Social Media in the Classroom

Social media is currently one of the preferred methods of communication for teens.  Teachers can take advantage of their students' interest in social media platforms by incorporating them into classroom activities.  Services like Facebook and Twitter can be used to engage students in collaboration and conversations about their learning.  However, since students use these applications in their personal lives, they may be reluctant to share their online identities with their teachers and mix school with their social lives.  Additionally, many parents do not allow their children to use these social networking sites and may be reluctant to allow their child to sign up for a public site like Facebook for school purposes.  An alternative to these mainstream social networking sites are services like Edmodo and My Big Campus.  They are structured like mainstream social networking sites but are designed specifically for schools.  Teachers and students can set up profiles, communicate with each other, and share resources in a space that does not allow access to the general public.  Parents may be more at ease allowing their children to participate in these social networking sites that are specific to school settings.

Curating Resources

This week we explored online tools that can be used to curate resources.  These tools can be useful for organizing professional resources that we plan to utilize as teachers.  They can also be used to present a collection of resources to our students so they can explore the ins and outs of a topic.  I tried out Bundlr.com.  One of my classmates, Shelly, tried Pearltrees.  I liked Bundlr, but I was more impressed with the presentation of her collection on Pearltrees.  Here is a quick video that explains the purpose of Pearltrees.  It's a promotional video that I found on Youtube.

I could definitely see myself using this tool in library class.  I could create a separate tree for each grade level, and each unit could have a separate branch with links to the different websites and web-based tools that I want students to use during that unit.  The tree would be a home base that would keep a year's worth of teaching tools organized.

Technology Tools

In my role as a school librarian who is responsible for teaching technology skills to K-6 students when they come to library class, I'm always looking for new ideas to equip them with 21st Century skills.  My time with each class of students is limited, and I can't assign them work to complete outside of their scheduled library class time, but I can introduce them to technology tools and give them short authentic tasks to complete.  Right now, my biggest challenge is the fact that anything categorized as "social media" or forums (including wikis) is blocked on our school's network.  I would love to expand my lessons beyond Microsoft Office and introduce students to an array of Web 2.0 tools.  With many of these tools being so new and lacking a long history of successful use in school settings, I think that I will have to advocate for the inclusion of these web-based tools on the list of allowed websites.  With new tools being introduced every day, one never knows which one will be the trendy new application.  It can be very hard to stay current.  I think that ultimately the important thing is helping students develop skills that will allow them to be successful at communicating their knowledge and ideas no matter which tool or platform they use.  There are skills that I can teach them with Microsoft Office applications (proper font style, color, and size; incorporating appropriate graphics; citing sources) that they will need no matter which presentation tool they are using.