Twitter for Professional Development

Social media can be a great way not only for personal use, but for developing a professional learning network (PLN) for educators. While it is always best to do what is right for yourself, we could always use help or suggestions to make social media more effective for educational purposes. Two articles I read about using Twitter for professional development (The Teacher's Guide to Twitter and 10 Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid) have really good insight on how to make Twitter right for you.




The Teacher's Guide to Twitter

This article is very concise and has many suggestions to use Twitter effectively for education. One of the issues that is brought up is how to weed through microbloggers to find the ones right for you. Hashtags are very important. One suggestion given is to find educational hashtags and keywords relating to your topic to develop a PLN. The article also advises to create and share your own resources, not just consume others. As for following others, make sure you find experts on your topic to follow. There is also a lengthy list of 100 ways to use Twitter for more effective usage: Talk to people about their interests, use hashtags, don't try to read everything, share your information and credentials, as well as many others.




10 Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid

This is a very short article giving anyone advice on what not to do:

• Don't over-tweet
• Don't re-tweet compliments
• Don't tweet about food

The list goes on. I think it's good advice to have a better following. I think about it this way: I don't want to see certain things people tweet about (food, specifically) so I wouldn't tweet about those things either.




Overall I think Twitter is a very good way for developing a Professional Learning Network to help find resources, share information, and ultimately connect with other like-minded individuals to help teachers be more effective in the classroom.

Educational Tweeting

             

I recently attended a general educational chat (#edchat) on Twitter as a means to communicate and collaborate with other teachers and colleagues. I found that Twitter in general can be put to good use in the classroom. As long as you follow the right people, you can find a ton of resources. One of the educators I'm following (+WeAreTeachers for example), posted a really cool article on how to use icebreakers in the classroom using technology. As far as using Twitter as a means of professional development, I feel like it could be very useful. For me however, I found that the times for specific Twitterchats are inconvenient. There are some that go on from 8-9 p.m. on weeknights, which are almost impossible for me to check out. Users are able to search hashtags to find relevant topics geared toward the same topic of the chat, but sometimes they talk about specific topics only, and users can't participate if they're not on Twitter at the right time.

The topic that was chosen for the Education Chat in which I participated (12-1 p.m.) was "What purpose do blogs have in the life of educators?" I found a lot of pros and cons from other tweets.

Some of the pros:

• It helps with learning and reflection
• Students are able to connect with other students and improve their writing
• Blogs can help keep a timeline of students' learning progress
• Teachers can build professional learning networks
• Gets students motivated and keeps them engaged
• Enhances 21st century learning skills

Here are some of the cons:

• The quality of blogs need to be monitored (if students are using them)
• It's hard to tell the focus of the blog without quality
• PRIVACY (There must be guidelines established)
• How do you decide what to put on a blog?
• Is a blog the most appropriate form of reflection?
• How do we stay motivated when no one reads our blog?

Overall, I thought it was interesting to see other people's insight on this topic. If it were more convenient for me to attend Twitterchats, I would really like to see what other topics are brought up, and check out other chats. I do believe this is a great way for networking, and to get new ideas and perspectives on certain issues regarding education. You are able to freely share any information you choose, as well as download any information. The hashtag feature really makes finding the right topics accessible and easy to find appropriate microbloggers for educational purposes.

Collaboration in the Classroom

 

Being actively involved collaborating with colleagues can greatly help in the classroom. I've recently joined a Social Networking group on Yahoo for Spanish teachers called MaestroDeEspanol which has about 1700 members. Here, anyone who joins this public forum can exchange and share information and files that are very helpful in the classroom. It's also refreshing to see other ideas from people around the country. Since foreign language has the same topics (family, house and home, food, etc.) sometimes teaching can become a little stale. This forum has tons of ideas and files free for download, and it even has its own group website where you can hold small conversations and message other users. There is no limit to how much information you can use (since it's free,) but they do advise as an "unwritten" rule to share as much as you download. I really enjoy how there's a whole section for interactive whiteboards (like a SMART board) to be used, so technology is even integrated and considered when other teachers create files. This particular group also has a section for message history, so any user can go back to January of 2010 and look at any comments or questions that were asked.

In education today, it is very important to stay current and use fresh ideas to keep students engaged. By collaborating using social networks, we can stay relevant and "work smarter, not harder!"

The Learner of Today: Connectivism

No matter how many foundational theories we learn as educators on how to teach, we'll always come into problems, or try something that just doesn't work. From my personal experience, everything I learned in school went right out the window in my first year of teaching. We learn that not everything we were taught works, and education is dynamic: What worked twenty years ago in the classroom isn't necessarily appropriate for the classroom of 2014.

An alternate theory called Connectivism by George Siemens proposes that as educators, we must find a different way to teach, given the technological advances we have today, to implement in the classroom. "It is a model of learning that acknowledges shifts in society where learning is no longer individualistic..." To me, the learner of today is like social software: There is a need to connect with others to stay current, and not in isolation. (This could go for teachers, too.) This is where connectivism comes in: It is "driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations." With all of the technological advances we have today, we need to keep our teaching current and to also keep our learners engaged. Learning is a process that occurs within multiple environments with shifting elements; it is not necessarily under the control of the individual, according to Siemens theory. We need to nurture and maintain these connections to have up-to-date knowledge.

 

 

Siemens talks about the impact of social media on learning in one of his videos, and I believe it relates back to connectivism a lot. He basically says that "through social means, we're able to connect and share with each other." This goes hand-in-hand with classroom teaching too. Since education is dynamic and not so much based on the individual anymore, we can use prompts or certain things to initiate conversation and discussions, rather than lecturing. He refers to Flickr as an example of how we are able to share pictures and images. Anyone who has an account can comment on these images. Basically it is a conduit that leads to conversation. We are able to do this in the classroom. We can stimulate conversation and learn by doing and discussing, rather than just listening. We are social beings that need mental stimulation to learn.

 

I believe that this theory can do great things in the classroom, especially in relation to technology in the classroom. We need to start changing the way of instruction to change with the times. Education should not be a static thing, and we need to also recognize that.

 

Social Bookmarking vs Curating: A look at Diigo vs Scoop.it

I have never heard anything about social bookmarking or curating until I explored both Diigo and Scoop.it. Both websites allow users to collect, save and share information found on the internet. I found both pros and cons with each website. They are both equally useful, but very different.

First, let's take a look at diigo. It is a great website to save information and websites for the future. You are able to create an account for a specific topic, or even for personal use. I created my account with the intention to save websites for foreign language teaching. It's a lot like bookmarking websites, or putting them under your favorites, but with diigo you're able to save websites easier. With each url (lets say I use wordreference.com a lot) you are able to create different tags. Under this website, I would tag "foreign language", "reference", "Spanish," etc. Diigo saves these tags and organizes each website that you've "bookmarked" on your account under these tags. That way, you can just click on the side bar under "Spanish" and it will show you every website you've saved with the "Spanish" tag to find them easier. I think its very simple to use and you can copy and past the url right into your library. I like the fact you can also share the information and follow other people who have like-minded websites.

Scoop.it is a website where the user is able to pick a topic of their choosing and "curate" that topic. One of the topics I chose was "Foreign Language Classroom Teaching Ideas." You are able to enter different tags (in this case I would type in "Spanish language", "teaching ideas..." etc) and there are different links automatically generated that would fit this topic. You can then create "scoops" under this topic in which you choose a website, article, video relating to the topic and it will save all this information for you. I found this a little harder to use than diigo.

In my opinion, I prefer diigo. You are able to chose exactly which links to put in your library. With scoop.it, I found it difficult to find information relating to my topic. It doesn't give you the option to put in your own links, it works based off of the tags you used for your topic then finds links that it thinks would fit under your topic. Both websites make suggestions for you to add to your library or your topics, which I find helpful, and you are able to follow others on both websites. If I were to continue using one of these, it would definitely be diigo. I find that it could be helpful in the classroom by having students or even colleagues follow your account to get ideas, or help with certain things.

Shift Happens

 

When I sit down and really think of the technological advances I have witnessed in my 29 years, it is really quite astounding. When I sit down and look at specific statistics that have shown the growth of technology and even the population of the world, (and how rapid it's growing,) it's almost overwhelming. A quick look at these statistics are shown in the following videos: Social Media Revolution 2011, and Did You Know?/Shift Happens. Although they are short videos (less than 5 minutes each,) they are filled with a wealth of statistics shown through info-graphics.

The Social Media Revolution

This video (although only 2 1/2 minutes long) really took me by surprise. I know technology has advanced quickly over the past 10 years, and even quicker in the past 5, but I didn't know how fast. Here are some things that I found interesting:

• E-readers have surpassed traditional book sales
• 1 in 5 couples meet online
• Kindergarteners learn on iPads in the classroom (not chalkboards)
• Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US
• 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook 
• If Wikipedia were a book, it would be 2.25 million pages long

I remember when I was in school, Facebook, Wikipedia, iPads etc. didn't even exist. (Wow, I feel old saying that!) The rapid growth of social media has an impact on everyone, whether we like it or not, but it's all about how we use it. I can't even imagine growing up now, already having access to the technology we do now. I look at some of my students carrying around their iPhones, iPods, hearing them talk about Snapchat, Instagram... and they're only 12! I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 18. It is very interesting to see this generation growing up with everything they have now, and I'm excited to see what else is going develop in the next 10 years. One of my favorite quotes about social media is this: "The best thing about social media, is that you're connected to the world. The worst thing about social media, is that you're connected to the world." I'm always telling my students to be careful how they use social media, because it could be a blessing, or a curse.

Did you know/Shift Happens

 This video had a lot to do with the rapid growth of technology in relation to the growth of world population, but also about general changes that have occurred worldwide (just within the past 5-10 years.) Just like the previous video, it was full of info-graphics showing mind-blowing statistics. Here are a few of them:

• China will become the #1 English speaking country in the world
• 25% of India's population with the highest IQ is greater than the population of the entire US
• The top 10 jobs in demand for 2010 did not exist in 2004 (We are also preparing students for jobs that don't exist)
• Half of what students are currently studying will be outdated by their junior year of college
• There are 12 billion searches done in one month on Google
• There are 800 million Facebook users. If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world

I really enjoy the title of this video: Shift Happens. I think that is a perfect way to describe the statistics shown in this video. The world is not static; it is always changing. I was just shocked at how fast these changes occurred. To think that what students learn now in the classroom will be outdated in the matter of 5 years is crazy to me. Even now, I hear students talking about certain popular things, (Snapchat, for example) and in my head I think "What are they talking about?" (I often ask them what it is, just out of curiosity.)

To see all of these ongoing changes, and really taking a look at the statistics was surprising, and like I previously said, it's overwhelming. I'm wondering if there will be a point in my life where I'll get so overwhelmed with the growth of technology, I'll become scared of it, or have no idea how to even begin to use it. Even looking at my own parents trying to navigate an e-reader (and struggling,) it's hard for me to figure out why they can't do certain things. It's like second nature to me to use it, and figure it out (and very frustrating to help them!) because I grew up with all of this technology. I wonder what my kids will grow up with in the future.

Blogs in the foreign language classroom

I think that once I am able to really figure out how a blog works, I can definitely see how it would be effective and useful in a foreign language classroom. For one, I could create a blog for any homework assignments and a short description of what needs to be done. It would be a great way for my students to create a forum too, if any student has problems with an assignment. They can receive help without having to be in the classroom. I also like the idea of self reflection, whether that be the teacher reflecting, or even the students reflecting on their own language learning and their own understanding of certain concepts throughout the school year.

A second way I could use blogs is for any type of writing portfolio. I could give the students a prompt in which they would have to respond on their blog for homework (in Spanish of course!) This will allow them to keep track of all writing assignments they have done in their portfolio and see any progression they've had since the beginning. It would also be helpful because I would be able to post resources online for them to use that I recommend, not something that would give the students wrong information. The fact too, that I would be able to comment on their blog post would give them timely feedback and any suggestions.

ACTFL standards link

Two standards that I could meet using blogs:
Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.
(through blogging)