Digital Literacy as a Core Skill for Students

Digital technologies are increasingly popular in all aspects of our lives. It is increasingly important for people to not only comprehend how they might utilise technologies effectively but also to be able to critically evaluate the digital content they encounter. To be able to manage and understand our digital footprints, keep safe and secure online, be able to access and develop resources, and to be able to make use of technology to bring about positive changes in our world, is of greater significance than ever before.

Schools, colleges, universities and other institutions need to consider how they might best support the development of digital literacy among their students. That is why teachers and instructors should be able to develop their own interventions and enquiries so that they can drive change in their own contexts, to put digital literacy into practice, before planning and implementing their classes.

Best Philosophies to Have in a Curriculum

To know which of the four educational philosophies are best to have in curriculum, we should first take a look on how philosophy influences curriculum and why is it important. Education philosophies are seen as the foundation of a pyramid of classroom education. Your educational philosophy is your beliefs about why, what and how you should teach; it is about selected strategies, theories and approaches depending on learning need of a given student. Curriculum, goals and methodology are all built around these principals.

In my opinion, a curriculum should provide for children a programme that fosters the development of emotionally healthy children and stimulates their interest and enjoyment in learning. One of the best world educational philosophies is pragmatism, which branches into progressivism and reconstructionism. I believe that a combination of these two would make the best humanistic curriculum. Progressivists, like John Dewey, believe in knowledge for personal growth not for subject matter, they believe in student-centred learning, active learning, focusing on students interests in inter-disciplinary approach. At the same time, learning should not just be for personal growth, but it should go much deeper into improvement of the society, as re-constructivists believe; students should be able to learn the knowledge and skills that they can apply towards future situations and better societies.

In terms of Students:

Progressive education focusses on the child as a whole, and they believe that a student is a problem solver who would learn out of his/her own experiences. Constructivists believe that the learner should also be socially oriented to improve human conditions. The whole child is important, including the social, moral and cognitive. Students would have the ability to think in critical terms and expose their assumptions and practices. Students should be able to develop personal and social values so that they become active citizens.

In terms of Teachers:

Blending both philosophies, teachers would be facilitators of inquiry-based learning, and agents for change helping students become aware of the problems confronting us all in the 21st century. Teachers would plan lessons to develop students’ curiosity, not tell students what is right or wrong in society, but instead to guide students by exploring and analysing social issues encouraging students to create better society, presenting alternative points of views, and facilitating field trips for exploration.

In terms of Objectives:

Progressivists believe that education focuses on development of students’ moral, and ongoing growth, promoting democratic and social living. The aim of education for Re-constructionists focus on social reform. In order to have the best curriculum, we need to consider both the personal and social aspects within contexts without omitting valuable cultures and experiences, norms, knowledge and skills. Teaching revolves around the students' needs, including teaching students to be good citizens.

In terms of Instructional Strategies:

As progressivists believe that change and progress are fundamental, thus, teaching would expose students to scientific, social and technological developments. Both philosophies stress that students should test ideas by active experimentation, also by project-based learning, play-based learning, provoking games, collaborative small group work, field trips, encouraging dialogue, analysis, critical thinking in controversial issues and multiple perspectives, in which student would invent and re-invent the world.

In terms of Assessment:

Assessment would be by evaluating students’ projects, quizzes, oral questioning, feedback, performance-based assessment, observation, student self-evaluation and reflection on his/her experience, etc.

Ultimately, I think that my views of contemporary curriculum are about a blend of theory and practice, they are based on electric approach, flexibility and openness to new trends and considerations for the needs of local community and globalization.

Developing a World Class Curriculum

To develop a world class curriculum, all education stakeholders should be involved in its development process, starting with teachers, students, school principals, curriculum experts, researchers, university professors, and parents each to a certain extent, as education is one big collaborative enterprise.

Teachers are the experts in the field, and they need to be in the centre of this process. They need to have their input in the written curriculum as they will be implementing it in schools, so that it becomes the learnt curriculum. When teachers are part of the curriculum development, they would bring the practical point of view into it keeping it relevant, and would make more sense of it while delivering it, and have ownership; a teacher would know what content, knowledge, attitudes and skills are needed to be developed and delivered in schools in certain times, to make meaningful learning to learners.

As we aim to have a child-centred education, students need to be part of curriculum development; students can be extremely creative, and intelligent. If we want to create engaged, responsible citizens, we have to start by including students to be part of the decision-making process of curriculum development, we have to hear their voices and empower them. As I believe that everyone learns differently, we need to take different perspectives of students into consideration, so that we know our audience better to tailor the curriculum to them. We might also have alumni as part of the students’ group. Students might recommend having subjects like music, arts, debate, or even public relations, etc.

School leaders/principals want to know how to make their schools successful by having good students’ learning outcomes, and they know what the society needs from young people. It is certainly the school’s responsibility to provide quality education to young people and prepare them for life and to put them through wide range of experiences- these experiences from their selection, to arrangement, to coordination, to delivery of learning are all transmitted by mean of the curriculum. This is why it is important to have the principals’ perspectives, and input into the curriculum.

Being instructional leaders, they are part of curriculum implementation at schools; school leaders would set the education goals for their school, policy, and vision that would serve the greater aim of curriculum; they would also support teachers in designing, implementing and evaluating the instructional programme of the school, as well as delivering their objectives per grade per level; they should create the needed teaching environment for them. They should be part of the development process to understand how to identify the needed support, mentorship, guidance and development opportunities to teachers to enhance their capabilities to deliver the curriculum. The school leader from his/her strategic position would work collaboratively with teachers on instruction development.

Curriculum experts/generalists and specialists would have the leadership role in the process of curriculum development and would have their technical expertise as input. These experts would recommend approaches that are convenient and requested by the education community- they might suggest different philosophies to be adopted, instructional methods, and educational technologies. Curriculum generalists would select appropriate textbooks, materials, support teachers, put recommendations and expectations for delivery in schools. They would evaluate it regularly.

Researchers can be part of the curriculum development process, these might be university researchers or private groups; these stakeholders can bring the best in world curriculums, best practices, better services to our school children, reflect on lessons learnt from other countries, and suggest them after taking our context into consideration.

Parents are also part of the wider group of community to have their input in curriculum design, this might be in content, and programming. The collaboration between parents and school has grew into a partnership in the recent years, as parents’ role and awareness has grown with the rise in their involvement level in their children’s learning, especially now during online learning. Parents have a big role in developing their children’s physical, psychological and moral growth. For example, in Arab worlds, parents might have special care about having strengthened family bonds, they have societal concerns towards education; they want to develop specific values in their children to be later responsible of building the society, culture and the future. Parents’ support at home to their children is the extension of teaching inside the classroom as they are active collaborators in their children’s learning. As parents understand their children’s needs, challenges and learning styles, they can reflect this within group discussions for curriculum development to make sure that their children’s needs are being met in the curriculum- this will increase the likelihood of curriculum reinforcement at home.

University professors should also have a very important input into the curriculum development process, adding their technical expertise in curriculum implementation, effective teaching methods, effective design of courses and strategies, ensuring quality of instruction, innovation in delivery, and implementation- especially that these professors are responsible of preparing the capacity of pre-service teachers through Teaching Diploma.

As a conclusion, with this responsibility comes accountability of all parties involved in the curriculum development.

 

What can I do now that I wasn't able to do a year ago!

During the pandemic, we are now all used to meetings online, spending almost all of our time in-front of a screen. By time, I was better able to cope with this change, conducting all my meetings at work with stakeholders I work with virtually; I am conducting trainings with teachers and school leaders virtually. I am conducting hours of discussions, planning meetings and coordination online. I have coped with working from home, and I am better able to work with my kids around. In a more negative point, now I am working all day and night, as there is no clear distinction between work life or work hours and home life, as home has turned into a work area- an office.

Challenges I Face During Online Learning

There are many challenges that people face during online learning, which include:

• Technical issues
• Lack of digital literacy and technology proficiency
• Lack of motivation

I personally find online learning very comfortable and flexible. As I found online classes for my master’s degree very convenient, I enrolled in few more courses, which brought some challenges in time management, trying to handle work, study, and my personal responsibilities.

Some other challenge I sometimes face is focusing, as during online learning it is easy to get distracted by other students in class trying to procrastinate or from my home environment by my kids. 😊

What Students Should be Taught When Working Online to Avoid Problems

In order for students to work online, they need to be able to log in, navigate and communicate safely. This includes students to be taught their rights and responsibilities to work in an online environment, proper online behaviour, computer knowledge and how to face technical issues. Some netiquette or online communication etiquette points can be taught on:

•        How to respect others and different perspectives, using respectful language- this will prevent cyber-bullying.
•        How to respect people’s privacy
•        How to do fact check before reposting.

Other security related points can be taught to avoid problems:

•        Cyber security: How to recognise online threats and how to avoid them
•         How to download anti-malware protection/anti-virus software applications and how to maintain them
•        How to improve their social media security settings

How to be a Digital Citizen

Being a digital citizen means being able to utilize the information technology in different fields and areas, improving and developing skills and knowledge in accessing internet, being aware and respectful of technological surroundings, and using the online information properly, safely, responsibly and appropriately in an online world.

This is particularly important during the 21^st century where internet and technology have been accessible to all. It is important that teachers teach their students the technology usage etiquette, to prevent cyber bullying, to protect private information, and for e-safety.

There are several things that can be done to be good digital citizens:

•    Respecting yourself and other online (do not take part in cyber bullying, do not escalate arguments, and do not use sarcasm, respect your rights and responsibilities, etc.).
•    Exchange information properly and protect your privacy (be careful of what to post online, check the source and credibility of information before sharing, be careful while engaging with online transactions, do not share personal information, access trustworthy websites, do not send spam, etc.)
•    Follow the law (do not steal money online, or use/damage people’s work or intellectual property, do not use/download content that is made available illegally, etc.)
•    Advocate digital citizenship awareness and use of new technologies
•    Report illegal activities and non-ethical in-appropriate behaviour
•    Maintain e-safety and digital security (install virus protection/anti-virus, be caution when opening emails of non-recognisable source, protect and regularly change your password, etc.)

Here is a two-minute video that I found useful and brief:

Tools That Can Be Used in Online Assessment

Many teachers face challenges to assess students online learning. It is important to capture the progress to reflect to parents and students whether in blended learning, flipped classrooms, or e-learning, teachers should be providing the kind of assessment that would benefit them on every level. There are lots of tools that can be used learning:

• Google Forms: this is one of the mostly used tool through which teachers can create questions, quizzes, surveys adding hyperlinks, videos, images, etc.

• Poll Everywhere: is a simple real-time web-based online platform that can be used through phone, or web browser.

• Socratic: it is a web-based tool that teachers can use to track students’ performance.

• Moodle: is an open-source software used as a learning management system that is very trusted, secure, and easy to use.

• Quizizz: it is a fun quiz making application where teachers can create free gamified quizzes and interactive lessons to engage learners and assess their learning.

My Opinion About Integrating Technology into Teaching

Integrating technology into teaching means that the teachers need to change their approach to teaching by using learning technologies to introduce, empower, and develop students’ skills.

During some discussions with teachers, I found out that some teachers are afraid that if technology gets so integrated into teaching, their role will be diminished in time, but in fact I think students are more in need to teachers- students relationship and that can never be replaced. Using technology is inefficient unless it is used by a capable teacher.

Integrating technology into teaching would make teachers' work easier and more flexible addressing each students’ different needs in a personalised learning experience and student-centred. It would also create an interactive, engaging, and fun learning environment. Integrating technologies into teaching would develop several skills in students such as digital literacy, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, etc. also it would improve language skills.

EDUC561 and My Experience in Online learning during Spring Semester 2021

EDUC561 is a pretty nice course introducing us to new tools and platforms that are useful in our work life. It gives us ideas on how we can be better equipped digitally. It gives a specific focus on teachers and how they can embed digital tools in their teaching practices, and thus having inclusive reach to all children, having engaged classrooms, being more adaptable to this new digital world and the online teaching. The course empowers teachers with ideas of activities to be implemented with students.

It can be better structured as I sometimes feel there are several tools/platforms introduced at the same time that might be distracting and I loose relevance- maybe having a clear outline for our session would help. As I am not a teacher, I always try to relate how these tools can help me in my work, I am sure there are other students in the class that are not teachers as well and it would be good to have them included in how these tools can help in their work.

As an overall experience in online learning for this semester, I really found it very suitable, comfortable, flexible, and convenient especially when in times that I wasn't available to join the class, there is always a video recording that I can go back to.