Let's Talk Tech!

Media literacy of all kinds, but social media literacy especially is important to teach students starting at a young age. As a classroom teacher, I am teaching all types of literacy skills. My school is lucky enough to have a technology teacher that would teach media literacy, but if we did not, I would have to take on that role. It is important for students to have a strong media literacy understanding because they will be using all types of digital media their whole lives, personally, academically, and professionally. At my school we have a digital citizenship week where I bring some of these concepts to the classroom. I teach my students the difference between trusted sources and other platforms. I also teach them the difference between fact versus opinion and how to spot those in social media, videos, books, etc. Our technology teacher teaches these concepts throughout the year at different levels for the different grade levels she works with. According to Renee Hobbs, there are 5 ...

While I think that CIPA (children's internet protection act) and COPPA (children's online privacy protection act) (as well as SOPPA (student online privacy and protection act)) are helpful laws, they do not do enough to filly protect children. With so much information out there for children to view, I do not think that CIPA, COPPA, and SOPPA are protecting kids from harmful information. There is no way that schools could possibly block every harmful website, video, pictures, and text that students can find online. I also think that point about these laws not taking into account all of the new social media out there as well as the access that students have to these devices both inside and outside of school. With social media, there is also harmful words that can be said and posted amongst students. Photo and video sharing is also a really harmful thing that teachers and parents need to be cautious of with students. While it helps to have lessons and conversations about digital ...

The phrase “digital tattoos” is much more relevant these days than “digital footprint”. The reason is, that digital tattoos last forever. Kids (and adults) need to understand that what they post online has a lasting effect. A couple of years ago, I dug into my personal digital tattoo on a data mine . This was a great way for me to see what is out there on the internet about me. While I’m sure most of this is the same with some additions, I decided to think about my digital tattoo in a different way. I wanted to look carefully into the privacy settings for one of my current social medias, Pinterest . Pinterest is a social media that I often forget about. While I am very active on there to save things for myself for the future, I do not often use it to interact with others. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, I do not use the direct messaging feature and I don’t even “follow” any of my friends. That being said, I do re-pin things often to remember them in the future. Because I use Pinterest t...

When thinking about internet safety and acceptable use policies, the first place I went to was my district’s handbook . In my school district, the acceptable use policy for technology is the same across all 6 of the district’s schools. This policy is easily accessible for parents, teachers, and students on the district website as well as on each of the school’s websites. This acceptable use policy is written with a mixture of what technology users should and should not do, however most of the policy is written with what should not be done. I think this helps to make it clear what is allowed and what is forbidden. This policy makes no mention of artificial intelligence (AI), however I think this would be a good idea to add moving forward. There is one section about “network etiquette” where I think a statement or two about using AI would fit nicely. A new section specifically about AI would be good too. With so much technology being used throughout the school day, the more specific our ...

When I first hear the term “algorithms”, my first thoughts are how my phone can listen to my conversations and even read my mind. There have been multiple instances in my life where I am talking with a friend about a certain product, destination, celebrity, etc. and then that topic appears on my social media through ads or recommended “posts I may like”. Image Source: Reddit (r/meme) It is no secret that this is not purely coincidental and I was interested in learning more. I decided to start with an article by Caitlin Dewey titled, “ 98 Personal Data Points That Facebook Uses To Target Ads To You ” from the Washington Post. When the first sentence ended with “it seems someone has possibly read your brain” (Dewey, 2021), I knew that this article was a good starting place for me! I have been particularly interested in Facebook’s targeted advertising because I am not very active on Facebook. I have not updated my profile, posted statuses, or even added new friends in many years. Unlike o...

A Professional Learning Network (PLN), can support a teacher’s personal growth in several ways. Teachers benefit from PLNs through social growth, affective growth, cognitive growth, and identity growth. When thinking of my own PLNs that I have been a part of in the past, have been in for a while, and have recently joined, I feel that the biggest area of growth for me is my cognitive growth. I have gained so many resources, tools, and strategies from the teachers that are in my same professional learning network. It has been so helpful to hear not just about what the resources are, but how they are being used and implemented in these teachers’ classrooms. I have also gotten to hear about the things that did not go as planned which has given me ideas on what I can avoid doing in my own classroom. My personal cognitive growth has greatly impacted my student’s learning environment and academic success in a positive way. Image Source: (Facebook Screenshot) Personal Photo I have had some pri...