Tag Archives: digital literacy

My critical, digital life.

24 Saturday Mar 2018

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My critical, digital life.

I normally wake up and go on some form of social media (either Facebook or Instagram), and probably log a minimum of two hours on it per day. Side note: This, like many other people, is normally how I get my news.

I check sports highlights (Crosby, wow), 
friends’ activities and scroll through my feeds with the multitude of posts that people in my social network share parceled with advertisements specifically catered to my search histories and demographics I fill.

As I scroll through each post, I’m analyzing content consciously and unconsciously. Someone shares a politically-charged post about the latest Trump or Trudeau controversy, someone shares a post about the legalization of marijuana, or someone tags me (and it’s usually my fiancé) in a funny cat video or meme.

All the while there I am, looking at my electronically-powered, 5.1-inch screen of my phone, consuming and questioning in some combination, if not all, of the following (reflective of my video on Fake News):

  • Is this post valid or accurate? (Is it making claims that just aren’t true or promote opinion as fact?)
  • Why did they share that? (Was it funny? Intentionally offensive? For others’ benefit?)
  • Would I ever share that? (Yes? No? Did I ever? Why would/wouldn’t I now?)
  • What caused them to think that way? (What is causing me to think this way about it?)
  • Do they see how biased the source and article is? (Do they even care about that?)
  • Did they look into that claim before sharing? (Will I bother to look into it?)
  • Do they know that has no validity to it? (Do I actually know enough about this topic to provide validity?)
  • Why do I think that’s funny? (Is it something I agree with? Am I right in laughing about it?)
  • Why do I find that inappropriate? (Am I right in thinking so?)
  • Should I say anything about this? (Why should/would I?)
  • What do I do about this post?

After some combination of these thoughts and questions go through my head, it becomes a decision based on the final underlined questions. What do I do about this post? Like, share, comment, or ignore? Even more simplified, it’s ultimately one of two thoughts:

1. I’ll just scroll past.

OR

2. I can’t just scroll past this.

In the event I select option 2., a series of follow-up considerations will occur depending on the content of the piece, for the sake of this post – our exemplar content can be any of the following, all legitimate posts from people in my social network, several of which I felt “I can’t just scroll past this… I have to comment”:

Exhibit A and Exhibit B

CBD Oil via Cure for Life
CBD Oil via Cure for Life
"Some Thoughts for People who Live in Canada"
“Some Thoughts for People who Live in Canada”

Exhibit C

Does it convey “fake news”, and what specifically about this post is “fake news”? Does it misinform people and who are the people who can see it? What message does it send? What about it specifically do I feel compelled to discuss?

And the big question, if one of my students shared this, would I address it and how would I address it if this was the case? Address it that way, because we are all learners:

  • Respect, be positive towards the individual and have empathy for the individual – treating them as a learner.
  • Find common ground on this topic.
  • Address the specific issue of the content of the post.
  • Avoid getting emotional in your response or in reading theirs.

After making a post/comment, follow-up reflective questions surface:

Do I like what I posted? Could I have done better? Did I word it right? Will they understand what I’m trying to say? Will they listen to me? What if they don’t? Is it pointless to comment, then? What about the people who don’t comment, don’t like, but see it and consume it but leave no visible trace of acknowledgement for me? Am I doing a service to them?

My comments have been met with likes and dislikes.

Sometimes I’ve received insults. Other times the original person who shared the post doesn’t comment or their comment is strictly defensive and not open to what I have to say (maybe the way I wrote it was offensive?).

Kristin and Cats Instagram

This is what daily social media consumption looks like for me in the worst-case scenario. Best-case scenario, I see pictures like this (my fiancé and two of our cats).

But best-case or worst-case, all scenarios are part of the deal.

How do you consume online?

Have you found yourself exposed to similar posts on your social media feed? What did or do you do?

Comment and let me know!

– Logan Petlak

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Can we ever be “fully literate” in all dimensions of literacy?

19 Monday Mar 2018

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Am I “fully literate”?

Is anyone?

As evidenced on my page, I believe we are all lifelong learners, so is it even a fair question to consider the notion that there exists a specific point in literacy that we officially “hit” and are considered “fully literate”?

Probably not, the idea of literacy seems too subjective.

Indicators exist in certain subject-areas that would serve as evidence to infer literacy-attainment, so in that sense we can create benchmarks for literacy. But when considering the ever-shifting development of subjects and or expanding knowledge on learning, benchmarks today may shift tomorrow. What is the next benchmark or desired milestone associated with grades and subjects?

Being literate today is a tall order (inadvertently implying that it was necessarily any easier at different points in history). I feel like becoming fully literate today has become synonymous with wisdom, utilitarianism and benevolence (or maybe that’s just my view on it). But you’d think the wise would know that you can never be fully literate (this is me thinking that I’m wise).

Literacy seems almost synonymous with learning (you have to learn to be literate). If you’re capable of continuous learning, consuming information, and improving in all dimensions of literacy (or perceived important ones of today), with certain benchmarks, maybe that’s the way!

BUT WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WITH BARRIERS TO LEARNING AND INFORMATION CONSUMPTION?! IS THE SAME BENCHMARK OF “FULL LITERACY” STILL A SPECIFIC GOAL DESIRED?! HOW DOES “FULL LITERACY” APPLY THEN?!

science 10 scientific literacy.jpg

A Scientifically Literate Student via SK Curriculum

This brings me back to my post about media literacy and, as Carter also said in his vlog, it is needed. And to me, social and media literacy almost seems to transcend specific subject literacies. But then I think of how important scientific literacy is and how passionate I am about it (so much so that I’m making a resource for it an media literacy) – and how that, too, is needed for citizens today. Yet it needs to be delivered in a non-Eurocentric way which requires some cultural literacy.

Aside: these are great considerations for the development of my science resource.

The considerations are making my head spin, though. We probably need some form of benchmark to provide students with skills to become “fully literate” in today’s society, yet don’t want to be so specific that it becomes constrictive or culturally-uniform (devoid of diversity). The reality is that there are many different forms of literacy that I haven’t listed yet that are important to the holistic growth of individuals (health and physical literacy, for example) and all need to be pursued when able. Especially when all of these forms of literacy depend on one another as an intricate web enhancing the impact of another.

digital_literacy_newest_copy.001.jpg

Literacies for the Digital Age via Educorp

If all forms of literacy are continuously pursued, beyond the benchmarks, we become the benevolent, wise, and “fully” (but not really, “fully”) literate. As educators we have to be pursuing this personally, regardless of the courses/subjects we instruct, to model this for our students as well.

Agree? Disagree?

Get at me!
– Logan Petlak

 

Developing a high school science digital citizenship resource

13 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in ECI 832, Education Blog, Science Education

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In my first post, I highlighted my desire to create a resource for digital literacy, I clashed with making a series of vlogs to educate my peers or making a document to assist science educators in delivering digital literacy in their science classrooms that corresponded with the curriculum. I decided to pursue the latter as I feel it may be a more realistic venture with the resources I have available to me (I reflected on my previous attempts to make a video series in the distance learning course I took, and concluded that it takes a lot of resources and time for only one person to put together – not that this won’t also take time, the resources may be less).

In my brainstorming for this assignment I had many ideas come to mind when considering the philosophy and approach that educators should have when implementing a document associated with digital citizenship in a high school science course. Some of my initial considerations to include in the completed document were:

  • Considerations of applicability to general Saskatchewan curriculum focuses like broad areas of learning, specifically how science and digital citizenship coincide to promote lifelong learning, engaged citizens, and a sense of self and community. The same can be said of cross-curricular competencies in science like thinking, literacies, identity, and social responsibility.
  • The creation of digital citizenship resources associated with different senior science courses (including learning outcomes) – ideally in an area where many can access this information and try to make it applicable for curriculum across Canada. This would likely begin with courses I am familiar with: Environmental Science 20, Health Science 20, and Biology 30.
  • Overlap between digital citizenship pieces and an “effective science education program” including attitudes, skills, knowledge and STSE. Ultimately using scientific literacy for digital citizenship, or digital citizenship as a form of scientific literacy. Informed through some guidance associated with 21st century learning.

    Scientific Literacy Framework

    Scientific Literacy Framework via screenshot of Saskatchewan Curriculum

  • Guidelines to equip educators to model online behaviours for students, specifically centered around Ribble’s nine elements of digital citizenship (dominantly on access, communication and literacy – more below). These guidelines would try to provide suggestions to approaches while bearing in mind the diversity of educators existing on a spectrum of digital visitors and residents. The suggestions would be rooted in delivery of digital citizenship through the lens of Respect, Educate and Protect – as all are essential to “ideal” digital consumption.

Access (allowing for access) – as part of a pre-read to the document, or philosophy to approach the guide with, there will a piece for educators on access and attempting to overcome barriers to students’ device-usage, including information that they may want to share with parents regarding the benefits of having their students exposed to and participating in the usage of devices/the online world. I thought this was innovative, then I saw Alec and Katia had included this in their DC Guide, through BYOD practices.

Communication/etiquette/rights and responsibilities – establishing an emphasis on productive communication in text-format existing through social media and other forms of digital writing. This would provide education on being hyper-aware of the implications of word-choice, phrasing, and delivery of ideas.

Literacy – critical analysis of “scientific articles” as well as the utilization of digital technology to enhance understandings and concepts in science as an industry through forms of content curation.

 

As I begin to put this document together the main ideas should act as a framework to begin approaching organizing these ideas together. The reality is the landscape of the digital realm is constantly shifting so it needs to be designed with adaptability in mind as well as inclusive to the variety of learners and educators interpreting the material.

Any feedback or things you feel are necessary to be included in a high school science digital citizenship document, please share!

– Logan Petlak

 

 

 

Additional considerations:

In my other class I am currently taking, ECI 842, we recently discussed the overlap between Indigenous Science and “Western” science and would consider trying to have a sub-document that provided strategies or suggestions for implementing Indigenous ways of knowing in the classroom effectively while coinciding with digital citizenship as an extension of real experiences, diverse worldviews, community and its practices, and the digital realms’ relationship to land and ecosystems. This would include the idea of identity and the digital identity also simply being a part of our greater identity, as Paul Brown mentioned, and not something that is meant to be separate.

Transgenerational (Digital) Citizenship Education

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

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“Digital Citizenship is more than just a curriculum to be taught in a classroom; it is an ongoing process to prepare youth for a society immersed in technology, personally and professionally.”  – Robyn D. Shulman

This quote prompted me to begin sifting through all of my old posts because it presented a revelation of its simplicity/goal. I’m shocked that I don’t recall ever making the connection that digital citizenship education is just modern citizenship education; “prepare(ing) youth for society”. How is my school preparing students for this?

When Shulman listed off digital skills that might be taught in schools: “coding, animation, web design, blogging, cyber-security and narrowing down information”, I feared our (my) school only was hitting a couple at best, but it does hit these skills. Unfortunately it’s not with a specific consistently or continuity from course-to-course (it’s teacher-preference, or subject-specific with a heavy emphasis on computer science courses).

service guarentees citizenship.jpg

“Service guarantees citizenship” via MemeCrunch

But when broadening the definition to citizenship education that can have digital elements to it, the service learning and other citizenship education that occurs cross-curricularly in the school should promote similar values and skills when approaching the online realm. When considering the “ongoing process” piece Shulman mentioned – perhaps this represents the short-term educational change required to include digital citizenship? But how does one “monitor” or “manage” the learning that occurs in classrooms when it is such a broad, instructor-specific topic to cover elements of digital citizenship? This is where this broadening definition of citizenship also helps in the transition to digital citizenship education in some courses. Shifting the mindset on the digital world comes to be an extension of reality rather than a dangerous, unforgiving world as some parents or students may be approaching it, especially when we observe differences in digital literacy from one generation to the next – previous documents can still be relevant and promote transgenerational (digital) citizenship education in schools and in the home.

 

 

When I read Sklar’s take on digital hygiene, I began considering the impact home has. Education about digital citizenship occurs in a variety of ways today, some would argue it needs to occur in the creation of a positive online presence. and a lack of specific digital citizenship occurring in schools when I was an adolescent in the infancy stages of social media. It makes me feel incredibly fortunate that my father was very much into technology and trying to stay up to speed on it – by extension this helped us at least stay relevant and on top of/familiar with most new tech emerging, and Sklar appears to have their kids in a similarly-privileged position – the students have access to positive models for guided exploration into digital citizenship, but not every student is so fortunate (as Jana mentioned), which dictates the necessity for digital citizenship to be a part of education. Fortunately, this end is partially realized given subject-based outcomes through that expansion of preexisting understandings of what citizenship is to be inclusive of the digital community.

digital-citizenship.jpg

Mia MacMeekin’s Digital Citizenship via TeachThought

Citizenship occurs through the emphasis of digital citizenship. The critical thinking that occurs in the active deconstruction of our interactions in the digital world is a transferable skill. When considering implementation of this at an education system level – adaptability is key (much like the organic curriculum I’ve mentioned before, Sklar mentioned a “living document editable by students”). It has to shift and evolve with the ever-shifting, ever-evolving landscape to adequately and relevantly prepare students and equip teachers.

This is merely a surface “solution” to approaching digital citizenship (there a some lovely tips on how to implement this to the right, by the way). What does the future have in store for education?

How will schools shift in time? Will we see an increasingly student-centered classroom? Do the number of teachers need to increase to meet a more wide variety of student learning needs as technology further allows learning to be more personalized? Or will classrooms even exist if more technology makes education more available? It’s a tough call, so much is dependent on the “babysitter” properties of school that I see a “educational revolution” deviating from the current educational model as unlikely in the future – but I would welcome being wrong, even it put me out of a job.

Thoughts?

Let me know!
– Logan Petlak

Digital Learners and Digital Wisdom in a Digital World

29 Monday Jan 2018

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I genuinely hold the idea that we can’t villainize the internet. Policing the students who (ab)use technology or criticizing the current contexts our students develop in seems fruitless in the absence of education. Maybe this lends itself to my appreciation for better understanding our respective places in the digital realm in order to proceed with wisdom? (It does). We really need to understand the depth of what we consume digitally (and how) and with this comes the need to identify where we, and our learners, fit in order to grow  and continuously learn about the ever-changing digital landscape.

Ironically, in previous reflections, I’ve kind of grappled with the idea of classifying students and myself with particular labels. At times labeling can be too constrictive, or its too subjective when considering things in a spectrum (but, that’s the point of a spectrum); student (and teacher) experiences and narratives constantly are in flux, so a spectrum to approach the diversity of technological literacy makes sense. The variation is wide from person-person. In this case, “what type of digital user am I”, widely varies depending on which point in my life you look at (my age, and technology available at the time), or in what setting the notion is applied (is it me as a student, teacher, or consumer). In my late teens?

I overshared and would’ve immensely benefited from digital citizenship education
(thanks Facebook Memories, for serving as a daily reminder for how much of a tool I was). The appreciation for the variety of digital consumers I think should keep us humble and empathetic as digital educators (if you’re an educator, your students will be put in a better position to be successful if you acknowledge your need to be a digital educator, assuming you live in a context with access).

This appreciation for empathy when approaching the idea of the spectrum of digital consumers has been a scaffolding process. One of my colleagues was providing a presentation to our staff about English Language Learners, and stated that we are all English Language Learners. That really resonated with me when considering the wide variety of proficiencies that exist regarding our respective grasp of the English language would also apply to the range of our grasps of digital literacy. With this, I consider that range of digital visitor/resident (which is presented as a continuum) as presented by Dave White.

However, upon watching Dave’s video, I became curious as to fluidity of being a digital visitor versus resident. When exploring that metaphor in a literal sense, we can see the impact visitors can make in new communities, and there can still be a trail or trace of their existence. This applies to online activity when considering webpage traffic, cookies, and histories. While we may not leave something easily visible to the public, those with the aptitude to perceive our presence online can do so. Therefore its important to remember our digital user classification isn’t definite either. I understand the context of the distinction Dave White makes as it pertains to our engagement with the digital world, but I also think it’s important to acknowledge the digital realm as an extension/part of our reality. Of which, relatively speaking, we’re all “residents” or “visitors”, and this is subject to change. But are we also digital “immigrants” or “natives”?

With digital immigrants and natives, there is a new issue presented that involves the peril in classifying individuals (clarification below). Its too subjective.

I do acknowledge the multitude of factors that can cause individuals to be predisposed to be better learners in different forms of literacy and the divide a failure to acknowledge this may cause. I acknowledge how certain generations may possess certain characteristics reflective of the context they grew up in. And I acknowledge that the digital world presents an exponentially increasing amount of change and challenges associated with it. But I fear we get too negative about the digital world and this can be a debilitating force against education. Like it or not, it is a part of the world we live in today.

That led me to consider drifting from the binary division of different types of educators and learners that I feel is presented in the distinction of digital immigrant/native, (and I wasn’t alone in this, thanks Megan). As I dug deeper, however, apparently Prensky felt similarly, opting to try to shift focus and emphasize “digital wisdom”, but was he successful in this endeavour?

Apparently the phrase digital wisdom didn’t catch on, but in reading Prensky’s work, he emphasized ideas after his digital immigrant/native article that, despite my personal critiques, he recognized and acknowledged as well. Two of which, I think are reflective of some main takeaways from my (and his) post:

  • Education and, by extension, the context in which digital literacy exists “should evolve” and so too must educators.
  • Educators need to listen to students. With this I think this connects to that empathy piece I mentioned before. 

We have to be cognizant of not over-generalizing the wide spectrum of learners that exist in the ever-changing digital world. Users are constantly increasing their fluency in digital literacy, and we are all digital literacy learners. Approaching all digital learners with that in mind, will keep us empathetic and adaptive to their learning process. With that, we will be practicing digital wisdom.

 

– Logan Petlak

 

Maximizing Education for Digital Literacy

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in ECI 832, Education Blog, Science Education

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Greetings ECI 832 bloggers, I’m going to bypass the introductions but if you’d like to know about my thoughts on distance education, EdTech, or social media, that might help you get to understand my philosophies of digital education a little bit better!

I have been really torn over what I should do for my project. Like, Katie, I feel well-versed in the educational app industry that investing my time analyzing some of them or new ones may not be as rewarding as either pursuing a social media activism project or creating a digital literacy resource. I think either of these would improve my capacity for change.

Motivations directing my learning

In the past several years, I have found myself at a loss on my personal social media platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram. Individuals whom I have spent a variety of stages of my life with, share posts and like pages that either incite division between people, or are factually inaccurate. The specific catalyst to consider this challenge as a project was the sharing of an anti-vaccination video that made claims that had no evidence or validity to their claims (my critique of this video isn’t to disparage critically looking at vaccinations or any medicines at all, mind you, but rather to challenge inaccuracies and our roles in perpetuating them when able). In discussing this with my students, I still noticed the need to approaching it from all sides, and giving each narrative the opportunity to share with dignity. This empathy rarely occurs in social media.

I value the difference of opinion and belief that exists among my friends, yet struggle to simply remain silent when, as an educator, I would feel obligated to address inequities or educate the uninformed when able. However, this presents the paradox of living the life of an educator in a classroom, promoting inclusion, empathy and reflective thought, yet practice the avoidance of “opinion” online and in social interactions among peers.  When considering the neutral-stance some (not all) educators must take on social media as they represent their divisions, schools, families and themselves, it also serves as a reminder to be aware of the wording and permanence of what is shared online, which is good, but it drives the narrative of: “you can educate your students, but beware should you take it to wear what you say never disappears”. I think we have to be digitally literate educators to model these behaviours online for our peers in addition to our students. This “moral imperative to share” needs to occur as educators when we have the means to educate beyond our classrooms.

So, how should this look then? What maximizes the capacity for change and education as it pertains to digital literacy? I was divided between creating activism posts (in vlog format) to share with my peers starring myself (which could double as classroom resources), and creating a senior science digital literacy resource to circulate for my fellow high school science teachers. I approach them as separate below, but it’s important to note that the end game may have some overlap!

Activism Posts: Promoting Empathetic Objectivity in Vlog Format or as a Senior Science Digital Literacy Resource

How I imagine the personal vlogs would look is very similar to that of the vlogbrothers. Attempting to educate others on being objective and empathetic (#empatheticobjectivity) when approaching certain scientifically-rooted “debates” on social media. The specific intention would be to promote mutual understandings, knowledge and therefore progress on issues that people otherwise remain divided on. I find John Green does a great job presenting alternative views (example below) on certain issues while providing evidence-based explanations, and would hope to emulate this with the intention of my videos also getting shares on my social media.

Here is an example I created for my biology courses in the distance learning course also with Alec.

I figured that this sharing would function as activism in my peer groups. I considered activism projects like this alongside my students, however, I want to try this within my social circle rather than having them potentially compromise their own social groups. That being said, I may involve them in the process I pursue by inviting them to observe and critique my comments and postings. If I were to continue these types of videos, but perhaps scale back and revolve around the Broad Areas of Learning in Saskatchewan Senior Science, I would need to identify certain mindsets to approach the vlogging – note that many of these revolve around the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship, with a specific focus on digital (and scientific) literacy. The main ideas that have been productive in the classroom when approaching discussions, is empathy and objectivity.

Then I considered the barriers if I were to simply go with vlogging, rather than a digital literacy resource:

  • How do I know peers that I think would benefit from the posting would actually watch it (tagging them in them would be too specific?
  • Resources: do I have enough time, digital recording tools and software to actually create something of acceptable quality.
  • If videos like this already exist, why not just share those?

The reality is, I probably wouldn’t be able to change the first two barriers in the foreseeable future, and the third barrier or consideration could be a positive short-term solution with less input of time required, and more transparency if this was an accumulation of resources educators in a variety of different contexts (not just the one I am apart of). Therefore the necessity or broader creation of the digital literacy resource for a content area in which I have a background, science, would appear to achieve a similar goal of empathetic objectivity. That would allow me to determine a definitive outline for potential videos in the future, were I to secure more resources, or begin promoting these ideals among other educators in our province. If that were successful, this may translate to an increased personal learning network that would increase my sharing-base in the future.

 

Critiques, thoughts?

Let me know!
Logan