This week, we will introduce you to some background thinking about educational technologies. There are countless companies vying for attention in the edtech field, and they are not all educationally beneficial. In fact, some are outright harmful. We believe that it is important for you to begin to think about how your data are used when you interact with edtech tools and that it is important for you to develop some skills and competencies in building your own domain on the web. With this knowledge, you will be more prepared to spot the nefarious actors and to take control of how you present yourself online.
- Situating yourself online
- Data and Privacy
- Subverting surveilance capitalism
- you will be able to articulate the importance of data and your privacy rights
- you will have gained confidence in presenting your whole self online
- you will be able to create and manage a single WordPress blog.
Online resources will be provided.
It is likely that you have encountered and may believe that there is a distinction between digital 'natives' and 'immigrants'.
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Note
Marc Prensky, who proposed this idea, is the one who thought it would be a good idea to refer to people as 'natives'. We recognize that this term should not be used to talk about people.
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The essential argument is that kids these days have changed in that they have this innate ability to use and learn technology because they have grown up using technology, and those of us whose formative years pre-date the advent of the internet are forever at a disadvantage compared to the kids. You can read a bit more about the idea on Wikipedia, linked below. There is also a link in that article to Prensky's original article.
<script async src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>Aside from the problematic framing of learners as kids, there are some distinct challenges with the idea of digital literacy being a fixed trait rather than a matter of comfort, familiarity, and a skill that can be practiced and learned. It is no secret that more young people are comfortable using social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, SnapChat, Weibo, WeChat, and the like, but that does not mean that those people are more able to learn technology than older people or that they have an innate ability to do so. Have you ever asked a 1st-year university student to use a spreadsheet to create a budget or a gradebook with embedded formulae? It is more likely than not, that you will encounter a distinct lack of skill in completing this task.
I'd like to introduce you to a different way to conceptualize your relationship with digital media, and that is that you may be a visitor in some web spaces and a resident in others. Places on the web where you might be a visitor are those places where you, quite literally, visit, but importantly, don't leave a public trace of your time there. You don't spend any time interacting with people, but rather, you take a rather utilitarian approach by visiting a site, doing a thing, and leaving.
Alternately, there are places and spaces on the web, where you reside as a persona, where you interact, socialize, and leave traces of yourself online. For some, that may be Facebook, where you keep in touch with friends and family, or Twitter, or maybe it's a listserv you subscribed to back in the 90s, or your blog, or someone else's blog or social site. The important distinction is that these are places where you connect with other people; where you are socially present.
At the same time, if we can imagine the visitor <--> resident continuum on a horizontal axis, there is also a personal <--> professional (or educational) continuum on a vertical axis, leading to 4 quadrants where you might situate your technology use.
The video below explains a process to help you think about where you reside on the web (7 mins).
Watch :Visitors and Residents{target="_blank"}
{{< video https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/sPOG3iThmRI?si=x_rJ3ACvJdgJv9mE >}}
I've shared my VR Diagram below...keep in mind that this diagram represents a set of tools that I have been using for a decade or more and that I have invested my career in educational technology. There is a lot here, but yours might look significantly different with only a few tools here and there. The main thing I would like to communicate with this idea of visitors and residents is for you to think about which technologies you use as a resident, and then to think about where your learners reside on the web. From there, we can begin to plan for tools we can use that afford us and our learners the opportunity to reside there.
It is certainly notable that I am very much a visitor in Moodle! This does not mean that I don't spend much time there, I spend a significant portion of every day working in Moodle, rather, the work that I do there leaves very little trace of my personality. You will (hopefully) see Moodle as much more of a place where you reside. But this foregrounds the question of whether Moodle is actually designed to promote residencies. Certainly the forums allow for users to project their persona into the system, as do a few of the other features, but the system itself is very heavily templated. There are profiles that can be edited, but users are limited to one very tiny image and virtually no opportunity to determine for themselves what they want to share. There is little room for customization, and every time a course ends, every single user must recreate their persona in a new course site (or five).
For many, or most, of you, Moodle is a perfectly reasonable place to reside and you are able to make learners feel at home there. We encourage that. And just like our physical homes, the quality of the community that lives there isn't determined by the features of the house itself, but by the people who share the space and how they structure their time and interactions.
If you don't already, I encourage you to subscribe to this excellent podcast called Teaching in Higher Ed by Bonni Stachowiak{target="_blank"}, or, just take 47 minutes to listen to this episode in which Bonni interviews Dave White about the idea of visitors and residents.
Digital Visitors and Residents, with David White - Teaching in Higher Ed
<script async src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>One of the people I look up to as an educator published a blog post which I believe provides a fitting summary of this particular unit.
<script async src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>::: {.learning-activity}
Visitor and Resident Diagram
I hope this activity will help you think about how the tools we use shape and sometimes determine the nature of our interactions with learners. Do the tools you use fall on the visitor or the resident end of your continuum? What about the learners in your classes?
✔️ Read Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement {target="_blank"}
✔️ Complete your own Visitor/Resident map and share and discuss it with your Learning Pod. You can use the tool that is provided here (DON'T forget to screenshot it, or you'll lose it!){target="_blank"}, or use a different tool like Canva.com{target="_blank"}.
✔️ Share your Visitor-Resident Diagram in a new post on your WordPress blog. Include a short reflection on what your diagram tells you about your web presence. Feel free to interact with others' diagrams!
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It is second nature to most to take selfies and share them on Instagram, Snapchat, etc., but once you move into the role of an educator in either a public or private context, you must adhere to the laws set out by the B.C. Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner{target="_blank"}. Their office has put together guidelines for both public bodies and private bodies. TWU, as a private body is not held to the same standard as public bodies, but we should strive to meet the same standard. The guidelines for public bodies to better understand what the rules are is linked below and how to get consent is detailed on page 4 of the BC Cloud Computing Guidelines (PDF){target="_blank"} and you can review the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act here.{target="_blank"}. TWU also has a privacy policy, available here.{target="_blank"}
Each public body will have their own process (which may range from not allowing tools to pressure to integrate networked learning tools from outside of Canada), so it is important to understand your own setting and the law. You may find some administrators or staff breaking these rules or not aware of them. It is important for you to enter your field and uphold the law, regardless of the culture you enter. This does not mean that you do not engage online or outside of Canada. It means that if/when you do so, that you understand the steps, which are not much more complex than the consent you would get normally for going “on the Internet,” as is described in most settings, but you must name the date consent is effective and, if applicable, the date it expires. It is important that you work with your school district on the consent process. You can see an example of how K-12 school districts are addressing access to cloud tools outside of Canada here (Coquitlam){target="_blank"} and here{target="_blank"} plus here (Victoria){target="_blank"}. You must also name each tool individually. It cannot be “blogging.” You must name WordPress.com or Blogger, etc. If you use Flipgrid, you must name Flipgrid. Consent must also be informed, so effort must be taken to ensure that those signing consent understand the implications – that their data may leave Canada, how it may be harvested, and to know about the U.S. Patriot Act. One archived resource by the Canadian Treasury Board provides significant detailed information about the Patriot Act here{target="_blank"}. It is helpful to also review section 4(b) of the B.C. Digital Literacy Framework which is applicable K12 contexts{target="_blank"} but helpful for others.
Additional resources can be found here:
Privacy, Ethics & Security in Digital Spaces Developing Awareness of Privacy{target="_blank"}
Information Security Awareness{target="_blank"} by the BC Government
MediaSmarts: Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy{target="_blank"}
Learners should ensure that they:
- Are aware of the OIPC, FIPPA, and the Cloud Computing Guidelines and follow them
- Understand what constitutes personal information
- Understand that privacy online is a personal choice and must be respected
- Understand that when you assume an “educator” hat, you have a duty for those under your care, their parents and families, and your colleagues with regard to their privacy and protection of personal information
- Are aware that the Canadian federal government states that the chances are remote that the US Patriot Act will access personal information of Canadians, but recognizes that it is our responsibility to protect privacy preferences and to ensure that consent obtained is informed consent. Some families may be involved with restraining orders and need to be private for their safety, but the reasons for privacy may be preference. Either way, it is not our business as to the reasons for privacy preferences, but it is our responsibility to uphold preferences.
- Understand how media moves through networks into US cloud-based services (e.g., back-ups on iTunes, syncing with Dropbox, messages with personal information is sent on Gmail, Google Docs, blog RSS subscriptions, etc.)
- Understand that these acts do not prohibit participation in networked tools outside of Canada and many public bodies are in need of staff and leaders who model networked literacy and positive citizenship online for their community
- Understand what appropriate consent looks like for public bodies and is aware of what alternative steps are to support learners when consent is not obtained.
Please see the details for Post 4{target="_blank"}