Week 10: Using Twitter for teaching and learning

Section I: Learning from hashtags

Hashtag: #Learnerexperience

Sources:

 https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/self-directed-learning-benefit-student

https://medium.com/bright/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713#.ab52rqrcb

I am interested in learning more about how teachers can find ways to expand students’ learning and skill in the classroom. I like the #learnerexperience because it provides me with articles, ideas and meaningful information to connect with other educators about this topic. As I follow the timeline and tweets that appear in the search results, I find some sources to better understand all about this educational hashtag. The first article is titled, “How Self-Directed Learning Can Benefit Every Student” written by the Global Digital Citizen Foundation and it provides teachers tips on the understand the importance for students to take ownership of their learning. Some ways for teachers to create opportunities for self-directed learning is knowing that students can have negative mindsets (they think that they are not self-motivated, they are not smart or the type of students to do this, etc.) that prevents students’ independence learning. Teachers need to recognize these negative mindsets and learn how they can change these negative mindsets to growth mindsets. For example, the article suggests that motivation is not increased by rewards instead it is more about three real internal motivations known as the intrinsic motivations. These motivations can be divided into three categories: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The article also mentions if students perceive themselves as not talented or smart enough then teachers can help students change this perception by teaching students that failures are only transition points and intelligence is not fixed. Therefore, teachers need to let students be in control of their paths and let out expectations in order to allow students determine their own successes and evaluate their learning. Another article titled, The Web We Need to Giving Students” written by Audrey Watters for Bright: Innovation in Education, explains how society wants to regulate students’ privacy online and restrict data. However, there are other alternatives for protecting students’ online identities and have access to their personal data. One alternative is for schools to provide students and teachers their web domains. Domains provide users control over their work, data and have access to their digital portfolios. If students have their own domain, then they take their learning portfolio until they graduate high school and move on their careers. Overall it is a great idea because students need to acquire their digital skills and be responsible for their own digital identity. 

Section II: Three Ideas for using Twitter for teaching and learning

Grade level: Middle school

Subject area: English/Reading 

What students will do:

Using Twitter for teaching and learning can encourage students’ participation and engagement in lessons. Twitter can be a great online tool for students to join class discussions, projects and finding information. There are three main objectives to use twitter in the classroom. First, students can use create Twitter accounts in order to fully participate in class discussion. Many times students are reluctant to participate because they are shy or they do not want to be noticed by others. This is especially when working with middle school students in a large class. Therefore, students can be encouraged to tweet comments, questions about the lesson using their laptops or iPods in class. Teachers can respond in real-time to students’ questions and concerns students have during class time. Another idea to integrate Twitter into a lesson plan about fact and opinion. Teachers can tweet statements and students must reply to identify between facts and opinion. Another alternative can be using the books from literature circles, students must tweet to the class statements where opinions can be found. The last activity can be tweeting newspapers articles to students to distinguish factual and opinions parts of the article. A good activity can be a Twitter scavenger hunt where students can analyze tweets from politicians and students decide which are opinions and facts. The main objective for the lesson and use of Twitter is for students to recognize that what is printed, found on social media, or aired on TV is not all facts. They must understand the difference between facts and opinions should be a skill not only use for testing but a skill useful throughout their lives. Overall Twitter is a valuable tool useful for education where students and teachers have a public forum to connect their learning to what is happening in the world. 

Edmodo: An Online Education Tool for a Learning Community 

I learned about Edmodo when I was required to create a student account for two of my undergraduate courses. I thought that Edmodo provided a great source for teachers to create a forum for students to active learners. I knew how to use Edmodo as a student, not as a teacher integrating Edmodo for a class. I did not know about the many features this app provides to teachers. Students can access Edmodo though the school computers, personal laptops, and free app to know the latest news and assignments for their classes. One great option was allowing parents to have access to the classes because it could contribute to creating a good relationship with parents. They should be aware of their students'' progress and what students had been learning at school. Overall, I enjoyed using this tool and benefits of this app. After I read the two articles recommended in my web tool course and my past experiences using Edmodo, I could share three ideas for using this educational tool in the classroom. 

Grade Level: 8th grade

Subject Area: Social Studies 

What students can do with Edmodo:

1. Weekly reflections, students are expected to reply to all posts, especially reflections because students only have to write three reflections per week. Students must write at least 2 paragraphs before the deadline. The idea for weekly reflections allows students to realize what they did right and what they need to change. Students feel motivated to learn and analyze their learning process about concepts, ideas and class activities. The weekly reflections provide teachers with students' feedback and keep/integrate new teaching technologies and strategies.

2. Quizzes, it is great to have the option to create quizzes for students to take in class. Although I encounter some problems when creating quizzes, I like that all quizzes are saved as a collection for teachers to reuse or edit for other classes. It is the tool that enables teachers for assessing formative and summative students' knowledge. I like that I do not have to grade by hand and quizzes are organized in a grade book. Even if students can use their notes or book, they need to know the material prior to taking the test because teachers have the option to set the amount of time for quizzes. Overall Edmodo quizzes are a paperless option for teachers to assess students' progress and students get feedback on what they do not know or they must study more before unit tests. 

3. Essays, Edmodo allows students to upload documents. One activity for students using Edmodo is Literature Circles. Teachers create reading groups where students can share their thoughts and discuss what they read in school and at home. Students must provide text evidence and page numbers to support their opinions in the group. Literacy circles represent an opportunity for students to engage in reflection through reading and responding to literature. Students must share  their work based on their roles ( illustrator,summarizer, discussion director, and literary luminary)  prior to having an in-class reading discussion.

Week 8: Blog post 9: Create a Prezi presentation 

My Prezi Presentation: 

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Week 8: Articles

For this week, I read two articles from my education blogs. The first one is titled, “ Top Five ways teachers can incorporate Education Technology into the classroom” which appears in Gettingsmart.com, the author suggests practical ways integrate technology into the classroom. Some apps are part of my Web Tool course as Pinterest and Google Drive are mentioned in the article as excellent online tools for collaborating with students for sources for a project. For example, Google Classroom provides students a platform where they can share their documents and to better  organize their class work. I am glad to know about these apps from my Web Tools course because they are fantastic for creating a learning community with students. There are apps that I have not use with students such as the Stick Pick or SmartSeat which allows teachers to create an efficient way to call on students to participate in the class or creates quickly seating charts. The article also provides new software to communicate with parents by sending messages through Appletree or Class Dojo. I think that it can be a good alternative if parents prefer messages than checking the class blog. Overall the article is informative and provides the best apps to use in the classroom that is user-friendly for beginners. The next article is titled, “Using Emojis to Teach Critical Reading Skills” which appears in the Edutopia.org, the author, Marissa King, suggest an innovated way for teachers to connect with students by transferring their digital skills to written contexts. The author proves that students’ use of emojis in their social media can be useful when they are learning inferring and context clues strategies in the classroom. The author informs readers how she has been able to use emojis-decoding to teach context clues as a reading strategy with students. It can a different approach yet it proves to be engaging with students because they know that an emoji have multiples meanings.They must figure out the meaning by using the writer's message, photo, and emoji. The author shares with readers class activities and projects for students to do, for example, students, create social media guides on emojis and how emojis can change the context of the meaning. Overall these two articles introduce excellent ideas on how teachers can use technology to connect with students. From apps to emojis, technology is constantly evolving and teachers must find ways to relate to students’ lives through lessons and technology.

Links: http://gettingsmart.com/2016/10/top-5-ways-teachers-can-incorporate-edtech-into-the-classroom/

http://www.edutopia.org/article/using-emojis-to-teach-critical-reading-skills-marissa-king

Blog post 8: Using Google Drive for teaching and learning

I was introduced to Google Drive a couple of years ago by classmates in my Education courses. I was an undergraduate student and I was assigned to create a reading lesson plan and class presentation in less than one week. My teammates knew about Google Drive and they shared with me a Google Doc. I was impressed to know that it was a free app for everyone to use and we could be working and editing our work without meeting face-to-face.

During this Fall semester, one of my college professors uploaded all the class material through this app.  it was the first time for me to use Google Drive to have access to the notes, syllabus and class PowerPoints.

Google Docs: My favorite thing about using Google Docs is having the option to collaborate with colleagues on lesson plans, PLCs or committee’s projects. These are free features that any teacher can edit the documents even at the same time and have access to all documents. For example, teachers can videotape themselves teaching a lesson and teachers can share the videos with colleagues. Once teachers watched the lesson then they can provide feedback and learning strategies to improve the quality of the instruction. Doing this benefits all teachers, especially the first year teachers working at the school.
     

Google Formats:  There are three ways that I can use google formats in my classroom. First, I can create a student survey to get to know more my students at the beginning of the school year. I think that it is a great way to collect students’ data and it can be electronically saved for me. I will probably do an English-Spanish parent survey and posted on the class website or blog. However, hard copies of both surveys can distribute to students in case they do not have access to the internet at home.  Another activity is using this app for the daily exit tickets. Often times students use sticky notes to write their reflections, but using Google Forms to do an exit ticket with multiple choice, paragraph questions. It represents an opportunity to monitor what are students are getting out from the lessons and reflect on their learning.

Google Drive

Grade level: Middle School

Subject area: English-Reading / Social studies

What students will be doing: Group projects and have access to school materials

Students are working in groups of four people and they are assigned a topic from the Revolution and Early America. Some of the topics include the Great Awakening, Stamp Act, Declaration of Independence, etc. Students are responsible for read chapters, provide arguments about these topics to the class and analyze the set of photographs from this time period.

 I can create google groups based on topics for students to discuss their project ideas. Students will create a Google Drive Folder for their group where they can organize their research information into subfolders with the class notes, lessons, PowerPoints presentations, the class rubric, etc.  The main objective for students is to share their work with their classmates and discuss what does the photograph tell you about the time period and the context. 

School Survey 

This is my first survey using Google Forms.
 I decided to create a new student survey to be use with students in the first week of school.

                                                                           https://goo.gl/forms/usFh4aZnc1eNHKp23