Social
Facebook
- I use Facebook as a social media on a regular basis in my personal
life but never considered how I might be able to use it educational
purposes. I know that my students are using Facebook almost
continuously throughout their days, even when they shouldn’t be. For
this reason it seems that if you could use the tool for education, that
it might be a way of accessing students that are not normally
disconnected.
TeachThought.com offers a list of 100 ways to use facebook. The list
blew my mind. I never would have thought of many of the suggestions. I
imagined that facebook could be used for communication and assignments,
maybe some discussion and collaboration. Teachthought separates the
the ideas into resources, projects/assignments, sharing,
collaboration/discussion, management/organization, and apps/groups. It
seems facebook can be used to research, create study groups, support
causes, archive videos, discuss class material, review or expand on
content, or even go on a digital field trip. All of the ideas seem to
make perfect sense for classroom use.
Facebook seems like a great tool, however there are some potential
risks/problems that make it hard to completely commit to. First, based
on CIPA it could be a controversial website. There are so many people
on facebook and so much content is loaded daily that it is possible that
students could access inappropriate content. The other major issue is
that it is blocked in school. I have a hard time telling students that
they have to use a tool that they are not even able to access in school.
That being said, I think unblocking it in school could cause major
disruption. I know how easy it is to get distracted by social media and
it is even harder for teens to resist the temptation. In the end, I
think that facebook could be a great extension tool for use outside of
the classroom. It could be a way of staying connected outside of the
classroom but does not necessarily fit inside of the daily classroom.
Creative
Glogster
- The idea of glogster seems perfect. Creating digital posters that
are available online where you can embed images, text, and other digital
media. Glogster can then be embedded into other applications like
blogs and websites. I know some of the other teachers in my district
use glogster so I started by talking to them. The results were not what
I expected. Overall, the teachers I spoke with did not care for the
tool. The number one complaint was that it seemed to have a lot of
technical problems and that it was not very user friendly.
As I began to read articles online, I found that most said the same
thing. They praise glogster for having and edu version that is safe and
CIPA compliant. They focus on the great products that can be created
and the benefits to being able to embed digital media into the glogs.
It’s a great way for students to demonstrate knowledge or research
finding. However, they also all discuss the need for scaffolding the
use of the site. They focus on the learning curve of working the tools
and navigating the site.
Although I like the idea, I am not sure this is an effective tool for
my classroom. I decided to try to make my own glogster page. Although I
was really happy with the product I was able to create, it took
entirely too long and cause me a lot of unnecessary stress. I can
foresee that this would result in frustrated students and me running
around trying to field a million technical difficulties rather than
focussing on the content. As a result, I do not think this is a tool I
want to pursue in my courses.
Curation
Pinterest
- All around me people are obsessed with Pinterest. Although I have
set up an account, I had never really used it. Pinterest is a
bookmarking site that allows users to group content into boards by
“pinning” it, much like a digital bulletin board. Most my friends are
using this site for fashion, crafts, or parenting materials. No one I
know has thought of using it for education. The biggest complaint about
Pinterest seems to be that people become addicted to pinning. If I
could transfer this addiction to my content, perhaps I could get
students to think about biology a little more and maybe even expand
beyond the normal content.
In researching the use of Pinterest in education, I found that many
colleges are already using the site. They use it to network students,
promote the school, and showcase student work. Applying this to the
high school arena seemed like an easy transition. Students can show
their work, comment on each others pins and posts, and collect resource
materials in a neat and organized fashion. Students can collaborate and
share information, resources, and opinions. The site seems to be
simple to use and although it is possible that there could be some
negative content, most the pinterest content seems to be safe and
compliant with CIPA.
After all my research, it seems that pinterest could be a great way for
students to build portfolios of their own work, develop community
within the school, and inspire students through quotes and art.
Students could create their own boards for their work which would
allow other students to view and comment on each others accomplishments.
Students could also create boards for inspiration, a place to visit
when they need a little pick me up. Together students can create a
positive, supportive school community.
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