<span class='p-name'>Three steps to become a digitally agile educator</span>
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Three steps to become a digitally agile educator

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A 21st century educational system must educate all students in the effective and authentic use of the technologies that permeate society to prepare them for the future. As part of this future, learners need opportunities to not only read, but also write the web.

Despite the transformative possibilities associated with the inclusion of the Internet and other communication technologies (ICTs) in instruction, relatively little is known about the regular use of these technologies in our daily lives. For educators in particular, understanding how best to utilize these digital and web literacies in our work is central to our collective future.

One the problems is that researchers and educators have little or no guidance in how to embed these new and digital literacies into their work process and product. There are numerous reasons for this current situation.

The purpose of this post is to identify three steps to get you started on the path of becoming a digitally agile educator. Agile is a word from software development and informational technologies. The principles come from the Agile Manifesto and promote self-organizing, cross-functional work processes that adaptively plan, continuously improve, and are flexible to change.

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Create and curate your digital identity

One of the first steps in this process is the need to create and curate your digital identity. Educators spend a lot of time preparing for teaching class and interacting with students and colleagues in the “real world.” We pick out an outfit and new shoes for the first day of classes. We make sure that we’re well groomed and look professional when we show up for face-to-face lessons. Many of us pride ourselves on being organized and presenting ourselves in a positive light.

Much of this veneer of professionalism and organization is not carried through to our digital identity. We may have a page on the school or organization website that shares our information. We have social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Google+) that we maintain or have been orphaned. There usually is little to no consistency in design or identity across these spaces. Finally, the identity presented across these spaces is usually inconsistent with the identity we present face-to-face. It is also usually inconsistent with the identity we choose to use in identifying ourselves.

In working with educators from Pre-K up through higher education, one of the reasons individuals give for not maintaining a digital identity is that they would prefer to remain private and not have a presence online. In the Post-Snowden era, there are also serious concerns about privacy and security online. The problem with this thinking is that by not creating and developing your own online brand, you’re allowing others to do it for you. Not if, but when someone searches for you online, they’ll only find information others have said about you. You should be the one to create and curate that information.

Think deeply about the identity you want to use to represent yourself. What colors, images, and text will you use to build this identity? As an example, will you use a photo of yourself for your picture? You don’t have to. You’ll also need to consider what colors and patterns will you use across your spaces to keep it consistent. Finally, what information will you share about yourself, and what will you keep private. You can keep all of this written down and refer back to it as you create and revise your identity across spaces. Once you have these guidelines written, go to each of your accounts for your various social networks and places that you appear online and edit the information they have about you. Keep it consistent. Create the digital identity that you want to have.

thumb_IMG_0045_1024Digitize your workflow

The second step in the process of becoming a digitally agile educator is to modify your workflow. In my own work process I rarely use Microsoft Office. Everything that I create and share is usually in Google Drive. I use Google Docs for writing and planning. I use Google Slides for all of my presentations. I use Google Forms and Spreadsheets for assessments in classes and during research. I rarely, if ever use Word, PowerPoint, or Excel for any of my work. These are usually the tools that we use to create and share teaching, learning, and research materials. Please note that with Office 365 you can have some of the same functionality that you get from Google Drive.

Usually people think that this is crazy as we’re indoctrinated that we need to have “our computer” and we use Microsoft Office to create, manipulate, and save files on our machines. The problem is when we work from multiple locations, or when the computer crashes, all is usually stuck on that one computer. I also work from multiple locations and use multiple tools. I also want to make sure that there is always a backup and nothing that stops me from teaching, presenting, or researching. Those of us that have had a computer crash in the middle a lesson or speech will know what I’m talking about. Technology glitches will happen. It is for these reasons that I strive for a workflow that is device agnostic and gives me ubiquitous access to my materials.

Being device agnostic means that I can utilize any tool or platform that I have at my disposal. I’m frequently writing on my MacBook, or teaching using the PC in our classrooms. I review documents and read on my Android phone, or iPad. I bring my Chromebook on the road to use for presenting at keynotes and workshops. I need to be able to quickly use any device and not have concerns about my materials not working on that specific device.

Having ubiquitous access to my materials means that my products are cloud-based and usually saved digitally. My use of Google Drive (and other tools) allows me to build a system that automatically makes my materials available anywhere. Moving over to a Chromebook several years ago jumpstarted this process. One of the challenges with this system is that you almost always have to have access to the internet. You can create and revise your materials offline, but you’ll have to plan ahead for some of the instances. In my mind the advantages outweigh the challenges as you’ll always be able to access your materials. If your computer crashes, you can easily log on to another and access your content. If you forgot the correct adapter for the projector, share the document or slides with your audience and have them follow along while you present. Having a cloud based system to store and save all of my content has allowed me to work much more easily both individually and collaboratively with colleagues and learners.

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Build an online learning hub

One of the final steps in this process is the need to build and establish an online learning hub. As you create and curate your online brand, your identity will be spread across numerous spaces online. Many of these online social networks acts as silos and only privilege their content. As an example, Google, Twitter, and Facebook frequently change the access to your data that they provide to each other. The end result is that your great work on your Facebook or Twitter profile might not be accessible when “Googles” you.

You should also consider what happens when you meet someone for the first time, or they happen to come across some part of your digital identity. How much are they learning about you if they only read some of your recent tweets? If that an adequate or complete picture of you? If you build and maintain one space on the internet, you can archive and/or share materials using your own website. This allows colleagues and friends the opportunity to look back through the digital breadcrumbs that you’ve left online to get a more complete picture of you.

To build and maintain your online learning hub, you have several options. You can use Wix, Weebly, WikiSpaces, Google Sites, or WordPress to build a website for archiving and sharing content. The options I listed are all free and are listed in the order of “ease of use” that I usually share with my students and clients. I believe any of the options listed above are a good starting point to build up a domain of your own. The challenge is that your options and the URL (address) for your website are somewhat limited. The challenge is that your website also might be taken down if the company decides to leave that business altogether.

It is for these reasons I pay a hosting company (I thoroughly recommend Reclaim Hosting) as I build my websites. I pay for a URL, this means that I can pay for a specific web address that will be used for my website. I also pay to host the open source version of WordPress that runs all of my websites. There is some extra work required, but it’s not impossible. By maintaining your space you can choose what to share and what to put in the background. If you’ve got materials or information about you that you don’t want online, you cannot delete it. You do have the ability to create and share your own information and push the other information down or off of a search engine results page. 

Become a digitally agile educator

As I’ve indicated at the start of this post, educators need to identify and develop opportunities to build and utilize these new and digital literacies in their work. There is not only a need to use these texts and tools in our teaching, learning, and research, there is a need to guide students in the processes.

The steps listed above will take time, but will bring you to the starting point as you interact online. The steps and work detailed are also not impossible. Your mindset should be to move forward through the steps in a granular and thoughtful pace.

If needed, I am available to help guide you in this process. You should also subscribe to my newsletter to continue your thinking about these skills and habits.

 

Image Credit

Related posts:

Digitally Literate (DL) 001 – The Internet is the Dominant Text Preparing Students to be Literate Digitally in a Digitally Literate Environment of Their Own Your Digital Identity as an Educator #ORMSMOOC #ed6671 Helping Educators Become Digitally Literate

116 Comments Three steps to become a digitally agile educator

  7. Michael Walker

    Good article, but the comments on Office are slightly out of date 🙂 Whilst many teachers think of (and still use) Office in the way you describe, since the release of Office 2016 last year you are able to use it online and offline in the same way as Google Docs, etc, including real-time collaboration online and offline . Teachers and students also often have access to Office in Education free.
    I use it with the same documents on my work notebook, home desktop and phone, as well as collaborating with colleagues in real-time on planning documents.
    Whilst I have no issue with Google Docs,etc, I find being able to work on things offline and automatically syncing when back online is really useful, and the MS tools still have more features than the Google products, as well as most teachers being familiar with it and therefore easier for them to transition to a more modern workflow.

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  58. Monica

    Awesome. I’ve been working on parts of this but I love how you brought it all together in a coherent article that’s not too long 😉

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  74. Aaron Davis


    flickr photo shared by mrkrndvs under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license
    My Month of July
    This month I started a new job. Still in education, it involves supporting teachers, rather than teaching students. Entering into project land, I must admit that it is a different pace.
    In regards to my writing, here was my month in posts:

    A Village Takes Many Things – To celebrate 300 posts, I asked those who had spent the time to comment what it means to them to be a part of the village.

    Developing a Blog – Often blogs are spoken about as some sort of fixed entity. Sadly, this focuses on the what overlooks how and why we blog in the first place.

    A Personal Twitter Tour – A post that unpacks the different ways in which I use Twitter to support Ian Guest’s exploration of the platform.

    Blogging Seven Ways – Here is the blurb for my session at #Digicon16 exploring blogging.

    #ittakesavillage SparkTalk – My notes associated with my sparktalk at Digicon16.

    Can You Share the Link, Please – An open plea for people to share

    Are You CC Certified? – A contribution to Alan Levine’s work regards Creative Commons.

    Read, Think, Participate – A collection of thoughts in response to Participatory Culture in a Networked Era by danah boyd, Mimi Ito and Henry Jenkins.

    Here then are some of the thoughts that have also left me thinking …
    Learning and Teaching

    Quick Ideas for Creating a Classroom e-Newsletter – Miguel Guhlin unpacks some different options for digitally communicating information.

    I’ve always been on the lookout for fresh ways to share classroom content. Here are some quick ways to revamp the classroom, or campus, e-newsletter.

    Amplify Your Writing – Silvia Tolisano explores digital writing and outlines some means of having amplifying your writing. She touches on such things as headlines, keywords and hyperlinks.

    Digital writing allows a writer to re-think writing and reading experiences, choose from multiple possibilities of communicating and opportunities to to amplify their thoughts, ideas, connections, references, train of thought, and their audience.

    A book of short stories for students, by students – wanna contribute? – Bianca Hewes has put out the call for community contributions to a book of short stories that maybe sometimes are overlooked.

    I imagine that every teacher has come across ‘that’ story at least once in their careers (and hopefully multiple times) – you know, the one where we read it without thinking about the student who wrote it, without stopping to query a phrase, or the tense, or a character’s decisions… where you just read, and feel, and imagine, and love, love, love. The one where at the end you go, ‘Holy crap, I couldn’t write anything that good. How can I be responsible for teaching this kid?’ You know the one, right? Well, what if we collected a bunch of those stories, and put them together in a book, published via Blurb, that could be downloaded for free as a eBook, or bought as a hard copy, depending on the teacher’s preference.

    67 Years of Lego Sets – Joel Carron looks back at the history of Lego. This is not only an interesting reflection, but a great resource associated with data.

    As an analyst, I turned to data for answers. I found a dataset on Rebrickable (a site that shows you which Lego sets you can build from the sets and pieces you already own), which contained information on the color, number, and type of pieces in each Lego set for the past 67 years. I used Plotly and Mode Python Notebooks to explore the data.

    Reciprocation: The Fine Line Between Remixing and Plagiarism – Kevin Hodgson walks the line between remixing and plagiarising, discussing the difference.

    If I use someone else’s words for a remix, am I a writer or remixer? Is it writing if the words are not my own? (I prefer: composer)If I remix, but fail to give credit, does remix become plagiarism?Do I need to ask permission of the writer to remix their work, or does posting writing in digital spaces allow me to assume that work is fair game for remix?If I remix, and then post to public spaces, who is the artist at that point? Me, the remixer, or them, the original writer? A collaboration?If the writer asks the remixer to stop/halt/remove, does the remixer have an obligation to do so? (legal, moral, etc.)

    A Glossary of Blogging Terminology – Richard Byrne provides a glossary for making sense of blogs. A useful resource in relation to unpacking blogs with staff and students alike.

    Once you’ve chosen the best blogging tool for you and your students, sometimes the next challenge of running a blog is just knowing the terminology that is used when we talk about blogging.

    ScratchMath – One of the challenges with any platform is finding the edge. Jeffrey Gordon provides a range of possibilities which help highlight what is possible.

    Teaching computer programming is not like teaching reading or math. Programmers rely on libraries of code they can’t understand, coworkers to write functions they don’t read, and finally a structure that doesn’t always require comprehending the whole, but rather understanding of a set of individual parts and their relationships.

    Cardboard Challenges: No Tech/Low Cost Maker Education – Jackie Gerstein reminds us that making does not always have to involve coding and electronic kits, sometimes it can be as simple as using cardboard.

    The Cardboard Challenges Maker Education Camp utilized no technology (except for projecting images of example projects on the whiteboard) and low/no cost materials. Many of the discussions about and actions related to integrating maker education into educational environments center around the use of new technologies such computer components (Raspberry Pis, Arduinos), interactive robots for kids (Dash and Dot, Ozobots, Spheros), and 3D printers.

    Edtech
    What is an API? – Ben Werdmuller unpacks the world of APIs. He touches on their purpose and what they mean for the personal user. This conversation is continued in a post on Open Source.

    APIs present a pragmatic solution that allows us to build on other software while saving on short-term costs. They’re not a magic wand, but used wisely, they allow us to build entirely new products and services. And maybe — just maybe — they will allow us to take control of our digital lives and build a new kind of internet.

    Future Proof – Four Corners provides an investigation of the impact of robotics and automation on of the future of the workforce. With this, they explore the role of education within all of this.

    The loss of these jobs will be challenging for the existing workforce as there may simply not be enough jobs to go round. But the greater fear is that we’re not preparing our kids for work in this technological age. Schools and universities are churning out students with qualifications for jobs that won’t exist, instead of training them for the ones that will be created.

    Has Technology Failed Us? – Douglas Rushkoff explores the impact of technology and the life we live today. Rather than despise it’s existence, he wonders how it might somehow be different.

    The thing that disturbs me most is when people accept the artefacts that have been left for them as the given circumstances of nature. When people look at corporate capitalism, or Facebook, or the religion they have, as if they were given by god and not invented by people. It’s this automatic acceptance of how things are that leads to a sense of helplessness about changing any of them. I am deeply concerned about the environment and the degree to which temperatures are rising, and how the worst expectations of environmentalists have already been surpassed.

    Facebook is chipping away at privacy – and my profile has been exposed – Alex Hern unpacks the irony encoded within Facebook’s ever evolving privacy settings. Another reminder why we need to be ever so vigilant about Facebook and every social media platform for that matter.

    Facebook can truthfully say that it does what it promises, and even offers settings that let people lock-down their own accounts, while designing the site so even internet-savvy users like me will end up exposing information we never intended to make public.

    Three steps to become a digitally agile educator – Ian O’Byrne provides a great introduction to being digitally agile, focusing on identity and space.

    A 21st century educational system must educate all students in the effective and authentic use of the technologies that permeate society to prepare them for the future. As part of this future, learners need opportunities to not only read, but also write the web.

    Are you being catfished? – Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt provide a thorough guide to uncovering catfishing.

    Catfishing schemes, or romance scams, continue to plague social networking services. In fact, the issue has become so common that there’s a good chance that one of your recent “friend” requests actually came from a scammer versus someone who is actually interesting in pursuing a genuine friendship

    Storytelling and Reflection
    The Future of Work – Touching upon everything from the meaning of work, impact of automation and disruption to past practises, this lengthy post from Oxford University captures a number of topics relating to the future of work.

    Technology will make many jobs redundant, others easier, and create at least some new ones along the way. Keynes’ prediction of a fifteen-hour working week may even come true. But while humans are in charge, we can still choose for there to be some work that’s performed by non-robotic hands.

    Towards a School Coaching Culture – Chris Munro unpacks the intricacies involved in developing a culture of coaching in schools. Along with his interview on TER Podcast and Paul Browning’s post, they represent a good place to start in regards to coaching.

    The pre-conditions for coaching will be different in every school context. Coaching leaders need to be in tune with these and take them into account when considering their approach. Trust is a critical factor here. We know that trust is critical in individual coaching relationships but in terms of establishing a broader coaching culture we need to think about the levels of trust across the full range of conversational contexts in the school.

    Critical Questions – David Truss reflects on personalised learning versus adding more choice. Much of the thinking in the post stemmed from the critical conversations had at ISTE. This is an interesting read in light of Jon Andrews post on educational cheese rolling.

    We live in a world where people prefer to avoid going to hard places, rather than realizing we are all on a learning journey and that the hard conversations often lead us to better places. But that said, there was nothing hard about my conversation with Sheryl, (or David, or Michelle). They weren’t hard, they were invigorating! We should all invite critical questioning into our practice, in the same way that we encourage our students to do the same.

    #WalkOn – Along with The Beauty of Dreams, Steve Brophy’s provocation is a challenge for everyone to take up. This is linked with CoLearn MeetUp, an exploration of educational alternatives.

    ‘Walk on’ was the real message for delegates. In education, we need more educators to ‘walk on’ and take on new challenges, to rethink pedagogy, reimagine school and to grow our collective voice. We all battle our inner self when it comes to new opportunities. Talk ourselves out of going for something, self defeat with our own negative self-talk but why? Why do we do that to ourselves? Your value is needed, your voice counts and we need all educators to #WalkOn.

    Memory Machines: Learning, Knowing, and Technological Change – Audrey Watters provides a critique of digital memory and whether archives truly are useful when it comes to supporting memory. This reminded me of Celia Coffa’s keynote from DigiCon15.

    We might live in a time of digital abundance, but our digital memories – our personal memories and our collective memories – are incredibly brittle. We might be told we’re living in a time of rapid technological change, but we are also living in a period of rapid digital data decay, of the potential loss of knowledge, the potential loss of personal and collective memory.

    Performing Data – Ben Williamson explains that what we choose to measure and count has consequences to how we perform and what we see as possible. This is pertinent when we talk about innovation and transformation, as such changes can be dictated by the measurements that we use.

    Performativity makes the question of what counts as worthwhile activity in education into the question of what can be counted and of what account can be given for it. It reorients institutions and individuals to focus on those things that can be counted and accounted for with evidence of their delivery, results and positive outcomes, and de-emphasises any activities that cannot be easily and effectively measured.

    Poor research and ideology: Common attempts used to denigrate inquiry – Richard Olsen digs a bit deeper into some research on discovery learning, uncovering some flaws in the process.

    To suggest that individuals playing Texas Hold’em against a computer mirrors inquiry that happens in our schools in complete nonsense. To suggest that this research proves pure discover “widens the achievement gaps” is complete nonsense. To suggest that because learning poker by yourself on a computer playing against a simulation isn’t a good way to learn has anything at all do with student learning and real inquiry is nonsense.

    Distractions – Corinne Campbell provides a different take on John Hattie’s effect sizes and distractions in education. She questions whether such conversations are a distraction from supporting an equitable education system for all.

    A year’s growth for a year of schooling presents an impoverished view of education. For schooling is about more than academic growth. Our education system is how we maintain a cohesive, civil society. We can’t afford to be distracted from that.

    Together – Aaron Hogan reflects on the nerves of facing the first day. In the end he reminds us that no matter what videos you show or awesome activities you do that it is only by working together that we achieve anything.

    The more I think about it, the more I believe that our legacy as educators is built in community over time. That’s easy to say, but tough to do. Still, that’s our job. If you want to be the teacher who leaves an impact, develop a space where students can learn with you and their peers together.

    FOCUS ON … designing a technology-rich environment
    I have been spending quite a bit of time lately exploring technology-rich environments. This is a collection of posts and resources that I have collected:

    Trudacot: A protocol developed by Scott McLeod and Julie Graber to help facilitate conversations around deeper learning with technology.

    A Taxonomy of School Evolutionary Stages: Mal Lee and Roger Broadie provide a thorough discussion of what is required in bring schools into the digital world. This includes a taxonomy covering many elements within a digital environment.

    SAMR: Devised by Ruben R. Puentedura, the premise behind it is that each layer provides a deeper level of engagement and involvement with technology.

    High Possibility Classrooms: Student Agency Through Technology-Enhanced Learning: A framework focussing in Teacher knowledge developed by Jane Hunter through her research into exemplary technology teachers.

    Transformational Learning: Alan November provides six reflective questions to guide the transformational integration of technology. Like Trudacot, these questions help to identify the place of technology associated with learning.

    Modern Learning Canvas: A tool developed by Richard Olsen that allows you to design and implement innovative learning practices in an agile manner.

    Return on Instruction: Eric Sheninger provides several suggestions in relation to being more accountable to the integration of digital technologies.

    Eight Elements of Digital Literacies: A series of eight elements identified by Doug Belshaw that help break down the mindsets and skillsets associated with digital literacies. They provide an interesting set of questions to help guide the use of digital technologies both in planning stage, as well as during the process.

    Anywhere Anytime Learning: Bruce Dixon and Susan Einhorn collect together their experience in rolling out 1:1 devices around the world to provide some guidelines of things to consider. Rather than a strict list, they provide a series of questions and provocations to support teachers.

    Resident vs. Visitor: Arguing again the native/immigrant metaphor, David White and Alison Lu Cornu provide a continuum that incorporates the nuances involved in the use of technology. They focus on two aspects, personal vs. institutional and visitor vs. resident. The mapping matrix can be a useful exercise to ascertain where staff and students are at and possibly where they may want to be.

    Digital Leaders: A scheme designed to allow students in leading the change around technology.

    Ethics of EdTech: Cameron Hocking provides a range of questions to consider when introducing a new platform. It touches on the challenges of privacy and data. (ARCHIVE)

    ICT School Planning: The Victorian State Government has created a number of resources to support schools in regards to planning. This includes the planning matrix, digital learning showcase, as well as the updated ePotential survey, which can be used to develop a picture of practice.

    Questions you need to ask when developing a digital strategy: Allan Crawford-Thomas and Mark Ayton provide a series of questions that are useful as a provocation in regards to developing a vision and specific mission statements.

    Why We Went Multi-Device, Multi-Platform For Our 1:1 Initiative: AJ Juliani reflects on the steps involved in rolling out a 1:1 initiative in his school.

    Microsoft Technology Planning Resources: A collection of resources designed to support the transformation. These include a transformational framework, as well as a discussion of quality assurance.

    ISTE Essential Conditions: ISTE provide a discussion of the critical elements necessary to effectively leverage technology for learning. It is linked with a research-backed framework to guide implementation of the ISTE Standards, tech planning and systemwide change.

    Understanding Virtual Pedagogies for Contemporary Teaching and Learning: Document produced by Richard Olsen and Ideas Lab around living and learning in a technology-rich world.

    READ WRITE RESPOND #007
    So that is July for me, how about you? As always, interested to hear. Maybe you have a resource to add to my list.

    Also, feel free to forward this on to others if you found anything of interest or maybe you want to subscribe?

    Reply ↓

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