Legal and Ethical Contexts In My Digital Practice

Whakatauki

Te whakaaro nui, nga mahi mohio.

Conscious thought, conscious actions.

Expect It When You Least expect It!

When you work with students in a school you can forget that taking those students out of the school environment immediately exposes them to the vagaries and whims of a world that is not governed by shared policies and procedures. When students enrol at our school parents sign documentation that either permits or negates the use of their child’s digital image within school newsletters or on the school learning blogs. This documentation is regularly reviewed and adjusted accordingly. With the issues that can arise around misuse of images and also awareness around sensitive situations such as domestic violence or child custody cases we take the documentation seriously.

We have a number of ways in which we aim to educate students and whanau about some of the ‘pitfalls’ of the digital world. Parents and students sign a document called the Kawa of Care. The Kawa of Care identifies some of the ways in which digital tools are best managed for online safety and it is an agreement about responsible use of devices. We undertake ongoing programmes within the classroom on a cyber smart curriculum. Parents are also encouraged to attend evening sessions that allow them to discuss and explore issues relating to their child’s online safety.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of taking my class of Year 7 & 8s away on an outdoor education camp. We spent an evening at a hot pool complex and it came to my attention that there was a photographer roaming around the complex taking unsolicited photographs of my students. These were then to be available on line for order!

I spoke with my students about this and we discussed why this was of concern.  They readily saw the potential for misuse and some also felt that they had been pressured into posing for the photographs. I immediately located the photographer and asked that he remove any and all images of my students. He was a little taken aback so I explained to him our school policy. He agreed to do so but he was not apologetic nor did he seem to concede the invasion of privacy his photographs presented. I then followed this up with a face to face and a written letter to the management of the complex explaining our concerns. Their response was much more empathetic and responsible and it resulted in key changes to the way in which the private photographer was allowed to work within the complex.

It can be difficult to know exactly where to draw a line when you are ‘off site’.  I found this line easier to draw because I was aware of a recent case in which a South Island secondary school teacher had overlaid student images onto pornographic images of children he had found on the internet. The devastation of that manipulation of digital images highlighted for me the enormous responsibility we have to ensure the students in our care are not unwittingly caught up in the nefarious use of their personal image or data. This situation was all about ‘promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm’ as stated in the Education Council (2017) Our Code Our Standards web booklet.

Contemporary Trends

Rethinking How School Works &

Technology is accelerating progress but causing discontinuities.

Whakatauki:

Ka huri te moana, ka noho tonu.

The ocean changes and yet stays the same.

Communication & Coding

The accelerating changes within technology; accessibility, application and implementation within the classroom, is the trend that strikes a chord with me. The recent release of the draft Digital Technologies document by the New Zealand Ministry of Education (2017), promoting computer coding as an integral element in the classroom, highlighted again the gasping rush of breath as our government recognises the inevitability of a digital future that is unfolding faster than we can keep pace.

To be or not to be left out of the loop? That is the imponderable question. Learning the language of algorithms and empowering our populace through an understanding of the principles and structures of computer coding should be a core curriculum subject. It is a common language within all countries and as such it may become a key in future communication, human to humans, between humans and machines, between artificial intelligences (A.I.) and humans, and inevitably machine to machine,  A.I. to A.I. We cannot know the future pace of change within technology as much of it will be developed by technologies themselves. There is every possibility that even if students learn coding, the coding of this decade could look like the Dead Sea scrolls within ten years. Languages may well be developed by A.I. as a way to communicate exclusively between themselves. I recognise a Rosetta Stone when I see binary code and despite the development of technologic languages that may evolve, even linguists need a common reference point.

Limitations of Technology

The limitations of technology within a classroom setting are those posed by infrastructure, classroom practice and the technology itself. Providing equitable access, (one of the issues identified in the 2016 OECD report, Trends Shaping Education)  to digital tools can be difficult however in my own school we are part a Manaiakalani Outreach programme.  Through this programme a number of schools have been able to establish an educational trust, Toki Pounamu, that underwrites the costs of digital tools within classrooms.  These laptops are bulk bought, have ongoing technical support, and are either paid for in full or paid off by whanau so that they are owned by the students.

The updated and upgraded infrastructure within my school setting has put paid to earlier dissonance around slow processing and interrupted connectivity.  An expectation that students will be equipped for their digital world has been supported by whanau and management.  This support has resulted in ongoing skill building workshops/toolkits for teachers. The practice in the classroom

The goal of advancing learning through a digital platform has been very successful to date. The amount of learning for teachers such as myself who come from a paper based teaching background to working within a digital environment has been akin to moving from the abacus to the calculator in the space of a day! Now I would not willingly choose to relinquish the affordances of a digital classroom. I have a lot more to learn and, as it ever was, there will be no arrival point in the learning but at least I have glimpsed the train stations as they hurtle past and I have moved a few students forward with me and waved many on as they leave me in their wake.

References:

MInistry of Education, (2017)Digital Technologies /Hangarau Matahako, Wellington, New Zealand

OECD (2016), Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Retrieved from Mindlab2017     http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en

Digital Collaboration & Leadership - Session 3

Titiro whakamuri, kokiri whakamua
Look back and reflect so we can move forward.

Eric Martini is ahead of his time.  Five or six years ago Eric worked in my classroom to introduce the idea of augmented reality and the app he used was 'Aurasma'.  We used it with students so that they could create mathematical treasure hunts.  It was a really successful and engaging programme and then I never used it again and only a couple of students went on to select it for further work. Last night the possible uses for the app came flooding back and have left me thinking clearly about where augmented reality could be incorporated within teaching and learning next term. Which left me thinking again about Eric. who now runs 'Techspace' in Greymouth: a place where children of all ages can be introduced to computer coding, augmented and virtual reality experiences, 3-D printing, and the 'internet of things'. Why am I not utilising that resource too?

Thinking about the reading on "Conditions For Classroom Technology Innovation" I was struck by how familiar the process of implementation was even though the article was approximately fifteen years old. Which also reminded me of the 'personalities' talked about last week that seem to be ever present within organisations undergoing change and innovation. There is struggle within change, challenge within change, and a need for the critical thinkers and sceptics to be vocal so that change, if it is truly innovative and effective, can be held up to the light to show the watermark of quality and legitimacy. I would be more concerned by change that occurs in a culture of apathetic resignation; that passive reluctance could clear a path for a level of evolutionary change over which there is no control and within which we are subsumed.