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.
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.
Digitize 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.
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.
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.
Hi Michael, thanks for the feedback. I definitely agree. I’ll fold in more information about Office 365 to correct the post. 🙂
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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 😉
Thank you for the support. Glad I could help in some small way. 🙂
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Reciprocation: The Fine Line Between Remixing and Plagiarism – Kevin Hodgson walks the line between remixing and plagiarising, discussing the difference.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Three steps to become a digitally agile educator – Ian O’Byrne provides a great introduction to being digitally agile, focusing on identity and space.
Are you being catfished? – Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt provide a thorough guide to uncovering catfishing.
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.
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.
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.
#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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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