21st Century Students

This is my last blog post for a while...wow I look back at my first post and see that I was NOT looking forward to writing a blog!!  But I've come around, and now almost enjoy sharing my ideas online. I'm thankful for these experiences, not everyone can take classes nor has the time to devote to furthering their education.  I have learned so much too, especially from my fellow students, so thanks very much.  And of course my teacher, Nicole. A million thanks for making this so interesting.  My advice: if you want to be a 21st Century Teacher, you need this class!  Especially the reluctant ones like myself...  

 "15 Characteristics of a 21st Century Teacher" by Tsisana Palmer gives us a list of important qualities (mostly technological) that if you really want to be a 21st century teacher, you must possess.  Here are some:  blog, go paperless and use digital sources, connect with others, use twitter chat, learn code, etc. I think I'm doing well if I tried 8 - 10 out of these 15.  I'm not sure I know anyone who is pursuing all 15 of these characteristics, but of course there are a lot more ambitious teachers out there than me.I just know my head would explode if I chased this list.  It's a helpful list, but seemed overwhelming to me.  I would pick and choose some to concentrate on.

Now let's talk about 21st Century Students.

In the article "The Critical 21st Century Skills Every Student Needs and Why" by Lee W. Crockett, the essential skills, which are pretty much the 4 C's we have discussed before (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking) are emphasized.  The author suggests that teachers are working almost blindly because we don't know yet what future employment will look like for some students; it states that teachers have the job of preparing kids for a future that hasn't arrived yet, or is arriving quickly.  But I think that's pretty much true of every generation, because there have been some massive changes in our world in the past century.  Most importantly teachers have to be ready to embrace the ambiguity and changes in education and try to move their students toward the future.  

Before I read these articles for our last week, I read "Poor Students Face Digital Divide in How Teachers Learn to Use Tech," by Benjamin Harold in Education Week, June 14, 2017.  It discusses the fact that there are still plenty of schools that don't have the same resources.  There's a digital divide of the haves and the have-nots, not just in terms of hardware and internet access, but also in terms of how well trained the teachers are in using tech.  It uses two schools in the Pittsburgh area as examples of how deep the differences can be.  The school with money has established a STEAM program that is doing well.  The other school has different priorities.

Here's a clip from an administrator from the school with many resources.

                                                                   Education Week, 2017


Here's one from the school without many resources.

                                                                   Education Week, 2017

As you can see, the two schools have different priorities.  I would argue though that the school with the least amount of resources is the one that needs teacher training in technology even more.  Those students are losing out, because as Daniel Pink explains, in "The 21st Century Workplace," 

Schools must prepare students for a different workplace--one that values innovation, imagination, creativity, communication, and emotional intelligence [Pink, 233].

Week 10!! How is that possible?? The SAMR Framework

Oh oh oh I'm getting very excited here!  I think I've cracked the code of SAMR!  I learned about SAMR before, but didn't quite understand it, not sure why, maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.  But now, I really get it!  Especially loving equating SAMR level to Bloom's taxonomy, too!

Let me back this thing up...SAMR is a way to integrate the use of technology into the classroom.  This much I knew before.  The levels are:  Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition.  Sounds impressive, right?  I couldn't wrap my head around it.  I didn't quite understand how the levels differed from each other, that was part of my confusion, and I think I couldn't see the application of this model in the classroom.  I don't know why!  Because it seems so obvious to me, now that I've looked at the awesome resources Nicole shared with us for this method.

The first resource for understanding SAMR is a 2 minute video with concrete examples.  That nailed it for me, because the video is about writing an essay, which is something I have done a million times in my classroom.  In the Substitution level, instead of using pen and pencil, students use their chromebooks (word processing).  In the Augmentation level, a google doc saved to the cloud and able to be accessed anywhere is "an increase in functionality," thus the augmented title because it's not a single document any more, sitting somewhere all by it's lonesome, the use of google allows for accessibility and revision.  For the next level, Modification, technology lets students easily redesign parts of their writing, as in the example given, where students can collaborate on a doc through the use of the comments feature.  And for Redefinition, students are able to collaborate with other students across the country and create new material using various features of google docs, such as the voice comments app.  I also watched the John Spencer  video, he begins by explaining that the first two levels are considered enhancement of the learning task, and the last two levels are the transformation of that task.  He also uses the example of writing an essay, which becomes a blog post for an authentic audience, which then becomes an article for a wider audience (the whole world).  In the last level, Redefinition, he gives multiple ways of how that blog post can become an edited video, or a podcast, etc.  He notes that as you move up in the SAMR model, there are possibilities for multimedia creation as well as communication with the rest of the world.  That's pretty transformative from what students have done in the past!

The wiki page link that Nicole supplied demonstrated the use of assignments like the study of Shakespeare, story writing, vocabulary analysis and  character analysis that helped me understand this model better, as well as sharing resources to reach that Redefinition level.  This poster below has a helpful list of apps for each level.

SAMR Apps in Education.png

With some assignments I am at the augmentation level, when my students have created wiki pages and used haiku deck and other programs to share and present their work.  Groups of students have worked on projects together that they have then changed into Keynote presentations and my classes have also used audio and video components in their assignments, so that would move us into the Modification area.  But we have never reached the Redefinition point.  Sometimes I think it's a lack of time, but now that I'm more aware of the Redefinition level and what it consists of, I would like my students to achieve at that level.  I want that to be a priority.  Because that's where transformative learning happens.  Now that I have a much better idea of what that looks like, that will be our goal.

I briefly read about the Triple E Framework and the Technology Integration Matrix, they look so interesting too.  Thanks Nicole, you have given me many ideas to read about this summer! These models can help us integrate technology into our classrooms, and they can also help us see how effective the use of tech is.  

Digital Tattoos

This assignment was both interesting and nerve-wracking.  At times I was really curious to see what these sites would reveal about me, and at other times I was nervous.  One of the first sites I went to, Instantcheckmate.com, had all these quotes on their website about cheating husbands and wives, people trying to find other people they'd been in a car accident with, etc.  The website requires you to make many promises, along the lines of not stalking people when using the info, and other kinda creepy questions.  I mean, I was data mining about myself, but still, I can see how someone would pay for this information and use it with bad intent.  This website claims it has information about misdemeanors, felonies, even traffic tickets.  I think that's a bit much.  Here's a quote from the site:

" Some reports feature user comments which may contain helpful and informative details, insider knowledge and surprising information. By continuing, you are acknowledging that you may see comments written by real people that expose additional truth about Carol Gutekanst."
https://www.instantcheckmate.com/report-review/


It sounds a bit lurid, no?  I would hate to be a celebrity, because there's way too much information about these people out there already.  I'm a nobody and this site promises all this juicy gossip...The next step discusses how this background report on me may be graphic and how they don't censor their reports.  I got a bit further in this website and they asked for money, so I decided not to continue.  

This was a surprising way to start my data mining, so I decided to try another website that I'd heard about, but never visited:  RateMyTeachers.com.  Well I first tried Illinois-teachers.findthedata.org., but for some reason I wasn't able to access it.  So RMTs made me feel good about myself, because there were a few nice comments.  I hear my students talk about the site all the time, but apparently most of them don't post comments.  

After that I went to a couple other sites and found information was sometimes true and sometimes untrue.  One site had incorrect information about my salary and my age.  There were mentions of people I'd never heard of as my relatives.  I saw my name come up in connection to some high school athletic coaches' blogs because my son played sports and I would host pasta parties or parents parties.  I found some pictures as well of my son running cross and I'm in the background...that was a nice reminder of my son's high school years.  A quote I had sent to a publisher came up a few times during my data dig, I completely forgot about it but they use it in their advertising.  Even my high school has an online alumnae website where they post births and deaths.

This assignment is making me think about privacy, and whether we are entitled to it any more or not.  It also makes me think about the issue of our phone companies allowing federal authorities access to our information.  Usually this is related to some high-stakes situation, but you never know, maybe this practice will become more widespread.  Do I sound paranoid?  Teachers need to discuss these issues with students, probably more than once, so students are really aware of all that is out there about them.  During Nicole's presentation she discussed the online presence of babies and young children.  It seems innocent enough, but I encourage my nieces and nephews not to post pictures online.  I think it's ok to text pics, but I'm not sure about online.  

Carol Gutekanst

Teacher at Maine East High School

Greater Chicago Area

Primary/Secondary Education

Current	Maine East High School

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In Sympathy - Regina Dominican High School

https://rdhs.org/alumnae/in-sympathy/

Chris George Gutekanst, father of Carol Gutekanst '76, Karen Gutekanst Barr '78, Mary, Cathleen, Noreen, Rita and Joan. 

Finishing up, I went to a few other sites and found pretty much the same information.  My friends and I laugh and say how glad we are that we grew up when we did, because I ran with a slightly wild bunch, and our indiscretions are not on view for everyone to see. I'm always telling my students and my son, you can't be too careful!!  And now that I've done this data dig, I really believe that.  When I'm online I rarely think about the digital tattoo I'm leaving.  Even with this blog for class, and other websites and blogs I've written, I see them mostly as assignments to be done.  But the fact that they are available to the public is something I need to remember.

Social Media in Education

OK, I kick it old school.  I get a bit freaked out when I see students in class taking selfies.  Or I get a bit annoyed when my students are constantly on their phone, and trying to hide it from me.  I recently reprimanded a student when I saw her making duckface while taking a selfie...she was supposed to be finishing a test!  But according to Getting Started with Snapchat in Your Classroom, our students are using Snapchat and we should be ok with that.  In fact, we should look for ways to use Snapchat as a learning tool instead of trying to exclude it from our rooms.

Snapchat is essentially a way to tell stories.  So although your story doesn't need to be tightly scripted, there are some things to think about before plunging in.  Think about what you want your story to say, and how you say it.  Make sure to understand what your school or district policies are regarding social media.  And perhaps developing some written guidelines you can share with your students will help you and them have a purpose and a clear direction for usage.  Basically your use of Snapchat in the classroom is the story of your classroom, your way to share information and communicate with others about what's happening with your classes.  When I think about using Snapchat this way, I get less tense and actually it sounds like fun.  

In the article there are five easy ways to try to incorporate Snapchat into your classroom:

1.  as a reminder, for upcoming tests, assignments, activities, etc.;
2.  if you come across some interesting or real-world examples of content;
3.  drawing diagrams or annotations of text;  (This would be awesome for me.  We use text codes for annotating texts, I could Snapchat the text with the text codes I used to annotate.)
4.  as a study session, to share some key information about an upcoming test or assignment;
5.  as professional development - you can see how other super users of Snapchat are using it.


Snapchat can be a very powerful learning tool if you allow your students to take charge of the use of Snapchat in your class.  This is an authentic way to model and teach responsible digital citizenship.  It encompasses the 4 C's of the 21st Century:  Students are using critical thinking in terms of what to post.  Students are communicating with other students and creating content.  Students can collaborate with each other before they post in terms of ideas and pictures.

It's a big "if" though!!  I googled students snapchatting in class, and wow, I came up with some really inappropriate stuff.  If you want your students to use Snapchat in class, you've got to be really careful.  This goes back to having guidelines but also following through and paying close attention to what students are doing.  Maybe one of the jobs in your classroom can be the Snapchatter, and assign students on a rotating basis.  

According to an article on Mashable, (Slightly sensationalistic news, social networking, according to Common Sense Media)  77% of college students use Snapchat on a daily basis.  

As you can see, using Snapchat can help teachers meet students where they are at, but also needs to be carefully monitored so students are using the app for best practices.  I would start off trying Snapchat myself with some of the easy ways above, before I would allow students to take over.  I need to build trust in my classroom and get to a certain comfort level first.   

Let's Have Fun

My students go crazy for Kahoot.  Even after we have played the game twice already, they beg me for more...What is this about?  I don't get it!  Must be the whole "gaming" aspect that interests them.  The immediate feedback, the competition against others, the music - these seem to draw students in.  There are some downsides to Kahoot, one is which you can't track improvement or growth.  So I use Kahoot mostly for reviews and vocabulary quizzes, it's a formative assessment that's fast and easy.  Quizizz and  Quizlet are also fun games for teachers to create multiple-choice questions or use an assessment that's already created by another teacher.  These can be used for pre-assessments or exit tickets as well, valuable and easy-to-digest information for lesson planning for the next day.  Quizlet lets students work as a team to compete.

Hmm, gamification, this is a very trendy topic in education!  Teachers can transform their regular classroom activities into games that usually require creativity, collaboration and play.  There are different ways to dive into this, but teachers need to make sure that their games promote learning and help to deepen student understanding.  Of course don't forget the fun aspects!  Carrie Baughcum is a gamification guru teachers interested in gaming their lessons can learn a lot from.  She's got great advice.  As she explains in http://carriebaughcum.com/my-classroom-gamification-process-part-1/, Carrie started her first year of gaming her classroom with minigames.  She also liked to harness the energy of the beginning of the school year, so she started off the school year with the games.  She centers the games around "themes," - Harry Potter or Star Wars, Monopoly, etc.  In her games the students go on quests, missions and in the Star Wars game, one of the purposes is to become a Jedi warrior.  She believes it helps to start with the theme to get your imagination working and have an easier time with set-up.  Another necessity is clear goals, otherwise your game might lack purpose.  She has two kinds of goals:  base level (which are soft skills - being able to follow directions, being on time, etc.) and advanced level (skills related to becoming an independent learner in terms of  21st century skills).  When students display or use these skills successfully they earn credits, using google forms to keep track.  Students use their credits to get further in the game.  With individual game boards and a leaderboard for the whole class, there is an element of competition.  Carrie also has different levels to becoming a Jedi warrior, added incentives for kids to excel.

In another post Carrie lays out all her steps, which are considerable!  As I was listening to her video post, I thought, wow, this is a lot of prep time.  But I think there's a wonderful pay-off.  Students can play the game all year, you can keep it going if you want.  I've never been a gamer, but I remember my son being absolutely mesmerized, when he was younger, by Empire Earth.  He would get cheat codes and play for hours with his cousins, talking about it and sharing ideas.  I don't think he ever got as excited about something in school!  If we can leverage that excitement, interest and competitive spirit with games in our classrooms, we should go for it.

 I found a related book:



This is a collection of chapters written by some of the top educators and gaming professionals to share strategies and activities.  I read a review of the book by Michael Garlin on the EdTech RoundUp:
​It’s an excellent read for any teachers who are looking for ways to spice up their classroom, or for any tech coaches who are looking for ideas to use with the teachers they serve. 

He did have some critiques of the book (wants a more specific focus on how each of the strategies or activities is directly related to literacy, etc.) however he enjoyed the book and thinks it's a worthwhile resource.

My Own Adventure

As you can see, digital literacy encompasses many concepts and skills.  What teacher has time to introduce all these ideas and effectively teach students the ins and outs so that his/her students are truly digitally literate?  But if it's a team effort, something the whole school takes on, then it becomes within the realm of possibility. If it starts early in a student's life, the skills can be reinforced and refined throughout their schooling.

"It is important to understand that information literacy is best addressed at multiple levels in the education process.  Think of reading-comprehension skills that begin pre-K and continue through college lit courses.  The skills are built upon with appropriate instruction at each stage of learning.  This is also the ideal approach to information literacy skills, introducing the skills in the early years, building on them as the student advances through elementary school, and introducing new concepts of knowledge-seeking and analysis through middle school, high school, and post-secondary education."  Averill, Debe, and Nancy Lewis.  "Students and Information Literacy:  High School and Postsecondary Perspectives."  Maine Policy Review 22.1 (2013) : 114-117, http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol22/iss1/28

It's not difficult to incorporate technology into the lesson plan.   All the research shows that teachers must meet students where they are at; our students are digital natives so it makes sense to use technology to reach them.  Blogs, web pages, email and video chats, Facebook pages, writing, illustrating and publishing stories, weekly discussion questions, etc., there are a million ways to use tech in the classroom. Digital literacy is not confined to the language arts classroom, either.



http://purposefultechnology.weebly.com/how-can-we-embed-digital-literacy-in-the-classroom.html



These literacies match up with the traditional math, science, social science, and humanities classes.  Within all these curriculums there is a place to teach digital literacy, as we want our students to be critical thinkers who can evaluate the validity and reasoning of the information they seek. In every grade level of the Common Core State Standards students are expected to use a variety of digital tools to create and publish their writing.  NETS has 6 categories of technology standards that include all the elements of digital literacy.  These skills are already part of our objectives and learning targets.  But by going digital this is a vast change for any teacher who is not a digital native.  Watch this video to get motivated to work with your students!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mirxkzkxuf4

"The purpose of  media literacy education is to help individuals...develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators and active citizens in today's world."
( Media Literacy as Literacy for the Information Age, Renee Hobbs, Ed.D. Temple University, Philadelphia PA.  CRITICAL LITERACY FOR ADOLESCENTS ROSE STATE COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING EDUCATION CENTER OKLAHOMA CITY, September 19, 2008  )


This should be the mission statement of my high school.  Times have changed and the purpose of education needs to change as well.  How can we do this?  Bringing in contemporary media and popular culture to our classrooms will deepen engagement and increase motivation, the research shows.  Students learning multimedia production can apply some of the same rhetorical devices and skills as in traditional writing classes.  Media and/or digital literacy can improve reading comprehension. There are questions, still, about digital literacy.  One of the most important is:  What instructional approaches using online sources and popular culture are most effective in improving reading comprehension and writing skills?
Research still needs to be done in this field...

Research findings

"We need a different kind of learning experience."  
(Evans, Julie.  Speak Up 2015 National Results - From Print to Pixel. May 2017
http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/from-print-to-pixel.html)

Students, educators and parents agree:  in order to prepare students for the future, educational institutions need to make some changes.  This was a theme I inferred over and over again while studying the research.  This article had some relevant infographics, the one I was most interested in was what teachers say about technology use in 2015.  See below:

The infographic discusses 10 important findings for their study:
teachers are using digital content more than ever before; more game-based learning is happening (at least in elementary school); flipped instruction is becoming more popular; teachers' are spending more time in the role of video producer; teachers fear the digital divide is real, so are reluctant to assign internet-based homework; teachers are using texting as a way to communicate; digital reading is more engaging for students but teachers feel it can be more distracting as well; there's a teachers' wish list (top vote getter is using tech to differentiate instruction); teachers want to learn more about technology in school; and teachers are discovering and leveraging the power of social media as a professional development tool for lesson plans and other classroom activities.  These claims were nothing shocking, although the concerns with reading digitally caught my interest.  I went on to look at the next graphic, what students think about digital learning...

Some surprises for me here:
86% of 9-12th graders have personal access to mobile devices.  My students have chromebooks, but often request to use their phones for activities.  I always ask them, how can you see anything on your phone?  But the graphics have improved and texts and images are pretty clear.  I do still have one or two students who don't have phones.  And according to this study smartphones are the #1 choice for accessing social media.  Another surprise:  47% of this age group are tweeting.  I've asked my students if they tweet and they say no, but we have done one or two assignments where I've asked them to use twitter (summaries, character development, reflection, etc.).  Not surprising:  students are also using youtube for online videos in helping them with homework, just like adults do when we need/want to learn something.  Students are also asking for more games because of the belief that games help them learn difficult concepts more easily.  Girls want to learn to code as a class or after-school activity, 64% of girls 3-5th grade and 50% 6-8th grade.  

Moving on to the parent perspective, to me, parents were waayyy supportive of ed tech.  85% of parents believe that the effective use of tech is important, and their top concern is the variation of tech use between teachers.  Parents are also in favor of blended learning (55%); the traditional classroom came in second (42%).  I need an effective way to text parents so my phone number doesn't show up (is that Remind?) because 55% of parents would like their child's teacher to communicate with them via text.   And this is really good news:  64% of parents say they would pay an extra technology fee to support digital learning expenses.  Maybe part of that fee could be used for teachers to have the time for professional development and support to learn how to use all this tech!

I looked at one other research resource because I'm fascinated by the differences between ereading and print reading.  If I was getting a Ph.D. in reading I would definitely think about this field for my dissertation.  Research is coming out but more needs to be done.  Children, Teens, and Reading a Common Sense Media Research Brief 2014 asked some compelling questions that could be the basis of my research:
1.  How does ereading affect the amount that children and youth read?
2.  Does ereading affect how children read?
3.  Do electronic books improve literacy in early childhood?
4.  Does reading on a screen affect comprehension and retention, either positively or negatively?  

Another important area for research this study mentions is the extent and impact of "short form" online reading (tweets, SMS texts, emails, etc.).  According to this report, the use of tech in recent years has already changed the nature of reading.  We could leverage this to promote reading achievement, reduce disparities and achievement gaps, and reignite a love for reading by young people.