Role of the teacher and Learner in the 21st Century / Digital Footprint

      Since the turn into the 21st century, society has evolved from the industrial age into the age of communication.  Knowledge and learning is literally at the touch of a person's finger tips, and anything a person needs to know can simply be discovered in seconds through the use of technology and computers.  Easier access to information has allowed our society to share ideas and innovation more easily, and as such, has opened up the way we see the world to new ideals and ways of thinking and doing things.

      It is important that our education system and the classroom addresses this shift within society.  The classroom is no longer viewed in terms of its productivity and its capacity to turn out the educated learner, but rather the shift has occurred to view the student as a differentiated learner, capable of many things if given the forum to display his or her learning and creativity.  Technology has given the learner the ability to do this, not just by accessing information quickly, but also by allowing the learner to display his or her ideas, thoughts, abilities, and learning in a multitude of new and innovative ways.

      The teacher has consequently become less of an instructor and more of a facilitator within the classroom.  The role of the teacher is meant to guide the learner, to use technology and access information safely, while allowing the student to display new learning, with a focus on what the student knows rather than what the student does not know.  This has allowed the learner to discover new learning more freely, independently, and through a means that works for them, rather than the student being told what he or she needs to know, and all students being taught in the same way.

       As an educator, I believe it is impossible to not have a digital footprint of some kind existing online.  Communication with parents, students, colleagues and administrators is all done online today.  The more of a digital footprint that one has, the easier it is for people to access what is happening in class, and what the directives of the educator are.  There are many benefits for educators to be online as much as possible, within their own personal and professional lives.  That being said, the question of how much information an educator should share online can be answered simply by asking ones self another simple question: Would I be comfortable with anyone seeing this post I've shared?  The lines between private and public, with regards to what is being shared online line is quickly fading away.  Everything is becoming public, and a teacher needs to be mindful of this change within his or her own posts and information shares.  

Social Media in Education

       The use of social media to share, communicate and reflect as a part of learning and instruction has both its upsides and downsides in education.  More and more students are using social media as a daily part of their lives at younger and younger ages.  Within my own grade six class, four out of five students have a smart device of some type, and are on facebook, twitter, instagram, Snap Chat, are some other form of social media.  To address the needs of this new class of learners, it's important to be able to relate to them on their level, and use social media as a teaching resource.

       Social media means instant communication.  Homework assignments, news, information, and posts can be transmitted instantly by instructors, sending notices to their students on things they may need to know for activities, assignments, and classes.  Likewise, struggling students can use social media to ask questions to teachers, and to get extra help they may need on classroom and homework assignments.  Social media can be used to comment on lessons and lectures, or it could be used to facilitate classroom discussion, both in and out of the classroom.  The possibilities are endless.

       There are certain issues that need to be addressed when utilizing social media within the classroom.  The biggest one is that of privacy.  Students need to make sure that they understand how to use a social media account safely, so their posts and responses are seen only by those whom are meant to see them.  Likewise, students need to understand the difference between a personal account, and a professional account for social media.  Posts and responses need to be professional in context and add to the ideas and concepts that are being discussed in the classroom.  The quality of students posts is important for successful use of social media.

       A lot of these issues need to be addressed within the classroom.  Open discussions between teacher and students needs to occur, for safe and successful use of social media within the classroom.  This will also benefit students personally, so they are using these means of communicating safely, for their own private purposes.  Social media has the ability to move education out of the classroom, so learning can take place anywhere.  It can assist in students becoming more independent, and more responsible for their own learning. 

Online learning / Instructional sites

          One site that teachers and students can access to view videos for teaching is Access Learning.  Access Learning provides videos on numerous subjects that span across Language, Math, Science, Social Studies, the Arts, and Health.  Viewers can click on a particular subject area, and click on a topic to study at the right, browse some of the featured videos on the screen, or use the search bar at the top, to search for a particular theme.  Videos can range from science lessons presented by Bill Nye, to help with algebra, to information on making successful presentations.  School boards do need to have a registered account with access learning to view the materials, and using a board IP location gives you instant access to hundreds of videos for multiple topics.  The link is provided here:

accesslearning.com

           A second site that teachers and students can access for instructional videos is eworkshop.on.ca.  Eworkshop is a free resource specifically designed for Ontario educators.  The videos are designed to meet the needs of the Ontario curriculum expectations, and contains numerous videos and documentaries for grades K to 6.  This site is geared towards your core subjects, with modules in Language arts and math.  The site also provides videos for Daily Physical Activities (DPA) likewise.  Most of these videos were created by real teachers, in real classrooms, and feature lessons that provide step by step instructions and information for students.  They feature teachers facilitating kids through several processes, from literature circle roles to developing a sense of quantity when counting fractions.  

          Both access learning and eworkshop have been tagged in my Delicious account and on twitter, with the hashtag #video9F61.  I’m also finding that youtube has a lot more videos that are geared to education and the classroom.  I found a great instructional video on the atom the other day, that I showed my students when teaching about electrons and electricity.

 

          Teachers often use instructional videos to suppliment their educational programming across numerous subject matter, educating students about various facts and procedures.  How can teachers use instructional videos as more of a culminating task, to demonstrate student learning for a topic within a subject?

Image Manipulation

Image editing and manipulation tools are a great motivator for students in the classroom.  The ability to touch up photos, are even to have some fun and change pictures will certainly capture the attention of any student.  Imagine the ability to morph a photo of yourself into a picture with Martin Luther King Jr. for a history report on Dr. King, or to change a photo to show the effects of smoking for a health presentation.  This ability has endless applications for students across several subject matter.

One such program, for image editing and manipulating applications is a program called Photobie.  Photobie is a free app that allows users to edit photos, paint, and create scrapbooks.  It has several design photo templates and has the ability to capture screens and edit screenshots.  It features a selection of palettes, toolbars, and menus, and also has upgraded extras, including the ability to create animated GIFS and add 3-D effects.  I found this program to be pretty easy to figure out, and with most features easy to use.  I still need to use it more to do more advanced things, like creating GIFS.  The Photobie website does feature a wide assortment of documentation, including video tutorials.

Another image editing tool is Paintstar.  Paintstar features a simple toolbar that is accessible when open, with any upload image.  Like Photobie, you have a full suite of painting tools that are fairly easy to use.  It also contains more advanced features, including several transformation tools, image morphing, and a listing of over 100 filters and special effects.  The program supports 30 file formats and is also supportive of screen capture shots, as well as uploaded pictures from scanners and digital cameras.

           While both Photobie and Paintstar are fairly easy to use and are both free applications, I found Photobie to have more features for image editing, and I preferred the user interface of it over Paintstar.