Hi,
So here we are, course 2 finished and what a whirlwind it has been! School inspection in the middle of it added to the pressure but it has been reliable none the less. Was interested by the collobarative project but honestly with school pressure it slipped my mind that I would actually have to contact people in order to colloborate! Who know? Thankfully Laura got in touch and it was very handy as she was also based in Dubai and working at a sister school It might not be the most global collaboration but it was useful to start off to not have to worry about time difference and we were also aware of the expectations of a Dubai school. Very early on we decided to focus on option 1 and this really helped as it was in the back of my mind form almost the beginning of the course and it meant I could heavily involve my children in the process which made it a lot more interesting!
I think this process for me started in the first week when I looked at positive digital footprints and read a blog about Empowered Usage Policy’s and a fellow Coetailer’s blog about their AUP at made me want to ensure that my AUP was positive and encouraged the children to use technology freely but responsibly. When we discussed this in class it began with a lot of negative words but with some guidance the children began to look more positvely at how they can use technology and the impact it can have.
Image may be NSFW.
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This first attempt at setting guidlines for how to be good digital citizens led nicely into colloborating with Laura’s class. We created a google doc and allowed our children to add their guidelines to it. It was great to hear the children commenting on each others work and taking ideas from each other. I was happy to see the children using some positive language in these guidelines while also being aware of the potential safety issues when online. I do apologise for the crazy fonts my class used but you have to let them be creative!
Following on from this the children proceeded to research AUP’s from other schools including Kristi Lonheim’s which inspired me at the beginning and resulted in one child’s 11 word AUP-
Be nice, be appropriate, use it wisely, help people, learn something
We also looked at the child friendly AUP which Laura’s class had created to see how we could remix it. They had decided to look at the IB learner profile’s as well as including drawings to help younger children understand. When the children looked at it they enjoyed how easy it was to understand and felt that ours should be similar. They decided to use our school’s core values instead of the IB profiles as these do not apply in our school. They also decided to use photographs and to take examples from Edmodo to show how to follow the rules instead of drawings. They wanted our AUP to encourage and inspire students to use technology effectively but also felt there needed to be consequences if children did not follow the guidelines.
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Children researching others schools AUP’s
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Student ideas for what an AUP should have
It was a very interesting discussions which showed how engaged they were by the project and were very excited that it would be shared with the management of the school. One of the suggested consequences was that children would be banned from using technology. When I explained that this might affect their learning for example if we were doing a research lesson or creating a presentation they wouldn’t be able to take part. The children suggested that anyone who was banned would be placed under the supervision of a “tech leader” during class time and this person would show them how to use technology effectively, responsibly and effectively. An excellent solution to what could have been a tricky problem! The children then went to work creating our AUP on a shared google doc and finding examples from Edmodo or roleplaying for photographs to add to the AUP.
This project has been a very enjoyable one for me and I really liked how much I could involve the children in the class and work with them. I think what helped is that I had the final project in mind throughout Course 2 which maybe I didn’t do as effectively in Course 1 which gave me 6 weeks to think about it and work on it rather than trying to do it all in one week. I hope to carry this on wards throughout Coetail and will definitely be involving the children in my class when it is appropriate because there is no better place to get feedback!
Happy holidays everybody!
Paul