Technology

Yes!

Thanks for reading. Ok, a bit of sarcasm.

Old school vs New school

If you haven’t been around this blog very much, or happen to be new to the site, thanks for stopping by! Other than writing about social media and all things interwebz, my “real job” is being an educator in the Columbus, Ohio area.

If you take a look around a typical high school, you will begin to notice a couple of things. Sometimes students look like they are dressed to hit the hottest new club and you would likely also realize that there is a great span in the ages of the faculty.

Do the old foggies hate all of this new technology?

Yes and no. In this imagined high school, you will likely notice that the older teachers sometimes stick to their tried and true methods of delivering content. Am I talking slates with chalk? Nope. Although it does feel like that sometimes. What I am really talking about is teaching from a textbook. Using overhead transparencies as their new technology. And the biggest…

Fighting social media tools in school

Just because we have been doing things a certain way for a long time, does not mean that we cannot evolve. Wake up…time to get over the cell phone battle. We aren’t winning.

Won’t my students just text, tweet, and play on facebook while I am trying to teach?

Yes. But guess what? They already are! Although this is a generalization, younger teachers try to push the limits of antiquated school rules to get students excited and engaged in learning.

Let’s not fight it any longer. Why not embrace this technology? If your students like to tweet, why not tweet them content?

My proposal…

I think a lot about how to harness this interest in constant interaction that our students have and to develop ways to manipulate that interest by tying it to content.

Let me be the first to admit that I don’t have all of the answers. So why are you reading this? Because I have dabbled with various platforms and try to keep up with the technology.

How can I get started?

Just as quickly as social media tools reinvent themselves for the business world, so too do they in education. Developers across the globe are busy creating newer and better ways that we can engage our kids.

A few tools to get you started

• Twitter – It is not new, but it is in a constant state of improvement. There are many potential uses for twitter, and our youth seems to have fallen in love. You will find more and more students tweeting and time goes on. Some ideas to use the platform:

a.  Use it to tweet homework assignments

b.  Take the classroom discussion out of the classroom and into real life

c.  Disperse interesting articles and other web items related to your content area

d.  Questions and answers, writing stories

•  Social Bookmarking – Diigo is my favorite in this area. It allows users to keep a set of bookmarks, arranged by tags, that can be accessed anywhere that there is an internet connection. One of the really cool features is the ability to share your bookmarks, and to highlight content on a web page so students know what you think is the meat of the content.
• Moodle – As a content management system, Moodle is revolutionizing the way that teachers are able to deliver information to their students. Many of you might be familiar with Blackboard from college courses that you have taken. With Moodle, you are able to post assignements, do online assessments, post videos and lecture notes and powerpoints, have an online gradebook, etc. You can do lots more and I suggest you check it out. Not only is it a great tool, but you will be using a system that they will already be familiar with when they enter their freshman year in college.

My takeaway…

Choose one social media tool and spend time learning it well. Ask colleagues for help that might also use this platform. But you really will learn more by playing…trial and error.

Check back later this week for a few other tools available to educators. Are you using anything like this in your classroom? Please leave a comment and let me know.

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