Vision of the Future: Digitally Literate Deep Cove Dolphins

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Introduction/Explanation

For my Vision of the Future Project, I chose to expand on what I had begun exploring in my Reading Assignments A and B: Digital Literacy. I wanted to further explore and expand on the ways to bring it into my school. However, I have to confess that my exploration and interest in digital literacy goes beyond this class and is something that I’ve been wanting to work into our school’s culture for a few years now (as mentioned in my Reading Assignment A post). 

Over that time period and throughout this course (as well as other LIBE courses), my understanding of digital literacy has continued to grow and expand. I am excited that this course provided me an opportunity create a space to share my learnings about how to support my school community in their own digital literacy journeys through a culminating artifact that can actually be used. 

Of course, our learning is never done, so I also look forward to continuing my learning after this course through continued additions to my artifact and through the opportunity to continue to share my learnings with my school community for whom my artifact was created. 

My artifact is a Digital Literacy based website to be shared with my school community (parents, teachers, and students) with the purpose of supporting digital literacy learning opportunities in our school community. 

You can view it here:  

https://sites.google.com/sd63.bc.ca/deepcove-digital-literacy/home

 

Why Digital Literacy?

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Aside from Digital literacy being a focus in my district (and supported by a district initiative program for several years now), I personally feel strongly about digital literacy as a necessary skill for us to teach to students in our desire to create 21st century learners and citizens. Literacy is no longer about just reading and writing. Canadian school libraries (CSL), appears to be of the same mind. They state that: 

“New technologies and evolving methods of communication and sharing drive expanding understanding of literacy. This reality has made the refinement and demonstration of strong literacy skills ever more important for learners. Exploring and connecting various ways of knowing and learning is part of the process of personalizing learning and involves embracing new literacies [such as digital literacies] and skills. The school library learning commons has a leading role in assisting learners to hone and apply an expanded notion of literacy as well as fostering an active reading culture.” (CSL, 2018).

Image Excerpt from Canadian Library Association

Digital literacy is also something that our school seems to struggle with. 

With our district’s digital literacy project having been piloted with TL/Teacher teams almost 3 years ago, our school is the only one to not yet post a digital literacy website. 

Unfortunately, I would suggest that we aren’t really even on the emerging scale outlined by the CSL in which the “Teacher-librarian/LLC teacher teaches students how to be safe online” (CSL, 2018). Right now, digital literacy instruction is barely there (I should note that this is, in part, due to the design of our library- it isn’t set up as an SLLC at the moment, and in part due to TL turnover in the past few years). 

I hope that by providing teachers with resources and a framework for teaching digital literacy (and hopefully TL support), that we will be able to move from the emerging level to the “established” level where teachers/TLs “teach students digital rights and responsibilities to build their digital skills” (CSL, 2018). Perhaps then, eventually we will be able to look at the “Leading into the future” level where “[The] [t]eacher-librarian empowers students to take ownership of their digital responsibilities” (CSL, 2018). 

No matter what level we end up at, I think we can agree that staying at a pre-emerging level isn’t doing anyone any favours right now, so any change towards Digital Literacy instruction will be a positive one. 

Reflection on the process:

Fortunately for me, Digital Literacy has been a district focus for the past few years and I was able to be a part of the beginnings of a piloting program for digital literacy a few years ago. This gave me a good foundational understanding of the project, and I was able to build on examples from other schools and TLs in my district who have built their own digital literacy websites. I was also fortunate enough to begin with a shell of a template for my website (used by other schools) that I was able to customize to meet the needs of my school and reflect the availability of resources. 

To do this, I spent time looking at other schools’ Digital Literacy websites from my district, such as Lochside Elementary and Keating Elementary  (Keating’s was especially helpful since they’re also a dual-track language school) to see what resources schools were already using. I also browsed through my previous Digital Literacy book order for our library that I’d done in tandem with our TL (several years ago) to remind myself of available resources.  

This, in combination with the objectives for our district-created Digital Literacy curriculum allowed me to compile a foundational list of resources that could be used at each grade level by teachers and students. 

With a growing list of resources on my google doc, it was time to take a look  to see what we actually had access to. The online resources were simpler, in that they can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime, so it was mostly checking to see that links are still live and that content aligned properly. For physical resources however, I took to our school’s  library’s catalog system. I was able to use this to search for all the titles that I’d collected on my list to see what we had. I was also checking to see what titles were available in French and English to support our dual track school, and which ones were not not available at all. That led to me creating this document to track my resources using a color coding system.

From there, I simply added the available resources to my website template with online links for digital resources and pictures linked to our library catalog for physical ones. 

Once this was completed, I looked for areas where additional resources might be necessary and tried to “beef up” those spots where I could. In time, I know I will continue to find and add more resources to continue to grow areas that are more sparse using the titles highlighted in orange from my book list, and continued exploration of online resources.

After that, it was mostly playing with formatting and making it look somewhat presentable - I still have a lot to learn about site creation, even just on google sites- but I did my best!

Plan For sharing and Future of the Project:

My plan for the future (aside from maintaining and continuing to add to the site), is to share this work with our school’s TL and then get it posted onto our school’s main website as a link so that it can be accessed by our school community. 

From there, I’d like to do a small inservice with staff presenting the site and how to use it (with TL support or in the classroom on their own with students if they are comfortable). I suspect that a screencast video would be an excellent way to do this so that it can be shared year after year with new staff. 

From there on out things become a bit more hypothetical since I'm not in a TL position at the moment:

If I were in a TL position, I’d be looking to use this site launch as an opportunity to create collaborative opportunities for me to work with staff and possibly even enter into classrooms to co-teach the introductory lesson on basic tech use in the classroom that is posted within the slide deck on the home page. 

Finally, I’d like our resources in the library that are “Digital Literacy” resources to be labeled with a special sticker or label to denote them. And, if I were able, I’d want to see our school working towards creating digital literacy passports for students in which the TL is able to work with classroom teachers to support the identified skills for their grade level and then each child receives a passport booklet that allows the TL or classroom teacher to record the digital literacy skills gained that year (based on the district suggested curriculum and outcomes). This could possibly be kicked off with a digital literacy “week” in the first term of the year. 

Of course, I am not in a TL position, so it is a bit tricky for me to ensure that lots of these things happen as a classroom teacher! I just don’t have the opportunity to have collaborative release time that would allow me to work with other teachers on this at the moment, and I always want to ensure I’m not stepping on anyone else's toes.  However, those are things I can ask about in the future (perhaps once I’m back from my maternity leave!). 

So at its base, I suppose I essentially hope that this project allows teachers and our TL to consider digital literacy learning opportunities for students, understand what resources and supports are available to them within our school,  and move forward with a more concrete understanding of how they can incorporate digital literacy learning into classrooms. 

Summary

This course (and this project specifically) have allowed me to take a closer look at the way digital literacy is occurring in our school right now and the ways in which we can support positive change in digital literacy instruction for students using resources and technology that are already readily available to us. 

In the beginning of the course, I understood that what our school was doing for digital literacy was not enough, but I didn’t have any concrete artifacts or ways for us to move away from our current situation. I also felt somewhat helpless in my ability to make changes due to my position and opportunities.

Leaving the course, while my position as a classroom teacher does still create limitations on the ways that I can support our staff as a whole, I have created an artifact that will again allow the conversation about digital literacy to be opened at my school. This conversation is now about more than just words, and can be paired with the tangible opportunities and ways that teachers can incorporate digital literacy into their classrooms using the digital literacy website. As a result of this, I’m hopeful that my project allows either myself or our TL to step into a position as a champion for digital literacy in our school.

On a more personal level (and considering a larger picture), this course reminded me of how important it is to understand that a TL’s position in the library and as a purveyor of literacy can no longer refer only to traditional literacies. We can, and must, find opportunities to extend our understanding of what literacy means for a 21st century learner and need to expand the ways that we present different forms of literacy instruction to students accordingly.

Works Cited (Within Blog Post)

Canadian School Libraries (CSL). 2020.  “Fostering Literacies to Empower Life-Long Learners”. Available llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/fostering-literacies/ 

Keating Digital Literacy: Online Safety and Citizenship. Saanich Schools, n.d. sites.google.com/sd63.bc.ca/keating-digitalliteracy/home.

Lochside Digital Literacy: Online Safety and Citizenship. Saanich Schools, n.d. sites.google.com/sd63.bc.ca/lochside-digitalliteracy/home.

Works Cited (Utilized on Linked Digital Literacy Website).

BC’s Digital Literacy Framework. Province of British Columbia, British Columbia, n.d. www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy-framework.pdf.

“Common Sense:Digital Passport”. Common Sense Media, n.d. https://www.digitalpassport.org/gate.html.

Concerned Children's Advertisers (Canada).”The North American House Hippo”. Youtube, uploaded by krs155, 8 Aug 2007, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLG2JP0P5JE.  

“Cyber Five: Internet Safety”. ABCYA.com, n.d. www.abcya.com/games/cyber_five_internet_safety.

“Decreasing Screen Time”. Health Powered kids.org, n.d. healthpoweredkids.org/lessons/decreasing-screen-time/.

“Deep Cove: Building Digital Literacy: Digital Literacy Curriculum”. Saanich Schools (edited by Chelsey Fidler), 19 May, 2023. docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hjM2PU7LvnbIOJYvVBh895SwG75YnOd8U14OTwsJxFA/edit?usp=sharing.

“Deep Cove Elementary Care and Use of Technology ( Introductory Lesson Slide Deck)”. Saanich Schools (edited by Chelsey Fidler), 20 June, 2023. docs.google.com/presentation/d/176BTPH0jy1ZDVNFUczaRalCDeF0ikids3iv9j-csBUs/edit.

“Detecting Lies and Staying True” Youtube, uploaded by SafetyCenterVideos, 15 Sept 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXFbQKz3anw .

“Digital Citizenship Curriculum Grades K-5” Common Sense Media, n.d. www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/curriculum?grades=k%2C1%2C2.

“Digital Safety Tips with The Next Step: Passwords”. YouTube, uploaded by TELUS, 18 Nov 2017,  www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYf2T9GmsEc.

“Google Be Internet Awesome: Digital Safety and Citizenship Curriculum”.  Google, iKeepSafe, and the Net Safety Collaborative, June, 2021. storage.googleapis.com/gweb-interland.appspot.com/en-us/hub/pdfs/2021/BIA_Curriculum_June-2021_EN_PDF-Version.pdf .

“Google Be Internet Awesome: Interland”. Google, n.d. beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_us/interland.

“Internet Safety”. BrainPOPJr, n.d. jr.brainpop.com/artsandtechnology/technology/internetsafety/.

“Internet Safety Top 10 - B4UClick.org” Youtube, uploaded by B4UClick, 3 Mar 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml2bVJf15Bw.

“Search Your Library: Deep Cove Learning Commons Catalogue”, Saanich Schools, n.d. bnsd.bc.catalogue.libraries.coop/eg/kpac/home.

“USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools”. Media Smarts, n.d. mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources/use-understand-engage-digital-media-literacy-framework-canadian-schools.

Zapato, Lyle. “Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.” Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, 3 Aug. 1998, zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/.