Twitter & Social Networking

           The articles that we read for this week gave insight into how Twitter and Social networking can be used in an educational setting. In the article Tweacher(n): The Twitter Enhanced Teacher, it talked about an idea of a classroom project using Twitter, “Hundreds of causes, nonprofit organizations, and charities also have Twitter feeds.  Have each student in a social studies or civics class choose an organization to follow for one month. Encourage them to truly get involved by following posted links, re-tweeting important information for the rest of the class, and responding to questions.  At the end of the month, students can present, or in some way reflect, on the cumulative experience.” (Matteson, 2010, p. 23)  I think this is a great way to utilize Twitter as it connects the students to the outside world.  Students can follow their organization daily and dive in depth into the organization.  This project also has room for students to report back to the class which can be utilized to teach students public speaking skills. 
            Michelle Davis spoke upon using social networking as a means of professional development in her article Social Networking Goes to School.  Twitter allows a user to read an article of interest and be able to find articles that are of the same category with online bookmarking. “Millions of people have begun using public, online bookmarking services where they can save links, annotate them with unique keywords or “tags” to organize them, and share them with the world. So, for instance, if you find a great site that lists the 50 best free software programs for teachers, in the process of saving the link to your personal account, you might attach the worlds “education,” “software,” “free stuff” or whatever else you find relevant.” (Richardson, 2010, p. 89). This is a great tool for teachers to easily find information on certain topics. Instead of having to search through the web for a particular category of information, Twitter allows you to one time click on a word which opens the door to many informative texts, tweets, links etc. 
            Social networking in the classroom brings about many different viewpoints and opinions.  In the article Social Networking Goes to School, Davis quotes Montana Miller who is an assistant professor of popular culture and Facebook expert at Bowling Green State University, OH: “Facebook is too much of an intrusion into students’ personal and social lives for education to be using it as an educational method.  I’m not against collaborative, online education with students, but I am against merging their personal, private family world with something required for a class activity. Millions of things can go wrong.” (Davis, 2010, p.18).  I agree with this statement as I believe that Facebook is too much in the personal realm.  I do not want to be connected to my students socially; I do not want to see their pictures as I do not want them to see mine just as one example of the many things that can be seen on a Facebook page. Twitter and Social networking have their perks for classroom use, however there is also potential for social networking and tweeting to go sour as it becomes too involved with personal life. If Twitter and Social networks are instilled in the classroom, teachers need to be very clear and precise on why and how they will be used. 

Weblogs

          Lisa Zawilinski’s article, HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking addresses the fundamentals of what a blog is, the potential uses of a classroom blog, and Higher Order Thinking Blogs, or HOT blogs.  “Hot blogging allows them [students] to share a diverse perspective and exchange information with one another on the Internet.  This supports the development of online comprehension and communication skills and creates a collaborative learning community that builds a deeper and broader understanding across the curriculum.” (Zawilinski, 2009, 656).  A piece of this article that I agreed with thoroughly is the benefit of students writing to an audience that is not only the teacher.  In this article a classroom teacher, Stephanie, allows family members and friends to have access to the classroom blog where the students work is published.  “She invited students to share the blog address with family and friends, so they could see their “published” pieces and receive comments.  She was amazed at how many people provided thoughtful comments.  Parents and grandparents especially, posted many wonderful comments about work that appeared here. The demand from her students to publish their work made the creative juices flow in the classroom.” (Zawilinski, 2009, 659). I remember when I was in Elementary School, and even now that I am in college, when I know that I am going to have an audience, besides the teacher, read my work I seem to automatically put a little more effort into what I am writing.
            In Chapter 2 of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts , and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms the similar basic concepts were discussed here as they were in Lisa Zawilinski’s article.  However, the one thing that I took away from this chapter is that weblogs not only allow you to be an author, they also make you become a reader.  “Online reading and writing are so closely connected that it is not possible to separate them; we read online as authors and we write online as readers.(Leu, O’Bryne, Zawilinski, McVerry & Everett-Cocaparado, 2007, p. 266.) Students who are reading blogs from other sources are in essence reading to write. “But more than just reading, bloggers that write in this way learn to read critically, because as they read, they look for important ideas to write about.  It’s an important first step, for as Samuel Johnson said, “I hate to read a writer who has written more than he has read.” (Richardson,2010, p.30.) Students have different interests and different things that motivate them.  To allow students to read on the web what interests them, do some research, and then write about or blog about it  is a motivational tool that comes from within them.  It allows the student to be his or her own launch pad, dive into what they enjoy, read, research, and then write (a whole language approach).
            I read the article Teaching With Author’s Blogs: Connections, Collaborations, Creativity last, and I am glad.  This article doesn’t explain, teach, or give steps of how to use or start up a Blog like the chapters and the other article seemed to focus on. Instead it talks about the blogs of young adult authors and how they can be implemented in the classroom for teaching and learning.  “One way to enrich students’ engagement with literature is developing a depth of knowledge about the author.  Understanding how an author’s life experiences influence his or her writing can assist readers with creating personal meaning and connections to the authors work” (Johnson, 2010, 174).   Being able to research and learn about the author on an author’s blog through his or her own words gives a real perspective of that author.  Allowing students to know more about an author and follow their blog gives students the understanding and insight into the authors’ thoughts and life, which in turn connects the student to the author of study and the book that is being read.   For me, the most intriguing and helpful part of our readings for this week came in this article when Johnson spoke of authors blogs who talk about the writing process on page 177.  “Barbara O’Connor wrote a message about the dead matter, or the revision and notes made by the editor, which she received from her publisher after her book Greetings From Nowhere was published. She decided to look through the dead matter to see what a big difference little changes make.”  On her blog she wrote down the changes that the publisher made and showed people who were reading the blog just how minute, yet important, these changes were.   Students hate the revision and editing process (I do as well!) however, having an author show what a big difference it makes and having students see that “real writers” go through it as well is a great and powerful lesson.”  This is made possible through the use of Blogs and a dialogue that we could not have imagined five years ago.

The Launch of A New Pedagogy

Reading Chapters 1 & 10 in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms gave me a solid base and look into what the book has to offer and the basis of this class.  With these two chapters laying down the grounds of what the book contains and accomplishes, I decided to take a few lines and quotes from the author, Will Richardson, and list them.  (I hope this is not too mundane, I didn’t want to go too in depth about getting ready to go in depth.)

• "Blogs are short for Weblogs (Simple and easy, but I had no idea!) (pg.2)
•  “And the reality is that we are not going to get any less plugged in or in any less open in terms of how we live our lives.  The shifts will only become more acute.” (pg. 5)
•  “Today’s schools are faced with a difficult dilemma that pits a student body that has grown up immersed in technology against a teaching faculty that is less agile with the tools of the trade.” (pg. 7)
•  “All of this paints the picture of an educational system that is out of touch with the way its students learn.” (pg. 8)
• "But on the whole, we can be optimistic that once the potential of the Read/Write Web finds its way into schools, students and teachers will be launched on a path of discovery and learning like they have never experienced before.” (pg. 8)

In Chapter 10, four points were given that redefines what it means to teach in the New Millennium:

1. Teachers have to start to see themselves as connectors, not just of content, but of people as well.
2.  Teachers must become content creators where they practice the tools and technologies they are going to teach.
3.  Teachers need to become true collaborators, in a sense, they will be learning alongside their students.
4.  Teachers need to see themselves more as coaches who model the skills then allow students to thrive.

In the article, Secondary School Literacy: What Research Reveals in for Classroom Practice, I took away the four points that defines New Literacies:

1. New technologies for information and communication and new envisionments for their use require us to bring new potentials to literacy tasks that take place within these technologies.
2. New literacies are central to full civic, economic, and personal participation in a globalized community.
3.  New literacies are deictic; they regularly change defining technology change.
4.  New Literacies are multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted.

Attached is a URL address to a Wiki that discusses and gives links to topics that go hand-in-hand with what is discussed in this blog. Wiki: Changing Teacher Practices with Thinking & Technology

 

Also, below is a URL to an iLearn Technology Blog. This blog gives insight into how to use and utilize technology in the classroom.  There are great ideas, websites, and creative activities that broaden the use of technology in the classroom.iLearn Technology Blog