Category: Weekly Reflections

I am choosing to do my final reflection as an overall course reflection of Education Technology. When this course first started I was not too sure what to expect. My only experience with learning about technology was really only from what I had learnt throughout a process of successes and failures living in an online world. For example my social media platforms were always public in my teenage years and early 20’s until I remember looking my name up on google images and seeing photos I had posted on facebook shared publically. At that moment I changed all of my privacy settings with the hopes of this not happening again. This was a learning opportunity for me, however I hope for my students that they understand these platforms better to limit these type of situations to occur. In ed tech we talked alot about privacy, online learning and digital literacy as a whole. The word digital literacy was not really in my vocabulary and I did not quite understand what that word fully meant. After learning more about what digital literacy is (see week #5 blog post) and what it means I see the value of teaching students to become digitally literate and become well versed myself in how to navigate digital technology. I think as our society continues to expand online and digital technology becomes more apart of our day to day lives, safety and privacy online is something that is really important to teach students about so they can have positive experiences online.

One of my favourite speakers we had in was Cari Wilson who shared with us a fantastic presentation on artificial intelligence and digital technology. I did a weekly blog post (#4) that links some of the resources she shared with the class. A resource she shared was the Focus website which has a section on teaching students about AI. Their are lesson plans, slideshows, and activity recommendations provided for different age groups. I also really like something she touched on which was if we as teachers are using AI for our lesson plans but we are saying to students its unacceptable to use it, that goes against a lot of what most teachers strive to be which is honest, trustworthy, and fair. I think transperency with students is important on the topic of AI, and it doesn’t really seem fair if us teachers can use it but students are expected to not be able to. I think this is where the AI assesment tool could be helpful for classrooms to establish clear expecations and guidelines for teacher and student on appropriateness of using AI.

Overall this class has been much different than what I expected, which is a great thing! I have learnt more about how to be digitally literate, how to incorporate AI, and all of the complexities that come with classroom vs online teaching. I am also really happy and suprised at how many amazing useable resources I am leaving this course with! The lesson plans that Cari provided with the Focus resource are going to be extremely helpful moving forward, and all of the websites, documents and articles Valerie has shared throughout the course are going to be a huge asset as I develop my skills as a classroom teacher.

As teachers in the 21st century, we are faced with challenges and opportunities that technology provides. One of which is the importance of digital literacy. Not only is this something that is important to teach our students about, but it is especially important as teachers that we are well versed in how to be digitally literate. But what does digital literacy mean? Well in The BC’s Digital Literacy Framework document, digital literacy is defined as “the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to use digital technology and communication tools appropriately to access, manage, integrate, analyze and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and create and communicate with others.” (Government of BC, n.d.). In other words, it is the aquired knowledge of knowing how to use technology and the internet appropriately and safely. This encompasses many things but some examples are; social media platforms, video chatting platforms like zoom, AI platforms, blogs and websites.

The framework provided by the government of BC breaks down what key things students should learn to become digitally literate by age. This is a great framework to reflect on as it shows the progression students should aim to achieve when learning how to use digital technology.

Due to how much technology is apart of our world it is of great importance that we as teachers emphasize creating classrooms that are digitally literate. Social media is a huge part of most peoples lives and many young children get access to things like tik tok, instagram and snapchat in their middle school years. Instead of waiting to teach children about safe and appropriate usage of these platforms, we should start introducing these concepts prior to them obtaining accounts on the platform. This is where following the digital literacy framework and encorporating it into your classroom can be of a huge advantage to your students lives as they continue to grow with technology.

Artificial Intelligence is not going away anytime soon, if anything it is going to become more apart of our day to day lives as we advance further with technology. As teachers, this is a new challenge that we must learn how to navigate. Many teachers are against AI use in the classroom, and for good reason as it can lead to plagirism, and a decreased level of creativity with students work. However, instead of working against AI, we should teach our students how to use it responsibly and safely. Their has been recent stories in the news about teens using AI as a councellor of sorts, which resulted in poor advice and sadly even a passing of a student. This is why it is more important than ever to teach students about AI, how to use it, and when to use it.

In my Education Technology class we recently had a guest speaker, Cari Wilson, the current District VP of Innovation and Technology in West Vancouver. She spoke with us about AI usage in the classroom and provided us with some resources.

One of the resources she shared is from the Focued Education Resource site and it is a list of lesson materials for teaching students ages K-12 about AI. The materials are broken down into age groups, I looked at the booklet for ages K-3 and some of the topics touched on were teaching students how to identify natural vs artifial materials, how we learn, and understanding what artificial intelligence is. Each booklet provides teachers with a variety of lesson plans, instructional videos, slideshows, and recommended activites. This is a fabulous resource to use that is backed with great research and information for students.

Cari also has a public blog she created that shares current information and resources on Artificial Intelligence and technology resources. A really interesting blog post I read recently by her was “Do Addiction & Distraction Live In Your Classroom?”. This post touches on phone addiction and how it can create a major distraction in your classroom, especially for highschool students. She provided some recommended tips and ways to monitor this in your class and help create an environment of more engaged learning.

Google Gemini was another recommended resource from Cari for teachers. This can help with lesson planning, content creation, tracking students progress, and personalize learning. One thing to note about AI usage is privacy, and it is vital that we protect our students privacy. Sites like Chat GPT share the data that you input into its site, so student identities, like name and age must never be shared in sites like this. With Google Classroom it is a secure platform similar to Google Workplace, so none of the information inputted will be shared and is protected. With that being said, it is still important to be careful with what you upload onto the internet and into AI sites about your students. Personal information like a students address, school address or photos of the student should never be shared on any platform.

Overall AI has provided teachers with its challenges, but it has also given teachers an area of opportunity. It is important that we teach our students how to use AI responsibly to set them up for a digitally literate life.

More resources shared from Cari Wilson’s talk:

Ministry-guided AI guidelines

BC government AI in Education

Comox Valley AI guidelines

One for AI assement tool

We are living in a world that is heavily lived and experienced online. This new reality with advancement in technology, influx of social media platforms, and greater access to the internet all happened so fast. Within roughly 20 years, human beings access to internet and their relationship with the web changed monumentally. Up until Myspace’s launch in 2003, our day to day relationship with the internet and social media platforms was limited. Their were a few smaller social media platforms that emerged before this time but none that really seemed to capture the mass’s attention. In 2006, Myspace became one of the most visited website’s in the world, becoming the real pioneer of social media. It wasn’t until 2008 when Facebook peaked in popularity and started to dominate the social media atmosphere. Almost 20 years later in 2025, social media platforms have become apart of our culture. It is expected for everyone to have a facebook page, tiktok account, snapchat, instagram profile, or at least one of these. For many of us, these accounts feature personal photographs, private messages, and personal information, all either accessible to a private circle of friends and family, or even open to the public for all to access.

So why is it important to talk about privacy and consent online?

Well it is more important than ever to teach younger generations about privacy and consent online due to how much personal information is available online about individuals. When you sign up for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc, you have to agree to a terms & conditions contract in order to use the platform. For many of us, we quickly scroll to the bottom click yes and carry on, never thinking about this document again. But, did you know that consenting yes to that document give’s those platforms the permission to collect and distribute your personal information? The main purpose for this information that’s collected is used for things like advertising, research, and analytics. Consenting to somebody using your personal information should be treated as a bigger deal than just scrolling to the bottom of a page and checking a box. Many of us agreed to these terms & conditions when we were younger, with no knowledge, or frankly care, on what these documents actually meant. This continues to be an issue for kids, teenagers, and adults of all ages, not taking the time to stop and understand what sharing your personal information online really means.

This is where conversations on privacy and consent online are so important, especially with children and teenagers. It is important to have conversations about privacy online at a young age, and what having an online footprint could mean for your future. Having age appropriate conversations about what is shared online and how, is arguably more impactful when done at a young age, then waiting to have these conversations take place in high school. At this point most kids have created social media accounts and are most likely quite active online. Talking about things like having a private vs public account, sharing pictures of others online without their consent, and what personal information shouldn’t be shared online are great building block conversations when it comes to privacy & consent online.

We live in a digital society, which means we must teach the younger generations how to be digitally literate. Knowledge of privacy & consent online is just a piece of digital literacy. There is so much more to learn and understand to become well versed with our digital world, but teaching children about safety, privacy & consent should be at the top of our priority when introducing digital literacy.

Resources…

Resource that shows the evolution of social media

Office of the Information and Privacy Commisioner website, lots of great resources available.

Interesting document that speaks on how to obtain meaningful consent.

“Education is not the filling of a pale, but rather the lighting of a flame”

Jeff Hopkins Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry located in Greater Victoria is an independant high school that focuses on inquiry based learning rather than traditional learning found in most schools in Canada. The major difference between this school and a traditional high school is that students are given more autonomy in their education, and the school fosters an environment that allows for a variety of ways to learn. The structure of the school allows for student’s to research and learn about things that really interest them, while strengthening competencies such as critical and creative thinking. What I like about this school is that it gives students the opportunity to be excited about their education. PSII has a Detailed Daily Calendar that students get to look through and decide what subjects or classes they want to partake in. They offer a variety of classes to students ensuring that their is something for everyone. Some classes that stuck out to me were ASL, Electronic Music Production, Beginner Japanese, and Ceramics. On top of these more elective courses they also offer more traditional subjects like Pre Calculus 11 & Calculus 12, Physics and Chemistry. I think it is great that they offer a combination of traditional and elective classes to allow students who want to pursue university to have the background knowledge that they will need like Calculus 12. With that being said many of the elective classes that are offered are those that you would find in University or College level, offering specific and in depth subjects to deeper students interest and understanding of the topics. Jeff mentions in his video that a student created a paper on Ebola prior to the outbreak that happened in parts of Africa and it has been read by thousands of people to learn about the causes of an outbreak and how to mitigate it from happening. This is just one of the many incredible things that this school is doing, all because they are giving their students the freedom of choice for their own education.

The quote that is featured above is one that Jeff says at the beginning of his TedX video. I really resonated with this quote and I believe that it sums up this type of learning offered at PSII well. Some of the best learning or education I have had in my life has been done on my own time while researching topics of interest to me, not while writing an eight page paper on a historical event that didn’t quite captivate me. That’s not to say that learning about traditional topics and historical events aren’t important, they absolutely are. I believe it is important for humans to be well rounded and knowledgable on all topics. Where I think free inquiry is interesting and powerful is for example taking something like learning about New France. New France is a major part of Canadian History and it is important to know about the history of our country. However what if you had a student that learnt about New France but had an interest in Spanish History, you could say to them instead of writing a paper about New France, why don’t you compare and contrast the rise and fall of New France to New Spain, and try to find the commonalities or differences between these historical events. That slight change and freedom for inquiry could take a C paper to an A+ purely due to the increase of interest from the student. As educators are goal should always be to help our students suceed to the best of their abilities, not just in our class but as human beings. In order to allow our students to succeed it is our job to ignite that flame for learning.