Social Media & Students

Image property of techlearning.com

For this final post of this course, we will be discussing Social Media and Students.  This is a topic that has been discussed throughout this course.  Our first priority as parents and teachers is to join forces to teach our children the right way with the “do’s and don’ts” or the “basics” to get a head in life.  Technology and how one interacts with it is a huge part of not only our students but the rest of our lives.  There are careers that our students must be tech savvy in order to compete in the world that we live in today.  Throughout this course, we have talked about the importance for our students to become digital citizens.  By teaching our students about being digital citizens and being safe online, we as educators can expand their use of social media and technology in a positive way in and outside the classroom.  For my consent letter, I had students learning how to keep an online journal using Blogger.  I felt that Blogger was the best way for students to get use to using not only the computer but also this social media outlet in a positive and expressive way.

According to the article, 3 Ways Savvy Teens Can Showcase Themselves Using Social Media, students can use social-media outlets to showcase their academic work, athletic pursuits, and community-service projects.  Students can use social media as a business opportunity. With social media outlet LinkedIn, students can build a strong resume for college recruits to look at what types of activities and community services that they do in and outside of school. Twitter offers some of the same attributes as LinkedIn in terms of building a strong resume.  Twitter also allows students to follow positive people such as their local library, favorite college or hobby.  YouTube can allow students to keep a V-Blog (video blog) about topics that they like to talk about.  Some students use YouTube to promote their athletic skills for college sport recruitment.  Some students have made YouTube into a business based on how many subscribers follow their channel. 

Students can actually make money off of their YouTube channel. For example, Isaac Carlson has a YouTube channel named, Wotso Videos.  Carlson discusses fun theory topics for fun people based on movies from Disney, Pixar and Dream Works.  Carlson hosted these fun videos has been doing this since high school and through college.  He has a total of 350,000 subscribers and over 80 million views.  Carlson also uses other social media outlets to promote his YouTube channel.  I am not sure of how much money Carlson makes but, I heard that he makes a nice “little” living off of what he does on YouTube.  Some students have even done, “How To” videos to promote their services or web series.  I did not know that people can make money off of YouTube and that it is a big thing among students and adults. YouTube has a section on their site called, Earn Money With YouTube - Creator Academy YouTube.  This section of YouTube has tutorials about how people can actually make money off of their YouTube channels.  I feel that if we as educators teach students how to promote not only themselves but also their talents through social media, then social media will not be seen as a bad thing.  I think that students should learn how to brand themselves through social media.  Creatively branding your passion and talents through social media in a positive way will be the new wave in terms of students in the United States bridging the technology gap with the rest of the world.  As a matter of fact, I am going to use what I learned in this class to promote my hobbies and what I like to do and try to brand what I do in my librarianship.

References

Trautman, Stephanie (2017). 3 Ways Savvy Teens Can Showcase Themselves Using Social Media. Common Sense Education. Retrieved on February 25, 2019 at https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/3-ways-savvy-teens-can-showcase-themselves-using-social-media?utm_content=buffer6c7ad&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Linetsky, Timothy (2019). How to Earn Money on YouTube. Wiki How. Retrieved on February 25, 2019 at https://www.wikihow.com/Earn-Money-on-YouTube

(2019) Earn Money With YouTube - Creator Academy YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved on February 25, 2019 at https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/revenue-basics

Media & Social Media Literacy

Image Property of  teacherswithapps.com

For this week’s blog post, we are discussing media literacy and Rheingold’s thoughts on social media literacies.  It’s kind of funny that we are discussing media literacy because this is the topic that I have chosen for my second miniature project for this course.  I am learning that certain states want to incorporate media literacy into the school’s curriculum for students.  According to Media Literacy Now, the state of Illinois legislation has a bill (House Bill 5096) on the floor to include media literacy in the school code.  Lawmakers in the state of Illinois are requiring that school districts must incorporate internet safety lessons.  These lessons are to be given every year starting with students in the third grade.  These lessons must include topics such as safe and responsible use of social networking websites, chat rooms, electronic mail, bulletin boards, instant messaging, and other means of communication on the internet.  According to the Center For Media Literacy, media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in various forms.  The main purpose of media literacy is to make sure that individuals develop useful skills that they need to be critical thinkers, communicators and active citizens in today's society while interacting with all types of media.

According to the article, Attention, and Other 21^st Century Social Media Literacies, Howard Rheingold, stated that there are five social media literacies that are structure together in order to build on each other when it comes to social media literacy. The five social media literacies are attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness and critical consumption. Attention can be gained by understanding how people think, create tools and teach each other to use them through socialization.   Participation is achieved when the student interacts with the tool.  Participating with a “social” tool in order to get an idea across to others describes collaborating with others to get the message or job done. Collaborating means people can work together in order to get more things accomplished. Network Awareness has to do with social networks expanding with technology in terms of using more than one medium to communicate a message or idea to the masses. Critical consumption is based on evaluating what and who is trustworthy.  I feel that all five of the social media literacies are still valid to this day with one exception. 

 I feel that “Participation” literacy needs to be merged into the “Collaborating” literacy.  “Participation” literacy sound redundant to me when you have “Collaborating” literacy basically doing the same thing.  When collaborating ideas through social media with other people in a group that basically means that you are a contributing participant in the collaboration process.  I think that “Critical Consumption” of social media literacy is essential for students to know.  As I am typing this blog post, my 8^th grade students are just finishing up their research papers.  During the research process, I have talked to them about credibility in terms of researching the person who wrote the material that they are utilizing in their research papers.   I told my students it’s important to find out if that person is knowledgeable in terms of the subject matter that they are writing about.  I let my students know that anyone can write a book or create a website or article based on the topic that they are researching.  Just because that person wrote about that topic does not mean that they are knowledgeable or creditable about that topic.  A person’s words could be just their opinion or false accusations about any topic instead of stating the facts. With some restructuring, I feel that the concepts of both media and social media literacy should be enforced in all grade levels continuously because these fields are forever changing and evolving along with the advances of technology.

References

Rheingold, Howard (2010). Attention, and Other 21st Century Social Media Literacies. Educause Review. Retrieved on February 18, 2019 at https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-media-literacies

Illinois Legislation. Media Literacy Now. Retrieved on February 18, 2019 at https://medialiteracynow.org/your-state-legislation/illinois-legislation/

Mission: Media Literacy. Center For Media Literacy. Retrieved on February 18,2019 at https://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more

CIPA & COPPA

Image Property of  nccscurriculum.org

For this week’s blog post we will discuss CIPA and COPPA.  CIPA stands for the Children's Internet Protection Act.  According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website, this act was created in the year 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene material that can be found over the internet.  This act requires schools and libraries who do not receive discount internet access through the E-rate program to follow certain guidelines in order to be in compliance with this act.  Schools and libraries must have internet access filtered, monitor students’ activity on the internet and teachers must teach students about cyber safety.  My school district is in compliance with CIPA.  It is stated in the school district's Student Technology Responsible Use Policy.   Underneath the section about CIPA in my school district's policy, there is a section about Responsible Use Policy (RUP) that is with connection with the school district’s compliance with CIPA.  RUP states that CIPA only applies to school-owned technology on the SHSD 151 Internet/network, on non-school networks and offline and; privately owned technology that is connected to the SHSD 151 internet/network and on privately owned networks while on school property.

My school district monitors student’s internet activity within all four schools and from the district office.  My school district uses a program called, LanSchool Teacher Console.  According to the company’s website,  LanSchool is classroom management software used by schools to monitor students' activity in a digital classroom. It includes a screen monitor, keystroke  monitor, teacher-to-student chat feature, URL monitor, and camera monitor and microphone access.   This software is also used on the public side of my library. Also each school within the district has a technology teacher and an IT person that goes over cyber safety and the student technology responsible use policy.  If students do not abide by the rules, they can be suspended off of district own technology for the whole school year.  Their online work will be paper-base.  However, the student’s policy does not mention anything about COPPA.

Image Property of  lenovosoftware.com

COPPA stands for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.  According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), this law was created to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13. This act was passed by the United States Congress in 1998 and took effect in April 2000. One of the main goals of COPPA is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online.  I know that when parents register their students online for the school year, they have a choice to give their consent or not in terms of showing their students name and picture online or in the school’s newsletter.

Both CIPA and COPPA are supposed to protect our students and I feel that only CIPA does just what it is set to do.  Then again, CIPA might cause problems in public libraries because certain tax payers who use their own public library feel that they should use the internet any way they please.  However, COPPA is not really protecting our students and it’s because of their parents.  I can remember being on Facebook one day and I get an invite from my cousin’s son. Before I even accepted the request, I gave her a call.  I told her that I got a friend’s request from her son on Facebook and I wanted to know if she knew that he was on Facebook.  He son was only 10 years old at the time.  She knew that he was on Facebook but he was only allowed to log on when she was in the room.  He was supposed to get approval of any page or friend request that he wanted to add to his page by her.  She let me know that I can deny his request and that she will talk to him about the rules that was set for him.  My biggest concern was his age and the fact that if he logged on while she was not in the room.  He might have logged into his account outside the house.

Most parents care and most don’t when it comes to their children and social media.  Some parents feel that it’s harmless.  However,  when something serious happens, then they blame the schools for not teaching their students about being safe online.  The schools do their part of educating the students and the parents (if parents show up to school related activities on this topic) but the parents must remember that teachers only what their students only seven hours a day.  The other 17 hours in a student’s life per day belongs to the parents.  It is the parent’s responsibility to control what the child does at home and online.  Nine times out of ten, parents don’t even know that their child has a social media account until it’s too late. This is because their students lie about their age in order to get their own accounts.  

According to the research study, Why Parents Help Their Children lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’, COPPA does not force companies like Facebook to restrict access to children under the age of 13. Rather, it seeks to make certain that parents are informed about website data collection policies and have choices and tools to express their preferences when sites want to collect data about their children. This study also points out that in terms of age restriction and maturity, parents do not understand the relationship between Facebook’s minimum age requirement and COPPA. Parents often encounter age restrictions that are culturally understood as being about maturity in terms of the drinking, driving or enlisting in the armed services.  Parents need to get in the right mind set in terms of their children utilizing social media.  If you are a parent that allows your child to have an account at an early age, then talk and monitor your child’s online activities.  If not, then still talk to your child and still monitor their cell phones because chances are they have downloaded social media apps through those cell phones for use.  I think that CIPA and COPPA creators need to revisit their guidelines to make them stiffer.  I also think that libraries and school districts need to invest in technology events to educate students and parents more to bridge that gap.  I know that my school district does a technology night every year for students and parents.

Image Property of  thinglink.org

Image Property of  houstonisd.org

                                                             

References

Boyd, D., Hargittai, E., Schultz, J., & Palfrey, J. (2011). Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’. First Monday, 16(11).  Retrieved on February 12, 2019 at https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i11.3850

FCC (2017). Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). FCC. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

FTC (2018). Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). FTC. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 at https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule

South Holland School District 151 Information Technology Student Technology Responsible Use Policy. Retrieved on February 11, 2019 http://www.shsd151.org/downloads/information_technology/student_technology_responsible_use_policy.pdf

Digital Tattoo Me All Over The Place Why Don't You

This week’s post is about Digital Tattoos. A digital tattoo is a permanent tattoo of any information that we post online.  However, some of our information is based on what was already known about us based on online or paper forms filled out by us about us. According to the article, What Is A Digital Tattoo & Why Does It Matter?, quoting UK Safe Internet Centre, “your digital footprint is the mark that you leave behind when using the Internet and can shape your online reputation. Your digital footprints are made up of the content you create, post and share; as well as the content that others post, and share, with you and about you”.  
This week’s project, I decided to “Data Mine” myself to see what information was online about me.  I searched my name by using  Nuwber, Google, Pipl, YouTube, Radaris, Block Shopper and Spokeo to access information about myself. I can tell you this, some or most of the information out there about me is not correct but it was fun to see. However, it was kinda of scary seeing that all know that I am digitize all over the place.  It made me wonder about how many people believe what they research about me because most of it is not true.  I have screen shots of each website that I have visited to find out information about myself below. Each website searched has a detail description about my findings.

Nuwber (https://nuwber.com/)

I search my full name with and without my middle initial.  I found two results when searching my name both ways.  The first result my age range along with the city that I currently live in along with two of my relatives (my mom and one of my sisters) that are associated to me.  The second result only had my age range, the city that I currently live in.  I click on the second result for more information about myself and it showed my accurate address and a google map of where I lived.  The first result would have showed where I use to live at my mom’s house.

"Kaleena T. Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Nuwber.com

 "Kaleena Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Nuwber.com

Google (www.google.com)

I searched my full name with and without my middle initial in quotations.  I made sure that I was logged off of Google Chrome and double checked my searches using Google Chrome at work and I got the same search results.  When I search “Kaleena Woodard”, my search results showed that my name was on certain sites such as, mylife.com (which has my incorrect age), YouTube, Spoke, and whitepages.com.  Images of me or what other images could be connected to me are displayed in the beginning near the center of the page.  When I searched “Kaleena T. Woodard”, my name can be found on Google Sites, nuwber (under my mom’s address and phone number), mylife.com (which has my incorrect age), my twitter account name, ratemyteachers.com, and YouTube.com.  There were no images of me of what could be connected to me on this page.

"Kaleena Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Google.com

"Kaleena T. Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Google.com

Pipl(www.pipl.com)

I searched my cell phone number. I have had this cell phone number since 2007. A person by the name of David White profile appeared on the search result. This information was incorrect. Underneath David White’s profile the names “K’tanz Tanz Woodard” and “Kaleena T. Woodard (708-339-6478)” appeared.  “K’tanz Tanz Woodard” was just part of the name that I used on my old Facebook account before it was hacked.  It states that this name is associated with another name.  This “other” name was one of my friends who were listed as a “friend” on my old Facebook account.  “Kaleena T. Woodard(708-339-6478)” is my name with the middle initial plus my mom’s house number.  When I clicked on this profile it listed two addresses for me. One is my moms and the other is where I current residence, which is located in Harvey, IL.  My siblings and mother’s name are listed at the bottom as associates of mines.  The name “Kaleena Woodlar” is listed as an additional name but my name is misspelled.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

YouTube (www.youtube.com)

When I searched “Kaleena Woodard” on YouTube, My profile appeared a long with an upload of my power point presentation of a project that I did for my collection development course.  When I searched “Kaleena T. Woodard”, only my collection development course video appeared.

“Kaleena Woodard”

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and YouTube.com

 "Kaleena T. Woodard"

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and YouTube.com

Radaris (www.radaris.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  My correct age, the addresses associated with me and people that I am associated with.   The city of Kankakee, IL was listed because I went to college there for one year.  The information that was incorrect on my profile was the “other “ name associated with mines which is “Kaleena Woolard”.  What was also incorrect was an 815 area code number that was not mine,  and the fact that a “Donald Woodard” or “T.W. Woodard” was associated of mine and they are not.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Radaris.com

Block Shopper (www.blockshopper.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  I could not search my address because it came up as an “error” page.  All my information was correct based on the mortgage papers that I signed and the recent tax bill that I just received in the mail as I create this post.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Block Shopper.com

Spokeo (www.spokeo.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  All my information is correct expect, I  am not known or associated with the name “Kaleena Woodar”.  I also do not have a relative by the name of “Marcus Woodard”.  However, the only brother that I have name is “Marqie Woodard”.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Spokeo.com

        I also recommend search yourself on White Pages (www.whitepages.com). You can search yourself by address, any telephone number associated to you, your name and the city and or town that you reside in. This website is a good site as well to use to search information about yourself.

References

Treyvaud, Robyn (2018). What Is A Digital Tattoo & Why Does It Matter?. Family Insights. Retrieved February 5, 2019 at https://familyinsights.net/advice/what-is-a-digital-tattoo-and-why-does-it-matter/

Educational Learning Through Technology

Image Property of Krista Moroder

For this week’s post, we are viewing statistics and discussing how educational technology impacts how our students learn.  Some of these articles remind me of the National Geographic documentary series, Valley of the Boom.  This televise documentary series tells the story about the beginning of the internet, the deals that were made behind the scenes and how the internet impacted our lives. I remember the web browser, Netscape, because a friend of mine introduced me to it.  She was the only one at the time that had internet service in her home. I did not know what it was at the time until she showed me how to use it. I didn’t think that I could even benefit from using the internet at all.  I remember as a kid hearing about the “internet” but I never really used it until I was almost out of high school and on my way to college.  My mom didn’t get internet service until my last year of high school.  As far as social media was concern during that time, I was introduced and had accounts for Yahoo Instant Messager (through my Yahoo email account), Blackplanet.com and Collegeclub.com.  Did these online outlets impact the way I learn?  In a way it did because I was one of those students that didn’t come from a home with internet at the time.  I only used the computer to search the online catalog for books in the school and or public library.  I work with some students who do not have internet service, a computer or a cell phone.  Their families cannot afford it just like mines could not because certain bills took priority over the luxury over the internet.  Learning how to attach documents to an email, send an email, and utilize the early models of social media is something that I had to learn in order to function in society and in the classroom. My sense of the internet and technology was very limited back then in the year 2000.  However, reading and viewing these reports only a couple stood out to me.

Project Tomorrow has a research data program called, Speak Up.  Speak Up, according to it’s website, provides an easy way for students, parents and educators to participate in your local decisions about technology, as well as contribute to the state and national dialogue about digital learning through a free data collection process for your school or district.  Speak Up’s conducted a research called, Ten Things Everyone Should Know about K-12 Students' Digital Learning, 2018. This research stood out to me because some of the findings I see all the time when I view my students interacting and learning with technology daily.  For example, number six of this list, My school is called “YouTube”, talks about how students learn how to do a task on their own by watching YouTube. According to the study, 77% of grade 6-8 students and 90% of grade 9-12 students say that they regularly find and watch online videos to learn how to do something when they are at home.  I have seen some of my students use YouTube to find out how to do science projects, fix used computers and cell phones.  I was not surprise by this static at all.  To tell you the truth, I used YouTube to learn how to patch a hole in my wall. 

 I was surprise by number three’s Print vs. Pixel Preferences statistics. It is hard to believe that only 77% of high school students say they prefer to read a printed book or article. But 66% of students in K-2 classes say reading is best for them on a screen – even more fun with audio and lots of interactivity.  I would never think that high school students would like to ditch technology when it came to reading a book. I see most of them with their tablets all the time in my library.  So I guess you can that I assume that they are reading a book on their device.  Then again, those tablets have social media apps on them so I guess they are using those apps more than reading a book online. Also most of my students can not afford tablets to read on. I was not surprise about students’ K through 2^nd  that love to watch and work on a big screen in their classroom.  Students of that age level love to watch and interact on the white boards in my school district.  Most students in that grade can function the white board better than the teacher. They love making noises and being hands on when learning and having fun through technology.  Most of the white board activities consist of creating story boards, watching movies and playing educational games.  Playing with chalk on the black board and getting dirty is not fun for these children any more.

Another statistical resource that I found interesting was the Generation Z: Understanding and Engaging the Emerging Generations.  This blog talks about how each generation engaged through the emergence of technology.  Each generation interacts with changes throughout society.  The generations that are covered in this research start with builders all the way to generation alpha.  I am dealing with Alpha and “Z” students as we speak.  I see that these two generational periods of students are basically learning through technology because for some of them, technology is raising them.  In my opinion, technology should not be used in that way.  It was shocking to see the generational break down of things that were created from automobiles, music devices, social makers that took place in history all the way to the times of when search engines and social media outlets were created and involved.  I am considered as a generation “Y” person.  I during my life time, I have had a walkman before.  After I have several walkman, I had a disc man (portable cd player).  I never got an iPod until I was almost 30 years old.  I still used floppy disc until I started graduate school with my first master’s degree.  In graduate school, I purchase my first USB drive.  With all these changes, I see that I am somewhat behind on the usage of technology and social media just like some in other generations. 

I am making reference to the section of generation “Z” in the United States is ranked third in “total” population but is not ranked in generation “Z” population.  According to this blog, generation “Zs” are demographically changed and are growing up in an era of Australia’s largest baby boom since the birth of the Boomer generation.  This generation is living in an era of changing household structures that is changing society with an increasingly ageing population. They are digitally transformed by integrating technology into their everyday realities.  Maybe it’s because access and how technology is taught and learned in Australia with this generation has made them so advance.   I know some or most students that I work with do not have internet, a computer or a cell phone at home.  Some of my students have heard some of some names of social media outlets but they never seen or access them before.  This detailed chart and static is a wakeup call that the United States should make learning technology accessible.   This needs to happen at home and in the classrooms.  However, we live in a reality that most households cannot afford technology at home and that most school districts are in the same boat. If affordable access was available, then students can be taught how to properly integrating technology as part of their learning environment.  This investment can benefit them in the long run.  However, the question maybe that can technology keep up with a changing population.

References

Ryan, Patrick (2018). First look: Nat Geo's tech drama 'Valley of the Boom' tells Internet origin story. US Today.  Retrieved January 28, 2019 at https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2018/07/24/exclusive-nat-geo-goes-boom-first-trailer-silicon-valley-drama/818878002/

Project Tomorrow (2018). Ten Things Everyone Should Know about K-12 Students' Digital Learning, 2018. Speak Up. Retrieved on January 29, 2019 at https://tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup-2017-ten-things-to-know-students-digital-learning-september-2018.html

McCrindle (2018). Generation Z: Understanding and Engaging the Emerging Generations. McCrindle.  Retrieved on January 29, 2019 at https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blogarchive/generation-z-understanding-and-engaging-the-emerging-generations/    

McCrindle (2017). GenZGenAplpha 2017. Retrieved on January 29, 2019 at https://mccrindle.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GenZGenAlpha_2017.pdf

Social Media Policy for Students and Employees

Image Property of Matt Gasior and PowerDMS

This week’s blog post is based on the evaluation of school district social media policies for students and employees.  Times are changing in terms of how individuals interact with one another. We have gone from Morse coding a message to DMing (Direct Messaging) a person online.  It is important that we have policies and to make sure that we communicate in a responsible and respectable manner online. According to the blog post, Good Social Media Policy Protects Your School, by the Independent School Management (ISM) organization, school social media policies should be in place for students and employees due to how individuals communicate. The blog post also notes that the Nicolson Law Group, which it’s main law office is located Pennsylvania, suggests that schools need to teach students and parents the social ramifications and legal issues for improper use of the social media policy. I evaluated my school district’s, which is South Holland School District 151, policy along with Des Plaines School District 62 policy to see how they match up.

My school district’s policy is for the students but also incorporates rules employees should adhere to as well.  I did email the head of technology for my school district to see if there was a separate policy for staff  but, I did not get a response back.  Des Plaines has one policy set for the students and one for the employees. I can tell you that my school district’s policy is more in depth and in detail than both of Des Plaines’ policies. There are ten sections that make up my school district’s policy. The purpose of the policy gives readers an insight of what the policy is about and why the policy was created.  South Holland’s policy defines what is instituted as “technology” in the eyes of the school district.  Technology is not just based on hard and software.  Technology also relates to emails, online conferences, electronic files, internet access and social media.  The policy covers CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) and RUP (Responsible Use Policy).  The RUP makes note that individuals should refer to the student’s/parent’s handbook for the RUP and the rules about social media. Within the RUP, this policy defines digital citizenship. Des Plaines’ student policy consists of a digital citizenship agreement with a list of nine rules followed by three short paragraphs about the purpose of the agreement and that parents should reference the student handbook for more information about this agreement. Des Plaines’ policy also has two paragraphs based on media release and how they take online privacy very seriously.  That is basically it for Des Plaines student policy.

The fifth item in South Holland’s policy is based on prohibited use.  This item in the policy is based on what seen as unacceptable in terms of electronic resources.  Some of the points that prohibited use covers are plagiarism, cyber bullying, accessing or communicating inappropriate materials; avoiding school filters, copyright laws, etc.  Des Plaines' staff policy only has a short list of items that are considered prohibited for use.  Some of these points are covered by South Holland’s policy.  Points six and seven of the policy are based on privacy.  This section of the policy describes what is deemed as property of the school district electronically such as school phones, sent emails and electronic resources, etc.  The school district has to right to go into your email to retrieve certain emails sent for FOIA purposes.  Both points also make sure that security measure are taken to protect passwords, email, system access and publicly posting images of students as long as permission is given and the student’s name is not posted online.

Des Plaines’ policy covers the same basics in their “data security” section of the policy.  Points eight and nine of South Holland’s policy dealt with damaged/liability and period of use of any technology equipment. Both polices from both school districts also have disclaimers.  Both policies have the same concept but South Holland’s policies have more detail and coverage like the rest of the policy examples list this week than Des Plaines.  I think that Des Plaines’ policy was straight to the point. I just think that their guidelines needed to be spelled out for legal purposes.

Image Property of Demco,Inc.

References

District 62 (IL) Digital Citizenship Agreement. Retrieved on January 23, 2019  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz-sDZyMN1ATZ2hlLUhLWEh4elE/view

District 62 (IL) Staff  Technology. Retrieved on January 23, 2019  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz-sDZyMN1ATZ2hlLUhLWEh4elE/view

ISM.(2013).Good Social Media Policy Protects Your School. Independent School Management. Vol. 10 No. 4. Retrieved on January 23, 2019 https://isminc.com/article/good-social-media-policy-protects-your-school

South Holland School District 151 Information Technology Student Technology Responsible Use Policy. Retrieved on January 23, 2019 http://www.shsd151.org/downloads/information_technology/student_technology_responsible_use_policy.pdf

South Holland School District 151 Student/Parent Handbook & Discipline Handbook. Retrieved on January 23, 2019   

http://www.shsd151.org/downloads/parents/2018_student-parent_discipline_handbook-1up.pdf (Pg. 55).

Pinterest Is The New PLN !

This week’s class, we discuss Professional Learning Networks or PLNs and what we use to interact with them.  PLNs are a learning network that is informal and consists of the people who interact by sharing knowledge from a personal learning environment.  This can be a community of people sharing their ideas and opinions with one another by joining a group in person or online by using social media outlets.  Most PLNs are not just done by individuals interacting physically.  They are done on the internet as well.  This week I decide to create a Pinterest account for my PLNs. In the article, PLN Social Benefits - YouTube, PLN Affective Benefits, there are four ways that educators can grow and gain knowledge through their PLNs.  The four social benefits of PLNs are affective, social, cognitive and identity. The PLNs that I can relate to when it comes to interacting with Pinterest are social and cognitive. Yes, I feel that I can relate to two of these benefits.

  Being social allowed me to connect with teachers that I do not see every day in the building online because I am in the library all day.  The only time that I would get to see some teachers is when they physically bring their classes down to visit the library.  Their library visits occurs every two weeks or when the really need to use the library.  Being cognitive allowed me to think about what I should be doing in the library based on teacher’s comments.  Teachers’ comments and ideas make me think outside the box to expand their ideas. Pinterest allowed me to search and look at other people’s boards to see how I can improve my school’s collection in terms of what titles that I can expose my students to during my book talks.  There were also some images that allowed me to get ideas on how I can present my book talks. Some of these books have Pinterest pages filled with images and activities based on certain books.   

The educational vision board that I created is called, Multicultural Book Collection. I never used this type of social media before that allowed you to “show but not tell” what a multicultural book collection is supposed to look like.  I just didn’t add books by African American authors to make my collection diverse.  Most collections that I have seen only focus on one ethic group because the school’s or town’s population is most filled with that one ethic group.  Some people that I talked to when they visited my library think that I have just books by black and white authors.  That is not true because having black and white authors’ does not make your school’s library collection diverse.  I added other authors that represented or wrote about different ethnic backgrounds and books from other languages that students speak in my building.  Most of my students speak Spanish.  I found out that my mother has a Pinterest account which was shocking to me because she does not like social media at all.  I told her that Pinterest was not just for sharing ideas but also being sociable about them as well.  She did not know that at all. All my mother does is create vision boards of her ideas for special projects. 

 I quickly learned how to use Pinterest and made me two types of vision boards. I was also able to connect other people’s ideas on my subject matter and follow other public library’s Pinterest pages.  I was also able to be sociable online and discuss with another librarian on how I can improve my library’s collection. I held a discussion with a librarian that I met at a couple of ALA conferences.  Her name is Ms. Palmer and she has been a school/public librarian and English teacher for years.  Ms. Palmer always gave me some great advice while building my overall collection throughout my librarianship. Ms. Palmer is really not a fan when it comes to social media but her godchildren got her connected for the first time with Pinterest.  I told her that I was on there and I made a board based on multicultural books.  Some of the books shown are in my school’s library collection and others are books that I plan on adding into the collection.  I even added board suggestions on the topic to my board as well. 

Ms. Palmer wanted to make sure that my collection of books was diverse in terms of having Spanish books.  She also wanted to make sure that I added old and new upcoming authors from all types of ethnic backgrounds.  I told her that all ideas that she requested were always a part of my collection development and shared with her a website that I view to create my collection.  There is a website called, We Need Diverse Books (https://diversebooks.org/), that I use to build my collection.  This site introduces individuals to a group of new authors or books that are diverse.  I also found out this website has a Pinterest page as well.  I also communicate with other educators within my school district about my vision board.  I think that they "live" on Pinterest because their love for the social site.  Learning through social networks by utilizing PLNs is the future.  According to the article, Why Learning Through Social Networks Is The Future, by Paul Moss, networking, socializing, managing and sharing ideas this way is not a trend.  PLNs are going to be the way we communicate in our professional and educational careers. Down below this blog post are snap shots of my conversation with Ms. Palmer and other educators, We Need Diverse Book Pinterest page and my vision board on multicultural book collection.  I also started another vision board as well because I am planning on updating my bathroom.

Follow Me on Pinterest: Kaleena Woodard (ktw122381)

Multicultural BookCollection Vision Board

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pinterest

Ms. Palmer and I Conversation about the Vision Board

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pinterest

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pinterest

Other Conversations On Pinterest

Image property of Kaleena T. Woodard and Pinterest

Image property of Kaleena T. Woodard and Pinterest

We Need Diverse BooksPinterest page

Image property of We Need Diverse Books and Pinterest

References

Moss, Paul.(2016) Why Learning Through Social Networks Is The Future. Teacher Thought. Retrieved on January 18, 2019 from https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/learning-through-networks-is-the-future/.

Trust, Torrey. PLN Social Benefits - YouTube, PLN Affective Benefits. Thinglink. Retrieved on January 18, 2019 from https://www.thinglink.com/scene/906278740244299778.