Participate 4.1.1 Digital Rights and Responsibilities Quest

Participate 4.1.1 Digital Rights and Responsibilities Quest

How can a DLC ensure that citizens within the community have access to an environment where an AUP protects members as well as the community itself, where individuals uphold laws, and a cooperative/collective venture provides robust, safe, and ethical resources and opportunities for learning?

In order to ensure that the digital learning community is both ethical and legal, responsibility must be given to all members to monitor and enforce the rules.  No piracy should be allowed in any form, and any copyright infringement issues should be reported to the leader of the community.  Furthermore, the group should uphold professional norms and understand that inquiries about the ethical or legal nature of a posting does not immediately create guilt or merit defensive behavior.  Instead part of the monitoring of the community will require that the members have authentic and open discussions. 

 What is the best way to establish and maintain a flourishing DLC where citizens understand, observe, and are inclined to willingly support and ultimately benefit from Digital Rights and Responsibilities?

The best way to ensure that the DLC flourishes is to present the standards of digital rights and responsibilities and make everyone in the learning community responsible for their enforcement.  In this manner the community becomes self-monitoring and can change violations of itself.  


 Reflect upon these questions and formulate a plan for supporting and protecting a Digital Learning Community through Digital Rights and Responsibilities. Afterward, post the plan in your blog.

I just came up with the following mnemonic to help foster ethical rights and responsibilities. 

C  =  Citation/copyright of all used materials needs to be help to the highest academic and legal standards. 
A  = All members of the community must be included in the monitoring of ethical behavior.  
F  = Freedom of all member of the community must be allowed so that all members feel able to ask and report possible ethical and/or legal violations. 
E =  Ethics need to be upheld in the community, and if there is any question of the ethics of any posting or resource it must be removed until the appropriate use is determine. 

Forum: Participate 3.1.2 Digital Resources and Netiquette

Forum: Participate 3.1.2 Digital Resources and Netiquette

The following rules should be employed when engaging into online discussion and interaction. 

When posting or responding, consider the following questions. 

1.  Is my comment essential?  Often emails and discussion are unfocused and discursive.  Remember that part of the effectiveness of online communication is that it can be brief and focused.  With this in mind keep internet discussion to its essential points.  

2.  Is my comment accurate?  Often electronic information goes without official peer review and can be inaccurate.  In an academic environment all posts need to be verified by the poster.  With this idea, one must also use sources as accurately as possible.  Although it might be impossible to verify all pieces of information, great care should be given to ensuring that this ideal is followed as much as possible. 

3.  Is my comment polite?  Often electronic posts lack context and can be considered rude.  Remember that sarcasm and even good-natured humor often require tone of voice and unspoken/written body language.  These nuances are often lost in an online environment. With this in mind, try to use as objective a tone as possible to keep academic conversation academic.  If subtle shifts in tone are required, then make sure that these are clearly shown with punctuation, clarifying comments, etc.  But do remember point 1 and keep these brief. 

4.  Is my reaction assuming the best of the discussion?  Often electronic arguments come from over-reaction to comments that were initially neutral.  Try to remember that most of the time, most people are not trying to pick online fights.  There will always be individuals who do so, but these are in the minority, and most people are sincere in their discussion, and are often more concerned with making their own points rather than criticizing others, including yours.  If you are unsure about the nature of a comment, stop, wait, and don't immediately respond.  Instead consider the true meaning, and if necessary privately and directly ask the individual what he/she meant.  

Remember that communication is easy with the internet and it gives even the shyest a voice, but because of this ease often words can be misinterpreted.  Remember Mark Twain's rule that "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."  

 

Participate 3.1.1 Access to the Digital Community Quest

While looking at the digital map of connectivity, three patterns seem to emerge. 

1.  Urban and coastal areas tend to have more internet connectivity. 

2.  More sparse areas tend to have less connection.   

3.  In general, voting patterns of blue/red tend to also align with internet connection speeds (I am not trying to be political and this is a completely neutral comment--just an observation).  This is probably more correlation than causality. 

In a more specific sense, my county (Spalding Co. in Georgia) is ranked 43rd in Georgia with a 99% connection rate.    

Forum Participate: 2.1.1 Collecting Reputable Digital Resources Quest

Forum Participate: 2.1.1 Collecting Reputable Digital Resources Quest

After I began this assignment, I realized that there are three digital resources that I frequently use and these probably form 80% of my curriculum choices with what I share with my students. 

I.  College Board.com.  As an AP and Honors English teacher, this digital resources has been the foundation of my teaching for the last 10 years.  I enjoy the assessments that are provided, sample syllabi, and lesson plans submitted by other AP and Honors English teachers.  Now that the College Board has also been a major player with the push for the Common Core in ELA instruction, the content of this digital resource has assumed another level of importance.  Their new series "Springboarding" into both ELA and math Common Core at all grade levels should be of interest to all teachers of these two disciplines.  

https://www.collegeboard.org/

II.  ProquestK-12.  Those who have completed graduate level work are probably familiar with this comprehensive digital resource.  But the program goes beyond college level, and all the way through K-12 education.  Their SIRS Knowledge Source provides full text articles, the Lexile score of each article, a comprehensive list of research topics, correct MLA and APA citations for the articles.  As an ELA teacher this program has helped many of my students write academically based research papers and presentations.  

http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/sirs_knowledgesource.shtml

III.  Great Books and Classics Online.  I have to confess that I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to teaching literature.  Carol Jago once made the astute comment that it's the books that the students won't, don't and can't read on their own that we need to teach them, not the ones that they can.  With this said, I try to supply my students with classic texts of literature, philosophy, science, social sciences, and science.  These books generally have advanced ideas, excellent writing, and challenge even the best students.  Because many of these books are extremely dense, often a single focused paragraph can provide an entire class worth of discussion and analysis.  This web page provides a systematic review of the world's "greatest" authors, and complete texts.  All for free.  This is the library that I always dreamed of having as a kid, right on my laptop. 

http://www.grtbooks.com/

  

Forum: Participate 1.1.3 Ideal DLC

Forum: Participate 1.1.3 Ideal DLC

An ideal learning community is one that adheres to the needs of the professional adult learner.  The following list will serve as a concise guide for its applications.  In the most ideal learning communities, the participants engage in a cycle of learning that not only fosters their own development, but also strengthens the potential for the group as a whole. I call this system: MCRA.  

1.  It is generated by intrinsic motivation (M).  All participants are participating on their own accord in areas where they need the most interest.  

2.  It is generated by learner choice (C).  All participants are encouraged to seek out their own knowledge and solutions to this knowledge. 

3.  It is self-monitored by responsible learners (R).  All participants are aware of the values of good digital citizenship and act accordingly.  With this responsibility to learn in a specific manner, also comes the responsibility to react to other learners in a responsible manner.  From experience of teaching online, on of the most troubling issues in a digital learning community is the reactions that some learners have to ambiguous prompts.  Learners not only need to post responsibly, but also need to assume that other learners are not being disrespectful and act accordingly. 

4.  It has an inherent sense of accountability (A) for one's learning built into its overall structure.  All participants are able to self-monitor and then accurately measure their own progress.  This progress then in turn strengthens the learning community, and helps others to further achieve. 

A functional digital learning community should encourage the same values that make a more traditional learning community effective.  We need to remember that the message and learning are the focus, not the digital aspects.  These aspects are another tool (and an effective one) for helping individuals attain their potential.   

Forum: Participate 1.1.2 Joining a DLC

Forum: Participate 1.1.2 Joining a DLC

For the last 10 years I have been a part of the College Board's AP Central learning community.  In terms of both rigor and effective teaching, this community has been the greatest influence on my teaching career.  

When I started teaching AP English Literature in 2004, I soon realize that I had the freedom to teach whatever I wanted in the course as long as the content somewhere adhered to the curriculum expectations.  With this abstract emphasis on freedom I became excited and started creating several syllabi that reflect my various interest in English Literature; however, it soon became apparent that despite my interest and knowledge of English Literature, I still needed tangible tools, and exemplars to put my vision into practice.  The resources on the College Board AP Central learning community provided these tangible examples.  

Concerning the rigor of an AP course, I quickly learned from the published multiple-choice and open response questions that I needed to maintain a very high level of rigor with my teaching and assessment of student work.  Over the next three years, I spent a lot of time scoring and re-scoring student work based upon the College Board's rubrics and sample anchor papers.  Through this process I learned a lot about the difference between analysis and summary, and how to immediately recognize when a student understands a writing assignment and when he/she doesn't.  The availability of resources and ability to discuss with other AP English teachers were provided through this cite, and as I reflect I know that this dialogue is the single most important influence in making me a rigorous English teacher. 

Once I understood the true level of rigor for an AP English course, AP Central also provided several discussion boards and links to effective teaching for these AP English courses.  For example, from this learning community I have learned how to include Socratic Seminars into both my AP and other English classrooms.  The chance for student dialogue is a component that I would also like to bring to a GA Virtual Online learning community and will use as an effective teaching strategy for these courses. 

Easily AP Central and the resources that it provides has been the most influential Professional Learning Community on my own teaching practices.  

The following is a direct link to AP Central. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home

Forum Participate 1.1.1 Character Traits Quest: Digital Citizenship

Forum Participate 1.1.1 Character Traits Quest: Digital Citizenship

According to Mike Riddle (2014) effective digital citizenship has three central components: Respect, Educate, and Protect.  These three elements (or more simply REP) serve as a foundation for ethical and acceptable behavior for the use of technology.  Each of the three headers of REP require both responsibility of the user to himself, as well as to ensure that others also receive the same projection. These three elements are then each divided further into practical applications that will ensure that educators both use technology ethically, but also ensure that their students do as well. 

These three elements are the essential foundation for ethical technology use. 

1.  Respect is essential because it ensures ethical compliance with all interested parties from global applications (i.e. copyright law, governing bodies) to individuals.  Respect of law ensures that all legal principles are adhered to when using technology, while respect of the individual ensures that the educator is aware of the rights of individual students.  By ensuring that respect is consistent in the other party's interest at all levels, the educator will adhere to ethical guidelines concerning technology. 

2.  Education is essential because it serves as a manifest application of the quest to ensure respect.  By its nature, education of individuals on how to use technology and as a means of literacy serves to help foster respect of the applicable parties. 

3.  Protection is the ultimate responsibility of the ethical digital citizen.  Once the respect of the learners has been established, and the pursuit of educating these individuals is engaged in a consistent manner, the digital educator must protect these individuals.  This protection can be seen in ethical presentation of the content that is presented to learners, as well as through more basic and fundamental protection of their physical well-being. 

The larger components of the REP model will ensure that not only is the theory of digital citizenship manifest in online learning, but also in its practice. 

The following video from youtube by cyberwise, shows practical ways to ensure that children learn and understand their part with effective digital citizenship and will serve as a practical conclusion to this blog entry. 

What is Digital Citizenship    

First Blog

Hello to all,

Like the rest of you I have been assigned creation of a blog for GA Virtual.

Currently, I teach English and spend most of my time with my web page, rather than a blog.  I have found that my webpage becomes one of my most important teaching documents.  On it, I keep a record of what we have done in class on that day, assignments and handouts, and I have even convinced some administrators that it can also serve the purpose of a lesson plan.  In all, a web page ends up being a technological tool that can help organize and drive my instruction.  Plus it helps that it also serves as a means of parent/student communication and transparency.

As I have read and reflected upon several of my colleagues' blogs, I can see more potential with this tool as well, and can see how it might also be a substantial asset for both hybrid and completely online instructional models.  The level of communication that the blog provides can transcend the one-way communication of a teacher generated web page.  With the blogging students, parents, colleagues, any one can directly communicate with me about whatever assignments, lessons, or ideas I present on the web page.  And this level of communication is essential for learning to occur.

As an online teacher for the last decade, I have used assignment dropboxes, discussion forums, and announcements but all within a specified educational platform such as Blackboard, Angel, ecampus, etc.  With the blog assignment for GA Virtual I am noticing that some of these platforms might be supplemental to the open nature of the world-wide web.

I hope to explore the potential of using blogs as I get more familiar with the wonderful and exciting world of GA Virtual.

Happy teaching,
Chris