Resources

17/10/2014

HWDSB Creating Policy that is Working to Enhance Learning with Technology

My teaching partner, Chantelle Davies, and I have begun to use technology in our classrooms in a more regular manner.  This trend is happening across our entire school board.  In the following guest post, Chantelle outlines some of the changes in polices in regards to technology and some of the pros and cons to these changes.


The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board has been making technology a greater priority over the past few years with an effort to change the learning environment in its schools. Expecting teachers and students to move to a 21st Century learning approach where technology is embedded into practice regularly is a enormous task. Currently, they are working at moving all of our schools to a wireless environment; they have created a role called ‘instructional coaches’ to support schools in their learning; and they are attempting to bring social media into each classroom by investing in devices and designing platforms for teacher and student use which resembles social media tools such as twitter or Facebook. Another part of the change that has come as a way to support the move to this new learning environment was the shift from an IT team to the ‘21st Century Learning Team.’ While the IT team was connected to computer services and provided technical support for teachers; the 21st Century Learning Team are now part of HWDSB’s Leadership and Learning Department. This team is in place to provide interdisciplinary support to school, so as to work with staff or students to increase knowledge around 21st Century tools and support inquiry based learning through technology.

The Hamilton school board has made the decision to evolve because “change is constant.” They are looking to move away from old thinking, toward new thinking that uses technology as a way to enhance learning, rather than using technology as an add-on.


http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Changing-the-Learning-Environment-in-HWSDSB.pdf

The board has implemented a 21st Century Learning and Technology Policy that is intended to:


  • Increase understanding of how the use of technology can enhance learning and working for all
  • Increase understanding of blended learning
  • Provide pathways to systemic adoption of tools 
  • Enhance teacher instruction and assessment, educational research, and professional development
  • Provide pathways to understanding the importance of authorship and ownership, of managing identity in digital spaces, of recognizing credible sources of information, participating in positive ways, and respecting the privacy of self and others
  • Develop skills for students to critically evaluate information technology, tools and resources
  • Develop the 21st century learning skills of all students and staff
http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/21st-Century-Learning-and-Technology.pdf

One of the challenges with implementing this policy will be educating staff on mass to the extent that is required for these skills to become a regular part of their practice. The board has been great at providing a platform (D2L) for teachers to access self-directed learning videos and reading materials. This is useful because with such great changes come a vast amount of new learning for everyone; meaning such a great number of topics that make it difficult to cover everything in a face-to-face PD session. The drawback to this support and thus to implementing the new policies is that this self-directed learning requires a certain degree of comfort and knowledge with technology. Many of our boards teachers are still very unfamiliar with how to navigate using certain technologies and many are intimidated by learning these tools; thus easily overwhelmed by such a plethora of self-directed ‘digital’ learning instruction. In relation to that, HWDSB is looking to increase student use of social media. Before students can be taught how to use social media sites like twitter safely, our teachers must first be comfortable with using this and understand how to be safe. With a goal of one-to-one learning by 2019, I wonder how the board will go about ensuring all teachers become comfortable with 21st Century learning tools, so as to ensure the money spent on devices isn’t wasted as an ‘add-on’ technology?

Reflections on Salman Khan's One World Schoolhouse

"Nurturing the sense of wonder should be educations highest goal; failing to nurture it is the central tragedy of our current system." 

Khan, Salman, 2012.  One World Schoolhouse.  Retrieved from http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/The-One-World-Schoolhouse-Audiobook/B009HVNGQI 

In order to nurture his students, Khan has developed his vision on a few simple ideas. As I listened to his founding methods I found myself agreeing with his ideas. His most interesting founding methods included the idea of mastery learning and personal responsibility. In each case Khan does not take responsibility for developing the ideas. Instead he explains how through reflection and in some cases necessity he came to develop Khan Academy into a resource that has been used by 10 000 000 students. What is truly interesting about Khan is that though he does not have a teaching background; he understands how to meet the needs of students in order to create success.


According to Khan, his method allows students to learn and master skills at their own pace. This concept known as mastery learning is the idea that all students can learn if they are provided with conditions appropriate to their needs and that curriculum should not be based on time, but rather targets. Students should move at their own pace in order to comprehend the skills they need to master new concepts. In theory, all teachers agree that comprehension or understanding of skills is the key to learning; but in reality due to the amount of content needed to be covered, time often wins out. Are we doing a disservice to our students when we move them on thinking that they will develop the skills needed as time goes on?

With the use of technology, Khan feels that despite resistance, the time is right to change from a time driven curriculum to a target driven curriculum. As is with new ideas, some teachers find it difficult or are unwilling to change their teaching methods. Many teachers continue to follow methods that do not reflect our changing world. As teachers, we need to be leaders and change teaching methods by using and embracing technology in order to meet the needs of each student. Khan states that his videos allow students to learn, rewind and review content as needed. Without the pressure of time, students can absorb the content in order to get a deeper understanding. Also, by using resources outside of the classroom, students can come to class with prior knowledge. In a recent science class, I had the students go online and read a few articles and play some online games before a lesson. What I found was that more students were engaged in the discussion. They were eager to share their knowledge and I did not need to teach concepts, rather we consolidated their ideas. Student were able to go through the material at their own pace.


Khan also discusses the notion of the need for students to take responsibility for their learning. This is a topic of discussion in my class often. We discuss how much more we learn when we are interested in the topic. Khan suggests that we learn by committing and that learning is connecting concepts. Students need to know where they have been and where they are going. In order for students to do this they need to be able to access resources at all times. Khan also believes that students need the freedom to determine where and when their learning will occur. This brings to mind the blended learning model where students access material in class, at home and have face to face time with the teacher. Once again, Khan feels that with technology and the internet students have access to the material they need to facilitate their learning when they need it. By taking responsibility students become active learners and develop greater knowledge and skills. I have shared the idea of self paced learning when talking to the students about being responsible for their learning. The students seemed to be fascinated by this idea and it seems to appeal to all. Through the expressions on their faces, it seems that there is almost a sense of relief for those who struggle and a sense of excitement for students who excel. Every student gets what they need to master their learning.

How can we further the idea of self paced learning using technology so students can master skills? Can self paced learning exist with our current teaching system? How can we consciously ignore self paced learning when we know many students fall through the gaps because they do not fully grasp concepts in the amount of time allotted in the classroom? How do we overcome the drawbacks, such as our current curriculum guidelines, when trying to support a self paced learning model?

An Educator's Role in Protecting Students Online


Statistics of Home Internet Safety Highly Concerning
Click for image source

As the year unfolded this year, my teaching partner, my teaching partner and I were committed to getting our class blogs up and running for our respective classes. As we discussed what this would look like on a computer screen and in the classroom; we knew that we would need to consider our students needs. The things we considered were how to keep students safe, did we want the public to access and share on our blogs, and how do we ensure the students are acting appropriately online. As we continued our discussions, colleagues began to inquire about our methods. We found that not only were we working at ensuring student safety, we were also in dialogue and sharing ideas with our peers.
 
According to OCT Standards of Practice, teachers should promote and participate in the creation of collaborative, safe and supportive learning communities (OCT Standards of Practice). At times, participation in learning groups happens in formal settings and other times it happens informally. The two of us have been involved more with informal learning. As I have stated, we often discuss the learning that is occurring in class and where we are heading with the students. I had one colleague ask one day, “What do you two talk about each night?” One of the things that I shared with her was how we were working on getting our blog started. This sparked an interest in her as she had attended a tech night, put on by our board that dealt with classroom blogging. Suddenly, our informal group of two grew to include another member and we had begun to create our own personal learning network. It has since grown further with a few other staff members who are venturing into blogging and other 21st Century learning experiences with their students.

Within our PLN, our main focus was how to manage the blogs with our different grade levels. We wanted to expose students to the world of blogging while keeping them safe. According to the ethical standard of Care, teachers are committed to students’ well-being and learning through positive influences, professional judgement and empathy (The Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession). It is with the Ethical Standards in mind, that we began to share some of the knowledge we had gained in our Integration of Technology Course Part 2. We began to share lessons we had created with our colleagues and we continued to discuss the importance of ensuring the safety of students. Using our professional knowledge, we decided that with our primary grades, we would create a blog that would be worked on as a class in a type of shared writing opportunity. We would focus mostly on sharing our information and comments within our immediate community of students and parents. Our juniors would start blogging as a shared experience as well, with the goal of eventually interacting with our blog independently from home and by interacting with other blogs globally. This decision was based on our knowledge of students’ ability and their access to technology. With in class support and modelling, we felt that this was the best way to ensure the safety of our students. The next step would be putting our theories and planning into practice. 
 
Within our PLN we have had many discussions about how students today are part of the ‘digital generation.’ Most of them are online on a regular basis (whether their parents like it or not). This year when surveying our students, we learned that most of them are online at least once a week and many of them are online daily. We feel that not only does this show us that using online tools is a motivating factor for our students, but that it is also becoming more and more important to have conversations in the classroom about online safety and digital responsibility. As well, a quick conversation is not enough to instill good habits into our students. Rather, frequent modelling and practice of these skills is what will help ensure safe and responsible use for our students.
With doing so much activity online at school, we have developed lessons to start the year off to introduce safe online activity. In addition, we have continued to revisit these concepts with our students each time we get online or use our class blog. Our students have now become ‘experts’ at pointing out when someone else in the online community has done something poorly to impact their digital footprint or when someone else has provided information that may not be keeping them safe.
Without us intending on doing so, this has become great sharing and modelling within our PLN. Our colleagues see how our students now naturally think about their actions online. They see how much students online activity increases through the primary grades into the junior grades and they have come to recognize that early discussions about safety and online etiquette help to shape responsible digital citizens. While our lessons and ways of teaching are newly developed and will need tweaking in the future; they have provided some of our colleagues with a jumping off point or with an idea of how to create their own lessons on internet safety and digital responsibility. Our informal discussions within the PLN have encouraged others to agree with our views that tackling these issues in the classroom is important and valuable. Hopefully this suggests that we ourselves are becoming good leaders with respect to our online actions.

In the spirit of sharing, here are some of the things we have done to help ensure the safety of our students online, as well as some of the lessons we’ve used to encourage them to be good digital citizens. It is our hope that these actions are ensuring the safety of our students.

Discuss the value of blogging with students and parents - WHY BLOG

Create blogging guidelines for our students to follow and send this home with a letter letting parents know what will be involved in our online activity at school

Teach lessons on what information should not be shared online - STUDENT SAFETY ONLINE

Teach lessons on creating Quality Comments so that students are safe and so that they are kind to others online

Teach lessons on how to copy work properly, so as to respect other online users and the original authors of online work - COPY THE RIGHT WAY

Understanding Creative Commons Licenses

Here is great resource shared by my teaching partner Chantelle Davies.  Thanks for sharing.

In an effort to add to previous posts I have had discussing the value of the Creative Commons, I have put together a brief handout that Ray and I can share with our staff and students to help them understand the various licenses available under the creative commons.  I have shared it here.

Creative Commons.jpg

Protect and Provide


Click for image source.


As I read through a number of Acceptable Use Policies, I found that they all had one thing in common; protecting the students from questionable content and behaviour while trying to provide access to information and sharing. The Acceptable Use Policies addressed ethical issues, copyright and fair use issues, safety issues and disciplinary actions.  These policies set out the expectations for principals, teachers and students when going online.  The question is whether this policy should be consistent from school to school or class to class?  In reality, I think the policy is not consistent due to the fact that each teacher has a personal view of what is acceptable.  When this happens, a mixed message is sent to the students and they become unsure of what is acceptable.  There are two ways to solve this dilemma for students: ensure all staff follow and enforce the Acceptable Use Policy; guide students into becoming critical thinkers so that they can make good decisions about what they access and how they behave online.

If the Acceptable Use Policy is followed and enforced by all staff in the school then the students receive the same message from class to class.  When following this policy, teachers often choose sites, monitor comments, and punish those who abuse online privileges.  Along with Acceptable Use Policies, many schools use online filters that removes questionable sites.  When teachers do follow the policy, they tend to do most of the thinking for the students and may limit access to information.  The policies control content and focus more on the don'ts rather than teaching or guiding students.  While following the Acceptable Use Policy protects students, it does very little to prepare students for real world applications.

In the real world, the student's life, there are no filters or policy to guide students.  They are free to choose what they view and comment in any manner they choose since they are not governed by policies.  This is the real problem with using and enforcing these policies in school.  To truly protect our students we must create critical thinkers.  Students must be taught how to critically analyze the information they are viewing.  They must be taught how to be responsible when they come across content that is subjective and how to deal with it.  When we, as teachers do this, then we are creating digital citizens who will be able to make good decisions independently.

Does this mean that the Acceptable Use Policy is not needed and that we should allow students to make there own choices?  No, we need to ensure that we follow school board policies while teaching students how to be critical of content.  Working in the primary grades, I would not want to expose students to all content online.  However, even in the primary grades, students need to taught how to choose age appropriate material and how to respond to others.  As teachers, we need to find the balance between protecting students and providing access to the digital world.

Policies must be living documents that change to meet current needs.  They need to be updated regularly to address trends or they become outdated and meaningless.  Does your board's Acceptable Use Policy meet the needs of how students interact online?

HWDSB Acceptable Use Agreement
TDSB Online Policy
DSBN Acceptable Use Agreement
HDSB Acceptable Use Guidelines