Virtual Teachers

I bought Empowering Students with Technology by Alan November for my Kindle program on my Mac. I've never played around with e-reader technology before, stubbornly saying that I prefer a physical book. However, I discovered something very cool that the Kindle does - any portions of the text that had been highlighted multiple times by Kindle readers had dotted lines under them, with the number of highlights indicated below. I thought this would be a very helpful technology for kids, particularly in determining what the most important information in the text is. Also, Kindle makes it very easy to access any highlights, notes, and bookmarks you've made in the text in a menu on the side of the screen. I was amazed at how easy it was to purchase the book, begin reading it immediately, and be able to annotate it paperlessly. The applications for my classroom (once I convince the publishers to make my texts available on e-readers!) are innumerable - if it were to have a live vocabulary look-up, half of the time my students take in translating passages would be eliminated, and we would be able to proceed to interpretation that much more quickly.

Beyond my excitement at reading a textbook in a new format, the content of the book has given me a lot of ideas on how to help my students develop a more sophisticated digital literacy. One of the things that November explains is the grammar of the internet, in particular how to read URLs to find indications that a site is endorsed by an organization or is a public page hosted by the organization (which would be less trustworthy). Being a Latin teacher, I love grammar and understanding the hidden clockwork that makes language work, and I think that being able to understand the clockwork behind the internet will be of great interest to my students, since it is something that they use everyday. The benefit of that understanding is that they will be able to use the internet more effectively as a research tool to expand their learning. As November puts it, "If you do not know the rules, it is impossible to win the game." Alan C. November. Empowering Students With Technology (Kindle Location 236). Kindle Edition. (Hey, look, the Kindle cited it for me, too!) I'd like to be able to connect the concept of grammar they are learning in my class with the grammar of the internet - they both work with very mathematical rules, and looking at the concept more broadly may help my students have a better understanding of it as a result.

I had a mixed reaction to reading Thirteen Reasons Why and its depiction of a girl's thought process towards committing suicide. The book tackles an incredibly important and emotionally charged issue, and I can see how we can use it as a vehicle to discuss these issues with our students. One of the most helpful aspects of the book is that it makes the reader consider how a person's actions, no matter how insignificant, can cause very intense emotions in others. It can be used in activities where classes jigsaw the thirteen reasons and discuss/write about their personal experiences with situations similar to that reason. It could even be extended into a social justice project where students develop a video campaign to raise awareness about treating others with respect, standing up for yourself and others, or paying attention to the warning signs that troubled people are giving. If they were posted on Youtube, it would give students an authentic audience to consider while planning and creating their videos. Through this type of activity, students would be able to investigate a significant and authentic issue and express themselves while using technology in a creative way.

A great resource on the website for the book is a discussion guide that can be used in book clubs or with a class. It has a lot of thought-provoking questions for readers to consider. However, there is another question that I would have my students explore. I was uncomfortable with how Hannah retaliated against the people she placed on her list of reasons to commit suicide. She threatened to have a second set of tapes which would cause embarrassment and possible legal trouble released if the thirteen people on her list didn't follow her orders. Isn't this bullying? She had a list of targets and threatened them with harm. At the very least it's manipulative, which isn't the best example for young people to follow (though, of course, we wouldn't want them to follow her example at all!). For me, she wasn't a very sympathetic character, which shouldn't diminish the tragedy of her death, but somehow it does. So my question is what was the impact of her tapes on the listeners, and was she justified in threatening to release a second copy if they didn't pass them on?

For my digital portfolio, I created a blog called "Magistra Goetz's Latin Lounge", to be used primarily as an enrichment space for my students. I connected it with my grade level team's wiki, which is focused on my class content, to provide further information on cultural topics, alert them to classics in the news, tips on completing projects, and other fun activities. I spent most of my time creating pages like "Loquere Quasi Romani" ("Talk Like the Romans") and "Why Latin?", as well as generating a list of links for Classics in Cyberspace. In the future, I plan on generating more blog posts discussing cultural topics or sharing links to fun classics content (to prove it actually exists!). I know that I have to give myself a schedule to ensure that I post at least once a week. I would also like to expand contributors to the blog to include officers in the Junior Classical League (our Latin club) so they can use this platform to communicate with club members both at our school and across the country. This will allow me to address one of the most challenging standards in my content area, Goal 5: Participating in Wider Communities of Language and Culture, as well as NETS.S 2a and 2b. I've shown the blog to several students and they've already given me some great feedback on how to use it. They liked the post I wrote about the National Latin Exam that included links to study aids for those students who want to go the extra step to prepare. They would like to see more content like this, especially links that will help them understand language topics they are struggling with. I'm excited to develop a space for me and my students to kick back, relax, and have fun with the classics!

After finishing lol ... OMG!, I recognize a lot of my students' behaviors in the cautionary tales Ivester relates. Many of them have hundreds of "friends" on Facebook, and I wonder how carefully they have considered who they friend and what kind of content they allow those "friends" to see. I think it would be a great activity to have students access their list of friends on Facebook and sort them into the categories suggested by Ivester (friends, family, professional contacts, acquaintances), then show them how to limit access to certain types of content to protect their information. A good guiding question could be, "Does everyone need to know everything about you?" Many students complain that people are "all up in their business" without realizing that they share way more than they might normally feel comfortable with. They also may not realize how easy it is for your "friends" on Facebook to share your content that you think is private with a much larger audience than you anticipated. As an activity to address this, I would ask my students to become critical readers of Facebook, reading through the posts one night and cataloging how much content they can see from friends of friends (i.e. a person they are not "friends" with on Facebook, but is "friends" with one of their "friends"). I think this would be an eye-opening experience for many students.

I was really struck by the final two chapters of this book in its description of the evolving nature of the digital world. In some ways it seems kind of fixed to me, but I forget that the web is still in its teenage stages and hasn't fully developed as a mature space. In a way, it's very similar to a developing country and the social and cultural norms of this "country" haven't yet been decided. I was reminded of the research we did for our digital citizenship project about how social influence can impact online behavior. The power is truly in our students' hands to make the digital community a safe one for themselves and their peers by minimizing negative online social interactions and deciding on acceptable norms for interaction. I think it would be interesting to have our students draft a Digital Constitution describing the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens. It would be a great way to incorporate standards from Social Studies and the NETS for Students, generating a product that can be shared with the digital community. If this constitution is developed by students, perhaps more young people will embrace the principles and become more conscious creators of online content.

After reading the first half of lol ... OMG! by Matt Ivester, I am convinced that this should be required reading for students in high school, before they make too much of an online reputation that will stay with them like a true permanent record. I actually used the threat of the old-school permanent record with two of my advisory students, boys in 8th grade who have been getting into trouble constantly to the point of outside suspension. Their attitude is that they are in 8th grade and what they do in middle school doesn't matter. I lied and told them that their punishment record in school is part of their cumulative file that colleges review, but now it occurs to me that this is becoming more and more true. Students post videos of fights that they or others have either in school or in the neighborhood without thinking about future consequences, legal or otherwise. It is entirely conceivable that in the near future a fight a child has in 8th grade or some other misbehavior that makes its way online will have an impact on that child's academic, professional, and social future. I once sent a message to a former student who is now a friend on Facebook about the numerous posts he'd made about drinking during his first year at college. I warned him about the permanence of those kinds of posts and the negative impression it leaves on future potential employers (not to mention the dangers of underage binge drinking). He has definitely reduced the amount of posts he makes about his weekend activities, but this is a message that needs to get out to all of our young people so that youthful indiscretions don't impact their long-term future.

In Chapter 5, Ivester talks about social background checks that can be performed legally before a company hires a potential employee. A company called Social Intelligence will scour the internet for a person's social media footprint and send a report of any items of potential concern. These include liking pages on Facebook that can indicate discriminatory feelings or potential violent tendencies. Any innocuous or flippant remark can be used against a candidate if it is caught and flagged by this service. This article on Gizmodo describes what information is found and the format of the report sent to the employer, and it highlights for me why it is so important to teach students to be careful with what they post online. One way that educators can help students practice the kind of conscious creation of content that Ivester prescribes is to teach them to pause and reread before sending an email or submitting a comment. Students can write about a controversial topic, then take a pause of 30 seconds and reread their comments. The class can then discuss any insights the students may have had during the rereading. After that discussion, students reread again, making any revisions they feel are necessary. Then, they can "send" the response to other classmates for comments, mimicking the process of online commenting. When students receive their original response back, they can see how the other people in the class reacted to their words. It could also be extended over a few days, so students have a longer break between crafting the words and "sending" it to their peers. This type of activity can help students see the benefits of taking a moment to read and edit their comments before clicking "send" or "upload"and being more conscious about what they post online.

For my 21st century lesson, I used my team's existing wiki page (link goes to the page for the first poetry unit) to engage my students in discussion about a poem we read together in class. After reading the poem, I asked each student to post a response in the discussion area to the following question: "Why does Catullus call himself "the worst poet" and Cicero "the best lawyer"?" We discussed what should be included in a response, including connections to the historical and cultural context, connections between the two authors, and their personal reaction to the poem. Students had five days to post their response in their class period's discussion, after which I locked the discussion. In the next step, the students are reading the responses from each class and choose one they agreed with, one they disagreed with, and be prepared to explain why in a whole class discussion (which will be today and Monday). This activity corresponds to the following National Standards for Classical Language Learning: Standard 1.1 Students read, understand, and interpret Latin or Greek, and Standard 2.2 Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Greek or Roman culture as revealed in the products of the Greeks or Romans.

Some really cool things started to happen as my students completed the initial response. I had to administer a MAP test in the computer lab during the class period after we read the poem. With the time left at the end of the period, I encouraged students to go to the wiki and complete their responses. Students started discussing their responses with each other before posting, and I saw some working together on the writing skills, giving feedback like, "You kind of repeat yourself there," and "I think what you mean is ..." Also, students who posted later started making comments in their response such as, "Like XX said ...", which indicated to me that they were reading other students' comments and incorporating them into their thinking. I believe that this will enable my students to engage in a richer and more meaningful class discussion about the poem, because they have already done some pre-thinking about it and will have read other people's thoughts before discussing it face to face. In previous class discussions, I have found that some students are reluctant to volunteer their opinion in case they sound stupid. Since everyone's thoughts are already out there for everyone to see, we will be able to use the technology to support and encourage a richer class discussion.

I just finished Digital Citizenship in Schools, and I think the activities suggested for teaching the various aspects of digital citizenship are an excellent way to start the conversations with all members of the community. In addition to faculty and students, I think it would be helpful to also hold workshops with parents about appropriate use of technology and the importance of modeling it for their children. One situation that I face with students texting in class is that frequently it's their parents texting them. Parents and students are informed at the beginning of each year that cell phones are not allowed to be used in class, and any student caught using a cell phone will have it confiscated by the teacher and turned into the office. Students are allowed three offenses, with increasing consequences (1st - get it back at the end of the day, 2nd - parent has to come in to pick it up, 3rd - the student receives it back in June). Since this policy is widely known and has been in place for several years, I don't understand why parents continue to text their children during the school day, then get upset at the school for following its published policy. On the other hand, I do think that my school's policy on cell phones in the classroom is a bit draconian, so I can understand the resistance. Perhaps it is time for us to reconsider our relationship with digital technology and develop a policy that all members buy into and live by.

Another issue raised in the book was that of techno-addiction. I have several students who are exhausted during the day and are fighting falling asleep in class because they were up late into the night playing games or surfing the internet or using a computer in some other way. They freely admit it and when I discuss with them how it is impeding their learning and growth process, the response is usually a non-committal, "Yeah ...." I wonder if because this type of addiction doesn't come with the same kind of obvious health risks and impairments, and because it isn't as socially unacceptable as drug or alcohol addiction, people don't understand how over-using technology can harm them. This is another area where schools and teachers can begin to educate students, perhaps as part of the Health curriculum. It can also be addressed through discussions of appropriate and inappropriate use of digital technology. I think it is important for teachers not to demonize video games, though, because as with anything, in moderation they are not a bad thing. If we are judgmental about something that children (and adults!) really enjoy and are emotionally connected to, we will lose their interest in the conversation before we ever begin.

I have been an active user of digital technology since about 1985, when my mom bought an Apple IIC, and I remember how completely entranced and fascinated my brothers and I were by the games we could play on the simple green-on-black display. As we grew and acquired more sophisticated technology, I don't remember my mother ever discussing with us the appropriate use of the technology. It was something that my brothers and I learned on our own through trial and error. Based on this nearly 28 years of experience with digital technology, the nine elements of digital citizenship proposed by Ribble seem like common sense to me. I have experienced some of the negative effects of not being mindful of these principles and have learned how to be a more responsible digital citizen because of it.

Our students are now growing in a far more sophisticated and developed digital world. When I was in college, our intramural instant messaging service was revolutionary - now you can have an IM conversation while Skyping and texting and playing a MMORPG. As I was reading the first two chapters of the book, I really struggled with what role I think schools and educators should play in developing digital citizenship in our students. So much of responsible digital citizenship in my mind starts with parental guidance. I am frustrated that so much has suddenly been deemed the responsibility of the schools and completely abdicates parents' responsibility to raise their children. For example, modeling appropriate use of a cell phone for a child should primarily be a parent's responsibility. I don't use my cell phone while teaching my class - how can I model appropriate use of a cell phone (besides not using it when I shouldn't)? I don't feel like schools can be everything that society seems to think they should be. On the one hand they want us to do more; on the other, they complain about how horrible we are at our jobs.

However, these issues of digital citizenship affect our students and how we can effectively educate them. The purpose of schools according to Dewey is to create educated and responsible citizens in a democratic society. Part of our society now includes the digital world, and schools need to incorporate it into our curriculum or else become irrelevant. One of the questions Ribble posed that I was most struck by was, "if these technologies are banned in schools, what message does that send to our students who have access to these devices outside of school?" My answer was that students will think that school is dumb and out of touch. The students, as consumers of our curriculum, are our customers - if we aren't providing them with the products they want, they can turn to other providers (such as online learning). As much as it can be a bitter pill to swallow, educators need to incorporate technology into our curriculum to teach students how to use technology appropriately and responsibly. If we do this effectively, then we can perhaps start to extinguish some of those negative behaviors that we're all frustrated by. For example, a role-playing activity where students text while listening to a set of instructions, and then have to follow the instructions based on what they recall, could illuminate how much people miss when they listen with half an ear. Another way to incorporate technology in a way that draws in students would be to do live Twitter responses to presentations or lectures, with clear guidelines given for an appropriate response (no swearing, constructive criticism, etc.). By practicing with technology in these useful ways, students will begin to learn the utility of this technology beyond its entertainment value. What we as teachers need if we are going to be effective teachers of technology use is a massive influx of funding and training.