Global Collaborator: Unpacking ISTE Standard for Students #7

Global Collaborator: Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally. (ISTE Student Standard #7)

This standard is my hill to die on. If a student graduates from our school and doesn't know how to collaborate well with the world, then we have failed to equip that student for their future. The universe gets smaller every day. When I graduated from college (the first time), there was no internet access to the masses. I was pretty much competing with people within a 50-mile radius in the city I wanted to work in. There were some people willing to relocate but the bottom line was that 85% of the people that were after the same job I was would have been considered my geographical neighbor. Today, someone might need graphics work done and artists from all over the world can bid on that job. Due to video conferencing, smartphones, and wifi, the professional world has become more fluid in who we work with and also whom we compete with. The walls have fallen down and most jobs today require you to communicate with someone not in your community and maybe not even in your hemisphere on a regular basis. In the last year, I have worked strategically discussing the use of voice speakers in the classroom with people from California, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

So how do we prepare students for that world if the walls are still up in our districts and we can't reach out globally because of a lack of technology?

• Penpals. Remember snail mail? That's what I am talking about! Culturally connect your students to another school through snail mail. Depending on the age of your students, you can have them write individual letters or write a letter as a class. Ask each other questions relevant to learning. Challenge each other with quizzes or questions. It could be something that happens all year long. 
• If you are a teacher that has a computer with a webcam or you are willing to use your own phone, participate in a mystery skype opportunity. Do your legwork first. Communicate with the other educator and decide what your learning goals would be for your mystery Skype. Is it purely geographical or do you want your students to glean certain information from your connection? 
• Seek a local that isn't a local. We live in a transient world. Your school and students could benefit from the connections you have to other cultures. Sometimes those not like yourself seem intimidating or scary. Knock down the biased boundaries that exist and ask someone to come in and collaborate with your students about their culture.
• Get involved. My edufriend Jennifer Williams serves on the board of Global Goals Educator Task force. This task force works together with the UN to teach Sustainable Development Goals that would affect every teacher, student, and the world. Look for opportunities to talk about global needs and perspectives. TEACH SDGs is one option but there are plenty of other ways to help students to see outside the silos of their lives.

Check out the previous blog posts from the "Unpacking ISTE Standards for Students Techknowledge Gee" here:

• Standard #1 Empowered Learner
• Standard #2 Digital Citizen
• Standard #3 Knowledge Constructor
• Standard #4 Innovative Designer
• Standard #5 Computational Thinker
• Standard #6 Creative Communicator

Creative Communicator: Unpacking ISTE Standard for Students #6

Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. (ISTE Standard for Students)

So this may seem like a hard standard to pull off in a non-techie classroom but bear with me. This one is important! Some of the other standards are much more technical and forward thinking but the basic skill of communication is one that so many people face with emotional struggle. Adults often choose the wrong platform or format to share our grievances or we don't take advantage of the potential audiences we have for the worthy things we want to share. Or worse yet, we don't have the verbalization skills to share the great work that is being done. In this case, I'm talking about adults but it definitely transfers over to our students seven-fold!

I know we have already discussed digital citizenship in a prior blog post in this series but I believe communication is one of the most critical parts of being a good steward in the world of technology. I also believe that in today's society, we are losing our ability to have face to face conversations that are hard. (I'm preaching to myself here.) I hate conflict and would much rather broach a hard subject via email and then follow up face to face. Technology can make us lazy communicators and sadly it can also give us courage that we shouldn't always take advantage of.  

My husband makes fun of my girls and me because we will read a text and say, "Oh, she's mad!" He will then say, "How do you know? Did she tell you she was mad?" and my answer might be "Because she wrote in ALL CAPS" or "I can just tell." or "She used the angry face emoji." It drives him crazy. Communicating through technology often loses the nuances that face to face communication brings. That being said, to say we should strive to equip our students to be creative communicators is a vital skill for their future. There is not a single job I can think of in today's mainstream society that doesn't require the ability to communicate with others. So cheer up non-techie friends, even though you might not have the technology to support this, you will be aiding your students' ability to function in a face to face world even better if you make this standard a priority. 

• So what does a low tech or unplugged version of "creative communicator" look like? This year, one of our Bible teachers challenged his students to create memes after they finished the unit of the life of St. Paul. He told them to think of it like creating an Instagram post, but since social media is closed to students at our school, they created their posts using a slide deck. Their captions were full of written nuances that they gleaned from their studying. How brilliant was this lesson? He took a platform that students use every day and assessed their learning based on a current fad in society- memes. I love this idea! Did it have to be done on a slide deck? No. They could have done it with markers and papers just as easily. Or what if they had taken an actual photo and put the words right on top of it. Guys, that would be no different than app-smashing on an iPad (combining one or more platforms to create an original work).
• Remember oral reports? Hands sweaty, waiting for your name to be called so you can do your at least 3-minute speech on some topic. Sometimes you have a posterboard sitting next to you as a visual when you talk, sometimes you don't. Next time this opportunity arises in your classroom, stretch your students a bit. Tell them they have 3 minutes to be creative communicators instead of 3 minutes to give a book report. See what happens! Encourage them to build models, have visuals, and think about their intended audience. Open the door to increased connectivity and creativity. Give them a bigger audience than just you and their classmates. Ask in other classes, parents, or any visitor that would make the moment more special. Spend time beforehand teaching them skills of voice control, inflection, eye contact, and body language. You might not be teaching them digital skills but you sure will be teaching them the importance of being a creative communicator. Talk to them about what subject matters might benefit most from certain types of visuals. One day when they have the opportunity to use technology to enhance their already amazing communication skills, think about what they might do! Last week I had the honor of attending the Chattanooga Fab Institute and the keynote speaker for the first day was Shinjini Das, CEO and founder of Das Media Group (see her story here). Her charisma and ability to engage with the crowd is unique for a 27-year-old engineer. She has the face to face communication skills that don't necessarily fit with the stereotypical STEM field. She's a unicorn in her industry and we need to develop more unicorns in the STEM field. There is value in growing students that can not only DO but also SAY!
• Own it! Yeah, you the teacher. Your students may not have access to social media but you do. Find out your school district's stance on sharing student information/faces online and make sure you follow those guidelines. Then start using social media to show students when and how it can be a good platform for communication. Create a class blog and share the things happening in your classroom. Contact the author of a book with questions your students have curated while they read the author's book and send them to the author. Have your students create "how to" videos to relate to your curriculum and add to them yourself. Create a website using Google Sites templates and add poetry, photos, or well-written work. Seem like too much work? You don't have to retype everything they have turned in, take a photo and upload it! It is true, it does become a bit of extra work for you as a whole but you are modeling for your students how to be a creative communicator and adding value to the hard work they do in your classroom by showcasing to a broader audience. You are also showing your students how to add value to the digital world they live in. So much of digital citizenship focuses on a list of dangers and safeguards to be aware of but as a citizen, we also want to bring value to that world. Sharing learning and creating pathways for others to learn from our students does just that. 
• Be a trailblazer. Show students the value of communicating with new tools. Adopt the concept of using voice speakers in the classroom or for communicating with students and families. Create communication means meeting needs in effective ways. Why not choose the fastest growing platform since the iPhone to show students what it means to stay on the edge of learning? 

More ideas for no tech, low tech, and high tech teaching of this standard:

Check out the previous blog posts from the "Unpacking ISTE Standards for Students Techknowledge Gee" here:

• Standard #1 Empowered Learner

• Standard #2 Digital Citizen

• Standard #3 Knowledge Constructor

• Standard #4 Innovative Designer

• Standard #5 Computational Thinker

Innovative Designer- Unpacking ISTE Student Standard #4

Innovative Designer: Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions. (ISTE Standards for Students)

I'll be honest, this is one of the standards I really struggled with from ISTE. An innovative designer seems less about technology and more about design thinking to me. It feels less about supporting technology integration and more about impacting pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. I struggled with the fact that this was deemed a "tech" standard. Is it a good process for learning? Absolutely! I was just not sure I would consider it a need for technology integration. 

I do believe learning the skills to become an innovative designer should be part of the educational process. The truth of the matter is, we should be teaching students how to think, not what to think. One of my favorite quotes to remind myself not to become too pompous as an educator is attributed to Albert Einstein, "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." So when I look at the goal of empowering students to become "innovative designers" I automatically think of the design thinking process. 

Often when I am struggling with something in the educational arena I throw the question out to my professional learning network on Twitter and I ask for their opinions. So I asked, "why should students learn the design thinking process?" And just like that, the answers rolled in from my edupals:

"Students are already design thinking, they just don't know it yet. It's about getting students to process their thinking by sketching or mind mapping or lists." - Nathan Stevens

"formalized process provides a framework for engagement. Done well, rather than stifling creativity.  It bridges creative with critical thinking." - Michael Stone

"Collaboration. Imagine roads without rules or conventions for drivers. Design Thinking adds structure to the process, it is non-threatening and effective." - Chris Tenbarge

"The empathy component alone makes it worth it. Students need to engage not only in the work but the meaning behind the work." - James David

While I might struggle with seeing innovative designer an integral part of technology integration in every classroom, I do consider it an extremely important skill for computer science and STEM-based classes. As an instructional technologist, I see the importance of thinking critically about technology. Therefore, this leads me to see the importance of being innovative designers. Looking through the lens of critique at all technology platforms is going to be an important part of the future for today's students. This standard will help them do just that. Students need to start accepting the fact that every form of technology can include both benefits and detriments to them. By creating pathways for students to become innovative designers and to teach them to filter technology tools through the lens of Challenge--->Inspiration & Empathy--->Opportunities--->Ideate--->Experiment we help the next generation go informed into their future.

Ways to help students become an innovative designer: 
                                                       NO TECH                  LOW TECH                     HIGH TECH

Panning for Gold: Unpacking ISTE Standard for Students #3 "Knowledge Constructor"

"Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others." (ISTE Student Standard #3)

We as educators have a responsibility to equip all students for success. Technology often alleviates so much of the burdens and angst in the education process. We have to show students how to look for good resources, where to look for good resources, and beyond that, how to cite them appropriately. The ease of closeness of information has opened the door quickly for learning and access but we have to intentionally respond likewise. We cannot drag our feet as educators in helping our students understand what it means to be a knowledge constructor. We must prepare students to see technology as a tool and not just an overwhelming struggle for educational purposes.

This post is about teaching students the skills of becoming quality researchers. This includes discerning between good and bad digital resources. I think if we are honest with ourselves, we can all say we have fallen for "fake news" at some point. It isn't easy to spot and sometimes context clues are lacking. The same often holds true when doing research. We start teaching research skills in second grade. A website has been created that takes the students directly to some curated sites about Native Americans. I talk to them about clicking off webpages, double checking URLs, and that the word "search" is in RESEARCH. It's not a matter of opening a page, reading a few sentences, and writing down answers. They must pan through the fake gold to get to the good stuff! We talk about evidence to support evidence and not taking everything they see on the internet as the truth. I tell them if they can't find information on another source to support what they have learned then they need to look at the information through a much more critical eye. At that point, they are released to find the good stuff.

Teaching students to become quality knowledge constructors can happen with a small amount of technology in the classroom as well. The goal is to have students critically think about the information presented to them. I think this comes naturally for today's middle school student that is constantly connected. One of my coworkers (who happens to be the mom of teens) told me that we have a group of middle school students that would "fact check" teachers while they were teaching. Now mind you, these teachers didn't know they were being fact-checked (which is a whole different issue), but I wonder how often these students found something that contradicted what they were learning in class? Bigger yet, I wonder how often they brought it to the teacher's attention? Bigger still, I wonder how often a teacher could look beyond being called out and turn it into a teachable moment on knowledge construction?

Have you ever watched an assembly line? I think of knowledge constructor skills somewhat like the fryer line in our family's donut shop. There is a big vat of ooey gooey dough that is so heavy and hard to manage. To try something with that big vat is so overwhelming, so little by little we drop smaller amounts of all that ooey gooey goodness down into the fryer. They are cooked on one side, flipped, cooked on the other side, conveyed across the line to drain, covered with icing, and then patiently waiting to be devoured at the end of the line. The same thing happens with information. Our job is to help students sort through all the ooey gooey information, find a nugget of potential truth, run it through our critical eye, and turn it into something that is worthy being devoured by others- true knowledge!

Possible ways to lead students to become knowledge constructors in no tech, low tech, and high tech environments:
   
     ISTE Standard #3                     No Tech                         Low Tech                       High Tech

Using the Tools Appropriately: Unpacking ISTE Standard #2

ISTE Student Standard #2 Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

Warning: I will get on my soapbox here a bit. Helping students to develop appropriate
digital citizenship skills is an imperative part of the educational process not only for their
own safety and legal obligations but for the care of others as well. I feel very strongly
about the importance of all educators that have technology in their classroom speaking
into appropriate usage- with rights come responsibilities.  As a four year Common Sense Media
Digital Citizenship educator I start teaching grade-level appropriate digital citizenship in
kindergarten to talk about the importance of wise choices and the impact it can have on you.
If you are in a technology-rich environment I highly recommend your school district adopting
a digital citizenship curriculum and embedding it into your district’s scope and sequence right
in the various subject matter curriculum itself. Let your technology teachers spend extra time
on it but every teacher should be speaking into digital citizenship issues because we are all
stewards of it. We should see ourselves as both consumers and creators of the Internet.
This past school year a group of fifth graders at our school had been taught how to create
a Google site. On their own, during their own time, they created a website of cartoons for fun.
Because I had been speaking into digital citizenship the whole time they had been at our
elementary school, they allowed me to make some suggestions to better protect themselves
as well as help them learn how to track visitors to their site. If they had been 16-year-old boys
doing this, I doubt I would have had that same opportunity but what an amazing blessing it was
to me to see these students become empowered learners from a previous lesson and then to
seek me out to figure out best practice. It was one of my all-time favorite teacher moments.

We live in a world of instant gratification, instant reciprocation, instant retaliation. Students who
are 18 need to learn that by forwarding one inappropriate photo that was sent to them by the
person who took it could put them on a sexual predators list for the rest of their life. Teaching
digital citizenship is probably the easiest standard to meet without technology itself. Every
person has heard some horror story and quite possibly they have even had a family member
that has lived through one. But I believe we also have a responsibility to share the positive
influence technology can have as well.

If you are in a low tech environment:

• Have students participate in a station rotation Common Sense media digital citizenship

curriculum that supports their grade level.

• Talk about valuing the intellectual property of others and show them examples of

plagiarism and ways they can detect if they have accidentally plagiarized.  

• Have students google themselves or their parents to see what they find. Use that to talk

about the digital footprint they are creating and how it will remain long after they are gone.

If you are in a no-tech environment:

• Watch age-appropriate videos to discuss various digital citizenship issues.
• Create discussions on “what if” this happened and what would be the correct result.

Common Sense Media also has several unplugged options to choose from.

• Speak from your heart.

One of the most effective lessons I teach is sharing two stories with my students. In 2011,

President Obama was coming to visit Chattanooga, TN. Our family owns a donut shop

in Chattanooga and I immediately thought, “How cool would it be if the President came to

visit our shop?”  

Being a techie, I immediately started tweeting the #POTUSinCHA hashtag to invite him to Julie Darling Donuts. The problem was that I was currently in Atlanta at an edtech conference and I

didn’t know that the majority of the politicians in Chattanooga were boycotting the

event. His visit had become a political hotbed. On my way home from Atlanta I received a

phone call from one of the local news stations and they asked if they could interview me about

why I wanted him to come and about the special flavored donut we were going to make in his

honor on the day he was in Chattanooga. Oblivious to any agenda, I jumped on the chance to

give our 2-year-old company some publicity for free.

When I was interviewed I told the reporter it wasn’t about politics, it was about respecting

the office of the presidency. That evening the piece aired on the nightly news and before

I could say “Chocolate Salted Caramel Donut” my company and myself were being viciously

attacked on social media and via emails. This story made national news! I was called everything

from a racist (because the donut was chocolate) to an exploiter. The Republicans were

mad at me for welcoming him and the Democrats were mad at me for capitalizing on him

being in town. I received hate emails and threats personally. I remember being so distraught

the next morning when I would read all that was said and we were actually quite worried

it was going to be the demise of our shop. President Obama did not visit the donut shop

that day and a group of friends also started a Facebook support page for me that week.

Looking back, it was so hard. People who didn’t know me or know anything about me

made so many assumptions about me and when anyone tried to speak up, it just made

it worse. I laid in bed for 4 days sick to my stomach thinking I had ruined our business

with one tweet that invited the President of the United States to my donut shop.

The upside to this story is that up to that point, it was the busiest week we had ever

had at the shop but it came at such a personal expense to me. I was bullied and

ridiculed by adults. It has become my greatest lesson for teaching digital citizenship.

But I don’t like to leave students, parents, or teachers scared of the Internet.

I like to remind them of the good things that have happened in my life because of

the Internet. This is my favorite success story: In February of this year, our 7-year-old

border collie named Secret went missing. She didn’t have on her collar, she wasn’t

chipped, and she had disappeared from a location she wasn’t familiar with. The truth is,

it felt pretty hopeless that we would get her back. But I’m an edtechie and I knew

first hand the power of social media. I do what I do best, I flooded my social media

accounts with photos of Secret and put out pleas to anyone and everyone to be on the

lookout for her. This silly dogs photo was shared over 2,000 times by friends,

family, acquaintances, and downright strangers. People I didn’t even know would

send me messages on Facebook telling me they had driven around the area she

was originally lost in looking for her. If everyone wants to know “Where’s Waldo?”

then a close second would be “Where’s Secret?” 2,000 reshares. It’s mind-boggling.

I remember telling my husband that I would keep looking hard for her for one week.

I followed up on every supposed sighting (there were only 2) and someone in our family

checked the local animal shelters daily to see if she had made her way back there.

We drove around Red Bank, Tennessee yelling out the window for hours. Six days

after her disappearance I got in bed and told my husband, “I don’t think she’s coming back.”

The next morning was my monthly #CHAedu #coffeeEDU at the donut shop.

Local educators that want to come together once a month to discuss education topics

of our choice for one hour. It’s a very fluid, organic meeting that I love. That morning

we had more participants than we had ever had and right when it was time to start,

my phone rang...and I answered it. It was the executive director of our local humane

society and he told me he thought he had Secret but she had been hit by a car and

would need surgery. Both my girls were working at the donut shop that morning

and I quickly updated them and left. The meeting went on without me! I may or may

not have driven a tad erratically but that is not pertinent to this. As I entered the

building the director told me she had been brought in the night before due to a phone

call they had received that a dog had been hit in Red Bank. They had taken her

to a local animal hospital for x-rays and to make sure nothing was life threatening

and one of the ladies that worked there thought she recognized the dog. The next

morning she called the humane society because she had scoured social media and

found the photo and gave the executive director my contact information. Our Secret

was back with us, a little worse for wear, but 2 surgeries later we have all put that

loss behind us. We have not forgotten the power of people coming together using

technology for a greater good. We spend so much time warning, threatening, and

scaring kids about social media but what an opportunity for me to model usage that

had an outcome with a happy ending. Crowdsourced dog finding! We all have stories

and the more real they are to our students, the more likely they will have an impact

that will matter at the appropriate time.

Other ideas for creating "Digital Citizen" opportunities in your classroom:

                        NO TECH                                LOW TECH                       HIGH TECH                         

Digital Citizen

Use newspapers to discuss articles that used technology and then discuss the impact of media on our footprint. Also, pull in a discussion on the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship using these articles.

Have students volunteer to be “googled” or google yourself as a teacher and talk about the importance of an appropriate digital footprint. Discuss if having no footprint is good or bad?

Have students create a Fakebook for a historical or fictional character then discuss the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship and how they relate to your character.

Hindsight: How I *WISH* I had Supported Our Technology Rollout

According to wikipedia, the first iPad was released on April 3, 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad). Simon Sinek originally published his book Start with the Why in 2009. Oh to have read that book then! Mobile devices in education have been a messy journey. I find great comfort in knowing we aren't the only school that has muddled through this. I hear, see, and gain insight from people all over the country as I ask "What works for you in this situation?" as we finished up year 6 of a 1:1 plan that continues to develop and adjust to the ever-changing needs of our students. Our school started out as BYOT in middle and high school and we are slowly transitioning to chromebook rollouts over the next few years. Our elementary school started with a rolling cart of iPads and we have slowly added more and more into the mix for use and a chromebook cart as well.

In the beginning, we introduced Google suites and annotation options to our upper school teachers but there was never really a "why" that all our teachers feel comfortable hanging their hat on. Most recently, our upper school teachers have been held accountable for the following:

• All mechanically scorable assessment items must be completed in Canvas.
• Students must be allowed to submit written work (papers) electronically without having to submit an additional paper copy.

Over the last few years, we have created a Technology Integration: Goals and Outcomes for Students document. This document is based on the ISTE Standards for Students and it represents the technology skills and abilities we want to see a graduating senior from our school being able to accomplish. This is our why. These goals and outcomes prepare students for their future. It seemed we finally figured out the why but I will say even knowing that is a need, it is hard for educators to discern what that means to them and their classrooms. Heck, it is hard for technology leaders to discern how best to move forward in creating these opportunities for all students!

Our desire to set skill lists and minimum usage requirements for teachers is a feeble attempt at best to reform education with a tool. Google, MIE, and Apple have created leveled educator certifications to prove teachers know the tools and platforms but the question still remains...are we using technology in a transformational way? The last 2 years I found myself focusing on this. How do we help teachers to see how to use these devices in their classrooms for transformed learning. I found myself focusing on the ISTE Standards for Students because they seem to focus on reforming the educational process from the student perspective. I then looked at each of the 7 standards and broke them down into really hands-on applications for teachers to consider in a no tech, low tech, or high tech environment. All of a sudden I found myself writing a book. A book that I have not published but one that keeps pulling at me.

In November 2018 I led a session called "Tech Knowledge...Gee!" at the Tennessee Education Technology Conference that basically looked at the topic of my "book in process" and helped educators dissect each of the ISTE Student standards to look at ways they were potentially teaching each topic in their classroom in no tech, low tech or high tech ways. If they looked at the standard and couldn't think of an option, we as a group sat together to brainstorm ideas for them. Those that attended found the concept extremely helpful because they were no longer looking at the device or platform but more as a concept they wanted their students to understand. For teachers, this created a clarity that they did not have before. It is our nature to look for recipes that have the ingredients we already have in the kitchen. For educators, we often do this. "I have 5 chromebooks and Google suites, what can I make with this?" But often this means we are missing out on the gourmet meal that we could cook.

Over the next few weeks, I have decided to break down the chapters of this book into blog posts to help others look at technology integration through a different lens. I will say that some of the ISTE Standards for Students lend themselves to certain disciplines. Don't force yourself to hit every standard just so you can say you did if you are an English teacher BUT I do believe every standard can be supported in every classroom. Stay tuned for more!