An Article Review on Twitter in the Classroom

Tweeting in the Classroom

This article summarizes the use of Twitter in a high school civics classroom during the 2012 presidential election. Students were given a specific hashtag that tied their tweets to the class, in addition to, two additional hashtags that were public and used by a much wider audience. The purpose of the more public hashtags was to make the students part of a more global conversation. The article went on to discuss the advantages and limitations of using Twitter in the classroom. The advantages were that students were participating in real time events, such as, debates. It also encourages students who are more reluctant to participate face-to-face to participate more freely using a medium that they are more comfortable with. It also exposed them to a more diverse group of learners when they were able to connect to two other classes in other states. Some of the limitations were the lack of teacher control of inappropriate comments. While there were no direct attacks on other students, there were comments made that were inflammatory and served no purpose in an academic conversation. Access can also be a limitation that teachers may encounter. Many school districts block or limit access to social media making it difficult to integrate Twitter into the curriculum. The article concluded with the argument that the benefits outweigh the limitations when using Twitter in the classroom. Making global connections and allowing students to participate in real time enrich the learning experience.

While this article focuses on the high school and middle school use of Twitter, I have seen first hand the positive implications of using Twitter in the primary grades. My students have participated in global events including solving grade level appropriate math tasks and sharing their answers on Twitter, as well as, writing math tasks to share. They are participating in live streaming events benefitting from experiences that they would not otherwise be able to attend. They are learning about places and classrooms well outside the physical walls of their own classroom. There is also ample opportunity for digital citizenship lessons on the appropriate and safe use of social media. As the article stated, social media is here to stay, so rather than fight to keep it out of the classroom we should be using it to our advantage as a tool for learning.

Journell, W., Ayers, C. A., & Walker Beeson, M. (2014). Tweeting in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(5), 63.

Overcoming My Fear of Screencasting

I'm am certainly no tech expert, but I do know my way around the basics which means I often get tech related questions from my teaching colleagues. Since going back to grad school for my Ed Tech endorsement, I've been learning so much that I wanted to share all of the great ways to integrate and use tech with the teachers in my building. I decided to start Tuesday Tech Tips. I emailed the staff and told them my plans, and I asked them to sign up to receive the emails every Tuesday. I was surprised to see that 20+ teachers signed up, including some teachers from other buildings/districts that were referred by my colleagues.

I have always liked video tutorials related to tech. I am a visual learner, so seeing someone perform steps helps me tremendously. Also, I like the ability to pause and rewind video especially when learning something complicated. I wanted to utilize screencasting in my Tuesday Tech Tips, but I was a little intimidated by what I thought was going to be a complicated process. I also tend to be a perfectionist, and I thought I'd never get the recording "just right." But, hey, tech is all about diving in and stepping out of your comfort zone, so I decided to just go for it!

I researched the various screencasting tools and decided on Screencast-O-Matic. I found it to be very straightforward and user-friendly. I chose to create a YouTube channel to upload the videos to. I've had very positive feedback from staff about the emails and videos! Each time I make one, I get more comfortable with the process. So, if you have something you've wanted to do using screencasting, I encourage you to give it shot! If you want to see what I've been able to do, check out my YouTube channel using this link https://goo.gl/th9Zmx

Thinking About Open Education Resources (OERs)

My experience with Open Education Resources (OERs) is limited, but my take on it is that they are the future of education. If you're not familiar, OERs are openly licensed educational materials that educators can use to provide quality instruction. The idea is that educators and non-profit organizations can create resources that are organized in a database for other educators to search and use. This signals a shift away from traditional textbook and curriculum purchases.

I see several advantages to this movement. The first being a tremendous financial savings. I would like to see the cost savings applied to educational technology infrastructure and devices. Another advantage is that the materials will not be limited by publishing costs and timelines driven by for profit companies. The information can be kept current and up-to-date. Lastly, it allows educators to design instruction that fits their teaching style and their students' needs. This is the biggest and most significant change we could see from OERs. It can sometimes be difficult to differentiate when using canned curriculum. If teachers have OERs available to them, they would have several options for extension and enrichment, as well as, modified resources for at risk and special ed students.

I do fear that there could be a few pitfalls to the OER movement. The first being the accuracy of the resources. Like anything else found online, you have to make sure that the information is accurate and appropriate. Another concern I have, like so many other educators, is time. The time it will take to search for and implement the resources could be extensive. It's easy to get lost in the database and lose focus. The few OERs I've looked at seem to have powerful search features and filters which will hopefully prevent a significant loss of time.

I am going to devote some time to exploring OERs to see how they might fit into my instruction. If you're interested in learning more, check out http://ioer.ilsharedlearning.org/ and https://www.oercommons.org/