Activity 8 - Identify an ethical dilemma in your own practice linked to digital or online access or activity.

Create a blog post where you identify an ethical dilemma in your own practice linked to digital or online access or activity. Explain the dilemma and discuss either:

• how you would address the potential issue if it occurred in your own practice

or (if relevant)

• an actual situation that you have knowledge of, and how it was resolved.

The discussion should be in relation to either the guidelines of your organisation on online practice or the code of ethics for certificated teachers.

Code of Ethics number 2 states that certified teachers have a commitment to parents / guardians and family/whanau.  To do this we work in collaboration with all parties and where appropriate involve them in decision making.

One of the legal and ethical dilemmas we meet on a regular basis is the use of social media within the school. Teaching year 5 & 6 students creates a dilemma in regard to the use of different social media.  Over half of the students in my class have Facebook accounts, Instagram, Snapchat etc. All of these have a minimum age limit of 13, hence the students are actually accessing the software illegally. Over the last few years the focus of the school has changed from being one that prevents access to sites by having filtering software, to one that tries to develop good digital citizens who make good choices.

Last year we had an incident where a student took a photograph of another student using Snapchat, this was then shared around other members of the school with some inappropriate comments. Once we became aware of this there were two options available to us as a school. We could have blacklisted Snapchat on our school network or work with the students and families to discuss suitable digital citizenship and responsibilities that we all have linking into code of ethics 3 teaching positive values accepted in society.

The first issue to address was Snapchat has a legal age restriction of 13.  As with many other social media sites this is an easy rule to bypass as there is no checking of name against age.  We discussed this with students but because it is something many do, and there is a lot of peer pressure around social media sites we were probably not going to get students to stop using Snapchat.

The next step was to understand what the students use Snapchat for.  The students seem to be using Snapchat more than Facebook to share what they were doing in the day, or just particular parts of that day. Potentially there was also an element of using something that was not used by adults. Facebook has become mainstream for adults, in school teachers use Facebook regularly. Snapchat was seen as an app used for inappropriate uses because of media coverage.

·       Linking into code of ethics 1 was the next step.  We sat down with the senior students and revisited what a good digital citizen is. We used the Netsafe Schools Kit as a base to teach good digital citizenship, focusing on our CARE values, especially empathy and respect.  Running along with this we had an evening run by a Netsafe trainer for our parents. All of this helped us to promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of all learners.

The result from all of the above was a change in attitude in most of our students. As a school we continue to regularly discuss good digital citizenship, and this is starting to be reflected in student behavior.  At the present time we are looking at upgrading our network filtering, not because we do not trust our students, but because we need to ensure that should something untoward happen we have the capability to track exactly what happened.   This ongoing commitment to keeping students safe, links to the first code of ethics, encouraging students to think critically about how they interact online.

References

Netsafe.org.nz
Netsafe.org.nz,. (2015). the netsafe kit for schools. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from http://www.netsafe.org.nz/the-kit/

NetSafe: Cybersafety and Security advice for New Zealand

NetSafe: Cybersafety and Security advice for New Zealand,. (2015). Digital Citizenship in Schools. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from https://www.netsafe.org.nz/digital-citizenship-in-schools/

Teacherscouncil.govt.nz

Teacherscouncil.govt.nz,. (2015). Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers | Education Council. Retrieved 13 November 2015, from http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Activity 7 - Social media in learning and teaching and professional development

Create a blog post where you discuss your views on social media use in learning and teaching and in professional development. The following provocations can be used for your thoughts:

Provocations

• How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development?
• What are some key features of social media that you have identified as beneficial for teaching and learning?
• What are potential challenges that teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities?
• What social media platform do you feel best supports engagement with your professional development? Why?

Bexheti et al (2014) discuss the idea that social media is becoming the most important tool for interaction among people, where everybody can share, exchange, comment, discuss and create information and knowledge in a collaborative way. In education it allows us to share ideas and good practice on a global perspective. Whilst I am not the most active user of social media, I do not use social media much for personal use, there are some forms that I have used for a number of years for professional learning purposes.

I have been an avid twitter user for a number of years and feel this best supports my own professional development. Following educators such as Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher), edutopia and Shelly Sanchez (@ShellTerrell) allows me to keep up to date with the latest trends and innovations.   I also follow sites such as @Office, @Onenote and @Google to keep up with the latest developments in these companies. It has allowed me to pick up new software such as Sway. In addition I have been able to garner a range of useful tips on how to use the software from both Google and Microsoft.

Other social media that I have used include:

•          Pinterest for ideas, amongst ideas there are a number of posters that can be added to enhance the classroom.
•         An increasing use of Office 365 to comment on student work and as a collaboration tool within the class.
•         Youtube and TedEd for educational videos and as a tool for tuning in to new ideas.

There are an increasing number of social media sites aimed at supporting professional learning in te reo and tikanga Māori language and culture.  Increasing your use of te reo Maori (Te Reo Blog) along with a Facebook page promoting Māori Language week (Language Week Facebook page).

I have used both of these for ideas to include in my teaching of te reo. It is an area that I know I need to work on. Being able to see what others are doing, checking out the links to resources that they have found helpful and adapting for use in my own class will hopefully develop my skills.

I have at times followed blogs, however these seem to be intermittent, whereas with Twitter I have continued to follow certain  people and have used their thoughts and ideas to change my own teaching practice.

Key Features of social media that benefit my teaching.

There are many features of social media that can be beneficial, and they are on a number of different levels.

At the class level there is:

•         Blogging allows sharing student work easily available to parents.
•         Increased collaboration using tools like Office 365 or Google.
•         School Facebook and Twitter accounts allow easier communication to whanau.
•         Students have the ability to connect globally.

As a teacher one of the key features of social media is the sharing of ideas, teachers are notorious for working individually,  the relationships they have are within the class, or within the school and local community. If these communities are not outward thinking then the environment can become stale and new concepts not investigated.  The beauty of social media is the ability to follow progressive thinkers who are pushing the boundaries of education, to use some of their ideas to improve the learning. 

There is also a potential downside from social media in the class:

•       Access to inappropriate material, from Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook etc.
•        Information overload, being swamped can mean nothing gets done.
•       Technology fails.
•        Inappropriate use of social media, used for bullying and negative interactions.

As a teacher there is also the downside where you can get swept along with changes that do not work as well as you hoped. Perhaps we need to treat social media in the same way as salespeople. Read, take time to think and research, then act.

References

Bexheti, L.A., Ismaili, B.E., Cico, B.H. (2014). An analysis of social media usage in teaching and learning: The case of SEEU. In Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Circuits, Systems, Signal Processing, Communications and Computers, Venice, Italy, 2014. ISBN 978-1-61804-22