My goal in pursuing this certification is to document my growth as an educator with specific experience in developing my students’ media literacy. Although I write and present for different outlets, including my own Teaching Above the Test blog, most of what I write has been focused on offering ideas for different areas of education that also interest me (gamification, differentiation, project based learning). I see this as an opportunity to discuss and solidify my role as a media literacy and digital technology educator, and becoming an agent of change in the way students are exposed to media and develop as digital citizens.
Introduction
I am a founding teacher at AdVENTURE, a STEM program from the Oak Grove School District. When we started 8 years ago, the only access to devices in the classroom was a notebook cart shared between the 4 original teachers. At the time, we considered ourselves lucky, and dove right in to exploring the possibilities that having semi-consistent access to devices, without much in terms of preparing the students to the potential pitfalls that they could encounter with this “new” freedom. It soon became evident that there was much work to be done regarding not only accessing the different tools we would eventually use, but also in the way we prepared the students to become active participants in the digital landscape.
As we grew, so did our need for more devices, different tools, and the implementation of more robust policies that would ensure the safety and privacy of our students online. Staff came and went, and I soon became known as the go to person for all things related to digital content and media literacy. Through the many different iterations of our Acceptable Use Policy and the rise and fall of availability of different tools, I soon became immersed in developing curriculum that provides my students not only exposure to the tools and media available right now, but preparing them for the changes and challenges that will inevitably come their way as they move on to college and career. Educating students in becoming critical consumers of media as well as responsible creators of digital content became a primary concern, along with teaching the science and engineering content I am tasked to impart.
Thus, I started experimenting with all sorts of tools, bringing what I learned into the classroom. My students and I have played around with a wide variety of ways to demonstrate our knowledge and created all sorts of products, from videos and layered selfies to infographics, interactive timelines, and even video games. However, while we experiment with all of this, we continue to learn new ways to refine our work, which is why I am especially grateful to KQED Teach and all the courses I have taken to strengthen my own skills in media production. For example, even though most of my students come in to my 5th grade classroom having created at least one slide deck for previous teachers, it is only after we work through my design of presentations lesson that my students begin using a more focused approach to developing their own slide decks and consider how fonts, colors and images work together to convey a message.
As we continue to grow in our digital content usage and creation, we have discovered that the shift from passive consumers to active creators comes responsibility and flexibility. Responsibility in ensuring that whatever information we put out there is well researched, true and complies with all applicable usage rights. Flexibility as we find that nothing is ever a one tool deal. What is available today may not be available to us tomorrow, and a tool that seems to fit our needs will almost inevitably need the support of a second or third tool to accomplish exactly what we want for a particular task.
Goals
Summary
Reflection
As I review the work required by this portfolio, I am reminded of John Dewey's words, “We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.” Over the last several years, I’ve been I’ve been slowly implementing tidbits of digital media education as I learn them, but I have seldom stopped to think how much I’ve grown and actually done. Completing this portfolio reminded me, for example of all the work I did with Google Draw, even leading to a post titled “Google Draw - The Neglected Sibling”, after learning a couple tricks on the "Making Infographics" course at KQED teach. Its use to create digital products has become so commonplace in my classroom that I had forgotten that not too long ago we were merely using it for sticker-like collages.
In a similar vein, my students and I have become more critical consumers of media. As I was going through the different artifacts and playlists that I could present, I discovered many of our original attempts, and while they may not have been perfect, they set the stage for what was to come. I was particularly surprised at the student work, which although I had seen before, rifling through all of their creations at once made me realize how sophisticated they have become, and reinforced the value of dedicating time to teaching those concepts and reinforcing those skills throughout the school year.
Now, this is not to say that there are no areas of improvement. Although I consider myself as digital media literate, the skills I have should continue to be practiced and updated as new frontiers are explored. I have not made any attempt at creating podcasts nor have I explored their capabilities with students. This is a blind spot for me as an individual who responds to visual input, but struggles with auditory processing. Not only do I need to do this for myself, but by not including audio in my teaching I am neglecting the students who may prefer this type of input. This would open up a whole range of possibilities for discussion and creation and I am excited to begin the process.
Clicking on the slides above will open them for easy viewing.