Learning to Educate in a 21st Century World

There are many tools which a global educator should have handy in their “toolbox”. This tool box should be equipped with tools serving multiple purposes in order to ensure that their students are given every opportunity to learn. One of the easiest tools to add, provided your budget allows, is the iPad. The iPad incorporates literacy, numeracy, and voice to demonstrate student learning (Lindsay, 2016). A benefit of use of the iPad within the classroom is that it provides for student learning where the student is having fun, as demonstrated in the above video.

The use of iPads in the classroom allows for an interactive setting for the students as they have to engage with the lesson in order to achieve tasks, and ultimately understand the material.

While there are some understandable concerns about the use of iPads in the classroom, such as, distraction and reliance on technology. Educators, and the developers of applications for the iPad, strive to minimize student deviation from the intended lessons by having options available so that students may only use selected applications in class.

The below video highlights ten tips for best utilizing iPad within the classroom.

Some of the best uses, highlighted in the video, are that iPad use can be used to help students with learning differences within the classroom, it can also limit distraction through guided access, and finally you can use the iPads to help students with English as a second language.

Finally, one of the best aspects of a global connected learning community is the opportunity for both teachers, and students to communicate and create with other people in the community. This means that with any of the tools in the global educator’s toolbox you are not limited to only the ideas or lesson plans that you come up with. There is an entire community of people willing to share their best uses for these tools within the classroom. Through research I was able to locate multiple lesson plans surrounding iPad use in the classroom. Check out one example, of a lesson plan where iPads were used in the classroom, here!

The use of technology in the classroom is a blessing, and a curse, as most people in the education community recognize. Navigating the classroom climate becomes increasingly more difficult as our generation continues to develop new resources, and our opinions on what is considered to be “appropriate” continues to evolve.

When it comes to technology use in the classroom there are general ideas which most educators recognize are good practices to be followed by all. An article, titled NJ School Boards Association Issues Model Social Networking Policy, highlights some of these generally approved ideas as: not friending your students on social media, all e-contact going through district computers and telephone systems, and prohibiting teachers from posting about their students.

The general idea which most boards of education are trying to get across to teachers, and students, is that an online classroom is still a classroom. Therefore, the same behavior which is acceptable in an in person classroom is expected to be maintained in a virtual setting.

However, as with most things in life, not everyone follows the rules to the same extent, and not everyone shares the same views on what is considered “appropriate”. It is this grey area, where teachers attempt to use their discretion in social media use, that ends up getting them into trouble.

…sometimes they just generally don’t believe that what they were doing with social media, or technology, and their students was an inappropriate use of the resource.

An example, where a teacher generally believed their behavior was not reason to be fired, would be Mary Durstein. Durstein was fired from her school district following a series of tweets where she ridiculed blacks, Muslims, and former President, Barack Obama. She sued under the premise that her First Amendment rights were violated, and that her use of speech online was an a fireable offense.

Similarly to the first example, there are instances that make you wonder why the teacher ever posted in the first place.

In this regard, we can all agree that explicit posts about students are not a proper use of social media. An article outlines how a Chicago teacher used explicit language, in a social media post, referencing her fifth-grade students and subsequently found herself on leave because of it.

Sadly, there are far too many instances, that can be found online, where a teacher’s behavior online has gotten them into trouble with their school districts.

A final example of a teacher’s inappropriate behavior is highlighted in this article where a middle-school teacher was put on leave, and subsequently fired. The teacher, Lauren Miranda, was put on leave after a seminude photo of her was obtained by a student without her consent. Miranda maintained that the photo had only ever been sent to a colleague she had dated.

This final example poses some questions for thought: while there are general expectations of how teachers should act with students, and towards them, is there also a general expectation of how they should act within their own personal relationships? Should a teacher who has their Instagram on private not post a photo of themselves at an event where they are legally holding a beer can?

Welcome to my first blog post! This week I am taking a look at a technology based, education, article. My #GEN2018 class was given a research task, to take to Twitter with the hashtag #edtech, and see what we could find. You can imagine how excited I was when I found this article, written by Tim Newcomb, highlighting the different ways the platform Outschool is making use of the internet, and the millennial obsession with it.

(The irony of the fact that, I, though not a millennial, was only able to find this article due to my ability to use Twitter in the classroom is not lost on me…but I digress.)

Outschool is a live, online learning, platform which connects students from around the world to other students and teachers. The founder of the start-up, Amir Nathoo, suggests that “the main goal of the platform is to offer diversity with the added value of human interaction” according to Newcomb. The platform has dubbed itself the “Netflix of learning”.

If you are currently asking yourself, “Well, what is so special about Outschool?” Believe me, you are not alone. I was struggling to see any differences between this platform, and platforms like Twitter, where students can also connect in real time with others. What makes Outschool so different from all of the other online learning tools?

Outschool began in 2017, and has presented over 31,000 classes to students around the world. The classes remain capped at 18 students, and the platform has maintained over an 80% attendance rate for the classes offered. While these are incredible accomplishments for a start-up…this is not why Outschool is so popular with students, or why they have self identified as the “Netflix of learning”.

Outschool fosters a love of learning through offering courses that the students want to take, and, because they want to take them, they remain more actively engaged. Some of the courses offered are architecture taught through Minecraft, Spanish taught through Taylor Swift lyrics, and animal anatomy taught by vet technicians.

By offering courses that peak student interests, through interests they already like or know about, on platforms like the internet, students are being set up for success. A bonus for teachers that work on the platform is the added freedom, from regulations, they find when creating courses. (And the additional income isn’t bad either!) 

At the end of the day, Outschool is a prime example of how we as future educators can be using our student’s interests, on platforms they enjoy using, to teach them the material they need to learn!