Reflective Entry 6

Critique and address issues of law, regulations and/or policy that have been relevant to the digital and collaborative learning innovation you applied in your practice.

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With the exponential growth of digital technology in the last ten years, the education sector has had to develop and establish digital laws that cover all aspects of digital use. Protection from fraud and online abuse is needed in a digital society where everything is online and people are open to a variety of experiences that are not as easily accessible in the material world. The issue of digital use in the classroom and society has only recently been researched in the light of its purpose in education and how effective it is in bringing up student achievement and maintaining overall growth in the educational arena. What is still being discovered is how the laws that have been put in place are serving our digital students and protecting their digital citizenship especially in our context of using Seesaw in schools.

In the education community, we have procedures and plans in place to make sure that we are giving protection to our Kaiako that is appropriate and clearly defined. These plans flow from the Education Act, this act was updated in August 2020. The newly improved education act was “intended to make education legislation simpler and more user-friendly than the previous framework.” (MOE 2020) This new look act has also given schools more authority over personal devices in schools which is shown in one part of the act where it states that schools can remove devices from students if they have sufficient proof that the individual is inappropriately using their device. The act also helps to advise schools when there are issues with inappropriate use of the internet or devices such as cyber-bullying through social media and texting or the underage use of adult websites. There can be a perceived gap between the Act and dealing with younger members of society. As educators, we need to maintain the boundaries of teacher/student and this new update of the Act may seem to some as bordering on taking away the rights of students.

We did not have any inappropriate use of the internet using school devices when we developed and began our initiative of Seesaw in schools. Our students are not allowed to use cell phones in school. The only devices they are allowed are chrome books and they are logged into the school network, which is monitored by Linewize. This company has set up an algorithm that looks for inappropriate websites and games that students may access and blocks them from using them as well as regularly notifying the school if students access them. This then allows our school to discuss internet use with students and parents if needed.

In using Seesaw our students had a very clear understanding of what they could and could not post and then the post needed to be verified by their teacher before it went public to the class. We did however have a problem when one of our teachers set up a class blog that became public and one of our students had a no photo order on their digital agreement. This of course was against our school user policy so the teacher had to go through this policy again with our Deputy Principal to make sure that she was clear on the boundaries of the use of Seesaw and we then completed another staff PD session on that specific aspect of Seesaw “class blogs” and how to check our student’s digital user agreement for the approval of their photo being used in the public domain.

Our school has also instituted a digital use agreement for our students and their families. We believe that the skills involved in being a digital citizen as outlined by Netsafe are many that our tamariki/children will need to master to face the future with confidence in themselves and consideration for others. Netsafe recommends digital citizenship be planned for, and addressed, through multiple contexts including structured activities, however, currently at our Kura there is no I.C.T strategic plan. The ‘Cyber Safety Use Agreement’ we currently use is based on the NetSafe® Cybersafety Use Agreement for Junior Primary Students Template from January 2007.

In light of this, we conferred with our wider school community and asked what they felt a ‘Digital Citizen’ should be. Then as a staff, we used the feedback we were given and made a definition that we use in our Digital Technology lesson plans and have made it accessible to the wider community through the Seesaw blog.

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Image two is the definition that we developed in consultation with the wider school community including our Kahui Ako. Our students then complete Digital citizen lessons of learning and discuss scenarios on what it is to be a digital citizen and what can hamper this.

In our professional standards as teachers, there is a specific elaboration underneath the teaching standard number six; “I use an increasing repertoire of teaching strategies, approaches, learning activities, technologies and assessment for learning strategies and modify these in response to the needs of individuals and groups of learners.” This, paired with the new digital technologies curriculum from year 1-13, shows the emphasis that our Ministry of Education has put on the use of digital technologies in schools. This is also discussed in the digital principles from the digital fluency framework; TKI states that a digitally capable student is “demonstrating values when working digitally; being an ethical, respectful, and responsible digital citizen” This is exactly what we as a teaching staff envisioned in the implementation of our innovation. Seesaw, a tool that encourages student agency and develops learners who have the skills that will make them successful digital citizens for the 21st Century.

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Cybersafety Use Agreement for Junior Primary Students Template retrieved from http://www.cybersafety.org.nz/kit/Use%20Agreements/agreements/junior_primary_ua.html

Digital Citizenship and the New Zealand curriculum.

Retrieved from https://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Digital-citizenship