Activity 5: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

Activity 5: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

At my school, every child has to sign a consent form before they have access to the internet which involves agreeing to the our schools internet rules and also parent permission for online publishing.

The children sign the form which says they will abide by certain rules when accessing the internet.

• I will only respond to others work in a positive manner
• I will tell teachers or parents if I see anything I think is inappropriate
• I will be responsible for my own actions and understand that the school website is monitored and tracked by teachers
• I will use the site for educational purposes only
• I will keep my password secure and ask to change my password if needed
• I will not put any personal information online

Our school is a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) school. Every student from Year 3 to Year 6 have their own google accounts where they are able to access a range of apps such as google docs, sheets and slides. The students use their accounts every day and over a range of platforms. Whether it is at home or at school. We use Hapara alongside the google admin console to check in on what people are doing. Hapara is set up so that we can see highlights from what the students are doing between 8:30 and 3:30, so only during school hours.

My hypothetical dilemma is what happens if someone has left their account logged in to a home computer that they are using and someone else goes on websites they shouldn't? What happens if you see you see someone access inappropriate content while the student is at school?

Scenario:  Using Hapara you see someone accessing inappropriate content during school time and the student isn't on the Chromebook however they are logged in at home.

This is can be a very awkward situation. Education Council (n.d.) states that there is a "Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family/Whanau" and one of the underpinning aspects of this is to "respect their privacy". The ethical dilemma would be...do you mention that you have seen inappropriate content or do you talk to the children about the importance of signing out of accounts when you are not around it?

Personally, the first thing that I would do would be to report this to my team leader. I would make sure that we discuss what the possible solution is and see if the nature of the inappropriateness was worth reporting to the parents to see if they can investigate further. After discussing with my team leader I would follow this approach.

I would talk to the students in my classroom about the importance of logging out and making sure that no one is using their accounts when they are not around (without giving any specific information). Not only is this a part of internet safety, it is also important to mention that the students also wouldn't want others posting things on their behalf especially if they are inappropriate. The students sign the internet consent form and part of that is that they keep their password secure and that they are responsible for their own actions. By neglecting to logout the students are leaving themselves open to all sorts of drama.

By approaching it this way I would respecting the privacy of the people involved and hopefully by approaching it in this manner the students would learn the importance of logging out.

Reference:

Education Council. (nd). Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Activity 4 : Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

Activity 4 : Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy- The importance 

It is so important to have a culturally responsive pedagogy. The typical New Zealand classroom is no longer one specific culture. There are a wide range of cultures that are present. In my classroom alone I have NZ European, Chinese, Tamil, Indian, Tongan and Melanesian. My school has a wide variety of cultures and it is important to recognise every one. By providing learning experiences which relate to how students perceive the world through their own cultures you are able to create a sense of motivation and of engagement that connects with the students on a different level. Russell Bishop in Edtalks (2012) discusses the educational disparities in New Zealand. He states that "economically, socially and politically it is vital as a society we understand the need to address these education disparities"  and he asks the question- how can Maori achieve at the highest territory level but not get through secondary school? 

To address this there needs to be teachers who are willing to create a learning context where the students can bring them selves, their own cultural understandings (the way they make sense of the world),  bring themselves to the learning conversations, bring their own experiences where their knowledge is official and legitimate (Edtalks, 2012). This not only works for Maori students but every student. For example choosing an article in a reading work shop that caters for the culture of those students while activate their prior knowledge and will help them to feel empowered because they may even know more about the context than the article or it is something new that they are learning about in their own culture. Having a culturally responsive pedagogy is a key aspect of being a "good educator", knowing what engages and motivate students to want to learn more!

School wide activities are things that my school does well in terms of having a culturally responsive pedagogy. In the senior school team (Matauranga Team), this term we are doing a Matariki Celebration which will involve the schools Kapa Haka Groups and the Indian Dance group performing for a night where parents and children can come watch without the pressure of fundraising for the school. We are also doing a Maori Focus week where each teacher becomes an expert at teaching a certain aspect of the Maori Culture i.e. I am going to do Maori Games and I will provide the history and background of where the games game from and play the games with the children who want to come to the class. This engages the students as they want to learn something new and exciting.

Learning activities are something that we could work on. There is a range of expertise at our school and it is important to tap into those experts. To get more knowledge on areas where I can engage my students through a culturally responsive pedagogy. Especially having a diverse classroom such as mine with a wide range of cultures. It is hard to target any one particular. Having a resource bank would be a good way to start addressing the needs of a culturally responsive pedagogy. Where teachers could access information and learning experiences which have been successful in the past for other teachers. It is important to network, and make things easier on each teacher. 

As teachers, it is key to address the cultural needs of the classroom. To increase engagement and motivation. The trick is finding those learning experiences which hook students in.

Reference:

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Activity 3: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Activity 3: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Shifting the focus to student-centered learning-Issue (Education Review Office, 2012)

Education Review Office (2012, pg. 7) states that "In the most successful schools, the trustees, leaders and teachers have an uncompromising focus on fostering students' interests and strengths, and on addressing their learning needs". Student-centered learning encompasses all of this. If you provide the opportunity for your learners to choose what they want to learn about the engagement and motivation of those students to learn sky rockets. I do a thing called adventure learning in my classroom where students get to choose what they are interested in and learn about it. It is taken from the concept of Google's 20% time where their employees were able to work on something that they wanted to work on for 20% of their week. Applications such as the Google Teacher Academy and gmail were created during this time. It fosters innovation and if you can develop this in your students then you have hooked them. Finding learning experiences "...when time seems to collapse and disappear, when intensity in the process takes over and the thrill is so great that one hates seeing it end and can’t wait to get back to it” (Deci & Flaste 1996, pg 47) are so important. As a community of practice it is important to find the new and exciting ways to develop student-centered learning. One way is providing the opportunity for students to develop partnerships with the teacher, where they get to create their own learning goals and develop their own understandings of how they learn. Where they get feel comfortable enough to choose what they learn and feel that they have the opportunity to fail and learn from that failure in an safe and nurturing environment.

Enabling Technology-Global Megatrend (KPMG International, 2014)

It is important to embrace new technologies. By embracing new technologies teachers are able to access wider communities of learning, where learning conversations can happen around the world instead of confined to the four walls of a classroom. Having this access enables learners to not only develop their research skills but also their ability to learn about what they want to learn. This ties in with student-centered learning because if the students have the technology to give them access to the world then the when it comes to learning the array of global knowledge and opportunities become more accessible. KMPG International (2014, pg. 22) states that "the exponential growth in the volume and speed of access to information and communication has numerous effects". One such effect for the education sector and my community of practice is the collaboration it fosters. Students are able to work collaboratively on a piece of writing or adventure learning project through the ability to share their work. This sharing ability also allows students to reach an authentic and real audience where they can get a wider variety of feedback and feed forward.

There is a direct correlation between student-centered learning and the ability to access technology. By having that access to information technologies students are able to gather and make sense of the world in their own ways. Not to mention the benefits of assistive technologies for students who have learning needs. The way technology is used in the classroom is becoming a more prominent learning curve for communities of practice, especially my community of practice where we are developing our understanding of how to use technology in the classroom to assist learning effectively. It is important to embrace it to develop and understand where education is going and what skills are needed.

References:

Deci, E., & Flaste, R. (1996). Why we do what we do. New York: Penguin Books

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand         Schools. Retrieved 18 May 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-N

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments”. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdf

Activity 2: Your professional community

Activity 2: Your professional community

Risk taking as an challenge:

Looking at and defining the current issues in my professional learning community is a relatively hard concept. In unpacking this, having the ability to risk take - where teachers learn by trying something new is a reality that teachers need to be able to grasp. As teachers we should all have the ability to risk take as by being set in certain ways we can hinder our practice. Stepping out of your comfort zone to try something new is what we should be aiming for. I personally find risk taking as something I enjoy. I enjoy trialling things to see if they work. Our professional learning community is situated around success criteria and learning conversations in writing. I have decided that I am going to take the risk and change my whole writing programme. This programme will encompass individual conferences and giving specific 5 minute workshops to each child's need while they have free choice about what they write. We will unpack what makes a successful piece of writing at the end of year 5 and year 6 and this is what the students in my class will aim to achieve. This is a completely different approach that I am taking to the writing process but by being involved in my professional learning community and being able to have the discussions about successful learning conversations it will hopefully be a success. I have all boys in my classroom and they like to write what they like to write. They enjoy having choice. My community of practice addresses the risk taking process by being supportive and saying "why not try something new". By having the support to try something new it empowers other teachers to try things. It it gives us the opportunity to develop our own reflective processes to see if the learning experiences or classroom program is effective. This almost takes away the challenge.  

The changes that are occurring: 

The changes that are occurring in the teaching profession is the teachers are having a pedagogical shift when it comes to using and implementing technology in the classroom. There are many who say that technology has had a negative effect on teaching. I went to a course that was run by Mike Reading and he said that "a bad lesson with technology is still a bad lesson". Its a mindset shift. Technology is used as a tool to guide lessons and connect the world. By having this implemented in the classroom correctly, students are able to connect with other people all around the world and to have a wider knowledge collection base. This allows for learning conversations to happen any time and anywhere. To address this change as a community we deconstruct how we use technology in the classroom. To find the things people are doing successfully with technology and how we could all use this in our classrooms. By having this open discussion we are able to construct our own new knowledge and make that pedagogical shift to using technology to assist and not the be all and end all. 

Activity 1: My Community of Practice

Activity 1: My Community of Practice

• What is my practice? and what is my professional context?

My name is Eliot Hall. I teach a Year 5 and 6 all boys class at Maungawhau Primary School.  It has been an interesting challenge to start the year having all boys in the classroom. After completing my literature review and teaching as Inquiry Plan it was intriguing to see the impact of my practice on the boys engagement (for example completing BP Challenges where the students had to create a cannon using materials but without a design, having to problem solve and work together in a team). This showed me how I needed to change aspects of my practice to make it more interesting . I also attended a "Boys in School" course which helped me to refine my practice to include a "Black & White" approach as boys respond to this better, knowing what the rules are and what the consequences are. I am passionate about using technology in the classroom and finding ways to engage the boys in my classroom through the integration of ICT. I currently hold a management unit in e-Learning which also helps to inform my practice. 

• Who are my community of practice? 

I belong to a few communities of practice when it comes to technology and boys engagement. The Matuaranga (Senior School Year 5 - 6) Team, e-learning team and a professional learning community based around writing with colleagues across the school. These are my current communities of practice. As a part of the e-Learning community of practice, 2 other colleagues and I, share engaging and interesting new ways of using technology in the classroom. Our community of practice also shares this with the wider school community by running optional professional learning and Techy Breakies (where people share their integration of technology). All 3 of us have had the opportunity to attend a multitude of workshops/professional learning course where we have been able to gather resources and share them with our community. I am also a part of a professional learning community which has a focus on how to develop reflective learners through co-constructing success criteria and developing the quality of student conferencing (Peer and self assessment). The Matauranga Team is made up of 8 classroom teachers who are open to sharing new ideas and successful learning experiences that they have had with boys. 

What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you contribute to the community of your practice?

The purpose and function of my practice at the moment is to find engaging and motivation learning experiences to develop new knowledge in my boys in literacy. 64.8% of the boys in our school are reaching national standards in writing. But what is happening to the other 35.2%? Through establishing the professional learning community around peer and self assessment I am able to discuss with other like minded colleagues about the best techniques to engage boys and identify some successful learning experiences. I contribute to the professional learning community by bringing a range of fast, quick writing warm-ups which engage and take the pressure out writing formally. These quick warm ups allow students to have a bit of fun while writing. 

• What are the core values that underpin your profession? Evaluate your practice with regard to these values

Ministry of Education (2007, pg 10.) states in their values that "students will be encouraged to value 

• innovation, inquiry, and curiosity, by thinking critically, creatively, and reflectively;"

This is one value that I strongly believe underpins the teaching profession. In my practice I provide opportunities for students to develop and understand their inquiry skills. By giving the students the opportunity to develop their own understandings of a selected topic it empowers them to learn. They want to learn about the things they are interested in. If I am able to create a learning environment which fosters innovation, inquiry and curiosity by challenging my students to think out side the box then I am preparing them to be a 21st Century Learner. Deci & Flaste (1996, pg 47.) discusses learning experiences where "... time seems to collapse and disappear, when intensity in the process takes over and the thrill is so great that one hates seeing it end and can’t wait to get back to it”. This is the sort of learning experiences that I want to create in my classroom, where students don't realise they are learning and are totally engaged.

Reference:

Deci, E., & Flaste, R. (1996). Why we do what we do. New York: Penguin Books

Ministry of Education (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media: Wellington