This week in our Technology and Literacy course, we talked about a very important part of our students' lives that is often overlooked - Digital Citizenship.
Digital Citizenship can best be defined as "the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use," (Nine Elements). Typically, there are nine elements, within which every aspect of students' technology use can be placed. Simply put they are: Digital Access, Digital Commerce, Digital Communication, Digital Literacy, Digital Etiquette, Digital Law, Digital Rights & Responsibilities, Digital Health & Wellness, and Digital Security. I think that if we were to implement some sort of Digital Citizenship technology curriculum for all students, beginning at the Kindergarten level, we might actually produce productive, safe, and responsible digital citizens for our society.
I have created a PowToon video explaining all nine elements of Digital Citizenship.
References
Nine Elements. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2017, from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html
The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model where the traditional "lecture" and homework elements of a classroom are switched. In the flipped classroom, the teacher typically records short video lectures which students view at home before coming to class. Then, class time is focused on practice exercises, projects, or discussions. The flipped classroom is just one example of 21st century literacy instruction.
These three videos will explain the flipped classroom in even more detail.
I personally have mixed reviews about the flipped classroom. While I do agree that the flipped classroom allows the learning to become more student-centered, engaging, and allows for more support and differentiation from the teacher, there are several concerns I have that would need to be addressed before I tried to flip my classroom. The most obvious concern would be student-access to technology to watch the videos before coming to class. In this class, we watched videos explaining the flipped classroom where students who may not have a computer at home watched the videos on in the computer lab after school. One student even watched his videos while he rode the bus home from school because of his responsibilities that lingered at home. This brings me to my second concern. If the following day's lesson plan depends on these students having watched the video the night before, what happens when a student doesn't watch the video? And how can a student remember and retain what was explained on the video to them 12+ hours prior to coming to class? I think that there would still be some repetition happening in the classroom between the videos and the day's lesson or assignments.
I also think the flipped classroom requires a lot more planning, foresight, time, and effort on the teacher's part. Not only to prepare the videos, on the teacher's own time, but also what the next day's lesson will entail for each individual student based on his or her abilities and differentiation. The flipped classroom can also be overwhelming to students, especially if they have multiple teachers doing it. Finally, and perhaps the biggest concern I have with the flipped classroom is that it requires students to be more reflective learners and have intrinsic self-motivation to watch the videos and reflect on what they understood and did not understand. This can lead to many issues in the class the next day when students did not get the concepts you were hoping they would.
I think the flipped classroom needs to be introduced to students in a very careful and explicit manner. Students should be taught self-motivation and reflective strategies and skills so that they get the most out of the experience. They should be able to bring questions and comments into the classroom the next day to discuss, as well as have the motivation to re-watch, or look for more videos if the concepts are difficult or easy for them to master. I think by having these steps and strategies in place for students, and the teacher, the flipped classroom can be a wonderful thing. But I do not think it can be done overnight.
References M. (2012, May 27). The Flipped Classroom Model. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojiebVw8O0g The Flipped Classroom. (2013, July 03). Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTLLRbceDoM&t=39s The Flipped Classroom Model. (2015, September 28). Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKzSq_t8k8&t=7s
