The article that I chose to focus on this week was: Tackling Tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use by Nadine Yousif.

This time around, I decided not to go with a Template or Drag-n-Drop platform and decided to physically draw out my article summary/reflection by hand. I have never made a sketchnote before (and I’m not the greatest artist around), but I found this method to be kind of freeing as I was able to do literally whatever I wanted to do. At the same time, I feel like there were some restrictions, but more-or-less due to my inability to art well.

I have never done a sketchnote before, so now I can say that I have! 

Below you will find the sketchnote of my summarization:

   (Forgive my awful drawings! It’s the thought the counts!)

This article discusses the topic of allowing students to have their cellphones with them at their desks, but only with the utilization of the Yondr Case (a case that locks students’ phones away until the teacher unlocks it), or the more lenient, DIY Resistor Case (a similar idea but with Velcro instead of a lock to deter students from opening due to the loud sound).

These cases were created as a sure way to make sure that students would not be distracted by their cellular devices during class. According to the article, there are benefits of using either of that case with claims made from multiple Ontarian teachers who state that they have noticed a difference in the performance of their students. These teachers find that with the removed distraction of smartphones and devices, students seem to be more focused and are getting better scores than they had before.

The article also makes claims that these phone cases are seemingly more effective than having an outright ban of devices in the classroom (a ban that even Ontario Premier Doug Ford has proposed).

Personally, I have never heard of these cases before, and I can definitely see and understand how they can work and be of use in the classroom, but I also feel like you shouldn’t rule out technology in the classroom altogether.

I have both witnessed and experienced the distracting nature of cellphones in the classroom; however, I have also both witnessed and experienced the benefits of utilizing them in the classroom as well.

I have been the student in the room that has tried to escape from a boring lecture by scrolling through social media, and I have also been the student that pays extra attention when Kahoot! comes into play, or if we are exploring something digitally as a class that keeps me engaged on the topic at hand.

The same thing goes for the students that I have had the opportunity to teach thus far. I can see when they are disengaging and often times this turns into reaching into their pockets for their devices to stimulate their interests and escape from something they find to be boring. At the same time, these same students absolutely love and completely engage when Quizziz, Kahoot!, Gizmo, or the iPads in general come out.

In regards to these cases, it seems as though with the Yondr case, teachers are essentially locking away students’ phones until the students leave the classrooms. This leaves little to no opportunity to utilize technology in the class altogether.

So, with that being said, if I really had to choose between the two cases, I would definitely go with the more lenient DIY version that is the Resistor Case. Although students are still “locking away their devices”, they are doing so with Velcro. This is supposed to deter them from wanting to open their phones during class (because of the loud sounds the Velcro makes) which is apparently supposed to help teach students self-regulation when using their devices.

Another reason that I like the Velcro option more is that even though students are still putting their phones away, they are not physically locked out of the cases which allows opportunities for students to utilize their cellphones in class when it is appropriate to do so (i.e when the teacher has permitted it in class and a lesson requires its use).

As a teacher and a student, I understand the frustration that technology can have in the classroom, and I can understand why teachers may want to ban it all together; however, at the end of the day, I truly believe that technology can be a powerful tool in the classroom if utilized properly. Honestly, it seems absolutely ludicrous to me that there are conversations of banning cellphones in the classroom. Technology is always advancing and as educators we need to keep up with it and find ways to utilize them in the education of our students. Yes, students may be tempted to stray from their tasks with their devices, but it is a good idea to help them learn how to self-regulate and be responsible with their devices so that they may do great things.

But, that’s just my opinion. I would love to hear yours!

I read the article, Privacy Concerns for ClassDojo and Other Tracking Apps for Schoolchildren and it was very interesting to read. First and foremost, I never heard of this application and never thought one existed. While reading the opening few paragraphs, when it is discussing how a teacher can give points for treating others well, bringing supplies in to share for the class, and completing your homework, I thought, “well that is a neat idea on how to give points to a student. It is motivating the students and in return they are receiving points for their work.” Then it continued on saying, if you take your cellphone out you will get docked points, or if you do not finish your homework when it is due, you will also get docked points. As well, I thought, “well that is a great system on how to award points and take them away.” Right then and there, I was sold on using this app in my future classroom, but only with my principal’s and/or my school’s permission to use it. Teacher’s today have to be safe on sharing any confidential information online about their student. I would like to watch over my back and be safe if I ever work with this site. Your job is (always) on the line.

Continuing to read the article, I began to change my mind on the possibility of using this application. First off, I have to believe companies that make applications for school’s to use or just in general, make long ‘Privacy Acts’ that most of the time, the customer will just scroll through to the bottom and hit “Agree.” When I read that it was 18 pages long, I immediately thought, “no one is going to read every single word. They do this on purpose because they’re smart enough to know that not one teacher will read this agreement.” You may have a few teachers that will read a few paragraphs and give up because it is too long of a read, or you may have teachers that read the whole agreement. 

Relating this article, to our classroom and what we have learned about how social media works, is that I will not use this application in my classroom. There is always tweaks in the ‘Privacy Act’ that will get you. The company will know how to work around their terms because they will write them so vague, that they will leak students’ information to the world. But who knows, they might not do that. They say the teacher owns 100% of the rights on their profile. And again, no one knows because companies can figure out ways to outsmart the user. 

After reviewing Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use by Nadine Yousif I thought back to my times as a student in the classroom at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels and saw a strong connection and correlation to my memories and this article. Matthew Acheson, a high school teacher in Kitchener, ON at St. Mary’s has seen how distracted his students are from their cellphones. In a way to fight the distraction, he used a phone pouch that blocks wifi and social media apps, and the students can’t open the pouches unless he unlocks them. Mr Acheson found positive results with these pouches. 

After reflecting about distraction in the classroom via cellphones and laptops during my time as a student, I realized that the issues I observed during university lectures are trickling down into the high school and elementary school levels.

After being in placement at both levels, I find that as the years go on and our technology makes strides forward, the age of those with cell phones at school is drastically getting younger and younger. A number of my students in grades 5 and 6 had their own cell phones… Back in my time, it was almost unheard of. I personally didn’t get my first cell phone until grade 8 graduation.

As much as these devices are a distraction, they have a multitude of benefits. Technology, when used properly can help enrich classes and learning. However, the problem stems with those who have little to no self-regulation. 

The article mentioned an alternative pouch that Marcel O’Gorman, the individual who runs the Critical Media Lab at the University of Waterloo, used and enclosed the pouches with velcro, making it impossible for the students to get their phones without making a distraction and having all eyes on them. This method at least tackles and improves the notion of self-regulation to students.

Personally, I am not against technology in the classroom. But as an educator, I’m going to ask my students to partake in the use of technology and using pen & paper, allowing them to have exposure to both worlds and get experience for their digital literacy and fine motor skils.

After partaking in a Twitter chat around #unboundeq, my fondness for this application took over. It is a great medium to express yourself, convey information & messages and interact with followers & those interested in the hashtag.

Throughout the blog there are a few screenshots from my Twitter thread, and a link to the thread can be found here: https://twitter.com/guchimane1/status/1056342532039327745

At the rate our technology seems to move forward, fighting this issue is a tough battle. Some even say “they’re fighting a losing battle” (Mr Acheson said that, it’s in the article). I think as educators, this issue could be worked around by teaching our students the ideals of right time and place for everything.

In the article, laptops, classrooms, and matter of electrate concern, they discuss the use of laptops in the classroom. The discussion surrounds whether the laptops have a positive or negative effect on a student’s learning. The article discusses a study done to test the use of laptops and found that students who use a laptop to write notes result in lower understanding on tests and those also distracted by students using laptops result in lower understanding as well. It then goes to explain that the education system needs to rethink their views of laptops. Instead of disregarding the use of laptops, educational systems should rework their pedagogy to fit the use of laptops. The word that the article says is “electracy instruction”, which is the shift towards this new type of pedagogy that should be implemented into the classrooms.

I agree with the article- I believe that we need to shift towards this type of electronic-centered pedagogy. The use of laptops in the classroom are becoming more popular among students. Throughout my years of going to school I always wrote my notes; but, being French Immersion made that difficult for me. I was not able to write notes fast enough during lessons and it made it difficult for me to read them afterwards. I am also a perfectionist so when I handwrite notes I get distraught when my notes become disorganized. Throughout high school, I was told that we were not allowed to use to laptops to write notes; so, I continued to handwrite my notes even though that wasn’t the best method for me. Once I reached post-secondary I saw other students writing notes on their laptops which influenced me to give it a try. After writing notes for 5 years I have found that I am less stressed, and I am more organized. I also found using Microsoft Word made it easier and faster for me to write notes. This method improved my learning and I strongly believe that we allow students to choose as well. Each student learns differently and finding that note taking method is important to allow the student to be able to learn. What I learned from this article is that there are ways to execute this new pedagogy into my classroom effective. For example, the article mentions leaving the front two rows for students that don’t want to be distracted by laptops. That method could work to allow students that prefer to handwrite notes for my lessons they will be able to do it effectively and it won’t affect their learning.

There are benefits of using laptops in the classroom as well that help the students to improve their learning. Students can have online collaborations, in ways such as talking to other students from different classes or schools, or they have the ability to be able to collaborate with students in their class in online-discussions. I have done online discussions over the past few years and they allowed me to learn new information that I would have never found myself. Another benefit is being able to search more information, for example if a student does not understand a certain concept or term, they can immediately look it up on their laptops to better understand. The students will also have different ways for to learn the information, such as videos, images, or interactive websites. I am a visual learner, so going on the Internet to understand a concept better helps me to grasp it rather than only listening to the information being taught. The next benefit is the students will have organization. The students need organization in order to succeed, the laptops have notes that can be left on their home screen and there is a calendar built into the laptop that leaves notifications. I use my calendar on mine and it has helped me to stay organized and complete tasks on time. The next benefit is teachers can assign work online, such as on open source learning websites. Students use their laptops almost daily and assigning work online will help students keep on tracker with what is coming up. When I was in elementary and high school assignments had to be written down in my planner or given to me as a handout, but now the Internet allows for teachers do both, give a handout and assign it online. I have found it much easier for me to be check Blackboard for my assignments rather than having to carry around my binder with the assignments. The next benefit is review/feedback process is easier for teachers. If students hand their assignments in online the feedback and edits can be given instantly rather than waiting to give it to students. If assignments are close together I find it beneficial to get my feedback and edits faster to be able to start the next assignment. The next benefit is it improves student’s computer skills, which becomes useful for the students. The students will be using computers in the future for their jobs as it has become a desirable trait to have. As a student becoming a future teacher having computer skills is important, I had to teach myself how to use computers and now using my laptop more often has helped me to work towards better computer skills. These are the benefits of having laptops in the classroom and ways to improve students’ learning.

There are different ways that laptops can be useful to facilitate students learning in the classroom and outside of the classroom. A new teaching style is starting to become popular, which is called flipped classroom learning. The flipped classroom style is assigning a video or an article the night before a class to give the students an idea on what they are going to be learning the next day. I didn’t experience this kind of learning until university, which I would have liked to learn more this way. The students will be required to answer questions or come prepared to discussion the topic beforehand that way they have a little bit of knowledge before the lesson. The other usefulness of having laptops in the classroom is having online discussions, this could be with fellow colleagues in the classroom or with other individuals around world. I got to experience talking to another student from a different school in grade 8, which we called a pen pal. In the classroom we would write letters to our pen pal, but it became lengthy and difficult getting the letters back and forth. The technology now-a-day allows for faster responses to other schools or places. The other way that laptops can be used is to do research during lessons or for assignments. During the lessons students do not understand every aspect that is being taught and having access to a laptop allows them to research aspects in which they do not fully understand. Throughout high school if I didn’t understand an aspect of the lesson I would not think about or research it until I had to study that aspect. Now with laptops students are able to search for terms or concepts in an instant. The other way that a laptop can be used is to do online quizzes, rather than printing off multiple quizzes, the students could access them on the Internet. There are sites that I have used in the past, such as Quizlet or Plickers. I found them to be very useful to give students marks on their learning either after a lesson or the next day. The other usefulness of laptops is to edit, review, or give feedback either from the teacher or fellow students. I used a website called Peergrade that allows students give feedback to their fellow classmates. This will help students to learn new things from their fellow classmates and to practice edit and giving feedback to others. These are some of the many ways that allowing and using laptops in the classroom are useful.

With all these benefits there are limitations to having laptops in the classroom. The first limitation is students becoming distracted on their laptops. During lessons when students no longer have the attention span during lessons they begin to message friends, check emails, or go on social media. This could affect their marks, but that depends on the students as well as some can still succeed on tests if they only get distracted for a few minutes. I have become distracted during lessons as well during school, but I still succeeded in my classes and went onto to working towards my dream job. The other limitation is students not having access to the Internet or laptops. Some or a majority of students may not have access to laptops or to the Internet, but there are solutions to that problem as well. Schools are now assigning iPads or Chromebooks to students that need them to use in school and at home. The teachers will also have to allow students to work on assignments in class to make it fair for all students. I have always been lucky enough to have access to Internet and a computer to work on my assignments, which I understand not everyone has. These are the limitations of using laptops in the classrooms.

I choose to do an infographic for my multimedia reflection, I choose this because my family was sent an infographic for our Russell’s 3on3 Hockey Tournament fundraiser and it inspired me to do one as well. I have never made an infographic in the past and making one for this made me nervous. I didn’t know how much information is too much or not enough. After making one though I feel more comfortable making it, I understand more what goes on them and how the organization aspect of them is important. The infographic I created is my view of having laptops, so I put an introduction, the benefits, a statistic, the limitations, the applications, and a conclusion. These certain things will help individuals to decide whether they agree with my view or not.

Infographic – You Never Know Unless You Try here is a PDF version as well.

The Article (original)

laptops, classrooms, and matters of electrate concern

The much more creative response (Original by: Kyle)

The Writing Part

I chose to do Piktochart again because I think this format can have a lot of fun and get the point across very quickly. The format also fit the article I chose to respond to, in case you missed it https://profalexreid.com/2016/05/17/laptops-classrooms-and-matters-of-electrate-concern/  is an article that goes on to say that technology is very scary and nobody has a real plan for it yet. When I say nobody has a plan, I mean nobody: not the teachers, not the students, not the parents or the principals. Yet this is an emerging area of learning that is only growing and it cannot be ignored, and it cannot be contained by a small plastic pouch.

It is easy to dismiss technology and call it a fad that is not worth investing too many resources in. However, is that what teaching is really about? I always thought teaching was about pushing the envelope and refining your lessons and making them as interesting for the students as possible. Technology is giving us (the teachers) a chance to teach in a way that was not available before and will improve before we know it; and I intended to embrace it and try and help my students see past technology as a faucet for social media. When I decided on becoming a teacher I envisioned myself being the laid back English teacher who would do things as boring predecessors had done before me. As I spent more time in the ed program I realized how fun being new could be and all the technology I had at my disposal could help me make a difference. In my placements I never really used tech at all, aside from a slide show or two. Reflecting on those experiences I realize how I can add to each lesson or change them entirely with different mediums that I never would have thought could be used for teaching. Twitter and instagram were becoming less of a social media construct and became a way to easily share and reflect on one another work. Technology is something I will be using in the future and it will be something I’m going to fail at using but its going to be something I never stop trying.

Technology as I stated is always changing and improving which is why I chose to do a Piktochart again. If this platform is still relevant I wanted to show that I could improve on my work from the previous lesson because I felt that I could still do better. As long as a platform is relevant I do not see the problem in using it again as long as you can get a firmer handle on how to use it to your advantage. I think technology only becomes a problem when you are lazy with it. If you are constantly trying to better yourself like with any new skill, such as, juggling it only becomes boring when you stop adding more balls. When you feel like you’ve mastered all juggling has to offer go try a new skill. With regards to technology I feel like I have mastered Piktochart and I am eager to start my next response in a new platform I can grow with.

After reading the article “Leave no Dark Corner” I immediately thought of how different our lives would be if we grew up in a society with a social credit system.  As described in the article, citizens in this system would lose credits which would ban them from certain benefits/privileges in society such as using public transportation, travel, or certain jobs. The citizens in this system could potentially lose credits for what they buy, who they date/marry, who their friends are or who their parents are.

The article made me think about how different our childhood could have been and for some reason I thought of one of my favorite childhood TV shows (since I am being the shows character for Halloween). I chose to depict a scene of Steve from Blues Clues happily receiving a letter only to find out the letter is informing him that he has lost 10 social credit points. He does not understand why he lost these points, then in the next scene we see Steve’s twin brother Joe robbing a jewelry store suggesting that Steve undeserving lost his social credits due to a case of false identity.

I chose to represent this scene using the resource Storyboardthat.com because it is a new resource that i was recently introduced to that is easily customizable and i believed could be used to effectively present my thoughts on this subject.

I foresee a lot of issues with this social credit system. First of all in a world where identity theft is such a big issue, I see a lot of potential for undeserving credit loss. Secondly, I do not agree with the reasons you can lose credit. I believe the reasons for losing points will leave a lot of people vulnerable and isolated based on factors they cannot control. For example, losing points based on who your parents are and what they do is socially unjust and will only lead to cases of intergenerational poverty. This system will unfairly isolate those who are already born into oppression.

I completely disagree with this Idea of a social credit system mainly because this system will oppress people based on things out of their control. For example, my grandmother was born in an orphanage along with her nine other half brothers and sisters. She was one of the few who were never adopted and lived her life in orphanages or group homes until she turned 18 and was kicked out into the world. She was born into poverty and when my father was growing up he worked hard to escape that life and to provide a better life for his own children. If we lived with this social credit system, my father would have had to work twice as hard to get where he is now. He would have lost points due to my grandmothers misfortunes and due to the fact that my grandfather was an alcoholic. This would have most likely affected my life as well and my grandchildren as well creating a chain of intergenerational oppression.

I believe one of the biggest problems with our society is that people work against one another to get to the top and once they’re they they use their power to oppress those below them rather than help lift them up. This social credit system will only make this issue worse. As a teacher I want to help my students achieve their best potential in life. I believe in equality and not a system of social classes/cliques. Imagine you are planning a field trip for your students and then you find out that one of your students cannot go because he has a “social credit” of 50/800. Even worse, the reason he has this poor social credit is because he is the son of a criminal.

In conclusion, I believe a social credit system which grades citizens and can determine their quality of life is inhumane and is a horrible idea.