On the 21st, we had Jesse Miller of Mediated Reality come in and talk to us about the importance of digital literacy for teachers in the contemporary classroom. This included, but was not limited to, the digital landscape the students navigate every day including social media and language models such as ChatGPT and other AI apps, how the internet connects us within our society, the products and byproducts of various features on the internet, the basics (4 Cs) of digital literacy, and the expectations of teachers and the school when it comes to the professional use of technology. My generation has the benefit of having grown up with the internet and technology in school, however Miller also brought up how important it is to recognize the differences in today’s internet culture compared to the one of our childhoods, and it’s important we address technology’s effect on today’s culture rather than refer to the one we know of 15-20 years ago.
What impacted me the most was learning about how much we are affected by the internet on a daily basis and how quickly information can spread. Miller used the example of a house fire, when after occurring would likely find it’s way onto Reddit or YouTube as an uploaded video, which would then be picked up by the local news channel and distributed en masse. This quick distribution of information is typically relevant in the classroom in the form of group chats and Instagram uploads, which can make for the quick spreading of gossip. We also learned about how everything on the internet has a product and a byproduct. Miller discussed CAPTCHA tests, which are framed as something necessary to determine that the user isn’t a bot. What he pointed out, is that many of these include identifying things on the road, such as street signs, storefronts, cars, trucks, stoplights, and more. The results of these tests are then given to companies that build self-driving cars as part of their AI’s training for use on the road. As a teacher, it’s important to understand these concepts so you can educate your students about it who will spend much of their life online. It’s also important to understand the concept of products and byproducts as it will directly relate to your practice. Another way of looking at it could be that the product of using a specific educational platform for your class is that your students have access to it’s perks, but the byproduct is that their personal information is stored in a database in another country. I’ve learned that for your privacy, as well as the privacy of your students, you should look into the platforms you wish to use.
Coming out of this, I’m going to do some more research on the professional use of school/district technology and what to look out for when it comes to choosing websites and digital resources for my future classroom. Below I’m providing some videos I found about technology in the classroom that I researched after Miller’s presentation!
Below are some links to sites and videos I found helpful!
https://www.mediatedreality.com/ – Jesse Miller’s Website