Week #2 - Socializing with our students. . .sort of.

http://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/07cd19f9-6b03-4e78-9d36-95100937032c/lets-get-social-how-to-effectively-incorporate-social-media-into-your-classroom/

Are we getting social? Well, the webinar above would like us to. PBS hosted a webinar entitled Let’s Get Social! How to Effectively Incorporate Social Media Into Your Classroom. The webinar was split into two parts – the first was hosted by a marketing specialist from Edmodo (Lucia Giacomantonio) and the second half was hosted by the PBS moderator (Mike Gormanhttp://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/). 

Mike Gorman & Lucia Giacomantonio

As you can imagine the first half was all about Edmodo. Edmodo is a social media website for teachers to engage students in an alternative way. In her part of the webinar, Lucia discussed some of the basic functions of the site.  The site has similar functions to Facebook, including postings and groups, but it also has a number of functions dedicated to the educational side of social media. The site allows you to quiz your students and track their progress as well as store files of various types to be used later. All in all, Edmodo has a great deal of potential for helping build an online experience for the classroom.

In an effort to validate that last sentence, I went to Edmodo and created an account. It’s remarkably easy to do and the site doesn't ask for a great deal of information (unlike Facebook and other social media sites). I created a group and explored the site – even though the webinar was from October of last year, the site remains remarkably the same.  I created a group for my (future) biology classes and explored their links to the common core (which my school system is switching too in 2015, I think).  There are quite a few teachers that have already created projects/quizzes that they have shared through the Discover section demonstrated by Lucia. It has a great deal of potential. I currently use a wikispaces website (DHSAPBiology) for one of my classes. Its a bit clunky, but it does the job I need it to do. I think I might migrate over to Edmodo next year - it has more visual appeal for the students and may seem more familiar to them. Familiarity leads to comfort and I would love to have discussions with students initiated online! 

Online Learning is just one path

The second half of the webinar was a general overview of how to use social media in the classroom. The moderator reviewed some basic guidelines to stick to and things that we as teachers should do to help students learn. One of the first things that he shows is a list of available social media tools – not just Edmodo, but also Kidblog, Classchatter and Schoology. Along with the list Mike reviews some basics of creating an online experience for your students. These are simple things to keep in mind that we as teachers might take for granted. I've often had an experience of trying to create an online resource only to be frustrated by the process not going smoothly or not having all of my ducks in a row.  I found the list of tips to be just what I needed to make the process more fun for me as well as the students. One of the basic tips is "Learn the Ropes", understanding how the product you're using works is extremely helpful! Our students are often afraid to try things out - they just want to be told how to. If I don't know how to do it, we all get frustrated and then the lesson is one in how to use Edmodo instead of how muscles work (for example). 

Mike also gives a helpful document he refers to as a "white paper". The white paper is a PDF of the information that he covers in his half of the webinar. It includes the websites, tips and 10 ideas for improving academic use of the internet. One of the things the list reminds us of is that online discussions are not social media - they are academic forums. As such, students should behave appropriately, following ground rules laid out by the teacher and strictly enforced. For our students to learn good citizenship, we teach them how to act in society. One of our new challenges is to teach them good digital citizenship, how to act in a digital society. 

Use of social media continues to grow. A recent study showed that higher education faculty use mirrors the general populations and that more than half of them use social media in a professional context. Still, only about 41% of them use social media in the classroom, but the study suggests that this number is growing year by year. If our colleges are starting to use social media, we have to start using them with our students. My classes all end in CP1 - College Prep. I want them to have all the preparation they can for college and it seems like it must include proper use of social media. 

We are facing a dilemma however. I pulled this image from the same study above: 

Are we really so conflicted?

It really speaks for itself - we as teachers are trying to embrace a technology that we fear will destroy everything we work so hard to provide for our students. We are creating better learning environments that are more distracting than helpful? What the what? 

All in all, I found the webinar very informational. I choose this particular one because of its source (PBS) and because it relates to a topic that I find fascinating. Children are being bombarded by input from all angles these days (TV, YouTube, mp4 players, Google, Spotify, etc.). This technology has erupted in less than a generation. They have no idea how to manage it all and frankly, neither do we as teachers. I have often wondered how such an overwhelming input of information affects their learning process. I think that might have been a question to bring up in the chat box if I had been watching the live webinar. I suspect being involved live provides a lot more opportunity for people to interact with their fellow attendees as well as the speaker and moderator. 

So, since this is an assignment I have to include some learning objectives. If you're not my teacher (or a fellow student), you may wish to end here. Here are the learning objectives I accomplished by watching this webinar and creating this post: 

1. Learn ways to promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding. 

I believe the over of Edmodo helps to accomplish this learning objective. Because I have a basic understanding of the tool, I can use it in the future the help guide my students in a collaborative discussion and use the same to to assess their understanding. The reporting power of edmodo's online quizzes can then allow me to address any misconceptions in class or online (or both!)

2. Demonstrate an understanding of safe, ethical, legal and moral practices related to digital information and technology 

Because one of the focuses of this webinar was proper digital citizenship, I think it allowed me to grow my own ideas of what that means. It allowed me to reflect on how students use social media and what I can do to help them develop skills to navigate the online arena properly.