What did I know and what did I think about this topic before class? What am I curious about and would like to know about this topic?
As a social twenty year old in today’s society I am well aware of how a good amount of social networking works! When implementing it into the classroom it can either be a useful tool or very distracting to the students and teachers. I have used social media a few times in the classroom within my high school years but it wasn’t for anything major. For example: my teacher would ask our opinion on an economic topic and we would have to tweet our response with the hash-tag (#) being the class name so the teacher could find all of our responses. That is about all the use of social media I experienced in the classroom so I am curious to know other ways to implement Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other possible social networking sites into learning.
What did I learn through my preparation for class?
When I was preparing for class I learned a few characteristics of social media. As stated earlier, social networking is taking over the world and so why not allow it into the classroom as well. I read the article given to us, http://www.edutopia.org/blog/introducing-social-media-lower-elementary-beth-holland, which stated that yes, it is okay to implement social media in the classroom especially in the lower levels. This article was written by Beth Holland, she covers just about all aspects of the concerns teachers have on this topic. Many worries teachers and parents have is that social media is not age appropriate for elementary school students. Now that could be true but it just needs to be use in the most effective and appropriate manner, which can be monitored by the teachers. As the article continues on, Holland explains examples of a elementary school teacher Kristin Zeimke and the use of social media in her classroom and it was used all together as a class so it is monitored yet very educational when collaborating together.
As I kept researching on how to use Twitter in the classroom (that is my specific topic for the week) I found another article that provides tips on how to use twitter in the classroom because so many people are so leery about using it; http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/578-tips-for-teachers-to-use-twitter-in-elementary-classrooms. Within this link the tips given are easy and effective, the author states to create just one classroom account because each student may not be in an old enough position to maintain their own account and to make sure they only tweet when they ask the teachers permission. Visit the site to read more helpful tips on how to incorporate learning with Twitter in the elementary school classroom.
Additional resources that I found on this topic:
As I kept researching on Social Media in the classroom I was very interested to learn more and see how each teacher implements the use of it differently. I found this YouTube video that explains why this teacher, Kathy Cassidy, uses social media and she starts off saying right at the beginning of the video that she chooses it for learning because all of her students have grown up with technology so they almost know how that works better than other ways of learning. Her 6 & 7-year-old students even have their own blog, so they can practice writing structures and spelling.
The video is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno
I also found a blog that provides 9 different ways to use social media in your classroom; http://blog.sewickley.org/9-ways-to-use-social-media-in-your-classroom. Michael-Ann Cerniglia who is a teacher at a private school wrote this blog. She lists that all teachers should implement the social networking sites: Twitter, blogging sites, Scoop, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, Skype, Dipity, Goodreads, etc. Underneath all sites she lists so explains way to incorporate it into the classroom effectively. Her main point is to help students see social media as a source of information and put it’s use to academic purposes.
What did I learn in class this week on this topic?
How did my understanding and thinking about the topic change through this process?
This week in class I learned how the social networking apps; Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be put to use in the classroom. Although social media tends to seem limitless, as a class we found ways to create limits to the students so they are monitored and only doing what needs to be done educationally. I learned how to effectively teach using Instagram. You can make an Instagram account for the whole class to post pictures of crafts made or ideas they have regarding the lesson that day. Teachers can also make twitter accounts for their class and tweet discussions or assignments due. Polls can be made on Twitter for the students to vote on how the lesson went or whatever questions you may want to ask. Facebook can be used as a combination of both or used more for parental use. My understanding of Social Media in the classroom was cleared up by the use of each detail of each social network. As long as you are using each site safely, you can use it with your students in your classroom.
As a social twenty year old in today’s society I am well aware of how a good amount of social networking works! When implementing it into the classroom it can either be a useful tool or very distracting to the students and teachers. I have used social media a few times in the classroom within my high school years but it wasn’t for anything major. For example: my teacher would ask our opinion on an economic topic and we would have to tweet our response with the hash-tag (#) being the class name so the teacher could find all of our responses. That is about all the use of social media I experienced in the classroom so I am curious to know other ways to implement Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other possible social networking sites into learning.
What did I learn through my preparation for class?
When I was preparing for class I learned a few characteristics of social media. As stated earlier, social networking is taking over the world and so why not allow it into the classroom as well. I read the article given to us, http://www.edutopia.org/blog/introducing-social-media-lower-elementary-beth-holland, which stated that yes, it is okay to implement social media in the classroom especially in the lower levels. This article was written by Beth Holland, she covers just about all aspects of the concerns teachers have on this topic. Many worries teachers and parents have is that social media is not age appropriate for elementary school students. Now that could be true but it just needs to be use in the most effective and appropriate manner, which can be monitored by the teachers. As the article continues on, Holland explains examples of a elementary school teacher Kristin Zeimke and the use of social media in her classroom and it was used all together as a class so it is monitored yet very educational when collaborating together.
As I kept researching on how to use Twitter in the classroom (that is my specific topic for the week) I found another article that provides tips on how to use twitter in the classroom because so many people are so leery about using it; http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/578-tips-for-teachers-to-use-twitter-in-elementary-classrooms. Within this link the tips given are easy and effective, the author states to create just one classroom account because each student may not be in an old enough position to maintain their own account and to make sure they only tweet when they ask the teachers permission. Visit the site to read more helpful tips on how to incorporate learning with Twitter in the elementary school classroom.
Additional resources that I found on this topic:
As I kept researching on Social Media in the classroom I was very interested to learn more and see how each teacher implements the use of it differently. I found this YouTube video that explains why this teacher, Kathy Cassidy, uses social media and she starts off saying right at the beginning of the video that she chooses it for learning because all of her students have grown up with technology so they almost know how that works better than other ways of learning. Her 6 & 7-year-old students even have their own blog, so they can practice writing structures and spelling.
The video is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno
I also found a blog that provides 9 different ways to use social media in your classroom; http://blog.sewickley.org/9-ways-to-use-social-media-in-your-classroom. Michael-Ann Cerniglia who is a teacher at a private school wrote this blog. She lists that all teachers should implement the social networking sites: Twitter, blogging sites, Scoop, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, Skype, Dipity, Goodreads, etc. Underneath all sites she lists so explains way to incorporate it into the classroom effectively. Her main point is to help students see social media as a source of information and put it’s use to academic purposes.
What did I learn in class this week on this topic?
How did my understanding and thinking about the topic change through this process?
This week in class I learned how the social networking apps; Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be put to use in the classroom. Although social media tends to seem limitless, as a class we found ways to create limits to the students so they are monitored and only doing what needs to be done educationally. I learned how to effectively teach using Instagram. You can make an Instagram account for the whole class to post pictures of crafts made or ideas they have regarding the lesson that day. Teachers can also make twitter accounts for their class and tweet discussions or assignments due. Polls can be made on Twitter for the students to vote on how the lesson went or whatever questions you may want to ask. Facebook can be used as a combination of both or used more for parental use. My understanding of Social Media in the classroom was cleared up by the use of each detail of each social network. As long as you are using each site safely, you can use it with your students in your classroom.