This chapter touched on Social Media and how we can implement in our lesson plans. I liked this chapter because I am a big fan of social media. I think the ability to communicate with people from all over the world for free is an amazing and inspired thing. Facebook allows people to find others from their past, keep in touch, and share pictures, videos, and endless sources of information. The section in this chapter that speaks about teachers creating their own blogs for their students was really interesting to me. I think a teacher's blog is a wonderful idea and can enable students and their parents to keep up to date with your lessons and future activities. You can also provide your students with articles and pictures that you find potentially educational by posting them to your blog. A fun idea I thought of would be to have my students post one thing a week to my blog that they found interesting about one of our lessons. Whether it be a video, a picture, a slide show, something they find on the internet that they feel like sharing. It can also allow for the teacher to keep in contact with the students outside of the classroom.
Another section I found interesting was the concept of a teacher's website, which is different from a blog. Websites are more formal, blogs allow personal interjections while websites are strictly business. I like this idea because my student's parents would be able to go on and see a detailed break down of what I plan to teach their child during the school year. Most parents like to be involved in their child's school life and I think it is our responsibility to make that as easy as possible for them.
The last section I will talk about is the section on creating a Wikitext. I find this to be a fun and exciting tool for all grade levels. Allowing the students to be involved in creating their own text book will allow them so much more insight on the material while having fun learning it. They become creators, not just receivers. This also promotes collaboration which I think is highly crucial in any curriculum. Team works promotes social skills which heightens a students self esteem. It allows them to work with others and build on their people skills while also utilizing their creative thinking.
I created a story of the importance of this program however in order to get the embed code I need to upgrade my member ship so I am just going to put the link to it.
In conclusion social media can be a wonderful tool for educators and setting up a blog/website is a wonderful way to keep everyone updated on what is going on. Wikitext is a great tool that I just learned about thanks to the text book. I am keeping a list of all these wonderful options to make the lessons more fun and innovative
Resources: Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Great discussion about possible uses of these communication and collaboration tools in the classroom. They are definitely underutilized in today's educational world but I have high hopes that there will be more in the future.
I do think you can embed Storybird without a paid account - just need to register (but not positive). I say that as others have done so. It would be worth your while to have it embedded on the blog as it gives relevant content and the illustrations are fabulous.
Great discussion about possible uses of these communication and collaboration tools in the classroom. They are definitely underutilized in today's educational world but I have high hopes that there will be more in the future.
ReplyDeleteI do think you can embed Storybird without a paid account - just need to register (but not positive). I say that as others have done so. It would be worth your while to have it embedded on the blog as it gives relevant content and the illustrations are fabulous.