Blog #1: How can/should social media be used to help you develop/collaborate/communicate as a professional? What are the critical issues to consider? Currently, I use Twitter as well as Facebook to access/share chats and information concerning the latest information about education to provide professional develop for myself and other colleagues/classmates. As a part of my professional learning network (PLN), I follow mainly Edutopia, WeAreTeachers, KQED Mindshift, ASCD, and Buck Institute as well as #edchat, #edumuses, and #pblchat to learn and contribute comments about classroom management; pedagogical strategies for academic content; best practices for teaching struggling learners, students with various learning challenges (dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.) advanced learners, and students with limited English proficiency; social/emotional/behavioral strategies through positive behavior implementation and support; brain-based teaching and learning; and inquiry-based learning. In the classroom, my students and I utilize Edmodo to develop reading engagement through threaded discussions among the students and myself. Students share their perspectives about the books they are reading -- connecting characters and plots to other texts, current events, and personal experiences. Through Edmodo, I have witnessed students engaging respectfully and excitedly not only about the books they are reading, but also about the books other students are reading. I have seen comments such as, but not limited to: "I can't wait until I get to read your book when you're finished," "I know how you feel about ___ because ___," and "What I love so is ___ because ___." Critical issues have not occured with my students because they know I am managing/can view/delete these discussion threads. They have not been disrespectful in their responses to each other when using Edmodo. However, I have experienced a few students being disrespectful in emails. In those cases, alongside directly speaking with the students involved, I have contacted parents to let them know of their child's inappropriate use of technology and reminded everyone to technology responsibly. So far, no student has lost priviledges to use technology in our class because the inappropriateness was corrected. Critical issues that would need to be considered if we were to expand beyond Edmodo and email include cyberbullying, identity theft, plagiarism, and exposing student inappropriate content on the Internet. Because of these concerns, it is imperative that students are explicitly taught about Digital Citizenship and how to report inappropriate use of technology. Blog #2: What would you do if you were to come across an inappropriate post made by one of your students outside of the school. Do you address the post and, if so, how? Whom do you involve in the conversations? What considerations must you make in determining your course of action? If I knew of any inappropriate post made by any of our students outside of school, I would immediately inform our school administrator and let him/her know what I saw, when I saw it, and on what website the posting existed. Our district is very clear about us teachers not having social media contact with students to limit any potential liabilities.
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Blog: Who is the audience you want to address for the remaining two semesters? What are your initial ideas for where you might go in addressing the challenge of creating a resource to influence others and share your knowledge & research based on early readings of Dervin, Baggio and Clark? The audience I want to address for the remaining two semesters are first-my students, second-their parents, and third-my colleagues. Whatever I intend to teach, it must be relevant, purposeful, and engaging for the learner/the user of my instructional design. Based on what I have learned so far from Baggio, Clark, and Dervin -- those notes can be found on the EDUC 791 page of this website -- my initial ideas have to do with creating a resource that (1) shows/models what needs to be done/learned; (2) explicitly tells them what they need to do to complete the tasks; (3) helps them recognize they can use the knowledge in other situations such as other assignments and/or their learning journey (that is, learning how to learn) can be applied for other research. Blog #1: Given that we know technology/digital literacy has to be taught (we can’t rely on the theory of the digital native), and given your already full curriculum, how will you begin to teach digital literacy? Our elementary school site decided that at the beginning of the school year, all K-5 students would be required to complete the Common Sense Media website's five lessons/games with accompanying videos and handout packets with a minimum passing score of 80% to demonstrate they understood the school-wide expectations for appropriate Internet usage and digital citizenship. In addition, I set-up individual accounts for each student on the www.typing.com website to learn keyboarding skills at home beyond school hours and during computer lab time at school. Further, I have begun to explicity and directly teach students who are using the Napa Valley Unified School District's ALPS Project Zone how to use Google Drive Docs and Slides so they can collaborate on their projects. Using those Google Drive applications, I have taught students how to create Docs and Slides, edit them, share them, insert images, and use the History capability to recover prior versions of their work in case one of their team members changes or deletes parts, accidentally or purposefully without the team's approval. To assess student learning, both of the websites for digital citizenship and typing allow me to track my students' progress, and I can see the levels of proficiency my students have attained through their project's digital presentations. Blog #2: Tool Review - Please share a tool (other than a Google App for Edu) that you currently use and find useful. Explain why you use the tool. Outline the tool’s capacity and explain how you use the tool. Please also share the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. Also address the following questions in your post: How long did it take to get up to speed on how to use the tool proficiently? What worked well for you and what didn’t when using the tool with your students or for your own project? Were you using the right tool for the right job? How do you know? First, "Powtoons" was a fun animation/presentation tool used by two former TUC classmates and me when I was part of TUC's Cohort 9. I loved more than anything that we three used an app than none of us had ever used before, which made the learning that much more exciting for all of us when we went through the process of putting our presentation together about the "Brain and the Creativity Mindset." The final presentation was proof that we gained proficiency in using the variety of tools through that app. Strengths included its ease of use: it was user-friendly for anyone who had a willingness to figure things out on one's own, and there were many fancy gadgets and components we were able to use during the trial period in comparison to the basic, free app's limited tools. One person created the account, then we took turns signing in at designated times to work on our own parts for the team project. Weaknesses included these two facts: only one team member could work on it at a time rather than having real-time collaboration simultaneously, and the voice recording component's quality of our own voices was not as good as its own announcer's volume level and pronunciation clarity. The announcer's voice could have been selected and used if we would have agreed to just type the text we wanted so the software announcer could narrate it; however, we all wanted to try to speak our parts as if we were like our students in class (that is, students ranging from 4th grade to middle school to high school). As long as you are willing to work at different times to create and record your portion of a group, animated presentation, then Powtoons will be a great, fun and easy tool to use. The second tool I must blog about is wonderful! In addition to the generally used classroom email distribution list that I have used since becoming a teacher, the tool/app I began to use this school year to communicate with parents is "Remind," which is an app that can be accessed on their basic cellular phones as well as their smartphones. I began to use Remind when I learned from parents and students during our September Back to School Night that there was no Internet access at home, which meant they would not be able to receive any of my emails intended to be sent to everyone. Therefore, I began using both applications to communicate with parents as a whole group as well as with individual parents. However, the difference between them mainly is the number of characters I can use in each tool. For example, I use email to send large amounts of information such as scanned documents, pdfs, long detailed instructions, several pictures at one time, etc. On the other hand, when I send information to the class group of parents using the Remind app, I am limited to 140 characters--including alpha/numeric characters, punctuation, and spaces. I had to learn how to become succinct and pithy in conveying those brief messages, similar to Twitter's character/spaces limitation; I found myself revising my message several times to assure effective and efficient sensemaking by the parents, especially because several parents spoke English as their second language. Students whose parents did not read or speak English would translate my messages for their parents. The Remind app is used when I need to send a quick reminder such as "Please have your child return the signed field trip form with $3.50 entry fee tomorrow. Thank you & Sleep well! ~ Mrs. MH" (Sent without quotation marks, of course.) What I especially like about this app is that my messages can reach them wherever they are as long as they have their cellular or smartphones with them. For example, when I send a Remind notice to parents to please bring 100% juice, fruits, vegetables, and/or popcorn to celebrate our students' BEST efforts; generally, parents respond immediately--lightning quick fast! In past years when I communicated with parents using email or paper notices, I had to allot more time for back-and-forth communication; whereas, with Remind, time is not an issue in communication, which is convenient for everyone. Learning Remind was relatively VERY SIMPLE for me to set-up and use because I am familiar with Twitter and texting. Instructions to join Remind were sent to parents in paper form; parents who wanted help in setting up their phones sat with me as I walked them through the very quick process. They were thrilled set-up and usage was so simple because we were successfully sending messages to each other right after setting-up! I was excited when I realized I could send a snapshot of students collaborating on their research projects; and, parents responded immediately with appreciation for the photograph of students in action. Strengths: Parents are not calling/texting my phone number directly; they are using the app even though it works on my cellular phone. It is great for quick reminders/requests; parents almost always have their cellular phones with them, so my messages have a higher probably of reaching them wherever they are; it works on basic cellphones and smartphones, regardless of Internet access; and, almost all parents in my class are using the Remind app to contact me, which means I can readily see their messages without the need for me to be connected to the Internet. Messages about absences, early releases, late arrivals, missing instruments, lunch/snack, etc. can be sent 24/7. Messages can be forwarded to the attendance office or to whomever necessary. Although I have not used Remind in this capacity, according to the app's buttons on my phone, it can be used to collect money and/or place orders. Wow, this could be a great convenience for organizing a fundraising activity or an event that requires money, but I am not sure yet about the purpose for which I would use it or if I would trust the collection of money through the app. Reminders or brief messages can be sent as a class announcement, to a specific designated group, and/or to an individual. Remind messages can be sent to email accounts if a parent or students does not have a cellular device. Weaknesses: Unless I turn off the sound on my phone, Remind messages can ring me 24/7. Some parents have learned I will answer their message until midnight (if they send a message to me to let me know their child is sick and won't be going to school.) My message(s) must be brief, so no instructions longer than 140 characters can be sent at one time. Overall: Based on our successful interactive messages, I believe Remind is an app that both parents and I would highly recommend for quick and brief communication! I am considering the use of Remind to include my students because most of them have cellular phones and/or NVUSD-created Google accounts/emails, which would increase the speed of direct communication and create easy accessibility between us. Blog: Describe your mental processes for figuring out what the Dervin article was about. The article is dense in content - so how did YOU make SENSE of it? What is she trying to teach? Facts? Processes? Concepts? Principles? If you had to teach this same content to a high schooler, what other media would you use to break it into mind-sized chunks or to make it easier to process according to how you think? When I first approached the Dervin article, I saw how dense it was and thought out loud, "Oh no, my brain is going to explode! How I can make sense of this information while making the most efficient and effective use of my time? A-ha, I'll check the Internet for any Dervin summaries and I'll also check if there are any YouTube videos, TED Talks, visuals like infographics, etc. about it." Somehow, watching and listening to a video and/or seeing infographics makes any content feel more accessible to me; and, I can stop to write notes plus replay/review any parts I need to go over again to build a stronger connection with the content. Dervin was trying to help her readers understand how humans/users make sense of information and information systems dealing with facts, processes, concepts, and principles. If I had to teach the same content to a high schooler, I would definitely use the methodology I used for myself. I learned how to learn about Dervin's topic by being the student. I would also recognize that several intrinsic and extrinsic aspects such as culture and politics can play huge roles in whether a process can work and/or a concept can be accepted, spoken about, or is taboo--for example. Therefore, because I felt like I had learned how to learn about Dervin by going through this process, I believe my user-experience would be a successful user-experience for the high school student. |
AuthorJulie C D Meyer-Houston began her exciting journey during Spring 2016 as a grad student in Touro University - California's Innovative Learning program to earn her Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree, which focuses on Social Justice & Equity and the use of technology in education. Archives
December 2016
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