Jesse was an amazing Guest Speaker for this class and he really made us all think about our digital footprint as educators and the intentional use of technology in a classroom. I was shocked at some of the gaffes that BC teachers’ had made…

Personally, I had given some thought to my online presence moving into this program, but he made me consider not only restricting it further but creating a teacher-friendly, accessible one that was easy to find online. Really purposefully putting stuff out there, clearly under your name, that you are ok to share with students, parents, fellow teachers, admin, and other possible employers.

The other thing that really stood out is how to intentionally use devices and Social Media in the classroom. From my experience in Out of School Care and other environments with kids, I can definitely agree that many are lacking the skills to properly navigate using devices, the internet, social media as it is so often just no no no, bad bad bad, use it for less time and not always knowing what they are using it for when they are on it. They need to be taught the skills to navigate the digital world and have good modeling on use.  For me, it will also really depend on what grade classroom I end up in but I think some basic use strategies and media literacy can be taught fairly early, for example, my 5 and 8-year-old nieces love watching Youtube and using snapchat filters (not to post but for fun) and definitely need guidance for this. I think to the discussion of kids doing negative Tik Tok challenges at school and maybe a counter thing could be to come up with a positive one? find some positive examples to share.

The last thing that really stood out for me was the discussion around demand expectations that young people have today. Perhaps as a  mature student this one really hit me as I did not have the internet and immediate access to a lot of knowledge when I was in school, what a game changer! I guess I would hope to focus on the positive aspects of having so much information at hand and think on different ways to build student patience. I think this is also in part why it becomes so necessary to teach mindfulness etc in school now. Also maybe bringing in nature can help with this – for example growing plants you just have to wait.