Social:Twitter
This social media platform has become an invaluable resource for me both professionally and personally. I now have unlimited access to some of the most creative minds and educational thought leaders. Twitter has single handedly transformed the way I stay informed about 21st century education and instructional technology. Moreover, it has allowed me to build a network of colleagues, friends, and professional connections.
The best way to use this platform is to set up a Tweetdeck. This dashboard application collates and organizes all of your Twitter feeds. For example, if you have a bunch of Twitter connections in a particular category (e.g. instructional tech), you can set up columns or “decks” for their tweets. The technology behind the scenes will provide an efficient filtering system. Tweetdecks also allow users to engage in chats more efficiently and seamlessly. Simply create a column on Tweetdeck, assign it a hashtag (i.e. #wilkes), and you’re off and running.
As far as using Twitter in class, a few teachers in my district have set up twitter handles to communicate with their students. Once these students have set up their own Twitter accounts, the class becomes a community of learning. Teachers have posted homework assignments, video clips, school announcements, moderated discussions, created historically “fake” tweets, all using this 21st century mode of communication. In today’s “information now” environment (e.g. teacher forgets to assign homework that will drive the next day’s lesson), Twitter is rapidly gaining traction in the classroom.
Further, teachers across the country are beginning to see Twitter, and social networking in general, as the place for professional development. Weekly chat sessions are held on a wide range of educational topics. These sessions have morphed into PLNS where educational professionals are communicating and collaborating on a myriad of topics specific to their industry or interests. “These networks provide a place to ask other educators around the world how they tackled classroom issues, whether they be complex or simple.” (Bellow and Dembo). I have been engaged in a weekly Twitter “chat” centered around Project Based Learning (PBL). Using the hashtag #PBL, I not only connected with a group of like minded educators, but also obtained valuable insight and resources into this model of learning. Here is an example of something that was just posted in the chat: http://tinyurl.com/kse3f8c. As you can see, Twitter can not only keep you informed and connected, but improve your skills in the classroom as well.
Creative: Glogster
Today’s instructional technology tools have given more students greater access to tap into their creative mindsets and abilities. In addition, content once deemed boring or irrelevant can now be brought alive. One tool in this conversation is Glogster, a digital presentation building tool. When students construct “glogs” they are creating a digital poster that incorporates the use of audio clips, video, images, and text. Once teacher and students become familiar with the technical aspects of Glogster, skies the limit when it comes to using it creatively in an educational context. Glogs begins to move beyond the narrow confines of a “poster” and into the realm of so much more such as:
1. teacher message boards
2. principals “corner”
3. learning stations
4. flipped classrooms
5. scavenger hunts
As a social studies teacher, there were so many times where I had my students create a collage or poster to convey their ideas. These static visual presentations were constructed the old fashioned way with poster board, paper cut-outs, and glue sticks. In this framework, both breadth and creativity were limited. Thanks to Glogster, those days are over. Students now have access to create multi-media presentations that are both dynamic and engaging. Presentations can become learning stations where students can ask their peers to weave through the causes of the Civil War or learn the steps of Photosynthesis. The digital platform really allows our students to push themselves and their learning. As Joli Barker states, “students remain the passive consumers of their learning and fact gatherers rather than active participants in the discovery of information and producers of meaningful learning experiences. This should be our goal as educators: To provide tools to discovery and allow creativity and independence in the learning process.”
Curation:Symbaloo
File cabinets, three ring binders stuffed with articles, lesson plans and primary sources; does this sound familiar? Thankfully, with digital curation tools, these days are gone (at least almost). For this piece of the assignment, I chose a 21st century tool that I did not have any experience with. The timing of this assignment seemed to be perfect, as one of my teachers, just this week, introduced me to Symbaloo. She shared that Symbaloo has been invaluable in helping her students navigate this new paradigm called 21st century learning. In this model, students are not only being asked to be the primary drivers of their learning, but also work with multiple websites, apps, file storage systems, and learning management systems. Needless to say, this can be quite daunting and overwhelming.
With Symbaloo, this digital “chaos” is remedied. I think Bellow and Dembo get it right when they accentuate the power of simplicity with respect to this tool. They state, “Symbaloo is a classic example of the prototypical Web 2.0 tool that only does one thing but does it incredibly well.”
Rather than having a list of websites stored (read: hidden) under the user’s favorites tab, Symbaloo changes all of that. Now teachers can create what is referred to as “webmix” where students have one-click access to the class’ important websites, broken down by category and visually appealing.
Once I began to play around with this tool, I began to envision its utility and relevance within education. For example, as teachers assign large projects or term papers, individual students or even groups can begin to establish webmixes on the particular topics. Now, the learning (in this case research) is being driven by the students.
One element about cannot be ignored about Symbaloo is its design and functionality, as well as its inviting interface. Symbaloo has a simple grid of tiles that make even the biggest digital novice feel like an expert. And, as Bello and Dembo make clear, “it is browser and OS agnostic. They have developed apps for both iOs and Android that provide a consistent experience with the web interface.”
Citations:
http://blog.edu.glogster.com/2013/05/13/40_ways_to_innovative_teaching_using_glogster_edu/
http://englishiiiverdone.weebly.com/
https://twitter.com/paulscurtis/status/397048053577678848/photo/1
Bellow, A. & Dembo, S. (2013) Untangling the web: 20 Tools to power up your teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.