Entering The Dark Side: Twitter Chats? LIS568

Well I have officially entered the “dark side” folks.  I have not only created a Twitter account, but I have also attended many Twitter chats!  I discussed Twitter in a broad sense in an earlier posting, however I wanted to give a more detailed look at the truly beneficial aspects of utilizing Twitter chats for professional development.  I have never had the urge to join Twitter, thus I just never did.  It could have been that I honestly felt it was completely useless to me personally and professionally.  However, through conversations with friends and colleagues I kept being introduced to many useful and beneficial functions of Twitter.  My biggest draws to Twitter were its, what seems like endless amount of, educational resources and the ability to essentially take part in professional development at a whim.  The following is a review of one of my first chats that I was a part of.

Some questions still existed though.  How can Twitter, a vast and diverse social media outlet, provide professional development for educators, and what kind of quality could it truly offer.  After I did some setting up and browsing, I was ready to put Twitter’s ability to provide professional development to the test.  Using a resource called Participate I was able to locate some Twitter chats.  Participate is a great website that provides its users with a very organized calendar with times that Twitter chats will be taking place.  Although, my first two attempts to join a chat were not successful, as nobody seemed to be active, by the third attempt I fortunately entered a lively and thriving discussion!  Organized by tweets (posts) being labeled with Q and A with their corresponding number (ex. Q1: or A2:), the Twitter chat was flowing basically like a normal conversation, but at a slower pace (typing instead of speaking) and with many active individuals (well over 10).  I was quite impressed with its simple yet effective organization.  A great feature was that there were two main users introducing/facilitating the new questions.  Questions were also tweeted earlier in the day, thus allowing individuals that planned to attend the chat to have the chance to review such thoughts.

Overall, the chat was very useful and extremely easy to be a part of.  I really enjoyed how Twitter limits the amount of characters one can use for each tweet.  I feel that such limitations truly provides users with more concise and to the point discussion.  Although, at times I did find myself having to look up some acronyms as users tried to limit their character usage.  With the slightly slower pace of conversation, I did not feel that this took away from my overall experience with the chat.  Where there were tons of useful content being shared, the overall acceptance that I felt into such a professional learning community (PLN) was quite impressive.  After all, this was my first time joining in on a community that seemed to have been meeting on the same day of the week (Wednesday) at the same time (8:00P.M. EST) consistently in the past.

I feel that the benefits educators can gain from taking part in Twitter chats certainly makes it a useful professional development tool.  Not only do users get exposed to relevant and rich information, but by using resources such as Participate users can pick and choose which chats they want to take part in.  Ultimately, allowing its users to easily be part of a diverse range of content areas.  I’m not sure how successful such professional development can be implemented at a district level, but on a personal level educators can surly reap in the benefits.  With such a networking opportunity being totally free, I feel it would be foolish to not take advantage of Twitter chats.  After all, isn't our main goal to provide our students with the best education that we possibly can?  Utilizing such an easy-to-use, yet extremely beneficial, tool seems like a very rational opportunity to take advantage of.

The Language of the Present and Future LIS568

Over the past months I have been exploring many different educational websites and apps with my students.  A website that I have found to be absolutely amazing in the classroom is Code.org.  This computer science website allows students to start to think like a software engineer, as users have the opportunity to code a vast amount of different applications.  I use this with my class during “morning work” time.  The time when students are settling into the building, signing up for lunches, listening to announcements, etc (I teach 4th grade).  Such time takes about 30 minutes each day, and I extend my morning work block an additional 20 minutes before we head to special.  This 50 minute block of time allows students to explore different applications, and if such applications seem sound I create an assignment that students work on for a couple of days before we move to the next website or app.  

With that said, Code.org offers so much for educators and the students.  More importantly, I have not come across anything that has cost money yet on the website!  The website is very vast, as it offers random game coding and modification to very structured courses with many lessons that build off of each other.  The resource even offers printable lesson plans that include lessons that are done offline as well (unplugged).  As an educator, you are able to create a virtual classroom in which you can assign specific lessons to your class.  Students can easily join your class by entering the login information on their end.  My students have access to one-to-one iPads, thus implementing such practices is very easy.  However, if you have computer labs or other means of digital devices that connect to the internet you can very easily implement such practices as well.  I really like the different hour of code courses built within the application, as they are structured lessons that build off of each other but not as long as the grade specific material.  Furthermore, the grade specific courses are great if you plan to utilize the application for an extended time as there is a culminating piece which students would love to reach and accomplish.  Both the hour of code and the grade specific material provides a very easy tracking method on each individual student’s progress if assigned through the virtual classroom function.  I really like how the website allows me to set up a classroom with each one of my students easily able to join.  I think it is important to note that the website runs very smoothly and works well on multiple platforms.

My students’ first experience with the website proved its benefits.  The first time I introduced the website I allowed students to do whatever they wanted on it.  All of them chose to explore the game coding and the modification of already completed games allowing students to customize games such as Flappy Bird.  When students customize or build a specific game, such as Flappy Bird, off of a provided foundation they are able to test the game.  Thus, whatever code students write in is how the game performs.  Every student was thoroughly engaged in their coding!  My plan is to now assign the grade level specific courses to my class.  Such courses provides students with explanation videos and coding lessons that build off of each other.  I can even take an easy grade for the grade book, making sure students stay on the course track and don’t get lost in only customizing and playing games.  The culminating piece to the course is actually the building of a small open world game!  Technology within our society is advancing more and more each day, thus having a resource such as Code.org allows students to engage in what will certainly be an imperative field as they enter their college and career endeavors.  As stated by Hayden (2016), “Computer science education enhances our children’s ability to think, engages them with hands-on teamwork and prepares them for a successful future. Who are we to deny them the language their future will rely on?”

Reference

Hayden, E. (2016). Coding for kids: The benefits of starting computer science education young. Rasmussen College. Retrieved from http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/technology/blog/coding-for-kids/.

iMovie vs. ABCya Animate LIS568

Mobile video creation apps, such as iMovie and ABCya Animate, offer much benefit to the classroom.  Such apps offer a great tool for students to use in the fabrication of material that can be used for assessments and overall creation purposes.  Not only does student work turn out great with the use of video creation apps, but students absolutely love creating material on such apps.  Integrating the use of iMovie, ABCya Animate, or any other video creation app can be as simple as just allowing students to use such an app in their next summative assessment.  I tend to be on the more guided inquiry and project basedlearning side of pedagogical approaches these days, thus utilizing such apps is very easy as students do a lot of presenting their findings.  Not only are video creation apps a good summative assessment, but they are also great formative assessments throughout the inquiry as well!  In the following I will discuss iMovie and ABCya Animate by providing and comparing general information and possible classroom uses of both.

iMovie was launched in October of 1999 and offers its users many functions, such as editing pre-made videos, using special effects, supported on multiple platforms, green screen capabilities, multiple track editing, and its user is able to export completed videos.  ABCya Animate, launched in August of 2013, lets students’ creativity run wild with up to 100 stop motion slides that be customize by drawing or using the embedded media.  The app also is supported on multiple platforms, uses in app media only, and its user is able to export finished videos as well.  iMovie allows iOS users on desktop, iPhone, and iPad platforms to produce high quality videos.  By importing media from external sources or using the automatically synced camera roll media, users are able to create highly customizable videos. iMovie can be confusing to users initially if they have had no training.  On the other hand, ABCya Animate is a very easy to use stop motion animation creator that is available to iPad users as well as Web users.  Users have the option to import background images, however users must use the available media embedded within the tool.  Users will not need prior knowledge on the tool’s function, as ABCya Animate presents a very simplistic approach.

In terms of classroom use iMovie allows students to create engaging presentations, as it also offers built in functions such as a movie trailer template.  The app provides allows students to be digital storytellers, and provides an out-of-school experience with imported media and/or green  features.  ABCya Animate allows students to retell and create stories, as well as demonstrate diverse understandings through stop motion creations.  The app can be accessed via the web and is free, as it also allows students to receive an out-of-school experience with importing background images.  Whereas iMovie is geared more towards upper elementary to upper secondary education, ABCya Animate is geared towards the primary grades.  Although, I can see older students benefiting and enjoying ABCya Animate as well.  Although iMovie poses a slightly greater challenge than ABCya Animate, the quality of iMovie’s final product and overall customizable functions makes it a valuable tool to use with students.

Photos For Class vs. Pixabay LIS568

The term “Google it” is by far a way too popular practice amongst our students and our overall society.  The issue with simply “Googling it” can be understood through Scheeren’s (2015) discussion regarding the internet.  He states, “The nature of the Internet as an unmediated network has resulted in large numbers of webpages with invalid, incorrect, or biased information” (p. 11).  This understanding certainly exemplifies the need for aspects of education that focus on overall digital literacy and digital competence.  Built within this 21st century knowledge is digital citizenship. Educator and author Mike Ribble explains digital citizenship as, “…a concept, which helps teachers, technology leaders, and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately” (Hollandsworth. Dowdy, & Donovan, 2011, p. 38).  Within digital citizenship comes a students’ responsibility to give credit to material that is used for work but not created by the student.  For example, an image used for a presentation.  Many times students simply do an image search on Google for whatever they are looking for and use whatever image they like without thinking twice about it.  Such a mindset is one that is present within a student before they are taught about digital citizenship and copyright laws.  With that said, creating a citation for every image used off of Google Images can certainly be daunting.  Thus, I present you two resources that are backed by Creative Commons, allowing its users to search and use material found on their website without the worry of copyright laws, Photos For Class and Pixabay.

Photos For Class allows its users to safely search for photos through its “classroom in mind” filter system. Other than being extremely safe, there are no other filtering options. Photos must be downloaded, however each downloaded photo has citation information embedded below the image.  Photos For Class is extremely easy to navigate, and it has learning opportunities within the website.  The resource provides students with information on how to cite, why it is important to cite, and the different licenses types.  Students can find photos for projects and presentations, easily download from the website, obtain photos with embedded citations below each downloaded photo, and have accurate citations under Creative Commons licensing.  

Pixabay allows its users to search for free of copyright photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and videos.  Although there is a safe search function, it takes a little searching to find it from the home screen.  Filter media by type, orientation, category, dimensions, and color.  Once a piece of media is selected users have the option to download, like, save to favorites, share, and find related media.  Pixabay offers very high quality photos as well as offers a social media side to the application with the share and like functions available.  The resource can be used in 26 different languages, thus the social media side can provide a cross-cultural aspect to your students’ education.  Students can easily download media on Android, IOS, and the web in four different sizes.  However, it is critical that you turn safe search on for students, especially those in the younger grades.  Pixabay offers all of their media free of copyright as they are backed by Creative Commons licensing.

Although Photos For Class provides and extremely safe search, Pixabay’s diverse options provide a much more valuable asset in the classroom for both students and educators.

Happy Teaching!

References

Hollandsworth, Randy, Lena Dowdy, and Judy Donovan. (2011). “Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village” Tech Trends.  55(4) 37-47.

Scheeren, William O. (2015) Technology Handbook for School Librarians. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.

A Rational Approach: Using Twitter As Professional Development and Possible Classroom Implementation! LIS568

When I finally signed up for Twitter, after many friends were consistently encouraging me to, my initial response was that I can really see certain functions of Twitter providing me, as an educator, with quality professional development (PD).  After spending a little time with Twitter my initial response to its use in the educational world still holds true.  In fact, once my professional learning network (PLN) began to slightly grow I started valuing Twitter for more than its Twitter chats.  Where Twitter chats certainly provide an amazing opportunity for professional development, the overall functionality of Twitter when used only for professional aspects provides a diverse, vast, and organized educational resource.  A resource that allows educators and students to easily search for specific topics through the use of hashtags, ultimately allowing educators to partake in quality and convenient PD while students are introduced to a vast and quite organized resource.

Let me first start by saying that this is a truly unbiased discussion.  Meaning if I found no value in Twitter in terms of providing me, as an educator, with assistance to my day-to-day tasks I would not waste my time sharing positive thoughts of such technology.  With that said, the most useful function of Twitter to me, as of now, is its ability to provide me with quality conversations that fit into my schedule.  These conversations, referred to as Twitter chats, are conversations that truly provide me with meaningful and relevant professional development.  The best part of such PD is that it doesn't interrupt my daily schedule.  I can literally be laying in bed at the end of a long day gaining more engaging and beneficial PD than if I attended a workshop in the evening.  Don’t get me wrong, I have been involved with many workshops that I truly have found valuable to my professional career, but if I had to choose staying at work for another 3 hours, of course after waiting an hour or two after school for the workshop to start, or going home after a long day, I think it is obvious I would choose the latter.  Through using resources such as Participate or Education Chat Calendar, one can easily locate Twitter chats to partake in.  The most important and beneficial aspect of Twitter chats is that users can pick and choose exactly what conversations they want to be a part of.  Feeling like you need a little pick-me-up in regard to education technology search #ATchat, or search #elmused if you want to focus on elementary art.  If there are two chats you find intriguing that are scheduled for the same time on the same night, why not partake in them both at the same time?  The flexibility, diversity, and overall quality that educators can receive from twitter chats are what makes it such a valuable resource for educators. 

Although Twitter chats offer quite a lot in terms of PD, the overall PLN that Twitter provides educators with is truly a meaningful function.  By following other professionals, users are able to build a network with other educators that offer ideas, materials, resources…etc. which can be utilized with ease.  As Scavitto (2015) states discussing her Twitter usage, “The people in my PLN share amazing materials about all aspects of education.”  Not only are educators able to gain valuable resources, but the diversity of such material allows users to become exposed to new and innovative aspects.  More importantly, discussing such vastness of resources Scavitto (2015) states, “Articles like this would have been buried in the vastness of the web for eternity-but I get to read them because they appeared in my feed.”  With the utilization of hashtags users are able to have an organized system for storing and finding resources.  As Pitler (2015) suggests, “The secret to getting the most out of Twitter as an educator lies in knowing how to use hashtags (#)- those things we used to call the number signs last century.”  For example, if you are in need of a poster creator for students to use as a summative assessment tool but want to use a different tool than the typical Google Docs or Pages, a quick search using an appropriate hashtag such as #edtech can introduce you to the application Google Drawings.  Even more impressive is that if you are following the “correct micro-bloggers” in relation to a given interest, as Scavitto points out, information regarding Google Drawings could have just simply been present in your feed.  Thus, the importance of following the most beneficial micro-bloggers in regard to a given interest is extremely important.  As Scavitto (2015) states, “If you’re going to use Twitter for things beyond curating a collection of educational resources, I suggest having multiple accounts.”  Mixing interests outside of a professional focus will simply provide a user with additional content that can lead to an overall scattered and overloaded feed. Thus, defeating the purpose of using Twitter as professional development means.

Overall Twitter can provide educators and students with vast, diverse, and meaningful content.  Educators can advocate and implement for their students to utilize Twitter in very similar ways that they would.  However, being familiar with its functions and how to navigate the resource will help lead to a positive and beneficial experience for you and your students if you implement such features into your instruction.  Twitter chats offer an incredible opportunity for educators and students to partake in active and relevant discussions surrounding basically any topic of interest.  More importantly, through utilizing resources such as Participate and Education Chat Calendar, users have the ability to plan ahead as well as have the flexibility to attend Twitter chats through the comfort of their homes.  It is common for Twitter chat users to follow the other professionals that were part of the chat, ultimately allowing for a meaningful PLN to continually grow.  With the nurturing of a quality and relevant PLN, other professionals’ posts continually show on your home feed allowing easy access to resources, ideas, materials…etc.  With the understanding and the use of hashtags, students and overall users are able to be easily organized with such a vast amount of materials.  However, users must be mindful of only following other users that add to their repertoire of educational resources, ultimately creating a meaningful, relevant, and vast professional learning network.  As Pitler (2015) states, “Once you get started you just might become an evangelist.”  Of course, we can assume Pitler’s thoughts are to convert the non-Twitter users to simply Twitter users, not to turn such non-users into Christians!

References

Berger, R. (2015). Using twitter to supercharge your professional development. ConnectedEducators. Retrieved from http://www.connectededucators.org/using-twitter-to-supercharge-your-professional-development/.

Scavitto, D. (2015). Teachers: embrace twitter for professional development. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/teachers-embrace-twitter-professional-development/.

The Benefits of Podcasts Within Your Classroom LIS568

As an educator always looking for new and innovative ways to engage my learners with a quality education, using podcasts in the classroom poses as my newest discovery.  Until recent, I have never thought to search for student geared podcasts.  Honestly, it just has never crossed my mind.  To my surprise, there are actually some really well constructed podcasts that are created for the sole purpose of engaging kids in all sorts of educational means.  One podcast in particular that has proven to provide such quality content is Wow In The World from National Public Radio (NPR).  The podcast is “for curious kids and their grown-ups,” as stated on the Wow In The World website.  The podcast provides its user with not only audio episodes, but supplemental material for each episode as well.  This extra material consists of a summary of each episode, and additional questions that allows listeners to extend their understanding on the content covered in the episode.  If you are an educator, I’m sure the gears are turning on how you could implement such technologies in your classroom.  Let me help.

Where Did We Come From is the title of a specific episode created on August 31, 2017 by Wow In The World.  The episode covered content surrounding the history of Homo Sapiens (origins, migrations…etc.) and explanations of hurricanes.  The episode is one of the longer episodes at 30 minutes and 15 seconds, whereas the average length per episode is around 15 to 20 minutes.  Not only are my students provided with a very engaging and well constructed audio recording, but the supplemental material allows students to gain a deeper understanding through their creation of their own ancestor migration map.  Whereas the NPR created podcast only provides its users with a summary in the supplemental materials, some podcasts such as ThisAmericanLife provide its users with a full transcript of each episode.  However, if you embed episodes off of the NPR created podcast and paste the URL into an address bar you are able to access the transcript for each episode.  Thus, students can follow along while listening.

When considering implementing podcasts into your curriculum, it is important to focus on the length of such episodes you are providing your students.  No matter how engaging an episode is and depending on the grade level, from my experiences, students will most likely lose focus after a given amount of time.  I feel that Wow In The World’s episodes are a good length, as the average length per episode fits perfectly into a 40 minute academic period.  I plan to provide my students with a time slot at about 10 minutes into the episode, Where Did We Come From, where they will start, thus providing them with roughly a 20 minute episode.  From there, I plan to have students partake in a discussion thread surrounding the topics covered in the episode.  As a synthesizing task, students will use the supplemental resources available to create an ancestor migration map.  The wonderful aspect about using podcasts in your classroom is the diversity of content available.  Educators must put in the leg work of choosing episodes for specific content areas, depending on what content educators are looking to support.  Learners are able to meet the appropriate and obvious social studies and science (hurricanes) content standards, aspects of English Language Arts (ELA) Standards, and aspects from the standards associated with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).  Although, the benefits students can gain from simply listening to podcasts and discussing their finding, even if it doesn’t necessarily align in a multidisciplinary approach,  will still provide students with, at a minimum, ELA support.  As Mammina (2017) states, “In light of the Common Core State Standards’ shift toward the use of nonfiction, podcasts provide a unique way to build critical thinking skills while adhering to state standards.” With older grades, students can produce podcasts themselves with the intent to share their creations with younger grades.  By creating podcasts students can start the shift of being content creators rather than simply being content consumers. 

Happy teaching!

Reference

Mammina, A. 2017. Teaching the art of listening: how to use podcasts in the classroom. Education Week Teacher. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2017/09/teaching_the_art_of_listening_how_to_use_podcasts_in_the_classroom.html.

Customize With TED-Ed LIS568

In an attempt to add more digital and web based learning into my classroom I created a TED-Ed lesson.  If you are unaware of what TED-Ed has to offer you should certainly check it out.  It is a great free resource to use just for its video content alone.  However, if you want to customize your students’ experiences you can create your own lessons that include video content, comprehension questions, extended content, and discussion threads.  For example, a lesson I have created in the past is called Basic Geography, and the content provides students with exactly what the name suggests, a chance to support their understanding in basic Geography.  My specific purpose for the lesson creation was to support my current students with both review material as well as an introduction to new material.  TED-Ed is a great resource if you are attempting to flip your classroom, a librarian teaching information literacy, and overall any educator’s experience regarding educating our youth.  As an educator and coach, my time is valuable, thus the ease of high quality customized content that TED-Ed allows me to create is essential.

Within the lesson Basic Geography students are given a prompt that allows them to engage in a digital conversation with their peers.  Through their discussion they demonstrate their ability to interpret, organize, and ultimately share read material.  As an assessment, students construct an at least five sentence discussion post.  The discussion post allows students to convey their ideas on the information they received within the lesson.  When using TED-Ed in the classroom I make sure that the discussion portion of the lesson (Discuss section) is a significant aspect to what students are asked to complete.  In my TED-Ed lesson I synthesized the given information found within the Watch, Think, and Dig Deeper sections to lead to a meaningful discussion post.  Where I do find the Watch and Think section to be a beneficial aspect of the lesson, more importantly students get to explore relevant information in the Dig Deeper section allowing for a greater sense of understanding.  By tying the Discuss section to the previous sections, my students get to partake in a social media based/connected lesson.  I also ask my students to respond to at least two other peers’ responses, making the lesson that much more collaborative and social. 

What makes TED-Ed so valuable is that I am able to supply my students with direct instruction through the Watch and Think sections, then allow them to share and create their own content through the Dig Deeper and Discuss section.  The flexibility of the lessons allow me to assign students such lessons for home work or provide opportunity to review material outside of the classroom, knowing that students will receive the direct instruction needed to partake in the social aspect of learning.  I can also expand the Discuss section to have students share articles or other found information from the web.  Honestly, it provides me the proper organization to allow elementary students to begin to expand their learning experiences through digital and social means.  Furthermore, applications such as TED-Ed give students the ease of becoming content creators rather than simply content consumers.