Brainstorming Ideas, Goals & Designs for my Vision of the Future Project
Brainstorming. (Freepik, 2020).
Over the past week my mind has been swirling with various ideas for my Vision of the Future project. As I reflected on the many themes we have covered over the past months, I realized the vast amount of knowledge I have gained throughout this course, and found myself repeatedly questioning which themes are most relevant and meaningful to me, and how to best share my learning.
Idea. (Freepik, 2020).
While I could delve into the many ideas which came to mind over the past week, ultimately, I decided to revisit my inquiries from the first phase of the course, in which we explored various aspects of digital technologies in educational contexts. Although initially I had chosen to research a variety of topics, eventually I narrowed down my exploration to the themes of digital literacy and media literacy. I recall feeling overwhelmed by the immense amount of information I came across during our first week of research, as well as the sinking feeling of realizing that while I really didn't have a solid understanding of these topics yet, I have already been responsible for teaching them to students!
As I continued my research, and engaged in conversations with colleagues and peers in order to develop a better understanding of these topics, I began to realize that my lack of familiarity with teaching and facilitating these literacies is not uncommon for elementary teachers in my area. While the few teacher-librarians I know happen to be well-versed in these topics, most of my teaching colleagues admitted that they feel unequipped to effectively teach digital literacy skills due to their own lack of knowledge, skills and experience in these areas. Thus, I feel that supporting the development of digital literacy skills is an area of focus that will be not only relevant and meaningful for myself but for many other educators as well.
Establishing Goals for the Future...
To identify and establish my goals pertaining to digital literacy for my vision of the future, I've decided to draw upon my discussions with my colleagues as well as my initial questions about digital literacy from my post entitled Reading Review: Part A: Exploring Keywords from phase 1, in which we were asked to explore current issues in our own teaching context. By drawing upon these questions and discussions, I can ensure that my goals for my vision of the future are relevant and meaningful for both myself and my colleagues.
Goals. (Freepik, 2020).
Vision of the Future Goals:
- to facilitate student development of 21st-century learning skills, with a focus on the skills required to effectively, safely and ethically use technology to support learning through both guided and exploratory use of various technologies and resources
- to support my colleagues in developing their own digital and media literacy knowledge and skillset through the provision of relevant professional development resources and through the facilitated application of corresponding technology tools and innovations
- to bridge the gap between teacher and student knowledge and understanding of digital technologies and their use in educational contexts by facilitating the application of digital literacy skills in a variety of educational contexts through the collaborative use of various technology tools and resources such as websites, apps, games, videos, blogs, social media, etc.
- to maintain a current level of awareness and knowledge in this area through engaging in professional learning opportunities and to regularly demonstrate and share this knowledge with my colleagues
As I continue to develop my vision, I recognize that these goals may shift or require adaptations, or perhaps may be too lofty in parts, however I feel that thus far I have a good direction for moving forward.
Exploring Potential Designs...
While I experienced some struggles with indecision in narrowing down an area of focus for my vision, I've found I've been grappling even more so with narrowing down my preferred format and design. Although I want it to be an innovative initiative for myself, I must admit that I'm often apprehensive about tackling a new method of presentation or a new technology tool. However, after much research and deliberation, I've determined that a digital literacy toolkit in the form of a website will likely be most suitable for supporting the goals I've identified above. This will be an exciting new venture for me, and will most likely be rather challenging, as I have almost no background knowledge or experience with creating a website. However, just as with creating my first blog at the beginning of this course, I'm confident that with a bit of dedication I will learn to navigate this new territory and further develop my own digital literacy skills in the process.
Website Builders:
As if narrowing down my goals and preferred format wasn't difficult enough, selecting a web host and website builder for designing my website has proved to be equally challenging. There are many different options available, and while most softwares primarily offer the similar functions and templates for building a website, there are a multitude of tiny factors one might want to consider.
I found the following videos from a site entitled Website Tool Tester, which clearly explain the pros and cons of popular free website builders including Weebly and Wix:
(Weebly Review, Brandl, 2020)
(Wix Review, Brandl, 2020)
Laura, from experience, I really like working with Google sites because it's really user-friendly and provides tremendous layout possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your sharing your honest reflection about teaching digital literacy and media literacy to students (and supporting staff); there's just so much stuff out there that it's so easy to feel overwhelmed. I think your goal of maintaining a current level of awareness is especially important, as information technology and digital literacies shift at such a rapid pace. What we talk about now might not be the most effective strategy / approach three years from now!
I think your final project will be very helpful for your learning community - I'm intrigued by what you will create!
Wow Laura! I saw you post earlier this week but didn't have a chance to shoot you message. I was excited that you are pursuing a webpage too. You are so focused on your exploration and I am very impressed with all of the avenues you have perused. I kind of feel like I am just careening through and all over the map. I appreciate your uploads of the review videos, I had only been looking at articles and it was nice to see some of the features demonstrated. There are a lot of choices but ultimately, I wanted a free web builder program with positive features that did not have ads and Weebly Education fits that bill. So I am going to give that a go.
ReplyDeleteYou have an excellent idea here for your final project! I appreciate how you are thinking about our key themes and incorporating them into your work. I am eager to see what you create. I feel it will be a very valuable tool. However, websites aren’t necessarily - if you build it then they will come… consider your plan for sharing with staff as well as a way they could contribute if possible. Looking forward to seeing what you create!
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