This week’s topic is covered in Chapter 3 Article 2 titled “The ISTE Standards” on pages 57–62, written by EdTech coach Kirstin Harrington. Harrington emphasizes the value of teaching students about global collaboration, which she specifically highlights during the COVID-19 pandemic. I found this information interesting after reading EdTech for the K–12 Classroom, Students can collaborate on a variety of topics and hear other people’s perspectives on the material being taught in the classroom by using digital tools to interact with other students from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Even the most shy learners may be able to push themselves even further by interacting with others.

The Global Collaborator standard emphasizes the use of digital tools to ensure students are given the option to work not only locally but worldwide also. For instance, Wadsworth Elementary School in Flagler County, Florida, connected K–6 kids to classes in Nigeria, Mexico, New York, and other places via a website called Empatico. (pg.58) Students wouldn’t be able to interact with other classrooms without websites like Empatico and #GoalsProject. Through these collaborations, students have the opportunity to learn more about global issues, which inspires them to take action and improve the common good. While international collaboration is highly recommended in the classroom, certain school districts have particular limitations. Before attempting to engage in any kind of global collaboration, be sure to review their policies. In general, teachers should let their students participate so they can make a difference in the world.

Collaboration is an important and useful tool to be used in many different circumstances within many environments a person might be in. There are many ways that people collaborate in their everyday activities, such as in work environments (meetings, communicating, and helping each other), communities (church groups and support through adversities), and schools (study groups, group work, etc.). In the classroom, collaboration is important to help students gain knowledge about the material in different ways and help them understand the material better.

While working alone, students may only know limited information and form their ideas around that limited amount, but if they work with another student who may have different ideas and information, then they can include that in their work.

Collaboration offers a lot in school systems such as ways to:

• Teach students how to work productively with others for their lives after school.
• Reach out to other teachers and gain ideas for assignments.
• Provide students with a way to work with others with little issues.

A good example of collaboration in the world after school is the science community. Scientists from all over the world share and compare data every day to develop new theories and ideas and change old ones.

“Benefits of collaborative learning include: development of higher-level thinking, oral communiciation, self-management, and leadership skills,” (Cornell University).

COLLABORATION

Cornell University. “Collaborative Learning | Center for Teaching Innovation.” Teaching.cornell.edu, Cornell University, 2023, teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/active-collaborative-learning/collaborative-learning#:~:text=The%20benefits%20of%20collaborative%20learning.

WAYS YOU CAN INCORPORATE COLLABORATION INTO YOUR CLASS

1. Set students in groups (can deliberately set the groups based on personality types)
2. Teach students active listening skills
3. Assign roles or jobs to each member of the group
4. Promote students to socialize with each other through games and other activities

For more information, click the link to read the entire article: https://www.schoolsthatlead.org/blog/positive-public-school-culture

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It is so important for our students to master the art of positive and effective collaboration. They need to learn how to communicate with others to formulate new ideas in order to enhance their own education. 

Collaboration is when students, peers, teachers, schools etc. are able to share their ideas and perspectives to work together and formulate a new idea that requires the participation of everyone. Collaboration can be localized to just the classroom or it can go beyond as far as globally. 

Key aspects:

1. Communication
2. Understanding
3. Cultural awareness 

Most schools offer world languages. This is a way for students to learn new languages as well as new cultures and traditions from around the world. Learning languages such as spanish, french, and German can allow you to connect on a deep level with you peers and have a better understanding which will lead to more effective learning. 

Watch this interesting video to learn about global collabortation’s positive effects on our students!

By : Raquel Pearsall

September 21st, 2024

You might ask what is a digital footprint? Or ‘do I have one already? ’The answer is Yes!

“Digital footprints contain valuable information about individuals’ identities, preferences, behaviors, and connections, making them a rich source of intelligence for security professionals and private investigators, (XPressGuard, 2024)”. Any interaction online leaves a digital footprint!

<< Visualization of our digital footprint, (<epam>,2024).

In my future profession as a criminologist, I’d haveto study and evaluate others’ digital footprint topossibly find them, their connections, or evenpossible future intentions.

Types of Digital footprints:

● Browsing history

● Emails, texts,video chats

● Online purchases

● Social media activity

Social Platforms, (Tzu, 2014).

“Despite the emphasis on positive digital footprints as students go forward to college and job applications, in-the-moment actions can often lead to regrets (Crompton, 2020, pg16,ph2)”. At any age you must be aware of what you post or talk aboutpublicly online. What you might agree on today, you might notnext week. Always try to be respectful to your peers andconscious in your posts.

If you’d like, watch LPUB Academic center’s take on digital footprints below!

By: Reese Zapata (Twitter: @Reesezapata)

As technology evolves so do our classrooms. Digital learning is emerging and shifting what we know as traditional education. With the uprising of technology in our classrooms the role of a coach has become more popular. A coach is there to provide ease with the process of changing over to technology as it may cause fear for the teachers. Their role is to create concrete and connected learning within the educators. 

There are three ways to indicate how to be a concrete learner 

1. Call to action- acknowledge the skills and knowledge you have while also understanding what areas you need to grow.
2. Path to learning- communicate with your peers to learn from and grow with through sharing ideas and knowledge
3. Distribute knowledge-established shared goals and enhance learning. (Page 5)

“We don’t need to have the answers to everything, but we need to be connected to those that do.” (page 4)

• These standards provide how to develop a system that embraces leadership, trust, and empowerment. (Page 18&19)
• “These standards leverage positive teaching and learning practices with technology to promote the development of student attributes to ensure learning, with the goal of cultivating these skills onward throughout a student’s academic career and beyond (Page 19).”

• This 4 part goal cycle is crucial in determining if the technology is working or not
• These goals are stemmed from the individual goal of the educator and the priorities of the school
• The learning phase is based on student work, peer observation, model teaching, etc. (Page 22)

Thank you for stopping by!

Book/Article: A Guide for Elementary Teachers for the Classroom AI Projects

This is sponsored by International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and General Motors. According to the book ISTE “is a nonprofit organization that works with the global education community to accelerate the use of technology to solve tough problems and inspire innovation. Our

worldwide network believes in the potential technology holds to transform teaching and learning.”

Hands-On

Using AI for Hands-On Projects In the Classroom: 

We have come a long way since I first became popular. Never did I think it would become a part of classroom activities especially at the Elementary Level. However in this article it provides examples of great AI activities that can be incorporated into the classroom to benefit student learning and show the possibilities AI has in education. The introduction to this article also counters previously held beliefs in education that the early elementary grades are too early to begin learning and implementing AI into curriculum, as children are exposed to it from and accustomed to much of what AI can do. This guide is designed not for teachers who are already experts in AI, but for those who are just incorporating it into their lessons, as well as learning about what AI is and the different kinds of AI. This is really helpful for beginner educators as well as experienced teachers who have not learned or taught about AI before. 

First, we can talk about the pros and cons of AI provided in the text. AI  does great with image and speech recognition, AI robots can interact with the environment using sensors like an animal, and also navigate maps and mazes like no other human. Now the cons being, AI has no emotion or sense of feeling so some decisions made by AI could be way different than a human’s decision in a given circumstance. However I believe you could go back and forth on the pros and cons of AI forever, but at the end of the day it is present in our everyday life and we should try to harness its power and continue to use it in education and sciences to push for the advancement of our society as a whole. 

Activities Using AI

This article dives into four different projects using AI in the classroom all of which are very interesting. Each project is divided into an overview, preparation, instructions and extensions. Educators can take use and modify some or all of the suggested activities as it fits their needs and students. The book/pamphlet also provides a glossary, and Appendices A and B which break down for the teacher what AI is, as well as how these lessons/projects are aligned with current AI educational standards. There are 4 project topics and the one that stood out to me the most is Project 4 – Navigation and AI on pages 36-44. This is a multi-disciplinary project that incorporates English-Language Arts, Mathematics and Geography. I think it also incorporates history as a comparison of how people would previously navigate where they were going prior to the navigational tools and apps we now have, and how the history of that technology has drastically improved and incorporated other real time data to be that much more accurate and effective. So there is a very practical, real life experience and application that makes this project interesting. Students are asked questions about how their family members who drive know how to get from one place to another, and how they figure out how to go somewhere new. It also incorporates suggestions to use hands on maps for students to locate and brainstorm ways to navigate around their own school buildings, and how there can be multiple correct answers at times to those questions. For younger students a culminating activity is to use a maze creating site and rules to get through the maze. Mazes, Free Printables, Easy to Hard (krazydad.com). This is just one of many hands-on projects that can stem from the use of AI. I found this one very interesting but others may find the other projects more compelling. I think AI has something to offer for each teacher and educator and this article is a great place to gather ideas from. 

In the EdTech book “Hands On Projects In the Classroom – A Guide For Elementary Teachers” by ISTE is a book on different projects elementary teachers can use for their students to learn what artificial intelligence is and what it is can be used for. I chose to read this book because with how popular artificial intelligence is becoming in todays society, I was curious as to how younger students will be taught on the different ways artificial intelligence can be used. There are 4 main project ideas that were listed in the reading were:

1. What AI does well and what it does not do well
2. Training data and machine learning
3. Sensors vs. Sensors
4. Navigation and AI

The image represents a robot or computer doing math at ease..

Each one of the four projects has its unique way of explaining the different tools AI has to offer. With how the world is constantly changing today with new technologies and more important new artificial intelligence, it is important for kids to learn about our future technologies as young as possible.

In the Edtech book “Inclusive Learning 365: Edtech Strategies For Every Day Of The Year” there are multiple strategies used to implement inclusivity in the classroom for all times of the year. Some of the strategies and suggestions caught my eye right away. The whole idea of inclusivity is often overlooked or not thought about in depth. The way we teach as well as the physical setting of the classroom can be changed to be inclusive and more accessible for all students. Changing the lighting or adding different heighted seating options as well as having a more open space for those who can’t be in confined spaces are a few different ways to do so. Audible and visible aids in lessons are also important. All in all reading the different strategies for inclusion was very informative and interesting. It helped to deepen my understanding of inclusive