Classroom Communication, Online!

The need for constant communication inside and outside the classroom is imperative in the modern day classroom. The more connection that students have with teachers, the more they are going to turn to the teacher as a resource (within reason, of course!). One of the best tools for online communication I have found is at www.edmodo.com.

Edmodo is a fantastic tool that is basically Facebook for the classroom. It takes all the fun social aspects of Facebook and puts them within a site that is loaded with easy-to-use educational tools for the teacher. You can use Edmodo to have secure classroom discussions, allow students and teachers access to assignments, file sharing and uploads, and grade book tracking. As a teacher you can easily make quizzes, polls, and assignments right on the website which can even be set to be automatically graded. It also works as a great formative assessment tool as students can respond to assignments and teacher comments easily and quickly.

The main drawback, as with any technology use in the classroom, is that it implies that students have internet access at home. While this is becoming less and less of an issue, it is so imperative that the teacher is aware of whether this is the case for each student. If even one student is stuck without Internet there is a large chance they will be singled out and be disadvantaged in the classroom.

For more information on Edmodo you can check out the website www.howtoedmodo.weebly.com or even watch this short video:

MOOCS!

Besides sounding like a fool when you pronounce them, MOOCS are pretty much the coolest things out there. MOOCS stands for Massive Online Open Courses aka democratic education. I absolutely love the concept of MOOCS because it brings education to anyone who has access to the Internet (which is not enough, but is definitely the right step towards free public-access education). These online courses come in many shapes in sizes, dealing with subjects across the globe. Students get to choose what they want to partake in instead of taking classes to fulfill degree requirements. This concept is almost threatening as a future teacher as it gives students access to skilled professionals who have perfected their courses over many many years. Of course, nothing quite beats the one-on-one interaction that teachers can offer, but technology is quickly changing that as programs like Skype and FaceTime grant that face-to-face interaction.

I love that MOOCS can be seen as a professional development tool as well. Here is a link for some great teacher-related MOOCS that could be used to improve yourself as an educator. As the end of my university career draws to a close I am already dreading not having the constant input of knowledge that classes can supply, but MOOCS help ease this. If you have the dedication and the time, there is no end of subjects that you can learn from bright and talented individuals.

While slightly different than your typical MOOC, I can't help but use this opportunity to plug one of my favourite learning tools, TED talks. TED, found here, is a free website that hosts hundreds of great speeches done by inspirational speakers all over the world. The subjects range from science to humanities, from art to innovation, from humour to inspiration. There is something for every type of learner on TED and the speakers are always interesting. It is a personal goal of mine to be asked to give a TED talk as some of my own personal heroes have had the honour to do so. I strongly encourage you to check the site out and use it as a tool for your own professional development. You can start with one of my favourite talks, found below.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is another response to the massive online world of interaction. It gives you the opportunity to organize and search for all of your interests. Obviously, like Twitter, this can be used as a PD tool, allowing you to follow fellow teachers and add your own input to the global pinboard.

I say pinboard because Pinterest is the most commonly known version of social bookmarking that I have heard of. Unfortunately Pinterest is very... female-centered so there are other websites like www.delicious.com or www.diigo.com that might be more your style. (Fun fact: there is a male retort to Pinterest called Manterest, but I wouldn't recommend using for any type of professional manner.) Though it's not often viewed as such, Reddit is also a great example of social bookmarking and one that I use on a daily basis. I can definitely see Reddit being used as a research tool for myself and my students in the future.

The most important thing with sites like these is knowing what works for you and cutting out the rest. It can be far too overwhelming to try and dip your toe in every single bookmarking site. Sites like these also have a tendency of being very addicting; there is no end to the amount of articles you can peruse or pictures you can 'like'. Knowing when to draw the line is probably the most helpful skill in dealing with social bookmarking sites.

Edit: I had to come back to this lacklustre post and note that my interest in Pinterest has substantially increased. After being shown how effective it can be as a way to collect all my teacher resources, I can't wait to start making my own boards. I have hundreds (literally) of bookmarks saved to my computer for different reasons, all of which are terribly unorganized. The ability to organize my bookmarks by category and include a little screenshot to accompany it is really appealing. The concept of having all of my teacher resources in one place is just too appealing (and heck, I'll thrown in a DIY board on there as well, just because it seems to be the cool thing to do.)

Digital Literacies

Digital literacies, the concept of teaching about and using technology, is at the forefront of education today. At least, it should be. Never before have we had the access to worldwide collaboration that we do now and it is important that we utilize that. It is important because it does our students a disservice on two fronts if we don’t: 

1. We are denying them resources, activities, and lessons that could drastically improve their ability to learn (and improve their chances of being life-long learners) and

2. We are not properly educating them on how to leave safe, effective digital footprints.

The need to address these two factors is, I would argue, more crucial than any of the subject curriculum combined. One specific of aspect of digital literacies is that of the 'remix'.

The concept of the remix, focused on in Doug Belshaw’s Ted Talk, is one that lies at the heart of the Internet and at our constantly growing, communal world. As Belshaw points out in his talk, we no longer live in an age where if we want to create a meme we must first capture it ourselves, print it out, alter it, and then mail it to a dozen other people who may appreciate it. We now have the power to use a picture that someone else has taken, add words through a program that someone else has created, and distribute it to millions through a website or social media source. Remixing is now at the heart of the creative and educational world—the ability to take what others have already done, contribute our own thoughts and ideas, and release it back into the world. This ability to collaborate is essential for teachers and students to understand and utilize. Teachers must learn to incorporate others’ ideas and activities to further enhance their teaching. Students must learn the importance of plagiarism rules while still appreciating the beauty of collaboration. The concept of ‘not having to reinvent the wheel’ has never been more relevant and it is important that students and teachers really grasp the implications of this movement. 

One shining example of this concept is found on www.hitrecord.org. Hit Record is my first time encountering such an excellent example of creative collaboration on the web. Members get to work together with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (are you sold yet?) to collaborate on any form of creative outlet-- music, film, art, novels, etc. They are all encouraged to steal from each other, contribute their own ideas, and put it back out to the community to continue growing and evolving. Once a project feels 'complete' Gordon-Levitt uses his Hollywood power to publish a collective work, giving no-name artists the opportunity to have their work published. The best part is that if you have helped contribute to the published work you actually receive a part of the income. This is an awesome example of the power that the Internet has given us to borrow, add, remix, and contribute to our ever-evolving culture.

For your own viewing pleasure you can check out my own personal favourite HitRecord collaboration below. The link for this video can be found here.

Tweet This

I'll be honest, I consider myself a fairly technologically advanced person. I spend the majority of my time when I'm not in class at home on my computer. I see the Internet as an endless resource of information that is incomparable to any other resource. But I have just never understood Twitter.

As an educator, I am now beginning understand how it can be a very useful tool. Professionally, the ability to collaborate with other educators around the world is an invaluable resource. It is amazing that there is a never-ending stream of resources and insight into the next educational development at your fingertips at any given time. In the past I have been overwhelmed by Twitter--there is so much information coming so fast, and the majority of it seems to be completely mundane and trivial. As I have now began to target my feed to show me education-focused material I am beginning to see how it has more use than informing me what my friend ate for breakfast (I mean, that's what I have Facebook for).

Twitter is also a great classroom tool. It encapsulates our changing world quite well: terabytes of information flying at you on a minutely basis, all in little 140 character snippets. What better example of our fast-thinking, ever-evolving culture than a website that emulates this perfectly. Because of this characteristic, Twitter is a great tool for getting students to become active members in this culture. They can contribute to this conversation--whether it's by following a political leader, summarizing novels read in class, commenting on current science events, etc.-- and leave their own imprint on the viral world. For some great uses of Twitter in the classroom, click here.

Twitter also comes with a great accompanying program called Tweet Deck. Once you sign in with your Twitter account, Tweet Deck allows you to arrange the people you follow, easily access your message, and organize the hashtags you wish to follow. I find Tweet Deck a lot more welcoming than Twitter in that I can see what I want to see how I want to see it. This could be an effective tool in the classroom for the purposes of keeping your students focused and on task.