3rd Week Challenges 

Reflections 

Unit 3. Effective Technology Integration.

Reflections on this unit’s challenges in my learning  journal

During this third week full of more extra information about digital theories, useful and interesting material we have read about digital footprint of students and adults when they are in a social media, tested, learnt, watched, looked at, shared to/with others in Facebook or Tweeter. 

In my journal, I have created a new entry to reflect on what I learned from completing this unit’s challenges and the exchanges with other participants.  Effective use of technology for me is defined by ‘technology allowing us to do things that were not possible before. Take the practice of assessment for learning. Typically, a state school with 28 students in a class, the teacher is not able to gauge the level of understanding from each and every student, so the age old practice of ‘put your hands up’ or ‘green card/red card’ is used. With our new found app economy teachers were able to discover apps that allowed students to respond to questions immediately with an instant (this being key) graphical feedback to the teacher of which students have answered correctly, incorrectly or not answered at all. This would allow a good teacher to take measure the impact of their learning more accurately.

• How will you adapt your curriculum according to one or more of the digital learning theories?
• I have discovered the Connectivism theory and some others (RAT, BLOOM...) in detail. There is a moment I realize I am adapting my curriculum accordingly the
•  courses online I am doing, finishing or interested. The time you have left, after working, home, children and hobbies, is the time enough for doing and prepare challenges on line, doing courses online such as MOOCS, NOOCS, SPOOCS and similar ones.I will be able to gain an understanding of what skills our learners need to collaborate, problem solve, think critically, research, and present in their fields. I will also be able to understand what experiences with my use of technology can aid me in integrating technology into my curriculum successfully.

• How will teaching students about their digital footprint benefit them?

In a digital world and information-sharing age, it can sometimes be hard to understand where privacy ends and what the real risks are. Everyone cares about their reputation, but many students don’t know that what they do online can impact their digital footprint, permanently. They have to learn about that, and parents and educators are also in charge of doing that.

We have all heard about and worry about our children / students dealing with Internet issues such as online stalkers, cyberbullying, pornography sites etc.  I worry about it!  BUT, I also think the Internet is GREAT and that there are lots of interesting ways to learn online.

I am not recommending that we don’t teach about the dangers of cyberbullying and online stalkers but we should also be teaching about the BENEFITS of the Internet.

The advantages of a digital footprint and how to increase your digital footprint should be a major teaching focus so that students can see the benefits of acting responsibly online.

A digital footprint is the trail of information we leave behind while using digital technology. We create these footprints by using the Internet, social media, credit cards, loyalty cards, GPS systems, etc. Third parties (like card issuers, advertisers, and law enforcement) can get access to this data in order to piece together our identity and use it in some way.

It’s easy to look at the negative aspects of a digital footprint, but there are in fact some positives as well. More than ever, our lives are intertwined with digital technology and the best thing we can do is to remain aware and educated.

Here are some ways to protect your digital footprint:

• Delete all tracking cookies and browsing history from your computer regularly
• Review security settings on social networks and stay updated on new features and settings
• Make sure to use the latest version of your Internet browser. Internet Explorer 10 has extra built-in security.
• Choose safe and secure passwords that are unique to Each login and be sure to change them regularly.
• Use cash instead of credit cards
• Opt out of providing personally identifiable information (
• e.g. you may not be required by law to provide your telephone number when making a purchase)
• Remember that anything posted is public (even if your social network settings are private) as the information is stored on a server network

Along this third week we did a mind map about a digital learning theory. This was mine...about Connectivism.

I did a survey students about their digital footprint (children/students from 8 to 15 years old)...

The aim of this activity is to gain a deeper understanding of our students’ digital activities. I  collected the responses of 10 students between the ages of 8 to 15 about their digital footprints. If you have a Google account, then you can copy and edit this Digital Footprint Survey template with some questions included. Or create your own one, to arrive to your conclusions. 

Parents  are more concerned about their children’s use of social media services than any other online activity. And also educators. Children are receiving from their parents more advice and information about how to use the Internet and all the social media communications such as WhatsApp, and other similar ones.

Remember, our digital footprint is there for the world to see it, think twice before posting anything — either as parents or 

kids or educators. 

Next week more Challenges...