Reuse, Revise, Retain, Remix and Redistribute

Read that title again: Reuse, Revise, Retain, Remix and Redistribute. These are the 5 R’s that go along with Open Education. Thinking about those 5 words in an educational context is exciting = Sharing. Having free resources to change or alter to fit your context and then share them again when you are finished, I like how that sounds.

Of course, I have questions. The first questions that come to mind for me are:

  1. What are the implications of Open Education?
  2. How do you know the quality and accuracy of the resources?

This video helps point you in the right direction to have a better understanding of Open Education and where to go to get some of the questions answered.

From these videos, videos shared in class and our discussion with Alan Lavine last week here is what I have come to understand:

  1. Open Education prevents outdated information specifically in textbooks.
  2. Open Education saves A LOT of money on textbooks making it more accessible to more people worldwide.
  3. Quality education for everyone.
  4. We have been doing it for a long time without knowing- taking clips from movies and putting song lyrics to them.
  5. Develops creativity.
  6. Connecting people to people through the internet.
  7. Making student assignments more meaningful by sharing them, getting feedback and allowing others to build on them.

A question that keeps repeating itself for me is the fact that it is making education more accessible to people worldwide however, if technology is not accessible to everyone worldwide how do we reach everyone?

I believe very strongly in Teamwork. It’s important in my everyday life, family, sports and teaching. We shouldn’t be a lone island nor should we have to reinvent the wheel. Open Education, OER and Open Pedagogy seem to fit well into the idea of teamwork. For the love of the game or for the love of teaching, teamwork makes it happen.

From the TSN Facebook page

My understanding is in progress but I can start small. I will continue to share my resources with my colleagues and start thinking outside the box about student assignments and how they can be shared keeping privacy in mind.

Here are some accounts that I have found on Twitter that will be helpful for an Open Education learning journey:

Digital Citizenship = Activism?

Can online social media activism be meaningful and worthwhile? This is the question that I have been reflecting on this week. When I look at my social media presence, it is primarily educational and inspirational content. I don’t post much of my own content instead I will share or retweet information that I find important in the field of education. Rarely, do I engage in anything that could be considered “activism.” My reason for this is that I am not a loud person in “real life” and I don’t want to be different online.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I was speaking with a colleague about this after our class trying to navigate my thoughts about social media activism. My colleague mentioned that even though I am not a “loud person” they know what I stand for because of the subtle things that I will do. This got me thinking, it is important to me to be the same person online that I am in real life. I can repost or retweet in my way for things that I stand for. This is what I have started to do. So, after much reflection, I believe that social media activism can be meaningful and worthwhile and I am going to try to participate more in activism online, in my way.

What is our responsibility as educators to model active citizenship online? This is another interesting question for me as I have a rule for my social media which is that I do not accept students as “friends” until they have graduated. I have always thought that I want to keep my personal life and professional life separated. This would prevent me from being a model of active citizenship online. The way that I feel I can be a model is by teaching my students and children about digital citizenship.

Here are some websites that have lesson plans and other useful information for teaching digital citizenship and starting thoughts conversations in the classroom.

  • Media Smarts- This is an infographic which shows presents findings related to digital media literacy and digital citizenship. This would be a great discussion for a middle years/ high school classroom.
  • Media Smarts- Lesson plans for grades 7- 9 on Engaging in social media online.
74% of young Canadians feel like they contribute positive things in online spaces and 55% post content online about a cause or event they care about
@MediaSmarts Tweet

How do you feel about students having access to your social media accounts?

Twitterpated by Twitter?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Twitterpated as  1. Love-struck, besotted; infatuated, obsessed. Also: excited, thrilled. That is not quite how I would describe my relationship with Twitter as it is a bit extreme. However, I am beginning to develop a positive relationship with Twitter. We are still taking it slow at this point and some days I feel like Bambi trying to get my footing.

If you check my Twitter account @MmeLBlair it will tell you I have been a member since October 2015. It is true. I remember signing up at the Saskatchewan Middle Years Convention in Saskatoon. I was inspired and ready to engage on Twitter… but it looks like my first post came on July 21, 2016 when my boyfriend (now, husband) and I took a trip to Toronto. In order to get a free copy of a photo, you had to tweet it. Anything for a free picture.

My first Tweet, in Toronto, wearing the sunglasses we had just won at the filming of the Marlyn Denis Show.

Fast forward to January 2022 when I started my graduate studies journey taking my first class with Katia. We were encouraged to start our Twitter journey. This is where my appreciation and more intentional use of Twitter began. The main use for my Twitter feed has been professional learning. I am making connections with many teachers, educational researchers and others who are passionate about student success. I read articles that make me reflect on my practices, inspire me to try new times or encourage me with a positive message. I retweet Tweets that are meaningful to me. The only content on my own that I share is related to the classes I am taking.

I am finding Twitter to be a great professional development tool which I intend to continue to pursue following this class. I have never taken part in a Twitter chat yet, that will be my next step.

A follow of my favourite handles are: @Teachergoals (inspirational quotes), @alicekeeler (Google expert), @TCEA (a mix of educational information) and Mme Lockhart (French Immersion teacher) to name of few.

I would love some feedback!

  1. Have you taken part in a Twitter chat? Can you provide some helpful hints?
  2. Who are some of your favourite educational handles to follow?

Happy Tweeting!

To TikTok or not to TikTok?

Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, oh my! Twitter and Discord now give TikTok a try.

This week I signed up for an account and started exploring TikTok. Truth be told, I am not into it yet. My little interaction with the platform hasn’t drawn me in. When I use other platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, I rarely watch the videos. Since TikTok is all videos, perhaps that is why it isn’t drawing me in. I found this video to see what I was missing from exploring blindly for a few days. It goes through all the features of Tiktok and how to use the mobile app on an iPhone.

I started looking for teachers and other educators to follow. I have found a few. I am not seeing the content that I would look for in social media such as lesson ideas, classroom management and reading intervention/strategies. What I am seeing are teacher outfits and classroom setups. However, I recently found this article with more ideas for using hashtags to help me find teachers using TikTok. Some of the most popular hashtags are #teachertips, #classroommanagement and #studentengagment. These are more of my area of interest that I will dive into in the coming weeks.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This next article is a must-read for teachers and parents. It is CBC article called Some teachers are using TikTok to reach teens but concerns over app’s effects persist. It presents many interesting ideas to consider. One is that TikTok is where many teens are getting their news from. This could be an opportunity for the teens to ask questions about what they are seeing but also for teachers and parents to talk to their children/ students about what news they are seeing. Opening up the chance for discussion. TikTok can capture attention and spark curiosity as one of the contributors says. This article points out the fact that the videos are all short and you move on to the next. What is this doing to the attention span of youth and how will this affect them at school?

This week, I also had a conversation with my 12-year-old nephew about TikTok. I learned that he does have an account and thinks that there are some bad things on there. I asked if he felt there was any educational value. He thought there was because he could watch cooking and baking videos to help him learn new things as baking is one of his interests. Otherwise, Auntie, it’s not very good. That got me thinkings and searching for more articles. My takeaway from these articles is that TikTok is really no different from other social media platforms when it comes to pros and cons. Cyberbullying can happen on any of the platforms as well as getting down “rabbit holes” looking for information.

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

The first article is 8 Pros and Cons of TikTok. I found that these pros and cons could apply to any platform. For example, some pros are: it’s entertaining, it’s a creative outlet and you could make friends. Making friends is one that makes me a bit nervous. The cons are: being exposed to sexual predators, it can harm your privacy and the negative comments that can be received. All of this leads me to the importance of educating our children/ students on how we can protect our privacy and being aware of the other cons.

The next two articles that would be important for parents and teachers to be aware of comes from the Cyber Bullying Research Centre website. The first is another list of pros and cons. There are some great points here that would be important for adults to be aware of to share with children. One is that when you sign up for an account it is automatically public. You have to go into the setting to set up your privacy settings. That article led me to the TikTok Top Ten Tips for Teens. This is a great place for parents and teens to start having a conversation about the platform and how to use it more safely.

I also went looking for #gardening ideas to help with my major project. This is where I found some success and a few accounts that will be helpful going forward. Stay tuned for more from @texasgardenguy . He has lots of great gardening tips.

I see both pros and cons of using TikTok. Will I continue once this class is complete, I am not sure, yet! My biggest takeaway is to continue to have conversations with students and children about the social media they are using to help them use it safely but also as connection point. I look forward to having further conversations with my nephew on the topic.

What are some of your favourite accounts to follow as an educator or other?

I am not so “social” media.

I remember in 2006, sitting in Tim Horton’s with another first-year teacher talking about Facebook. Something we had just learned about.  Can you imagine being a part of this? What could this possibly mean for a teacher? Students would see everything we do? This is a bad idea!

Image by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay

Fast forward a few months, I too made a Facebook account and still have it today. I am a fairly private person and am not super excited about sharing my life on social media. I do post occasionally. I enjoy the platform for keeping up with friends I don’t often see and seeing their children grow…even though I rarely post pictures of my own. I have strict rules about accepting friend requests, especially from students. Only if they have graduated high school, I will accept them as friends. I also don’t accept students’ parents as friends. It’s my attempt to keep my work and personal life a little separate.

I also have Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest being my most go to platforms. I began using Twitter when I took EC&I 834 with Katia, a year and a half ago. This is where I first realized the connections you can make with educators, teaching ideas, and many other education related sources. I haven’t yet started using it regularly however, I can see how you could build a community of Twitter.

Instagram, I use for connecting with friends and following other teachers and other personal interest items. This is platform I turn to the most often to scroll through, which can be a time waster for sure!

I remember hearing about Pinterest early in my teaching career. My colleagues strongly suggested that I don’t check it out until report cards were over so I would never get my report cards written. It too has a lot of information. I enjoy using it for teaching ideas, family picture outfit suggestions, and how to hang pictures on my wall just to name a few. I use this platform often when looking for ideas for any kind.

After reading this week’s articles about building a PLN, Professional Learning Network, I am inspired to use these tools in a different way. This is the way I have been using Twitter not realizing what I was doing. PLN, makes me think about Edsby groups I am apart of and how we use the groups to ask questions and support colleagues within our school division.

Image by Marie from Pixabay

My relationship with social media is mostly positive as I have set boundaries for myself and how I would like to connect with others and who I would like to connect with. The biggest negative for me would be the time I can waste “scrolling” when there are other things I should be doing.