Running head: ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Assessment of Learning
Rod Miller
Vancouver Island University
OLTD 506
Final Assignment

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Social Media in the classroom has been growing in popularity over recent years as more
districts become open to the idea of using this resource as a teaching tool. My own school
district has been slow to open up to the pedagogical benefits of tools such as Twitter, Google
Docs and blogging sites. This has been, in part, because of a few bad initial experiences. Many
of these negative experiences have been due to the use of social media to attack teachers and
other individuals in education, but there have been cases of classroom internet use gone wrong.
These mishaps have been due to a lack of knowledge and training of teachers and in some
cases administrators. These initial negative experiences have fostered a negative connotation
associated with the term social media amongst administration.

My own paradigm shift occurred after reading Hengstlers (2013) idea that, The line
between social media and social networking blurs more each day. Basically social networks are
focussed on the creation of a community as the central aim while social media sites build a
'social' community based on an interest, activity, item, etc. Perhaps by emphasizing the
creation of an academic community, rather than a social community, administrator and parents
will become more receptive to idea of social media activities in the class room. This may be the
only way to counter Thierers (2012) idea of Technopanic that has seems to have gripped our
district. I found his, Such paranoia and fears are often driven by the fact that humans are both
naturally risk adverse and poor judges of risks, statement to be quite fitting for our district and
the parents that seem to be leading the panic. It seems that all of the parents I have spoken with
around the use of internet for blogging have few facts about the issue, but know they should be
concerned about something, they just dont know exactly what or why. The parents that are
most panicked about online activities seems to be those that have very few tech skills and rely
on the information or misinformation that they heard somewhere. As for my district, they have
in the past adopted Thierers (2012) if everything is viewed as a risk, then nothing is a risk,
attitude to most things online. I do feel that after gaining more knowledge around FIPPA and

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constructing proper permission forms and reviewing response to incident policies, I am much
less panicked myself. My hope is to transfer that confidence and information to my
administration and parents in the future.

What I find troubling, is that many of the teachers I work with have limited technology
skills and appear to operating in the ignorance or avoidance areas of Hengstlers (2014)
compliance continuum. They are unsure of the requirements for social media use, the legal
aspects have them terrified and their lack of knowledge leaves them unsure of what they are
responsible for and what conscientious use of social media should look like. A greater cause for
concern arises around those situation in which teachers are completely oblivious to the fact that
they are in deed responsible for the safety and privacy of the students they take online. They
assume the the Tech Fairy has made it impossible for student s to access inappropriate
material or to take part in cyberbullying, etc. When discussing online safety with a colleague of
many years, her response was, Isnt that what the firewall is for?

For the most part teachers are aware that there are policies in place, but are not familiar
with them and have received little training or guidance around the content and correct
implementation of the various policies. Many of my colleagues have said that the reason for not
trying anything unfamiliar or new was lack of knowledge. This sentiment seems to echo the
edWeb statement that, Although educators are joining social networks, they express a need for
guidance, training, and professional development (edWeb.net et al., 2009, p. 8). A required
seminar or pro-d training day should be implemented in all districts as our use of the digital
environment increases. This is especially important for older teachers who may not have had
any training in this area, as it seems that teachers fresh out of university have a much better
understanding of appropriate use policy. I think it is important for districts to have a clearly
stated online policy that is in accordance with FIPPA regulations and that these policies and
expectations are clearly relayed to all teachers. This would go a long way to ensuring proper

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use and allow those that are reticent about having students online, take their first steps to
include a new learning resource, whether it be social media or otherwise.

One of the most disturbing aspect of my investigation into the policy and procedures of
my own district is that I have been using a blanket consent of use form that has not been
updated in some time. My own ignorance was compounded by fact that I put my faith in a
blanket permission slip which, with the application of my new knowledge, was found to be
woefully inadequate for the purpose that I would be using it for. Having completed a draft of a
new blogging permission form and reviewing several APU policies, I feel more confident moving
forward, but realize that I, as well as district personnel, have work to do to become adequately
versed in our policies and guidelines. The second disconcerting fact I came across was that no
one seemed to know if we had a response to incident procedure in place. This may be due to
the fact that we do not presently have a district technology coordinator in place, but as soon as
we have the position filled I intend to pursue this further.

My own views of social media have also changed over the course of my experiences in
the OLTD program, but this course in particular has been food for thought. For a long while my
opinion of social media was that people used it to waste time and pass on inane bits of their
day. For the most part I still think that is true for many of the users, however, over the course of
OLTD 506, my mindset has gradually opened up to the professional and academic benefits of
some social media. My experience with blogging in the classroom backs up the idea that other
social medias, such as Twitter, can encouraged online participation from some students who
otherwise might not be active participants in a class room (Luo, Gao 2012). The use of blogging
in my Genius Hour class showed me the value of social media for those students that find it
difficult to open up and share in a typical face to face class room.

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Twitter is a relatively unknown medium for me, personally or professionally. Previously I

had considered it another time waster, that being said, I have since been exposed to some
very useful, academic feeds. Thanks to several of my classmates, I now see the relevant
professional uses, but am still not sold on it as an everyday tool to be used in the class room,
even though there is solid evidence that it is has educational value. In and Luo and Gaos
(2012) study on microblogging activities using Twiducate, they found that the quantity and
quality of students participation in face-to-face classes were improved due to active
engagement with the microblogging tool. They go on to say that how to design classroom
activities to optimize the positive effects of microblogging remains the challenge for educators. It
is this aspect of social media use that will require me to develop a better understanding of
Twitter and Twiducate, so that I am not simply using either tool for the sake of using social
media in my class room, but using it in a pedagogically sound manner. I am always seeking to
have my students actively engaged, so this is an area I will be open to implementing in the
future. However, as I outline later, I still have concerns with regard to its use in an educational
environment and its impact on the users digital footprint.
I have always been quite conscious of my own digital footprint in the past and have
opted out of any personal social media use. Through the misfortunes of others I am keenly
aware of the downside to leaving a sloppy digital footprint, both personal and professionally.
After working with other members of the cohort and seeing some of the ways in which they have
been using Twitter, it seemed to have the most upside for class room use and I was considering
using it to have students follow the tweets of archeologists in Egypt. However, Hengstlers
(2011) explanation of a Tweets ability to replicate exponentially gave me cause for concern:
The replication and transmission of my tweet to you in my network of followers can be
repeated in an exponential model of publication and transmission. I tweet and you
receive it. Next, you retweet it to your followers. They, in turn, retweet it to their followers,
and so on. This potential for exponential reproduction is critical in understanding the
impact and scope a single tweet from a single user can have.

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This was not something I had ever considered before, due in large part to my ignorance of the
workings of Twitter. This idea of exponential replication does drive home the importance of
making a thoughtful post, tweet, email every time one sits down at the keyboard. It also drives
home the importance of proper education in appropriate use and the consequences of
inappropriate use for students. The persistent and permanent aspect of social media, such as
Twitter and Facebook, should not be lost on teachers, both in their professional lives, and the
lives of their students. C. A. Woolfs quote, What has been seen cannot be unseen, what has
been learned cannot be unknown, should be the social media slogan. The impact of a
Facebook rant or knee jerk post on Twitter can have far reaching and long lasting
consequences in a students life and their digital footprint, which in turn can affect their future
employment. The potential of Twitter is still intriguing, however, one of the simplest ways to
avoid disasters involving social media is to have a clear understanding of its nature (Hegstler
2013). Thus, any future use of Twitter will require a better personal knowledge base, which I
can pass on to my students, before I consider bringing it into my class room, but I also I need to
be able to educate administration as well.

Another aspect of the course that has resonated with me is the idea of the Digital
Divide. Being from a small community that is industry based, there is a vast range in socioeconomic status within the student population of our schools. This means that the Digital
Divide is a very real problem for our students. We had bandied the idea of a BYOD policy
about, but felt this would only emphasize the digital divide between the haves and have-nots.
To ensure equitable use and access to the digital environment, I volunteered to take on a pilot
project in our district that would allow each student to have their own iPad in the entire school. It
was a great deal of work, but I felt that it was the only way to ensure an even playing field in our
class rooms in terms of access to technology. In todays economic situation, teachers need to
work extremely hard to make sure that their students are given comparable, if not equitable,

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opportunity to engage digitally and develop their literacies (Hicks & Turner, 2013). I feel that this
is also our moral imperative if we are to have any success for our students in the digital world.
We do not have a large First Nations presence in our school, but the inequality in
internet access for our aboriginal students can not be ignored. According to Taylor (2011) about
50% of First Nations communities across Canada do not have access to residential broadband.
This is an important statistic, because if students cant access the internet in their home then
they are at a distinct disadvantage:
Research indicates the location of access points matters. Critical locations for
access have been identified as: home, school, library, and friends' houses. Data from the
field indicates that home access is the most critical indicator for student success
with technology (as cited in Hengstler, 2013, Aboriginal Contexts, OLTD 506).
One must be mindful of these factors when constructing assignments that may carry over and
become homework. I have become very conscious of this fact when assigning homework that
requires internet access.

Privacy is the big Bugaboo in our schools, so it was interesting to find that BC has
perhaps the strongest privacy laws in Canada. This gave me some comfort, but also caused a
brief moment of panic when I realized how ignorant I had been about some very important
aspects of the laws surrounding internet use and drove home the point that knowledge and
diligence is required when taking students online. I found it sobering that, If found in breach of
the current privacy protection laws in BC, an individual teacher could be fined between
$2,000.00 to $5,000.00 while a school could face fines as high as $50,000.00 (Hengstler,
2013). It is, therefore important that teachers are aware of and comply with the necessary
policies to ensure that student and staff privacy be protected. Unfortunately, it can be quite
difficult to find the type of tool you require and have it be based in Canada. A important aspect of
US based servers is that once we leave the protection of FIPPA and store our information
elsewhere, our information becomes subject to the laws of the country in which it is stored, such

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as the Patriot Act in US. An important point that our rather anemic blanket consent letter has left
out, until now.

While privacy is important, safety is of utmost importance for teachers who have
students under their care while online and the teachers themselves. While familiar with
cyberbulling, I realized I was not as familiar with many of the risk factors for the various types of
online dangers. After reading Finkelhor and Douglas (as cited in Hegstlers Online sexual
predators and grooming, 2013) demographic indicators, I immediately had several students pop
into mind. By simply reading the few lines that describe who is most at risk, I suddenly became
aware of several students that fit the profile. I will now be more aware of these students online
behavior in the future. These types of indicators are important and all teachers should be aware
of them in order to ensure the safest environment for all their students. This idea caused
another Ah-ha moment, when I considered whether parents were as familiar with the risk
factors for things such as predation and grooming as they should be in order to keep their
children safe while online at home. This notion was the impetus to develop an information
evening with parents that discuss these and other online safety issues prior to beginning any
future online activities.

Over the course of 506, I have gained a great deal of knowledge and in turn a great deal
of confidence in my ability to provide a safe learning environment for my students. I hope to be
able to transfer both the knowledge and the confidence to my administration, parents and
students. That said, there is still a great deal of work to be done by myself and my district in the
online education realm.

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References
edWeb.net, MCH Strategic Data, & MMS Education.(2009). Final report: A survey of K-12
educators on social network and content-sharing tools. Retrieved from http://
www.edweb.net/fimages/op/K12Survey.pdf

Hengstler, J. (2011). Managing your digital footprint: Ostriches v. Eagles. In Education for a
digital world 2.0: Innovations in education (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 89-139). Vancouver: Open
School BC.
Hengstler, J. (2013). A K-12 primer for british columbia teachers posting students work online.
Retrieved from, https://d2l.viu.ca/d2l/le/content/56545/viewContent/622556/View
Hengstler, J.(2013). Aboriginal contexts. OLTD 506 (D2L). https://d2l.viu.ca/d2l/le/content/
56545/viewContent/622562/View

Hengstler, J. (2013). Digital professionalism and digital footprints. Retrieved from, https://
d2l.viu.ca/d2l/le/content/56545/viewContent/622551/View
Hengstler, J.(2013). Online sexual predators & grooming. Retrieved from, https://d2l.viu.ca
/d2l/le/content/56545/viewContent/622573/View

Hengstler (2013). What is social media and how does social networking fit in. Retrieved from,
https://d2l.viu.ca/d2l/le/content/56545/viewContent/622542/View

Hengstler, J. (2014). "The Compliance Continuum: FIPPA & BC Educators". Retrieved from
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ridcqq14a7k9543

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Hicks, T., & Turner, K. (2013). No Longer a Luxury: Digital Literacy Cant Wait. English
Journal, 102(6), 58-65.

Lou, T., & Gao, F. (2012). Enhancing Classroom Learning Experience by Providing Structures to
Microblogging-based Activities. Journal of Information Technology Education: Volume
11, 2012 Innovations in Practice, 11, 199-211.

Taylor, A. (2011).Social media as a tool for inclusion. Retrieved from, www.homelesshub.ca/

ResourceFiles/Taylor_Social%20Media_feb2011%20(1)_1_2.pdf
Thierer, A. (2012) The six things that drive 'technopanics'. Forbes.com http://
www.forbes.com/sites/adamthierer/2012/03/04/the-six-things-that-drive-technopanics/