Part 1 Digital Literacy

After watching Digital Literacy, I recognized that I already weave it into my health lessons by having students evaluate online health trends and identify misinformation on social media. Moving forward, I’d love to have them create short “myth-busting” campaigns to teach others how to fact-check and think critically about what they see online. This skill is especially important for topics like vaping and weight loss. The Fourth Industrial Revolution gave me perspective as to how revolutionary technology is in reshaping both teaching and everyday life. As tools like AI become more common, I want to focus on building the skills technology can’t replace like creativity, empathy, and collaboration while continuing to use AI to save time and make learning more personalized. I love AI and have accepted it's integration with open arms, but I am cautious not to get too caught up with overusing it or using it to replace human emotion. 

Video 1- Digital Literacy = Digital Use + Digital Citizenship
I’ve realized I tend to focus a lot on digital use—like how to navigate apps and tools—when I’m in classrooms. But both pieces are equally important, and digital literacy can’t just be taught as one-off lessons. It’s a critical part of our students’ education and daily lives. Often, these skills are naturally embedded in subject areas, but I’d love to see a dedicated technology class or STEM lab in elementary schools to give students more consistent access and hands-on practice.

Video #2-The Fourth Revolution
When COVID hit in 2020, education was flipped upside down. It was incredible to see how quickly teachers and students adapted to a fully online world. We discovered creative and meaningful ways to connect through a screen. That said, I still believe face-to-face interaction is incredibly important—and in some ways, it feels like we’ve taken a step backward now that the pandemic is behind us. In my opinion, schools are overdue for a transformation. The traditional “1950s schoolhouse” model just doesn’t reflect the needs or realities of today’s learners. 

In my classroom digital literacy is often used to help strengthen skills taught.  My students use math apps to become more fluent in their math facts.  Often times students will play against each other but are also trying to improve their previous scores.   While they are striving to beat another classmate's score often times they are also willing to help another student if they are  in need of assistance. Students are often eager to teach another student how to play or access a site. Students are learning to  interact with other other respectfully while they are playing against and/or with each other.  Seesaw activities also provide students with opportunities to practice skills taught whether it is a math activity or a literacy activity.  Seesaw activities allow teachers to respond to the student's work and also gives the students an opportunity to fix incorrect work that was submitted.  Students use Brainpop jr as a resource to watch videos and to learn about topics being taught.  At the end of the short video the students are able to take a quick quiz to check heir comprehension of what the movie taught them.  Every year there seems to more apps and games available for students to play and use. My hope is to continue to learn what is available for my students to help them strengthen their skills. I feel that it is important for students to have a balance between hands on learning and digital resources.  Sometimes the use technology can be very overwhelming and difficult to keep up with.  I want to continue to learn about what is available for my students and implement it when it is beneficial for my student's learning.  It is important for student's to interact with each other and not always with a screen.  Again there must be balance for students especially at a young age.

As an interventionist, I have found it more difficult to implement digital literacy as I find myself needing to focus on specific tasks that don’t always work on digitally. What I have done to incorporate digital literacy into it is put warm-ups and sight words on seesaw. They also take pictures and post their work on seesaw. This is exciting for them to look back at their growth from beginning to end. As I move into the classroom I am excited to try to use more digital tools to help them grow and understand how to use those skills. "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" sounds a little frightening. I think technology is great but in moderation. I worry that in upcoming generations, it will be heavily dependent on technology.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution continues to impact the way mental health is looked at. Now, many online resources have been made available to students or adults who suffer. Many online support groups have also been created. the ability to connect with people all over the world who might be also struggling has really been evident. There will be a continued impact of this revolution in the mental health world. I for see even more resources and ways of connecting to others becoming easily available! 

video 1 response 

Digital literacy has definitely become a very integrated part of the school systems. I I have even utilized this in my counseling sessions with students. I like to use interactive platforms to help engage students in certain examples. For example, when I discuss coping skills with students, I utilize platforms that help students drag and paste examples into unhealthy vs unhealthy coping mechanism boxes.  I want to continue to utilize digital literacy with kids especially when it comes to discussing the effects of negative mental health. Students can share and watch stories of others who have also discussed their own struggles. This can really help with breaking mental health stigma as well.

Part 1  
 Digital literacy is near and dear to my heart. It is at the center of my teaching world. Digital use and digital citizenship are integrated into most if not all my lessons. I teacher databases, citations, web validity, the importance of your digital footprint (tattoo), the importance of responsible use and ethical behavior. I help integrate digital creation tools into units I co-teach so that students have an opportunity to show what they know in different creative ways. I think this is so important. I hope moving forward, I have additional opportunities to work with students learn new ways to use and evaluate technology. I want to support students as they learn, create, use, and explore technology. I also want to help them understand how to stay safe navigating the mind fields that are a part of the digital world.

Part 2  
I find this both scary and intriguing. All I can think about at this moment is AI and the enormous impact it is, can and will have on humans. There are so many potential positive impacts that I am hopefully we will see advances and improvements in science and health fields. I am also super aware that there are always those that will use advancements for their own personal gain. I find this incredible scary. I attended a conference where they featured an important political person voice patterns being learned by an AI then used to create a completely fictious speech. It was super hard to figure out that this was fake news. I know that once the genie is out there no way to get it back in the bottle. Moving forward I hope to stay openminded and informed.

The 4th revolution is kind of scary to think about.  In some ways the advancements that will be made will be incredible and efficient.  However my worry is that it has the possibility create a generation of people who become reliant on the technology in stead of using it to enhance lives.  This is why at the end of the video there is a reference to joblessness.  If we do not start to teach how to use these advancements people can and will be come lazy and there will be less and less proffessionals. Teaching traditionally is usually a bit behind the trends and for the world to truly advance we will have to find ways to use and integrate these new technologies and teach how students can use them along side their work and not just to do their work.

When I think of digital literacy and how I address it, what comes to mind is mostly how to use the various websites and apps effectively to support my instruction.  Apps such as thinktech and game sites like kahoot and blooket can be used to have students engage in different ways that were not possible early in my career.  Many students will try to look up answers to homeworks using various sites and apps and I have to explain that there are many different ways to do certain problems.  If they turn in work that is done in a different method, can they duplicate that process.  If not they are using the technology in an unsuccessful manner. 

When I think of how Digital literacy is currently taught I know that I focus more on the appropriate use of tools that students have available to them than things like curating a positive online presence or spreading positive messages while online.  I think it's hard to find examples of when it's appropriate to discuss a student’s online presence and how to make it positive when we don't do anything in our schools that necessitates the use of tools like social media. When what students are asked to do is going to be contained within the walls of our LMS, and not shared broadly with the public, it's harder to discuss the impact a positive message might have when it's shared. I would love to see us get to a point where we can share student creations with a wider audience. That would allow for a lot more discussion around how a student can curate a positive online presence and share good out in the world using the tools they have at their disposal
Watching that video makes you think about how much different your life is today than it was even just a decade ago.  Thinking about how quickly things have evolved in places like food, service or grocery shopping makes you wonder where it will be in another 5 to 10 years. The technology we have available now can easily allow you to isolate yourself because you don't have to leave your house to get 90% of the goods or services you might require.  Between Amazon, Walmart, delivery for my groceries, and Alexa for a lot of other things, I could literally sit in my living room and shop for whatever I might need and hear news that I might need to hear and get entertained. The lifestyle we have the option to lead right now is amazing and sort of scary if you allow it to dictate how you actually live your life.
I think about my current middle schoolers, and what their careers may look like in the not-too-distant future. I don't know that the jobs they will ever have currently even exist. It's a little scary to think about how to prepare them for such a rapidly changing world that they are going to have to navigate. I hope teaching them skills of critical thinking, and being adaptive, and flexible will allow them to find success in one of these evolving markets that might not be foreseeable currently.