Social Media, To Use or Not To Use?

This week in class, we had a discussion about our feelings on using social media in the classroom. This is a serious issue that many teachers and schools are facing, is it right to use social media in the classroom, and if we do use it, then what is an acceptable use of it?
As future teachers, my class is very concerned with these issues, since we will have to deal with them in real world settings soon enough. We have discussed the use of Twitter in the classroom, and seen how some teachers are using it. Twitter can be used to get information from around the world, since a teacher can send out a call for people to tweet them back, and people will. Teachers can also use Twitter to communicate with one another, to share ideas and activities that are very successful in their classroom.Teachers can also set up class Facebook pages that they can then use to communicate with parents and students, informing them of what assignments are coming to, when tests are and upcoming events that might be causing students to miss class. Teachers can also use Skype or other video calling programs to talk to people all over the world since many times famous people are holding Skype calls with classes. Photo-sharing sites can also be used by a classroom, since students can see places all over the world, and teachers can use the pictures as starting points for assignments or as additions to lectures. Even websites like Youtube have their uses, since videos can be added to lectures, or students can create videos for a project and post them on-line. There are also plenty of videos that students may find informative and educational on Youtube, or other video sharing websites.
When people hear that schools want to use social media in the classroom, they automatically flash to the idea that students will abuse it, or use it inappropriately. Teachers should instead view this as an opportunity, to discuss with the world the education options that this actually provides. Teachers should teach students how to use social media responsibly, like what you should and should not post, what is appropriate to talk about and how to protect themselves for identity theft issues. This can also give teachers the chance to bring up a very important topic, cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is a growing issue in society, and part of stopping it, is to actually have people talking about it, not just pushing it aside. Students need to learn all of the consequences that cyber-bullying can have, not only for the victims, but for those who are the perpetrators. Too many people have been hurt by cyber-bullying, so it is time for us to do something about it, and education is one of the ways try and change the world.

What matters?

This week in ICT class, we looked a designing a web page, something I will be doing next week, so I will have that to show later on. I am really looking forward to it actually since I took a web design class in high school that was a lot of fun. Teachers use websites for their classes to keep everyone, parents and students up-to-date on what is happening in class, and what new ideas they have for their class. More will follow on the website as I get working on it.
On the what matters front though, we had speakers in class on Wednesday and they taught us how to find images that we are actually allowed to use, without violating copyright laws, like my photo above. The website we used for this is compfight.com, which allows us to search flikr for creative commons images. This is some very important information for teachers, since we want our students to be following the law, which includes copyright laws, that in many cases protect online pictures. The picture search was a ton of fun, since it also allows you access to all the creative minds in the world that have decided to share pictures online. My advice, if you haven't tried it, pick a random word and type it into the search engine, you will be amazed at what comes up, and you can use it without fear of copyright laws! Take my picture, it looks really cool, and it is just someone manipulating feather,s such ordinary things, to become extraordinary. Once we picked a picture, we were able to edit it online, which was fun and easy to do. Not only that it was free on the website pixlr.com, something that is always good for schools.
Creativity matters. We were asked by the presenters to fill in this question, Why blank matters?, and clearly I picked creativity. I believe that teachers need to very creative in their classroom, whether that means having ten different ways to explain a math problem, or having different projects available to their students, like a photo essay using photos found online or that the students take, and then edited with a photo editing program or website. Technology offers so many different avenues for students to be creative, like a students who dreads making a presentation to the class can make a video of it and play that or have an automatically running powerpoint with audio recording of them running. Students could also create a website for a novel, or other piece of literature, sort of like a band website, something that introduces the characters and covers all of the information of the novel. They could also create facebook pages or online dating profiles (Romeo and Juliet)  for characters. They could write a blog from the point of a famous explorer, looking at their daily or weekly discoveries.
All of these ideas allow for a lot of teachable moments too, since you have to look at how to use the technology, as well as all of the background information needed for the project. Not only that, but it can lead to discussions of copyright laws, and students could debate both sides of this issue. Students also need to be taught about responsibility when it comes to technology, as far to often it is just seen as a fun toy that doesn't need rules or restrictions. All of these are issues that teachers should address, even if they are not always in a curriculum, as they are pieces of real world information students should have.
To conclude, technology can allow students freedom and creativity in the classroom, and so I guess what matters, is making use of all the resources available to further creativity.

Well the best place to start...

...is the beginning. To begin I would like to introduce myself. I am a first year Education student at Brandon University and have decided to write this blog as an assignment for a course this term. My name is Elizabeth and I hope that this is all going to work right for me, since at the moment, I am not the most tech. savvy person in the world. As I have said this is my first year in my Education Degree, after I have already graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, with a history major and a math minor. The idea behind this blog is to have me try out different pieces of technology, in and out of class, and then blog about it. I want this blog to look at all the different technology I try and find practical uses for it, for both students and teachers, since if technology is being used in a class, it should be used with a purpose, not just used at random.
We have just a had a week of class, but already have discussed one very interesting website that could very useful to teachers. The website is called wordle.net and it allows people to create word splashes using the internet. This doesn't sound like much, but teachers like word splashes, as they can be used to brainstorm ideas, introduce a new unit, or in the case of online ones analyze poetry or other literature. The poetry or literature analysis is done by the website itself, as the word that occurs the most in the original text is larger than all the others in the word splash and usually that word is related to the theme of the piece. The website allows you to play with the image, changing the colour, shape, font or even the language. The images created by wordle can be printed directly, saved as a PDF. There are other websites that allow you to create word splashes, and they all have different features and abilities.
Finally, another piece of technology that I am getting addicted to is Google Plus. It is like Facebook, but is owned by Google, and it is a ton of fun for me. Lots of TV shows and interest groups have Google Plus accounts, so you can find out lots of different information on it. I am currently following an awesome one called Interior Design that has lots of different and unique ideas. Google Plus also has pictures from all over the world, photos that a teacher could use as examples in a photography class, an English Language Arts teacher could use the phots to start a creative writing piece, or science and geography teachers could add them to a powerpoint or lecture.
To conclude, I hope people will find some of the information I post in this blog interesting, and maybe people will learn something or be encouraged to try something new.