Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence
Effective online learning not only requires the internet, but it apparently needs the social aspect of learning, too. "Many online educators tend to design the scope, structure, and function of an online course based on the tools available within a learning management system (LMS)." (p.1) The LMSs resemble a classic classroom setup, but it is just done online. There is just one thing missing - the social aspect, the time before and after class when students chit chat and catch up on different things in their lives. This article discusses the idea of Twitter (and mentions other microblogging tools) as an additional tool to use during class. "Contact between students and faculty in and outside of class is critical for student engagement because it influences student motivation and involvement." (p.2) Teachers can have huge impacts on students. Communication is an enormous factor that can play an important role with a student's success in learning.
"Because students and faculty have to login and navigate to several different locations in the course to engage in discussion, collaboration and sharing, the communication is sometimes forced and out of the context of day-to-day, hour-to-hour, and minute-to-minute experience." (p.2) In other words, there are missed opportunities for communication due to all of the other links students and teachers need to follow through LMSs. Twitter and other microblogging tools allow thoughts to be expediently transmitted to others.
This article shared a few uses for Twitter:
1. As a student reads, s/he can send a question about the reading via Twitter;
2. A student can share a question about a project while working;
3. A student can send a message to the teacher during group work
4. A student can share newsworthy information;
5. A student can share links for a project, etc.
There are a couple thoughts lingering with the above example uses of Twitter. People can become too distracted with the many notifications popping up and people can become obsessed with checking responses. Another downfall might be the fact that people type so quickly and abbreviate and/or misspell/misuse words quite a bit. It can take a toll on writing abilities.
Some other positive aspects of Twitter in addition to the ones above are:
1. Connecting with many people, including professionals
2. Supporting informal learning
3. Maintaining relationships
The bottom line is that Twitter can be a beneficial form of social media to use in and out of the classroom. Twitter is a tool which can be used "for establishing informal, free-flowing, just-in-time communication between and among students and faculty, and with the professional community at large." (p.6)
The Design of an Online Community of Practice for Beginning Teachers
Many beginning teachers feel an isolation within their classrooms. When they are studying how to be a teacher, pre-teachers have the opportunity to have a sort of built-in mentor to help when they need it. Once they enter their own classrooms, those beginning teachers are left to fend for themselves, thus feeling an isolation - no mentor to help them when a problem occurs. This paper describes ways to help with the feeling of isolation via websites that accommodate this problem.
Unfortunately younger teachers struggle to survive in the profession for very long. "In the USA, Smith and Ingersoll (2004) found evidence to indicate that beginning teachers who participated in induction and mentoring activities in their first year of teaching were less likely to leave the profession." (p.121) This article shares two sites of online support for beginning teachers. One is from the Ontario Teacher's Federation and the other is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The site from Ontario, Survive and Thrive Virtual Conference for Beginning Teachers, was geared toward teachers within their first five years in the profession and provided online conferences by experts that covered a variety of educational topics. The Novice Teacher Support Project, the project from the University of Illinois, was geared toward teachers within their first three years in the profession and it "provides resource support to e-mentoring and incorporates face-to-face meetings as part of its mentoring program between novice and expert teachers." (p.122)
In order to reduce the number of teachers prematurely leaving the profession, younger teachers should find a way to lessen the feelings of isolation. There are plenty of resources that could help. Unfortunately regional and rural areas experience more teacher attrition than the larger, urban areas. However, in general, resources should be equally available to all new teachers to acclimate themselves to life in the classroom. Even older teachers could use extra resources and motivation as times are changing ever so quickly.
5 Steps to Better School/Community Collaboration
I agree with this article in that it takes a community to raise a school. There are plenty of opportunities within the community that could enhance our schools. When those opportunities are pursued, students can learn what is relevant to the society in which they live. The author of this article, Brendan O'Keefe searched for ideas that would enable a successful school transformation. The themes he considered were: Community/business school partnerships, parental collaboration, curriculum connected to real world experiences, student voice, cross generation learning, and locals designing solutions to local problems. When the community is involved with the kids, things happen! An idea O'Keefe has stated (and I totally agree) is that there have to be "ways to connect core curriculum beyond the classroom." The more students hear something, the more it will get ingrained in their minds. Another thought O'Keefe had was to meet people who can help and actually speak to them. People's enthusiasm is contagious and when enthusiastic p,eople meet others, they want to get in on the action to become just as enthusiastic. Students can gain lots from people. The next idea is to create a resource map in order to understand and know where those helpful resources are in the community. Maps or spreadsheets can be created to identify those resources. Another idea is to connect the curriculum with the real world so that students can understand why they are learning what they are learning. This is a question that students have been asking forever. Project-based learning is a way to connect the curriculum to the real world. The final idea is to challenge the community "to encourage discussion, empower youth, teachers and communities to design and facilitate change locally." (p.3) This does not mean re-designing schools, but it could mean to create a community garden (learning the why, the math, the science, etc.), creating a new design style within the classrooms or schools, and designing a class that may coincide with your own community. (On a side note - when I taught in Las Vegas, the last class of the day was designated to your own class. Each teacher was responsible for creating a class based on something s/he wanted to teach and something the students would appreciate. I taught Japanese language and culture. It was definitely a lot of fun and it was nice that we had that opportunity to teach without being watched over to make sure that what we were teaching was based on the curriculum.)
What Parents Want in School Communication
Communication is the key to success. This is what I told all my students when I taught. Communication is a way to know what is happening whether it is from teacher to students, students to teacher, teacher to parents, etc. There has to be communication within the school district. This article discusses the importance of how relationships are built on communication and how parents want to receive communication from teachers and the district. According to this article, parents are not interested in social media, yet they do prefer instant electronic information. The way parents are interested in obtaining school news is via e-mail, online parent portal, district/school e-newsletter, district/school website and telephone/voice message, and in this order, according to a survey by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA). The types of news for which the parents are looking from teachers, regardless if the school is elementary or secondary, are updates on student progress, timely notice when performance is slipping, information on what students will learn during the year, and homework and grading policies. Elementary parents also want information on behavior and secondary parents want to be able to communicate directly with teachers. Parents also want certain information from the schools, such as curriculum descriptions, a calendar of events, student safety and the quality of teaching, and educational program changes. Elementary parents also want to know how their school performance compares to others, while secondary parents want to know information on graduation and course requirements.
Parents want to know decisions "as often as decisions are made." (p.3) More than a third of the parents who were surveyed would like monthly decision and about thirteen percent of the parents survey said they would like information quarterly.
MY THOUGHTS
One nice thing about being online, and specifically using social media tools such as Twitter, is that you do not see anybody and they do not see you. People get to learn who others are through words, not looks. Seeing is a powerful sense which gives people the opportunity to judge others as they see them. This is not always a beneficial situation.
A positive idea of using today's social media tools such as Twitter is that although it is provides instant expression and feedback, people can (should) think about what to write before posting. I am one who likes to think about what I write before I post to make sure my thoughts are what I really want to say. (I must say that I have trouble verbalizing what I want in just 140 words or less. I am sure that the more I use, the more comfortable I will become with Twitter.)
School and community support is critical, in my opinion, for student success. My children's school district offers a slew of extracurricular activities that promotes community involvement and academic success for every student. If a student cannot find an extracurricular activity in which to participate, then there is something wrong with either the student and/or the parents. Parents are as responsible for their student's success as the student him/herself is.
After reading the article regarding school and community collaboration, I went to my son's elementary school where they were hosting a grandparent's bingo night. They were sold out! (The reason I went was because my in-laws were not feeling well and my mom lives out of town.) This was a wonderful fundraiser where all of the teachers participated in one way or another. There was a photo booth, book fair, tech area and, of course, the bingo with the grandparents (or relative) and then afterward grandparents were invited to the classrooms to check out student work. This was a first time for this event and it appeared to be a huge success! This is just one way that my son's school interacts with others outside of school.
Junior Achievement is another way students learn from community members about real world issues. My son took a couple weeks to meet with community members to do a variety of activities regarding the real world.
As far as communication is concerned, I used to stamp agenda books daily and write notes to parents in them. Parents would also write back in the agenda books. My main communication was to call parents to speak directly to them or e-mail them (to have documentation). I have not taught for nearly six years and great changes have taken place since then. My son's elementary teacher uses topoftheclass.weebly website. She updates information weekly so parents know what is happening in each class and links to many helpful sites are posted. The school also sends a weekly newsletter to keep everyone up to date on events and other information. Communication is the key!
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