The Image Factor

One of our 5^th grade must read aloud books is a story about the life of Jackie Robinson. Engaging students in nonfiction can be a challenging task, but our students really involved themselves in Jackie’s life and daily struggles. They asked great questions about the reality he lived in, trying to understand why he was treated so poorly. Students had rich discussions, showing empathy and compassion for Jackie.

I began to read a chapter that explained the country’s state at the time Jackie was an adult. Words like prejudice and discrimination were discussed, as many students were unsure of what the word prejudice meant. Using the Google Home the words were defined and discussed. However, as we got into the chapter the word lynching came off the pages. I suggested our Googler of the Day ask the Google Home what lynching meant.

The definition came out of the speaker. Gasps about how could this happen in real life were heard. This led to courageous conversations about how I felt reading the book and how students felt listening to the story. We interacted with the text as a community.

That night as I was prepping for our #FETC presentation on data privacy and personal assistants in education, I happened to reflect on our usage that day. It dawned on me that had I asked a student to Google the word lynching on one of the classroom computers the student would see the definition and have the option of seeing images or a video feed of lynching.

Not every parent is ready for their child to see these images, and I was glad the Google Home was a protection for our 5^th grade students. Using this tool allowed us to have dialogue around the word and how it made us feel versus seeing it in action. Sometimes we need to consider the image factor when allowing our younger students to use Google for searching. This is one of those times I was grateful the personal assistant was available to allow us to have a developmentally appropriate conversation.