60 Not-So Inspiring Examples of Twitter...

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I've never been a big fan of Twitter, and find the instant gratification of the tweets to be used mostly for information I'd have been happier not knowing.  I've read a few blogs, some from classmates, that have begun to change my mind, but then I find things that remind me why I really don't care for it overall.

One blog we were introduced in class listed 60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom, but there were many I felt took the personal interaction, or responsibility out and replaced it with 140 characters.

I don't think it's asking too much for students to arrive on time, or for a teacher to have set office hours that can be flexible as needed.  Even for the things I could use Twitter for, I don't see how a forum discussion is any harder.  Students and teachers can still leave comments for each other, and other people can read them.  I've yet to see a school that doesn't have email for the faculty, so sending an email versus sending tweet means it's one more thing to check every day.

I like the idea of keeping parents updated, or making notifications easy to see since people who don't have a Twitter account can still follow a twitter feed and receive texts on their phone.  But I don't see how making a classroom even more instantaneous is helping the students learn respect for someone else's ideas, or fostering patience in waiting their turn.  I see the instant gratification making people more antsy to be heard, right now, and it frustrates me.

I definitely don't like the idea of Twitter to build reading and writing skills.  I like the idea of technology in building the skills, but Twitter and texting are not the way to go.  I think students flipping back to a Twitter account or feed while in class is taking time away from them learning directly from each other, or from the teacher.  Even if trying an exercise in learning to be concise, there is a word count feature on almost every word processor application, or even barring that - you hand write a sentence or two and manually count the words.

Don't get me wrong, the applications for Twitter in a school system are growing and very useful in staying in touch with the community when instant conversation is necessary - I just don't think asking the students to interact with it in the classroom is the best option, for me.

The Read/Write Web 2.0

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I've considered my self a computer nerd/geek my whole life, partly due to having access to a computer since I was 4 or 5, and partly due to using it as often as I could.  I was exceptionally excited to see there was a class that would merge literacy and technology and I could get credit for learning new things.  The first book we've finished reading, Blogs, Wiki's and Podcasts by Will Richardson,  did not disappoint me with the creativity and novelty of the ideas that were expressed so enticingly and with such great enthusiasm.

I've come to embrace the blogging idea for a classroom, though I'm not sure how often I'll do it for personal reasons - I may surprise myself and find something I can't shut up about!  I can also see the appeal and amazing strength of really using RSS to pull sources together.  I look forward to our own class work on a wiki, and the digital storytelling.  There was one part of the technology that left me a little leary because I don't think the safety measures of the sites have been addressed considering the information on Facebook and Twitter is over 3 years old, and both sites have changed policies a bit since (especially Facebook).

I think in the case of both of those social networking sites, I would make a case that they have educational value, but there is so much identity safety that needs to be established, that I'd rather use other sites for a classroom.  The ability to create a page, have a discussion or forum, talk about interests and things relevant to the work, and to host images and video isn't unique to Facebook and Twitter, and I don't like how especially Facebook has changed so much into a corporation content to sell the information of the average person, no matter how private you make yourself.  At the time the book was written, I'll acknowledge Facebook was a fair more user friendly, but I wouldn't trust the direction it's been heading in with my students and their work.  I've even stopped using the site myself because I don't believe in plugging something you personally don't agree with.

Ultimately the book was an awesome and eye-opening look at the way the Web has evolved and what it means for us in the classroom, but I think we need to look past some of the enthusiasm built into selling us on ideas, and remember we're still the ones responsible in the classroom for the safety of our students and their intellectual property and identities.

Garden of Your Mind

It's been 45 years since Fred Rogers made a different kind of name for himself, and started helping children find out who they would be.  Despite TV still showing the kinds of programs he hated, the show that prompted him to create his own "Neighborhood," his impact is still felt, by our own generation, by the lessons he taught us that we hand down, and even by a few in this current generation who were able to see him before the end of the broadcast.

I've come across two videos today that made me not only reflect on the lessons he taught me, the same lessons I want to teach (especially to the older kids who may not have learned them when they were younger, and to my own child I can't wait to hold by the end of the year), but also on the reasons he had for doing so.

Today I offer educational tools of a different sort - something he'd have called food or flowers for the "garden of your mind." This video is tribute from the Symphony of Science and the PBS Digital Studio (something that could be a tool for the classroom!)



The second video is from his convincing speech in defending the need for funding for PBS.


Please tell me what he taught you, what you know you've passed on, what you hope to pass on because of him, and what legacy do you think you may leave?

In fair Verona, where we Animoto

I wish I had found more images for public use, but I'm surprised with how well it turned out compared to what it looked like while creating it - not too painful, even for the first time!  I decided to use Romeo & Juliet as a topic because I knew it would be a likely subject for me in a public high school, and if not this play specifically, surely one of the Bard's other tragedies would be.  I owned the song, and forwarded the music to a more economic starting point, shaving off almost a minute of instrumental and initial verses.  There were other images I had in mind, but I really wanted to stay with what was open to use to have a better feeling of what my students would face as a challenge to being honest with their own work.

This Animoto would be for use in a high school English class as an introduction to Romeo & Juliet, before discussing vocab, setting or expectations.  It fulfills the NETS-T 1, 2, & 3 standards for Facilitating & Inspiring, Designing & Developing, and Modeling technology that would be further used in the classroom.  It could be the first time Animoto is used, as a way of also introducing one method a student could utilize it for in a later project.



Let me know what you think!

Making music when talking history

There is a site I've run into a few times over the years, and I'm happy to see it stay relevant.  There is a channel on youtube from History teachers in Hawaii who take popular songs and remake them into music videos for unit topics.

When I was subbing, and the students would beg to listen to music, I would open this channel and watch to see how long it took for them to realize it wasn't what they were expecting.  I love each video, but one of my favorites is their video for the French Revolution:



Do you see any tie to how you'd use Animoto, or think there is a video they made you find exceptional?

Starting small

The biggest idea I walked away with after reading the Online Collaborative Inquiry was that instead of using paper journals, or handing in physical journals, to have students blog responses.  It may not seem like a big idea to someone else, but to me (an English major, with the intent to teach high school English), being able to update the way something so integral to how I was taught, and how I thought I'd teach is huge!

With an online blog (is that redundant?), I wouldn't have to worry about papers getting lost or handing them back in.  Blogs could be made private and shared just between a student and myself, or as part of a collaboration, and an intro to a wiki project (gee, sort of how I'm being introduced to this...)

I also enjoyed the detailed information on the Ultimate Guide, though I disagree with the blanket statement about not grading a blog.  I think it can be used in some formal assessments, partly as participation, partly in use of the tools available (spell checker, for one), and partly in answering a question posed.  That may be because I look at it from an English educator viewpoint, though I do agree that while students need to have a reason to write everyday, not every piece of writing needs to be graded.

Perhaps weekly assignments, with Essential Question explored throughout the week, would be graded, but critical reflections would just be commented on?

Domo Animoto...

The missing link between PowerPoint and Youtube, I like the concept of Animoto, but it seems that it has been mostly ignored by the secondary educators - or there just aren't that many of us in comparison to the early childhood educators.

This use of an animoto for introduction of vocab for science made me think of using one for a vocab intro at the start of a new book, or unit.  It could be especially useful if the unit/book corresponded with cross-discipline topics.  Studying WWI in Social Studies, reading All Quiet on the Western Front in English, the geometry or physics of a battlefield.  Or when studying the English Renaissance, Shakespeare, metrics...

Another example, from the Animoto site on Civil Rights made me think of how to enhance even just one event that might be minimally covered otherwise, with some specific images and music to reinforce the importance of that event.  A third on the same site for Math was an example on what music NOT to use.  I didn't make it pass 10 seconds before I stopped the video.

I'm not sure if I will end up making a vocab presentation or one on an event, but I feel like I've narrowed it down to at least those two concepts...and the Animoto technology is growing on me.  I've seen some that move too slow (in my opinion) and some with music poorly chosen, but I like that with moving images, and words, and sound, you can get the attention of a range of learning styles.