Our presentation featured Google Classroom, as we felt we wanted a better understanding of the technology before entering schools as TOCs. I have seen it in use often at my link-to-practice, and loved the way it was used in the digital media classrooms. The students were given pages that they could customize like a webpage, and part of their introductory week was to set up about me pages featuring the music they like, and artwork that inspires them. It felt practical and I like that it gave the teacher insight into their personalities.
How do benefits of convenience outweigh the risk of student privacy? This feels very twisty to me, as there are legitimate concerns for privacy and informed consent through using the service, but other than not partaking (losing out on a massive convenience) there isn’t tons you can do on an individual level, especially when chromebooks are so prevalent in schools. While it may not be my number one issue as an art teacher, I sympathize with teachers who will have to/want to consider alternatives. Hanna brought up a really interesting technology now in use in California in the Montessori schools, that originated in Kelowna (like club penguin 🙂 ) that is no longer available to all teachers, which is too bad. The benefits are really clear though, the streamlined platform incorporating slides, docs, and email, while parents can be notified so easily does make our jobs easier. I was also interested in the reading comprehension tech that has been developed, and the schoolytics platform.
As Roxanne said, the age this should be used is 14 and up, and I think that it is appropriate at the high school level. However, I’m unsure as to how I would proceed if not all the students in my class weren’t allowed to use it. Especially when it comes to accessibility outside of the classroom. It seems as if SD61 is very supportive of this application, and has many useful videos available on the district’s website. I checked some of them out in my research and found them helpful and streamlined.
My involvement in the process was similar to the others, we all divided the slides and had two meetings to discuss the presentation beforehand. Some of the topics seemed fairly similar, but I think that relevancy and benefits are similar regardless. Our group felt supportive, and I enjoyed working with everyone. I think the conversations about google classroom may have been more conducive to learning than the presentation was. All of us were responsible for a slide and topic, and we researched accordingly. I particularly liked the Alice Keeler resource, as she seems super familiar with the technology and has made infographics for teens using the platform for the first time.
