Social Media in schools

Do you believe that social media is here to stay? I do. I see many applications in business as a way for businesses to connect with customers. In business, it may even evolve into an essential community building tool. But I am not so sure that social media will play as an essential role in community building in education for day to day teaching.

Social media is the technology that makes online community building possible, not the community itself. It allows for the creation of and service to, online communities, where dialogue and interaction among community founders and members are possible. Some examples include but are not limited to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Picasa and MySpace.

It is true that electronic communication and social media create new options for extending and enhancing education. However, in surveying my students, they unanimously said that they would prefer going to a class to interact socially and academically with other students. Also, they said that they would want to have content explained to them thoroughly and receive immediate feedback to their work to ensure they are on the right path.


There is no question that a website may be a very important part of your online presence, but it is not a very effective community-building tool. However, a website can become a platform from which you launch and serve your student communities. Think of your website as your classroom where you teach students using social media as the place you guide and push the thinking of students.

There is one critically important thing for a teacher to understand about both of the online student community types: The teacher cannot entirely control community behavior. Members – students and prospects – control the conversation in the community. The teacher can only create and influence the community by establishing and demonstrating school community values.

As an addendum, professional bodies such as the Ontario College of Teachers recently posted a Professional Advisory: Use of Electronic Communication and Social Media. The advisory offers advice to teachers on how best to use electronic communication and social media with students.

Where do you stand? What’s your story?

image via My Crowd

Social Media Accessing the Knowledge About Teaching

How do teachers, collectively, improve the common standard of teaching? How do they build the professional knowledge base for teaching?

Currently and traditionally results of research are first validated, then communicated in research journals to educators who in turn have to figure out how to apply the research themselves in a classroom situation. The model below shows the cycle produced by research.




Lesson Study

The key to lesson study is accumulated in a different way. Lesson study is carried out in a classroom; therefore the problem of applying findings to teaching is eliminated. First teachers describe the lesson to be shared with sufficient detail to other teachers so that they can actually use the lessons. We avoid the barrier of having to communicate in journals or try to apply what we have read. Instead this sharing of lesson can be replicated at different levels and promote discussion at staff meetings to see how students are faring.


The use of technology can greatly enhance knowledge about teaching in that the most useful information that can be shared can include examples of classroom lessons linked to theoretical understanding of teaching. We already have the tools to link together video, audio, images of student work, and commentary by researchers and others into a single integrated database.

Social Media Database:



With the above database:
* Curriculum developers could establish large archives of lessons that are organized around the specific structures of the curricula.
* Teacher groups could work on perfecting lessons, then post results of their study, including a complete video record.
* Other teacher groups could access these archives to inform their practice.

The idea is not new, but it needs to be streamlined more. The use of twitter , facebook and other social media might be the grass roots movement to these larger databases. It might even begin in your own school. If it is I would love to hear about it.

What's your story?

Understanding the Social Media Landscape

Fred Cavazza divides different tools and services and groups them into categories

• Publication tools with blogs (Typepad, Blogger…), wikis (Wikipedia, Wikia, Wetpaint…) and citizen journalism portals (Digg, Newsvine…)
• Sharing tools for videos (YouTube…), pictures (FlickR…), links (del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia…), music (Last.fm, iLike…), slideshows (Slideshare), products reviews (Crowdstorm, Stylehive…) or products feedbacks (Feedback 2.0, GetSatisfaction…)
• Discussions tools like forums (PHPbb, vBulletin, Phorum…), video forums (Seesmic), instant messaging (Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Meebo…) and VoIP (Skype, Google Talk…)
• Social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut…), niche social networks (LinkedIn, Boompa…) and tools for creating social networks (Ning)
• Micropublication tools (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk, Adocu…) and alike (twitxr, tweetpeek)
• Social aggregation tools like lifestream (FriendFeed, Socializr, Socialthing!, lifestrea.ms, Profilactic…)
• Platforms for livecast hosting (Justin.tv, BlogTV, Yahoo! Live, UStream…) and there mobile equivalent (Qik, Flixwagon, Kyte, LiveCastr…)
• Virtual worlds (Second Life, Entropia Universe, There…), 3D chats (Habbo, IMVU…) and teens dedicated virtual universes (Stardoll, Club Penguin…)
• Social gaming platforms (ImInLikeWithYou, Doof…), casual gaming portals (Pogo, Cafe, Kongregate…) and social networks enabeled games (Three Rings, SGN)
• MMO (Neopets, Gaia Online, Kart Rider, Drift City, Maple Story) and MMORPG (World of Warcraft, Age of Conan…)

Infographic - Are we Digital Dummies?

Understanding Creative Commons - Case Study

Learning to teach online PDF
Copyright and creative commons is particularly important in the educational context where content is often copied, shared, reused and remixed by both teachers and students in the learning and teaching process. This episode explains the basics of creative commons. We examine some of the different license terms and combinations, and offer some insights into which might be better suited for educational purposes. We also discuss how to generate your own creative commons license and what to do when your work is not attributed by others.

Reference: Australian Learning and Teaching Council

4 ways 2 motivate: keeping it real with students

Earlier today I asked three questions on twitter:

1. What steps can you take to help a student who is negative because of the effects of his/her procrastination? #edchat
2. Do students feel comfortable bringing their problems to you? #edchat
3. How do you introduce a positive element into the assignments you give students? #edchat

If we want positive upbeat students, we need to be the same. We may believe that such a climate is impossible to achieve. But it begins with recognizing, valuing, and rewarding upbeat student behaviours and attitudes. The choice is ours.

Use upbeat positive language
Creating and maintaining a positive class environment depends on the language we use. The power of words has a huge impact on student work as it does on student performance. Telling a student they “should” have studied for the test rather than “could” have studied for the test has an effect on student performance. The word “should” is quite judgemental while the word “could” allows for gentle suggestion, correction, or criticism.

Capitalize on students' needs
Students learn best when motivations for learning in a classroom satisfy their own goals. Some of the needs your students may bring to the classroom are the need to learn something in order to complete a particular task or activity, the need to seek new experiences, the need to perfect skills, the need to overcome challenges, the need to become competent, the need to succeed and do well, the need to feel involved and to interact with other people. Satisfying such needs is rewarding in itself, and such rewards sustain learning more effectively than do grades. Design assignments, in-class activities, and discussion questions to address these kinds of needs. (Source: McMillan and Forsyth, 1991)

Engage students in the learning.
Students learn by doing, making, writing, designing, creating, solving. Watching a movie, listening to a lecture, completing worksheets, reduces students' motivation and curiosity. Pose questions. Avoid telling students something when you can ask them.Encourage students to ask questions, suggest approaches to a problem or to guess the results which are meaningful to them. Use small group work.

What makes my class "motivating?"
Ask students to recall two recent class periods, one in which they were highly motivated and one in which their motivation was low. Each student makes a list of specific aspects of the two classes that influenced his or her level of motivation, and students then meet in small groups to reach consensus on characteristics that contribute to high and low motivation. What characteristics emerge as major contributors to student motivation?

• Instructor's enthusiasm
• Relevance of the material
• Organization of the course
• Appropriate difficulty level of the material
• Active involvement of students
• Variety
• Rapport between teacher and students
• Use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples

Motivation is not about using the latest gimmicks or incentives. All you have to do is love your subject, be upbeat, watch negative language, engage students in learning, and ask them what kind of classes they like. In the end, keep it real.

Open 6 doors: one lesson at a time

If we are serious about improving teaching, then we need to begin to open the doors to one another’s classes. This article is not suggesting that the system is broken, but rather it is about giving suggestions on how we might begin to see improvement in the school one lesson at a time.

Anticipate improvement to be continual, gradual, and incremental
If we believe that we can wave a magic wand and expect that improvement in our classes overnight, we are living in a dream. Learning takes time. In spite of the new reforms, initiatives or creativities; change may be thrown on us quickly, but it is really a slow and incremental process. Continue to invent small changes in the system and keep track in order that they may be shared.

Focus on student learning
The point of teaching is student learning. If we forget this point, then measuring success of students will be an impossible task. We need to begin asking one another how these changes are improving students learning in order that we might stay on track and not get lost in excitement of change.

Focus on the teaching
Teachers come and go. Teaching on the other hand focuses on the methods and the tools. Collaboration is key to scripting our approach. Our script is looking at what we value, what we want to improve, what tools we are going to use, what benchmarks we are going to use. Once we begin examine our methods and tools, and then improvement will begin to emerge.

Improve with context
Improvements in teaching do not begin at the University, at the Ministry nor at the Board Office. They begin and end in the classrooms where our students learn and our teachers teach. Teachers have known forever what works in one classroom might not work in another. On Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs we see innovation being spread like wild fire. Innovation needs to be tried out over and over again with adjustments as we encounter different classrooms. Traditional methods of weekend workshops and the like do not always allow for improvement to take place in the classroom as they are far too often disconnected to your context in the classroom. Make the innovation real and in context and begin to see improvements emerge continually, gradually, and incrementally.

Take responsibility
Improvement doesn’t happen on its own. It is developed in context and engages the learners though working with other highly qualified professionals to entrust change. If we, as teachers, are the only ones who can entrust change, then we need to seek out the tools, the research, and the best solution to the problem of improving our teaching.

Learn from experience
Each new teacher that enters a classroom starts from scratch. They are capable of solving problems, trying new approaches, and developing their own knowledge base for teaching. But what is missing is their experience. So the team of teachers who have been working together for the long run, incrementally changing and storing professional knowledge might be effective, but that knowledge and experience needs to be shared. New teachers to the profession need to find a mentor, while experienced teachers need to provide a means to share their insights. How else can we get better over time?

Once we begin opening the doors to one another’s classrooms, we might begin to see what we have learned about teaching. The fruits of this learning, might emerge in school improvement over time.

Evernote

Great tool for students. My question is who owns the copyright?

Grading : DR. Douglas Reeves

Which class would you choose?

	Classroom A	Classroom B	Classroom C
Similarities	5o minute class about to begin, students in rows of desks, Students with binders and books, posters in the room, high yield strategies posted, teachers desk, computers, interactive whiteboard, and similar atmosphere, teachers welcome students and say "Let's get started"
9 a.m.	Teacher A checks homework Calls on students for attendance	Teacher B reviews yesterday's lesson Teacher B assigns new twist to the same problem Students present an approach and solution to the new problem	Teacher C asks students short answer review questions in a warm-up style Teacher checks homework and does attendance by calling on students for answers.
9:10	Teacher A presents a problem to students Students answer specific questions related to the problem Teacher B emphasizes specific methods to solving the problem	Teacher B presents the task of the day and monitors progress Students work at on it independently Teacher takes attendance	Teacher C distributes worksheets with similar problems Students work independently Teacher C monitors work Teacher C notices confusions and demonstrates how to problem solve
9:20	Students begin working on a handout. Teacher A asks that they stay on task. Class reviews the work by reading answers aloud from the handout.	Teacher B suggests students continue their work in small groups. Small group leaders share problems with teacher who writes them on the whiteboard Class discussion ensues	Teacher C presents another worksheet with more challenging problems Students work independently
9:40	Teacher assigns homework Students get a head-start on homework	Teacher B highlights a good method to solving the problems No homework assigned	Teacher conducts a quick oral review Teacher assigns homework
9:50	Class dismissed

Call for Action

In my reading of Getting Started the authors ask the the questions: What do we expect our students to learn? How will we know they have learned? How will respond when students don’t learn?

To answer these questions, we need to build a collaborative culture in schools and organizing teams to develop mission, vision, values and goals. What is the school we are trying to create? What is our purpose? If we are serious about the implementation of collective commitments to move our schools in the intended direction of technology and creativity we need to continuously promote, protect and defend the vision and values.

Let’s explore this a little further: What are we planning for? What are we modelling as a staff to our students (you can’t give what you don’t got)? What do we monitor? What do we celebrate? What are we willing to confront? How are we prepared to allocate time, energy, money? What other questions are driving our school?
It is not about recreating schools but redefining and prioritizing our focus for our respective districts and schools.

To start you on your journey explore the following link:

32 ways to use Google Apps

What’s your story?

You can't give what you don't got...

even if …
i pads or i phones or
moodle or google or
blogs or gadgets or bing…
That you use is the very best one,
Teaching SMART is so much fun.

If you are “new” to the world of teaching with technology, remember you can’t give what you don’t got. Keep in mind that every teacher and every team has a hand in the school improvement plan. Generally, all plans are designed to increase student achievement. If you want to add technology into the plan you have to identify and pursue SMART goals. Otherwise technology for the sake of technology is the ideology of the cancer cell.

Key Questions:
1) What knowledge and skills should each student acquire from the use of the technology?
2) How do we know if the student has mastered the intended outcomes?
3) How will we respond when a student has initial difficulty achieving the established standards you set?

An ounce of planning:
Once the above questions are asked and answered, we are able to align our time, money, and energy in a way that would give us the biggest return on investment of our scarce resources. This leads to celebrations. No matter how big or how small, we look for celebrations and the use of technology with our students in their inevitable achievement.

I encourage you to keep tweeting, moodling, googling, blogging – SHARING … with the goal toward student achievement and engagement. I look forward to learning from each other, only then will I be able to give what I got.

What's your story?

photo credit flickr

Technology: Time, Perspective, Priorities

I read a tweet recently that, I must admit, annoyed me a little. It suggested that teachers are the reason that technology is not advancing as quickly as it ought in the public school system. I would like to submit a different point of view.

In a previous article “Gone Fishing”, I spoke of students having greater equality access to knowledge and more opportunities to be challenged to their highest potential with the use of technology [despite the teacher]. Also, in my article “I don’t have the time” I highlighted that everything we do is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, grading periods, semesters, or academic years to name a few. Put the two ideas together and it occurs to me it comes down to time, perspective, and priorities.



Time
Teachers are concerned with “engaged time”; inviting students to participate in learning activities; technological or otherwise. If this is true, then how can a teacher be expected to find the time to finish all the “have to’s” participate in board initiated professional development, take additional qualifications, raise a young family, …

even if …
i pads or i phones or
moogle or google or
blogs or gadgets or bing…
That you use is the very best one,
Learning without time is just no fun.


Perspective
Perspective is a powerful tool. Perhaps we need to put aside the “have to’s” and change perspective in the way we define our jobs. Consider Dufour’s story about a young woman who observed three tradesmen at work. Each tradesman was doing the same activity. She went to the first tradesmen and asked what he was doing; he replied “I’m just laying brick”. She went to the second tradesmen and asked what he was doing; he replied “I’m building a wall”. She went to the third tradesmen and asked what he was doing; he replied “I’m building a Cathedral”. Each one had the same task to complete, but three very different perspectives on what he was accomplishing.

Instead of “laying a brick” focus on “building a Cathedral”…

even if …
i pads or i phones or
moogle or google or
blogs or gadgets or bing…
That you use is the very best one,
Learning without perspective is just no fun.



Priorities
Once you have decided to “build a Cathedral” then anything is possible. The Savvy Duck suggests a number of factors when choosing to use hardware or software. Here is his quick list:
• Does it really solve the problem or do I just want to use it?
• How long will it take to integrate and build from?
• Does anyone in the building have any experience using it?
• How much does it cost and are support agreements available?
• What is the licensing scheme?
• How big is the internet community?
• What are the posts like in the support forum (if there is one)?
• How long has it been available?

If you decide in the end that it does meet the criteria to assist your students in their learning, then time no longer becomes an issue. You cannot choose to create more time, but you can choose your focus…

even if …
i pads or i phones or
moogle or google or
blogs or gadgets or bing…
That you use is the very best one,
Learning with priorities is so much fun.

Search and Google

I want to increase the probability of learning in my students, so I assist them to develop skills they need in order to be self-directed / independent learners. I use a search strategy to assist them in the preparation and planning stage before googling. My research projects usually focus on a question to be answered rather than a general topic.

With the use of a problematic situation I heighten students’ curiosity and engage them to want to do more. As the students begin the task that is set before them, I assist the students to make connections and monitor their understanding. Finally, when it comes near the end of the task for the summative report, I engage the students in a reflection.

Specifically students:

1) Select a specific topic of interest to study
2) Establish what students know, think they know, and want to know about the topic. I usually have them think-pair-share to stimulate ideas. Then they record their ideas into categories. Students soon discover they know more than they realize and boost their confidence.
3) Ask questions to raise curiosity and challenge students by asking for more specific information when they share about their topic.
4) Read resource material, including google searches, to verify what they know and think they know, to answer questions, and raise new questions.
5) Come together like scholars; to review their findings.
6) Have large group discussion to share their findings, and to identify unanswered questions as well as new questions for further research.

When students feel overwhelmed I use this search and google technique.

What’s your story?

photo credit CBC

Gone fishing...

Teaching information in a variety of contexts gives students greater equality in access to knowledge and more opportunities to be challenged to their highest potential. The old adage holds true: “Give a student a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." We already know education gives children the most critical building blocks to adulthood and self-sufficiency. In this scenario the student gets to be in the moment, HEAR the water slap against the boat; SMELL the water and the natural odours of the out-of doors; FEEL the tug of the fish on the line, the splash of the fish in the boat; SEE the size of the fish as it tries to flop back in the water; and finally TASTE the delicious fish as it is cooked over a camp fire.

Lessons incorporating cross-curricular studies , discovery science, role play, games, physical activity, art, music, or drama have the advantage of stimulating the brain (Thesen, Jonas, Calvert, and Ostenbauer 2004). Naturally a teacher is not expected to simulate every sense simultaneously. Rather teachers should engage all learning styles, thus drawing all students into the topic; whatever the subject.

If teaching a student to fish is multisensory, by all accounts would suggest an increased number of synapses and dendrites stimulated during the activity and would support the theory of multisensory input and the effect on the brain. Therefore, if greater brain stimulation promotes the growth of synapses and dendrites, and more areas are stimulated when information is passed through multiple senses, then multisensory presentation of lesson material could stimulate the growth of more brain connections and lead to better information storage.

So what? Since multisensory inputs more than one specific sensory receptor of the brain, then multisensory strategies may increase subsequent access of the cross-referenced memories for use on tests and build future relational memories.

Now if I could just teach the fish to bite…

What’s your story?

photo by spottedsparrow (Julia)

References: Thesen,T, Jonas, V., Calvert, G., & Osterbauer, R. (2004). Neoroimaging of multisensory processing in vision, audition, touch, and olfaction. Cognitive Processing

Creating student portfolios

What should be included in a student portfolio? Ask the student and let her help decide.

Portfolio assessment provides a variety of means to document and assess student work. A student portfolio is similar to one of an artist. An artist carries a portfolio to show prospective clients examples of her best work.

In student portfolios students might choose to add
a) peer observation and evaluation;
b) evidence of self reflection, self knowledge, self evaluation;
c) items that tell a story of the journey of the year;
d) teacher observations;
e) things that show growth and change (eg extra-curricular, interests, attitudes);
f) items that demonstrate "my best work done to date";
g) information from parents;
h) items that indicate transfer of learning;
i) evidence of progress toward year's goal;
j) ...

Portfolios are performance based assessments that match assessments in the "real world". Students receive immediate feedback, gain confidence by acknowledgements of their strengths, and gain insight into how to improvement.

Why not ask students to be present for parent-teacher conferences and have them conference with their parents about their portfolios?

What's your story?

Photo credit Rick Harrison

Always use a green pencil

When a teacher uses a red pencil to comment, she shows greater concern with what’s wrong than with what’s right. At least, this is the perception held by my students.
Which is why our professional objective should be to draw the most out of our students and to build attitudes, behaviours and learning results we want – while remaining credible and objective. To achieve this objective we should correct students whenever and wherever it is need, AND praise students constructively and appropriately as well.

Correction always gets a bad rap when it is void of compassion. Being compassionate should be high on our list. Nevertheless, correction ought to connect current performance to standards and achievement. Therefore, correcting with compassion needs to be regarded as a major instructional tool.

People crave praise. This is important to our effectiveness. With praise comes recognition. If we overuse praise, we can devalue a person and weaken its motivational effect. Praise must be honest. Praise must be deserved. It must always be accompanied by advantages and benefits. It should be regarded as important and meaningful.

If you haven’t praised your students in the last two weeks, there are two possible problems. There is either a performance problem in your classroom – or your too stingy with your praise. Remember, you can always praise to improve performance. An example includes: A) “You’re doing very well with…” B) “Why not try this…” C) “I know you can do it!” – Notice I used the “praise (A)-correction (B)-praise (C)” technique.

In my experience I have never met a student who said “Enough praise already”. Praise is an effective tool. Students feed off of it, they perform for it. It motivates students to do better. It must be deserved. Dish it out at the right time, you will see results; dish it out at the wrong time, you could do more harm than good.

Praising our students meets their needs. That is why praise is a vital tool a teacher must know how to use honestly with each student. That’s why I always use a green pencil when I mark a paper.

What’s your story?

photo credit Susanna Farrar

Not another graphic organizer

Today's students need to be effective thinkers, team players, writers and strategic planners. Graphic organizers like Venn Diagrammes, T-Charts and the like provide a blueprint to encourage and develop these valuable skills in our students.

Graphic organizers assist the student to question any of the following components in reading or multi-media material including central idea, particular statement, example that supports and idea, proof of a fact, definition of a concept.

Engaging students in the critical thinking process means asking students to discover and uncover similarities, differences, causes and effects, examples of ideas, ideas to examples and evaluation. Within these processes students ask questions that use mind actions including: this reminds me of? How is this different from my experience, why did this happen or what caused this, What is the central idea, what evidence do I have to support this, or how do I evaluate this?

Here is a link to get you started.... GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
To suggest that one graphic organizer over another is better, is a statement that does not look at the student but rather the tool. Nevertheless, a discovery with a graphic organizer is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.

What's your story?

Photo credit Learningfocused

Homework: Complain, complain, complain...

If we give out homework, we hear complaints. If we never give out homework, we still hear complaints. Famous phrases we hear are – it’s too long, it’s too difficult, I don’t understand it, it’s too easy, it’s too short, I feel like I’m wasting my time.

There has been much debate about homework. Some Boards and schools have homework policies in relation to learning and achievement. This then raises more questions about homework practices and implementation.



So what is homework? According to Google dictionary:
home•work noun /ˈhōmˌwərk/ 
1. Schoolwork that a student is required to do at home

2. Work or study done in preparation for a certain event or situation
he had evidently done his homework and read his predecessor's reports

3. Paid work carried out in one's own home, esp. low-paid piecework

Let me add that homework is practice, reinforcement or application of new skills and knowledge, and to learn new skills of independent study (NREL). Let’s explore the purpose of homework…

Homework
1. Provide students with additional practice of newly taught skills and
knowledge. Beware that if students learn new skills or knowledge
independently and inaccurately, unlearning new information can be difficult.
2. Increase the amount of time students are actively engaged in learning.
Homework can help students increase their skills and acquire deeper
knowledge.
3. Helps teachers monitor student progress and diagnose learning problems. It
may give you valuable information that you need to have to make appropriate
adjustments to nurture student learning.
4. Allows students to move through the curriculum more rapidly. Without
homework, students may lose interest.
5. Increases communication between the parents and the school. Without
homework, parents may not have any idea what their child is learning in
school.
6. Increases student responsibility and individual accountability for their
own work. Our task is to help students acquire the habits that will
facilitate their success the rest of their lives.

If handled appropriately, homework can have a positive impact on achievement. To do so we must assign the right amount for the grade level, be clear and have a purpose, and never be “busy work” or a “punishment”. Finally, not all our students have the same resources at home including involved parents, computer, routines and so forth. Ideally homework should be substantial and positive toward student achievement. Maybe then the complaints will begin to dwindle.

What’s your story?

photo istock

My way or the highway

With the students that I have worked with over my career, I have come across students who misbehave. In my experience, misbehaviour comes from a student’s feelings of inadequacies. Feeling inadequate can lead to anger which can lead to bullying, and feelings of arrogance can lead to attention seeking behaviour.

Where we often find an impasse and escalate a situation is when we take a stand as teachers and say “it’s my way or the highway”. Listening and open communication are the best policies, as they allow us to identify feelings to begin to help students. Blocking the two-way street of communication and paving a highway your way leads to devastation.

Simply respond to students as good citizens and know that they are usually harder on themselves then we could ever be. Let’s begin to look at the rules in our classrooms as structure that gives safety and freedom to every student, including you!

What's your story?