Miss Foster’s Fifth Grade

Thought I would take a few minutes and update this blog.  It has been almost a year since I started it as part of a VHS class.  At the time I thought it would be easy to keep up even without the course, but I have found it to be more difficult than I originally thought.  I think part of the reason is not knowing what I could talk about that would be of importance to others.  The other is time.  I know, we all are short of that, but I seemed to be able to use it to justify not writing.

I would like to begin to use this on a more regular basis, not only to convey my own thoughts, but to gather information from those with more knowledge than I have.  I had hoped by this time to also be using this with my students, but it has not come to be.  Something to strive for again.

Well, that is all for now, I look forward to being a more frequent contributor to my own blog in the future.

Web 2.0 is changing the landscape in many ways.  Learning is no longer the teacher directed lecture/question & answer sessions we all grew up with.  It has become more fluid and collaborative.  In the article, Blogs, Wikis, RSS and there’s more? Web 2.0 on the march, the author discusses the embracing of Web 2.0 by the corporate world.  It is improving productivity and communication.  If this is true, we need to really look at the implications for education.  Are our students ready to enter this new world?  These digital natives are probably ahead of most educators who are teaching them.  However it is more imperative than ever that we teach them the critical thinking skills to use these tools that have become the norm today.  As mentioned in the article, educators need to help the students learn to “….apply critical judgment to discriminate when engaging with highly interactive tools, services and content (fact, opinion, commentary, truth and untruths).”  Students today are not content to be consumers of information; they need to be producers also.  Teachers need to move to the side and allow this shift.

Now that is easier said than done.  In this day and age of high stakes testing, standards and emphasis on the end product, it becomes increasingly important to find a way to meet those requirements while at the same time keeping students (and teachers) engaged and supported.  In his discussion, More on School 2.0, David Warlick talks about the ways in which our ‘marketplace’ (or schools) will need to change to reflect the skills we have always been charged with developing in our students.  These include literacy skills and practical experiences.  This has not changed, just the way for students to practice them.  On the part of educators there is a lot of ‘unlearning’ that needs to take place.  We need to realize we are not the only knowledge base these students have any more.  Their world is beyond our four walls in the classroom. (Will Richardson)

It is a daunting task and one that I see myself gearing up for as we speak.  I will need to continue to learn and practice these skills as well as model them for other teachers.  As I have said often through this course (and the previous ones) we need to have a support system for those of us who have begun the journey and a trail for those who are to come to follow.  Then they can blaze their own trails we can follow.  It is up to us and our schools to develop a learning environment that will support this new adventure in technology.

First, I would not use the videos from GoogleVideo or YouTube if it did not comply with our district policies.  I know we have had teachers in the district challenge this policy and whether you agree with the policy or not, it is the policy and needs to be respected.  We can work to change policies if there is a strong enough educational reason, but do it through the proper channels. 

Second, even though this tip gives people a work around to a site blocked by school filters I don’t think that it is modeling ethical behavior.  We want to teach students to be responsible for their actions. I think this does the opposite.  If I were to go around it, I would be teaching the students that it is okay to ignore the rules and do what I want.  While there may be many valuable videos on these sites, it will not make or break a class moment.

I do think that discussions can take place about these types of sites and safe ways to use them. In “Tapping into the Wild Lights”, Hall Davidson makes good points about the use of digital video in the classroom.  I agree with its power and uses, but think there are other ways to display it than sites like YouTube.  Maybe it is the grade level I teach, but I don’t think one is exclusive of the other.  We can teach and model ethical use of the Internet without breaking rules to do it.  

As an elementary school teacher, I’m not sure if I am quite at the point where I would consider having students use sites like MySpace or Facebook in my classroom.  I realize some are using them outside and I think this would be the age where we would begin to teach the students the fundamentals of being wise consumers of the internet and how they can contribute to the base of knowledge that is out there safely.  I might take samples of inappropriate entries to bring home the issue of ‘Identity’ on the net.  “Thoughts on Facebook” (Tracy Mitrano, Cornell University), talks about following the basics of the Golden Rule: “Don’t say anything about someone else that you would not want said about yourself. And be gentle with yourself too! What might seem fun or spontaneous at 18, given caching technologies, might prove to be a liability to an on-going sense of your identity over the longer course of history.”.  Students are often unaware of how far the reach of what they do today can extend.  They never think about the future employers or schools who will see this.  This is an area we need to explore in depth with the students. 

That said, I think that social networking sites will and do provide a great opportunity for critical thinking and collaboration.  Given good background knowledge on safe internet practices and authentic learning tasks to complete, students definitely could thrive in an environment such as this.  Collaboration would be enhanced because students could still collaborate in off school hours from their own homes.

Steve Burt makes some good points.  He says, “It doesn’t make any sense to label them safe or unsafe. The issue is about education, educators and how the sites are used.”  I think there is no possible way to block all the sites that are social networking and I don’t believe they should be.  I think educating the students, giving them parameters/policies, and giving them our trust is the best way to go about this.  Start small and build a consistent scaffolded curriculum that teaches responsible usage and safety on the Internet and I believe the students (parents, community and educators) will follow.

In answer to the question,” Have we taught our students enough to let them use them (social networking sites)?”, I think the answer right now in our district would be no.  Judging from conversations I have begun to have with 5^th & 6^th graders this year who are hot and heavy into social networking and my own explorations of MySpace, it is evident many are not aware of the issues of identity and privacy.  It begins in elementary school and hopefully at home also.

Sorry about the length. Donna

I think that I can use blogging to enhance the curriculum in many ways.  I can see a couple units I already do (group work) that could benefit from using blogs.  I would like to use it for journaling activities especially in the areas of science and social studies.  This would incorporate their writing skills and allow them to do reflective thinking in a venue that is probably more comfortable to them than it is to me right now.  I can see where students would be able to express themselves easier and the ways they can share and support each other increase with the use of this.  At the elementary level, I would start small, but I’m sure the kids will soon move me on into faster movement.  As I am becoming more familiar with this, I am seeing more possibilities. I honestly was one who was very hesitant about the use of blogs (probably comes from not knowing enough about them and the security standpoint), but I am steadily changing my views here.

One hurdle right now is the board policy to block blogs in our district.  I think this course is the first step in removing that hurdle.  If we as a group can show the importance of using blogs in our instruction and how we can incorporate it safely, I think our board will be open to it.  A second hurdle would be the technology itself.  We have one computer lab in a room shared by 17 classrooms, and we have begun a mobile lab of 7 computers for the upper grades at this point.  Each classroom in the upper grades has two desktops.  This makes it doable, but we would need to continue to grow in this area.  Looking at other blogs, I can see uses for video, digital cameras, etc.  Another hurdle is educating the parents, staff, and community about the positive effects this can have on students’ education.  Like any other new wave in education (okay, I know it is not that new, but it is to us in our district), it will take time, need careful monitoring and a lot of public sharing.  I definitely think it is worth the time and effort to pursue this. 

Welcome to our class and our place to share our knowledge.  This is a new adventure for fifth grade and I know we will have fun learning about it together.  This will be a place for you to find information on assignments as well as sharing things of interest to you.  Stay tuned for more!

Miss Foster