My
mission as a digital education leader is to empower all students to be
knowledgeable, productive and reflective digital citizens.
Guiding
principles:
- Technology integration is
important in preparing students with 21st century skills. - Digital citizenship should to be
taught throughout subjects, domains and grades. - Mindfulness and reflection should
be practiced to create a healthy digital life.
Diving
Deeper:
Mission:
My mission as a digital education leader is to empower all students to be
knowledgeable, productive and reflective digital citizens.
My
mission as a digital education leader has been shaped by my experiences growing
up, learning and teaching in a technologically advancing world, as well as
knowledge gained from professional development and the Digital Education
Leadership (DEL) Masters program at Seattle Pacific University. As I’m wrapping
up my first quarter in the DEL program my mission as a digital education leader
has evolved, and I anticipate this evolution may continue with journey through
the program. Nonetheless, my current mission lays an important foundation that
influences my beliefs and teaching. As a digital education leader my mission is
to empower all students to be knowledgeable, productive and reflective digital
citizens.
Guiding
Principle 1: Technology integration is important in preparing students with
21st century skills (ISTE Coaching Standard 3).
Collaboration
and teamwork, creativity and imagination, critical thinking and problem solving
are four 21st century skills students should be equipped with
when entering into the 21st century world. Student’s
proficiency with 21st century skills has much to do with their success with
information and communication technologies. Technology allows us the ability to
communicate, access, learn, add and program information at the touch of a
button or voice command.
Professor
and Researcher Luciano Florridi (2010) writes in his book, The
Information Revolution that we live in an information society (p. 3).
An information society can be defined as a “social system greatly dependent on
information technologies to produce and distribute all manner of goods and
services.” (“Information Society,” n.d.). The types of work people do in this
21st century information society is much different than that of the 20th
century. For example, take collaboration; in today’s 21st century many jobs
require communication across cities, states, and countries using communication
technologies. Skills needed to do this are much different than those used in
the 20th century which largely consisted of face-to-face meetings or telephone.
Florridi (2010) writes, “to someone born in 2000 the world will always have
been wireless” (p.16). The world our students are preparing for is
technologically and digitally far different than my parents and even my
generation.
Another
example, is critical thinking. In today’s 21st century, workers must be able to
find, sift and analyze data that technology has inundated them with. In the
case of critical thinking we must now be able to decide and decipher what
information is credible and important to our needs. As a digital education
leader it’s my role to prepare our students to enter this information society
with the 21st century skills needed to be successful. Just as Florridi
acknowledges that information technology is a national priority, it is my
priority to develop or learn and find ways to integrate technology into my
teaching.
Guiding
Principle 2: Digital citizenship should to be integrated throughout subjects,
domains and grades (ISTE Coaching Standard 5)
As
Janna Anderson and Lee Rainse write in The Future of Well Being in a Tech- Saturated
World, with technology comes benefits and concerns. Students understanding
of what it means to be a digital citizen empowers them to reap the benefits of
technology and grapple with the concerns. How to teach digital citizenship has
been of concern to me. I found myself wondering, “How do I teach digital
citizenship?” “When do I teach it?” “Are there schools out there doing this
work?” Researcher Carrie James outlined the potential moral and ethical blind
spots that students have when it comes to technology in her Book Disconnected
with New Media and the Ethics Gap. She concludes her book with ideas
on how to combat these blind spots. One thing her researched concluded is the
importance of building whole learners; who can think and act ethically online
and are motivated to wrestles with the associated dilemmas (Anderson &
Rainse, 2018, p. 138). If we are to teach the importance of digital citizenship
in all parts of life, whether students are writing, reading, researching, and
checking email or social media students should understand that digital
citizenship applies to all these scenarios. As an educator I should be
thoughtfully planning ways to teach digital citizenship throughout my content.
Additionally, I can advocate and coach others to integrate digital citizenship
in their classrooms.
Guiding
Principle 3: Mindfulness and reflection should be practiced to create a healthy
digital life (ISTE Coaching Standard: 3 and 5)
Many
people feel sucked into technology and feel a loss of agency (Ticona, 2015, p.
63). Julia Ticona writes about the manipulation that can go on online. She also
writes that when it comes to our impressionable youth we must also recognize
that they are being raised in a world where simply unplugging doesn’t stop them
from experiencing their lives though technologies lenses, frames and formats
(Ticona, 2015, p. 68). So comes the principle that as educators we have a
responsibility to model teach mindfulness and reflection strategies to our
students so they can navigate through these challenges.
This
principle is emphasized by Howard Rheingold writing in Net Smart: How
to thrive online. Rheingold points out in his book, in our information rich
and digital world mindfulness and reflection are the foundations for balance.
He writes, “Formulate goals and turn them into intentions by paying attention
every once in a while to what you are doing at the moment, and then reflecting
briefly on how what you are doing relates to your larger goal.” (Rheingold,
2012, p. 81). Digital mindfulness and reflection can be modeled and taught
through intentional planning. Mindfulness and reflection practices or
strategies should be named so that students understand their purpose and apply
them to create a healthy digital life.
References:
Carrie
James, Disconnected: Youth, the New Media, and the Ethics Gap (Cambridge,
Mass.: The MIT Press, 2014)
Diana
Fingal, “Infographic: Citizenship in the Digital Age,” ISTE, December 14, 2017.
“Information
Society.” Encyclopedia of Sociology. . Retrieved December 02, 2018 from
Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/information-society
ISTE
Standards for Coaches. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2016, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-coaches
Julia
Ticona and Chad Wellmon, “Uneasy in Digital Zion,” The Hedgehog Review 17:1
(2015)
Luciano
Floridi, “The Information Revolution,” Information—A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010
Rheingold,
H. (2012). Net Smart : How to thrive online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
“The Future of Well-Being in a Tech-Saturated World,”
Pew Research Center, April 17, 2018
