all year completely blows your mind when they have the opportunity to divulge their secret knowledge as they engage in deep, philosophical discussions...all through the use of social media.

Are you ready?

I am!



References:

Herff Jones Achievement Series. (2011). The educational promise of social media.