Using the podcast format in WeVideo is an efficient way to share my thoughts on navigating my day digitally. What an amazing tool for students to brainstorm their ideas for writing and storytelling!
Check out my explanation:
Common Sense Education shares valuable tools for students to find balance with technology devices. I have been teaching lessons to the grade 1-5 students on digital literacy and am constantly reminded that I too need to work on my relationship with technology.
Creating harmony and balance seems to be a trend in this stage of my life. Whether it is balancing mom life, wife life, work life, and doing my master’s, it is apparent that all phases need to have strategies and tools in place in order to create a healthy, harmonious lifestyle. Along with this would be instilling healthy habits for my daughter and students around digital citizenship. I see the value and purpose of technology in our world. I believe it is on me now as a mother and educator to implement educational tools. Common Sense Education has guided me in this journey and helped me build healthy conversations around digital citizenship.
“Technology in the classroom can be extremely disruptive”
DOUG jOHNSON
“The leadership has to start with spending some time in the classroom with kids and being in their footsteps and using the tools that they’re using and looking at it from their perspective ”
(audet, 2019)
After reading the article, Ethical Issues With Using Technology In The Classroom I was reminded of the technological growth that is happening. Doug Johnson states, “technology in the classroom can be extremely disruptive”. Drawing on this notion, it is apparent that any tool that isn’t properly implemented in a healthy way can become disruptive. So, as I enter the classrooms and discuss digital citizenship it is evident that more work needs to be done. Continuing to educate myself and my students in the area of ethics will help all of us develop an awareness and skills to implement into our daily lives.
“Ethics has always been at the core of creating a thriving learning environment”
Ethical Issues With Using Technology in the classroom
Some personal strategies I am now using to validate the information I receive in terms of my classroom would be Common Sense Education for fact-checking images. This was one area I wanted to grow in. MediaSmarts offers excellent articles, lessons, and tools to help educators such as myself to implement digital literacy in the classroom. For example, MediaSmarts shares, “Promoting Ethical Online Behaviours with Your Kids,” which is a relative topic and ties to the etiquette and respect piece online.
Where do I get my news? Honestly lately I have been avoiding the news. Sounds terrible I’m sure, however, I get so wrenched with anxiety about our worldly affairs and inequities around that sometimes I need to go off-grid and avoid the news. Currently, I do feel I am becoming more equipped with tools and strategies to support the information I am listening to. Fact-checking resources and guides have become very helpful for me and building my confidence in this area. Misinformation and disinformation: A Guide to Protecting Yourself offers great tools to help sift through information. For myself, I have begun to verify the sources, dates and look into the background of the story. This helps identify common followers or the political push behind much information. This may be just a start for me but I am aware and intentionally navigating it with an educated eye. I look forward to learning more on this topic and consciously being aware of what I am taking in. Thinking critically about what we read and see online is an important part of being a good digital citizen.
Kola's Journey Into Educational Technology 
I liked the way you demonstrated your day via this flowchart… Commonsense education is such an amazing platform.
And Kola in my view avoiding news these days is perfectly normal as sometimes it is stressful and frustrating. After this pandemic my news reading habit has also declined drastically.
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Thanks for sharing the visual of what your day looks like with us. It was a neat way to present information, and illustrate what a day in your shoes would look like. I too love Commonsense education and get so much inspiration from it. Sometimes we need a little break from the news, especially over the past two years when that’s all we’ve really had at times. Deciphering between real and fake news can be exhausting, and wearing on our already somewhat fragile frames of mind.
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I love using Canva and creating things. I wish I had learned it earlier on. For sure, Common Sense has really helped me execute some solid lessons on Ditial Citizenship. An amazing tool to incorporate into our practice for all ages. I would love to come see your class sometime! Or maybe we can collab on a project between schools. Take care!
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