#UWinDig

At first glance, some may find this article about the Chinese Social Credit system set to fully role out in 2020 not directly relatable to education in the Western world. It reads as the script of a Black Mirror episode (in fact, it eerily reflects this particular episode.) The basic idea is that the State will use their vast surveillance system to give citizens a social credit score. Citizens will receive rewards for higher scores, while those with lower scores will receive punishments. An example of a punishment would be blocking them from flights and high-speed rail – i.e. restricting their movement.

While it seems this is happening a world away, this is something we should be examining. The State is controlling behaviour of their citizens with a behaviour reward system. It sounds a lot like the type of systems many teachers are using, like Class Dojo, to manage behaviour in their own classes.

Before reading this article, I didn’t think much about tools like Class Dojo. I thought they might be helpful tools but had thought very critically about them. After reading more about China’s social credit system, I can see some real dangers in this type of system in a micro-culture like a classroom. There are three major issues that it has illuminated for me: how do we decide what behaviours are acceptable, is it okay to publicly (or even privately) shame students for their behaviour, and what kind of biases do we have towards students because of the people they spend time with?

As teachers, how do we decide exactly what behaviours are acceptable? While examining the social credit system in China, this was one of the things that struck me. Who decides what is proper moral behaviour? In the classroom this looks different than what we might see on a grander level. For instance, if a student continuously stands up and walks about the classroom, many teachers may decide this is undesirable behaviour. They may loose points on their class dojo. BUT, what if this student thinks best while moving.

The second issue this brings up is the idea of shaming students. The social credit score publicly shames and assigns a number to someone based on their behaviour. This number is likely very difficult to change once it goes too far one way or the other. This is similar to a student in a classroom. If we are using systems like Class Dojo are we labeling students with a number and shaming them publicly. How difficult do we make it for students to turn their behaviour around and start over?

The last point I’d like to make is that one of the behaviours that will have an impact on social credit score in China is who you are friends with and spend time with. Even if your friends post something negative on social media about the government, you will loose points for it. Do we punish students for who they are spending time? Or more likely, are we biased towards them because of the people they spend time with?

While I believe things like Class Dojo are still a far cry from the system that is rolling out in China, I think it is something we should be examining. How do you view behaviour management systems in the classroom? Do you think they are similar at all to the surveillance systems that exist in China? Or are we going to far in this comparison?

Click below to view my Prezi!

I chose to analyze the article “Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use” by Nadine Yousif. I thought that this article was written to an older audience, like students parents and grand parents who would be reading it thinking, wow that’s such a great idea. No offence to those who believe that it is, however I think it past time for teachers to welcome technology, including cell phones into the classroom. Yousif says “Its just another attempt at the seemingly impossible: separating teens from their smartphones”, in reference to a teacher who decided to lock his students phones in bags that can only be opened with a special device. Perhaps we shouldn’t try to go against the culture, or against what is normative for teens. Instead I think we should shift the focus from separating students from their smartphones, to integrating them in meaningful ways. The idea of banning cellphones in schools and classrooms is regressive in todays society.

Cellphones are a powerful tool that allow us to have access to the world at our fingertips. We have a wealth of knowledge in our hand, it is a library, a thesaurus, it allows us to connect to experts and thinkers in all fields, as well as have social connections and PLN without much effort. Teachers should welcome such an incredible learning tool and integrate it into their pedagogy and teaching practice. Doug Ford also suggests in a citation from the article that schools should have a phone ban to maximize learning time. I don’t think this will help math scores or school performance from students. I think it is not reflective of the real word. I think that having hard lines like a ban only makes students use their phones secretively, and when that’s the case they will never use them as a learning tool. No student is going to sneak on their phone and risk getting in trouble to look up information or fact check. Even the teacher who used a less severe method and had students put their phones in a bag that had Velcro (as a deterrent due to the noise) strikes me as a very authoritarian approach. This reminds me of an industrial teaching model where students are workers and the teacher is the rigid supervisor. I think teaching approaches are moving away from this model and becoming more student centered, and a student centered model considers students needs and learning preferences.

As a student in high school I remember having a total phone ban. If (or should I say when) a teacher caught you using your phone they would take it away and bring it to the office. We never were allowed to use our phones during class, nor did we have computers anywhere except the library (no tablets either). We were unable to access any information outside our often dry text books. As a student I find researching subjects, and looking at examples online very beneficial for a deeper understanding, and for idea generation. Sometimes when I don’t know where to start a quick google search helps me, as I am a visual learner. Also, even though we didn’t use our phones for education we all would use them to text as soon as we felt the teacher wasn’t looking. Due to the fact that they were banned I don’t think they were used to their potential.

My associate teacher in a grade 8 classroom had a great system going for appropriate use of technology. He had made a pouch at the back of the room where each student had a slot for their phone with their name on it. Students put their phones in the slot during direct instructional time. When he had them working on an activity or looking up information they were allowed to go and get them and put a orange piece of paper in their slot. There where times were he would ask them to keep their phones in the pouch, and he  would make some keep their phone away if they abused the privilege. I found that students were very respectful, and this system worked well. My AT was aware that they may check a few texts or Instagram, however they did not take advantage of that. My AT was very engaged with his students and would walk around interacting with them during seat work. This classroom did not have computers or enough tablets for every student. Much of the research and information gathering they did was on their phones and with a handful of tablets. I think his classroom was a great example of what student led learning looks like.  In my future classroom I would like to follow a similar structure. I would also have an ongoing conversation with my students about being polite while being tech savvy. I do think its rude to be on your phone while someone is talking to you, but if the teacher is done talking and the student is engaged in learning, tech and phones can aid and engage students in the process!

Tabitha Klein

I decided to do a rant style video on some initial thoughts I had while reading the article.

#rantandrave

Matt Rosof’s article, Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app from their phone in the last year, says study, discusses the results of a recent study which indicates that nearly half of young facebook users, aged 18-29, have decided to delete the Facebook app off of their phones. The study found that some decided to delete the application outright while others have elected to take a break from Facebook. Facebook’s stocks have taken a hit, 20%,  due to the volume of users that are moving away from the core Facebook application.The recent Facebook scandals, FBI russia probe and the Cambridge Analytica incident, are a large reason for the current Facebook exodus. What concerns users most is how their data is being manipulated by others for their own personal gain.

I chose to do my multimedia artifact on this article due to the fact that I have been contemplating deleting Facebook for some time. I really like how Facebook can connect us with people we haven’t seen in along time or help us to keep in contact with those people. Another great reason to keep Facebook is the group chats that, for example, we have started here at the Faculty of Education. Those group chats have the potential for great collaboration once we get into the field and begin teaching our own classes. In saying this, I believe that the potential issues that can arise due to the application outweigh the positives. I, like many others, have purged my Facebook account of anything that is deemed to be slightly unprofessional, however I can’t be sure that I have deleted everything. To me deleting the application seems like a smart option. Another issue that could arise from Facebook is if we are tagged in a photo that is deemed unprofessional then we could face consequences from administration. Also what if our accounts were to be hacked, seeing as Facebook’s security is in question lately, and something inappropriate is thus said. We would take the flack for such an incident. I simply don’t think the positives outweigh the potential negatives. The fact that our feeds can be manipulated along with our data, like the article explained, is enough to scare anyone let alone someone in a profession in which their content is constantly scrutinized. Having now read the article and combining it’s ideas with my previous feeling’s I have decided, like many others, that I will be joining the great Facebook exodus.  

Pdf: MindMup 2 Oct 27 18

Brandan Joyce

Looking back to 2008/2009, I thought Facebook was the ultimate tool for connecting with friends and finding new friends who didn’t go to my school. Seemingly everyone between the ages of 12 and 30 were using Facebook, and if you weren’t, you were missing out. Fast forward to today, and you’ll realize that Facebook no longer holds this same level of popularity among young social media users. Currently, I only really use Facebook in order to keep in contact with fellow students, as it is an easy way to communicate without having to exchange numbers. I rarely post anything. This seems to be the case among many of my other friends who are just barely hanging on to platform. According to Matt Rosoff’s Article, 44% of millennial users have decided to delete the Facebook app from their phone. This drop in user popularity goes beyond trends and new social media platforms.

Rosoff explains that Facebook’s declining popularity among millennial users is closely linked to Facebook’s scandalous year. Facebook was found to be involved in two main scandals; allowing Russian operatives to utilize the platform spread fake news in an attempt to manipulate the 2016 US election, as well as instances of improperly using the personal data of its users. Obviously, these scandals have struck a nerve with millennial social media users, but why mainly them? What is causing these young people to jump ship?

The largely media literate millennial social media using population has become less and less comfortable with sharing their personal information on a website such as Facebook. A solid understanding of the importance of protecting personal information has driven many young users away from Facebook, for an understandable fear that their information was not safe. Many people of older generations may not have this same media literacy, and are much less bothered by the scandals that Facebook has been involved in. This may explain why Facebook remains popular among older social media users. These older social media users may not have the necessary media literacy skills to decipher between ‘fake news’, shared with them in order to manipulate their opinions on certain matters. This skill may also be absent among the younger generation. Although they are highly digitally literate in their own ways, our youth may not always be able to look at everything they see online through a skeptical lens, as they should be.

This article helps to reveal the real issue with posting online. As teachers, we are constantly reminded that anything we post on social media can be found by anyone. This is why it is so integral to be careful with what you’re posting on any particular platform. We have to now pass along some of the useful lessons of this article to our students. Our youth needs to understand the implications of having personal information on social media. Although we often think of ourselves as the manipulators of these various platforms, it is we who are being manipulated. We need to remind our students that personal information should stay private, because you never know how that information is being used.

This article definitely shifted my opinions on the matter of privacy and social media . Previously, I had never really been too weary about putting my information on social media. I had thought that anything that was marked as ‘private’ would stay as such, and that anything that I deemed ‘public’ could be shared. Unfortunately, platforms such as Facebook has proved on multiple occasions that they cannot be trusted with our private info, which will undoubtedly result in its continuing downfall. Personally, I will continue to use Facebook for communication purposes, however, I will stay away from putting up any personal information. I will bring the main ideas of this article into the classroom as I believe that it is integral that students understand that their information is not as safe as they may have initially thought.

#UWinDig

Link to my twitter essay

Link to Matt Rosoff’s article

Throughout our brave new technological world, social mediums have become remarkably popular, and some would argue, now have an iron grasp on our society’s youth. The development of social media giants, such as Facebook, have changed the world that we all live in. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation has undoubtedly connected various people across the world, particularly through Facebook’s instant messaging. Having a strong connection with both Great Britain and Norway, I personally know the positives that social media applications, like Facebook, can have upon people separated from their family and friends. Although Facebook has its positives, it has become increasingly obvious that there have been systemic problems with Facebook and its users’ privacy.

Matt Rosoff’s article, Facebook Exodus, depicts how once loyal Facebook users, within the coveted 18-29 year old demographic, have increasingly ‘unfriended’ Facebook, which according to the author, has a direct link to the negative press surrounding Russian trolls and Cambridge Analytica’s usage of the social network’s platform. These various scandals have seen governing bodies across the world, for example, the European Union, question Facebook surrounding its policies with regards to personal data. This is not solely a European phenomenon, as in the United States, Facebook’s creator and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, testified before the United States Congress, ultimately attempting to explain how personal data is collected and used online. In this world of increasing technological complexity, some have questioned how we, as a society, have got here and how to ensure that younger users of social media platforms, like Facebook, are protected online.

It was this question that piqued my own interest as a fledgling educator. I was fascinated to think critically of the ways in which we can ensure that our students, and their digital footprint, is protected. As touched upon within my Twitter essay, I feel that the best way that we can make absolutely certain that our students feel safe and secure online is through teaching digital and media literacy. Without this, our future students will fall into the same traps that many of us have fallen into, such as believing in fake news and leaving our online footprint vulnerable to those who may wish to use our data for nefarious purposes. I believe that our goal as educators of the next generation is to ensure that they do not repeat the mistakes of our past. If, you too, feel that this is important, teaching authentic and engaging digital and media literacy is paramount. This can be done through different ways, one of the main means through which I will seek to promote a strong understanding of media and digital literacy in my classroom is through informing students of privacy settings and how even by a relatively minor adjustment, their data can be safe from harvesters in the future!

Although schools and students were not directly mentioned in Rosoff’s article, I could not help but reflect upon my own educational experience with regards to data and my digital footprint. My Grade Twelve History teacher used Edmodo exclusively, which has been in the news as a result of hacking that breached the accounts of millions of users. I feel that my own journey through education was fairly limited in exposure to good technological and online practices, thus, I have had to develop my own knowledge and consult online and print sources in order protect myself in our rapidly developing technological world. As the educators of tomorrow, we must first have an understanding of our increasingly digital world and secondly, celebrate our acquired understanding with our students. Hence, partially remedying the lack of technological know-how that I feel characterised my own educational experience.

Rosoff’s article was outstanding in its ability to not only break down issues that Facebook has had with regards to its users’ data but left me critically thinking, where do we as a society go from here? Is it possible that we have already surrendered to an Orwellian state, where we are constantly watched and increasingly controlled by powerful corporations? As in everything, it is the future that will inevitably inform us if this is the case.

In creating this multimedia reflection, I used Prezi for the first time. Maybe I was far behind the times, but I had actually never heard of it until this class began. It was an interesting experience. One that was full of frustration when I found that the template was very confining. Perhaps this was only the case because I was so unfamiliar with the platform. One frustration is that my Prezi presentation cannot be embedded live into this blog. To circumvent this, I have included the link below to the presentation, and have included select screenshots throughout to provide a glimpse into the presentation.

Click here to view the complete presentation!

Nadine Yousif raises a number of possible solutions to the challenge cellphones pose in classrooms in the article “Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use”.  Ultimately, many teachers and politicians believe that the distractions that cell phones create in the classroom outweigh the many ways that handheld devices can be used to enhance learning experiences. This topic is not new to education, the same one was occurring 10 years ago when I was in high school. Frankly, the same techniques were being discussed: banning devices, sealed containers, etc. Everything except teaching students the self-regulation skills that would transfer to their daily lives.

While an increased academic performance due to digital abstinence (a term used by Marcel O’Gorman in the article) is certainly admirable, I am left wondering how students will benefit from these practices long term. Once they leave high school and are in a university, college, or workplace environment, there will not be an authority figure making them put their device in a sealed pouch. Rather they will be forced to self-regulate, a skill they will not have developed during their adolescent years.

Prior to reading this article, I was not aware that these solutions were still such hot topics in education. I thought we had moved past the point of digital abstinence (particularly given that there are entire schools that utilize Chromebooks in all classes). The new Ontario government pushing old ideas as if they are revolutionary is no surprise. They would also like us to go back to outdated and disproven teaching practices in key subjects. We know that today we are preparing students for a future that is beyond our imaginations. We don’t know what the world will look like in ten years, what skills the students will need, or how we can get them there. So we need to empower them to develop these skills independently. Limiting their access to technology will only do them a disservice in an increasingly digital world. This article is very one-sided. It completely neglects to review the positive aspects of technology in the classroom. Without a comprehensive review of the benefits and the drawbacks, we do ourselves and our students a disservice.

Given that the conversation has not changed in a decade, I believe that it is time for politicians to support teachers and empower them to embraceersonal handheld devices in classes. There is an opportunity to help students learn valuable life skills that are directly transferable to their current lives and to their future careers. As a student, I wish my teachers had taught us how to use our devices responsibly, to help us use them to supplement our learning and to enhance our environment. Device bans represent a group of people who are fearful of technology and the rate at which it develops. The time has come to embrace technology in our classrooms and allow students to develop their digital literacy skills in ways that we cannot fathom.

In the September 14th episode of the Spark podcast, Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and author of the book: ‘Click Here To Kill Everybody – Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World‘ discusses the dangers of the integration of technology into our everyday household and personal items. For example, Bruce referenced this ominous youtube video about research related to the hacking of smart cars.

For this multimedia presentation, I decided to use Canva to create an infographic representing  a few of these threats.  As I am beginning to become more familiar with Canva as a platform, I found it to be a very useful and convenient way to create an infographic.

Technological Threats

Prior to listening to this podcast, and throughout my entire life, I have always been wary of the integration of technology into our lives.  Growing up in the 90’s, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to witness the development of the technological age. As a child there was no internet in my home, we didn’t have cellphones, there was no social media. It has truly been an incredible time to be alive. However, often I would hear about concepts such as G.P.S. technology in cellphones and cars, and I would wonder about the impact that this would have on our personal privacy. Is it worth being able to find the nearest Tim Hortons knowing that the same technology could be used by others to find your exact location? The content of this podcast has both confirmed and furthered my fears.

I used the medium of Prezi to represent the ideas of the article “Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use” by Nadine Yousifi. I really enjoyed using the medium of Prezi, it was an easy medium use with many templates t0 pick from. Although there was templates I did not feel constricted because each template had many edit options. One thing I did not like was the presentation could not be downloaded and I had no idea how to add the presentation to the blog, I figured it out after talking to classmates. In the form of a Prezi presentation, I looked at the influence of handheld devices, mostly cellphones in the classroom and expressed my opinion on the concept of cellphones and technology in the classroom. The article goes through strategies to remove cellphones from the classroom resulting in a decrease of distractions as well. Two strategies are mentioned in forms of a cases, students put their phones in the case to remove them from the scene, remove Wi-Fi and so on. In the end, the decrease of distractions resulted in more class engagement and increased grade percentages.

Before reading the text, I knew that handheld devices were a distraction within the classroom and something needed to be done to help curve the distraction portion. I was hoping to hear more about the adaptation of handheld devices into the classroom and how we as educators can help utilize these devices and also minimize the distractions. I did find new information within the text though, the methods to decrease cellphone distractions were new and brilliant to me. Using cases to remove the cellphone services and WIFI is a great start to decreasing the distractions. but I really liked the second case model  where the velcro strip acted as a self-regulation tool. I feel that is one thing students are lacking, self regulation, and if we can incorporate this kill into the education world then why not help!

The world today is adapting and I think and strongly believe that as educators we need to have a growth mind set and adapt to the times, not ignore them. I do agree that cellphones are a distraction in the class, there is no doubting that, I just think we need to find a healthy balance between using devices and focusing on the lesson. There is a time and place for everything. Throughout my job history as a gymnastics coach, I have seen the increase in technology, I have seen how it distracts gymnastics coaches from their jobs, and athletes from training but I have also seen how it can enhance a coach by watching videos of drills and showing athletes the proper way to perform a skill.  Even within my placements I have seen the use of cellphones and handheld devices for good in terms of class participation, using the app ” Formative”, “Kahoot” and so on. Although this is the case, I have also seen the negatives and distractions that come along, like being on phones during lessons and independent work. Even as a student myself, I feel the distraction, going on my phone during class, looking through Facebook. I really liked the one case presented in the article, it was Velcro closed and the teacher used it as a self-regulation tool, yes students could have opened it and got their phone, but it would have been very loud and distracting. The other case was a locked case that students couldn’t get access to, this is not a good choice in my opinion because its hiding the problem and not helping solve it.

Yes, education and paying attention is important for students to succeed, and like the article stated, with the decrease in cellphone distractions there was a grade percentage increase, I just strongly think that we could find a balance between putting the distraction away and embracing the distraction.

Click the picture to see the presentation! 

Ashley Evans