Social Networking in Education

On my last post, I made a statement about how I feel that social networking has no educational value. I guess I just needed to change my way of thinking around just a little bit. Although I still feel that social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, are not appropriate for use with students in the classroom, they can be beneficial for teachers to network with one another. Just as blogging and wikis can be useful in helping teachers to share ideas with one another, social networking can provide teachers with a method to communicate and share ideas with one another as well. On Facebook, users can create "groups," which are usually related to a particular topic or interest. Users can create and join a group for the sole purpose of discussing curriculum related ideas. I created an HCPSS Third Grade Teachers - Technology Ideas group in Facebook to be used by third grade teachers next year. To see it, you can add me as a friend in Facebook and view my "groups."

Social Networking

Social networking, such as Facebook and MySpace, is the creation of online communities of people who can interact through e-mail and messaging services. Users can find "friends" based on common interests or by searching categories, such as a user's high school or college. Members of social networking sites can create profiles, showcasing photos and videos, personal interests, hobbies, and even personal contact information. Social networking has an array of pros and cons. On the positive side, social networking gives people the opportunity to stay in touch with people that they may not otherwise have contact with. It is also a great outlet to meet new and interesting people, if you are trusting of the people you meet online. That leads me into the negatives of social networking sites. How can you trust the new people you meet? I may be pessimistic, but we don't live in a particularly trustworthy society, especially in this world of the Internet. I would much rather meet a person face to face, and get to know them in a public setting, rather than behind the screen of a computer. I like to view social network sites as a way to stay in touch with old friends, rather than meeting new ones.

Social networking sites, as they are designed today, have no place in education. There isn't enough security available on social networking sites today to make them a safe place for young students to explore. I would love to see an educational based social networking site where teachers or administrators have the ability to control who becomes a member. If only the students at my school could become members, and the messaging and profile content could be controlled, I can see this as a being a positive way for students to meet each other and make new friends. Until then, I do not see social networking sites as being beneficial in the world of education.

Blogging with Coworkers

Raise your hand if you've ever wished there was an easy way to share ideas between your fellow teachers. I'm sure that most of you are nodding your heads, or maybe even raising your hand (don't be embarrassed). Blogging is an easy and convenient way for educators to share ideas. All it takes is one teacher to start the blog and advertise it to staff, which isn't difficult with CLC. Maybe, just maybe, that person could be you! Given that educational technology is becoming your expertise, you are the perfect person for the job! Here are some organizational ideas to get you started!

• Create a new blog for each grade level.

• Within each grade level blog, create a page for each content area:
• Reading
• Writing (6+1 Traits?)
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• Health

• Advertise, advertise, advertise! As we know, it takes a while for people to buy into new technologies. Continue to advertise these new blogs. You could even ask your administrators if you can conduct a mini-professional development at a staff meeting.
  

• I would suggest using Blogger; it is much more user friendly than Edublogs.
  

I hope this helps to get your engines running! Although overwhelming at times, we really are lucky to be teaching and learning during this time of rapid technological development.

Blogging With Students

You may be thinking to yourself, 'how can I use blogging to enhance my instruction?' Well, you've come to the right place. I've been thinking a lot about how I can use blogging with my students, and as I said earlier, it is always nice to have list of resources to get started with. I have found some extremely helpful websites that are full of ideas for blogging with students of all ages.

Teachers First Blog Ideas - This site lists blogging ideas for students in grades one through twelve. Most of the ideas are language arts related, but some cover social studies and science content.

Using Blogs in the Classroom - This site lists more language arts related blogging ideas.


I really like many of the ideas discussed at these two websites, but I also see blogging as a way for students to connect to other students around the country and the world. Most of these ideas keep the blogging within the walls of one classroom.

To begin, I can see a blog going schoolwide. It would be a great way for students in different grades to connect to one another. One idea that comes to mind immediately is the holiday season. Most of the grades in our school do some sort of holiday rotation where they learn about the winter holidays of different cultures. Most of these cultures are represented in our school, and wouldn't it be extraordinary for students to be able to share their personal experiences and questions with each other? Teachers could start each blog by giving a brief background of each holiday. Students of all grades could then respond with experiences they've had, as well as questions that they have about the holidays. I can see this as being a great way to motivate students to learn about other cultures. Click here to see the winter holidays blog that I created to use next year. Families can also get involved in this initiative. Students can work with their family members to create posts the showcase their family traditions. The nice thing about Edublogs is that all of the comments will be sent to me before being posted to the Internet. My blog is still in the works, but I am really excited to use it this year!

Blog? What's that?

Blogs have been around for some time now, but I have never really taken the opportunity to research what they are all about. This is yet another reason why I have really enjoyed completing this project. It has forced me to take the time to sit down and research the technologies that I have never made the time for before.

The word "blog" is short for the term "web log." A blog is essentially an online journal, where posts are written by an individual and can be commented on by select users, depending on the individual's preference. Blogs began, and are still used, as online diaries. Users can put details of their daily lives out there for the world to see. Today, the use of blogs has expanded to anything from corporate businesses and political campaigns to in depth discussions of just about any topic imaginable. Although blogs consist mainly of text, users can now post pictures, as well and video and audio files. Blogger and Edublogs are popular blogging sites to use. As an educator, I like the feature in Edublogs that sends comments to the administrator before posting to the web, but I am drawn to the ease using Blogger.

Practical Ideas for Podcasting in Education

It's always nice to have a compilation of ideas and resources to use, especially when using a new technology. This posting is dedicated solely to listing ideas for using podcasting in the classroom. Please feel free to reply and add your own ideas!

The following are practical ideas that can, with practice, be adapted and integrated into any classroom.

Book Talks

Literature Circles

Drama

Meet the Author

Science Logs

Art Critiques

Historical Audio Diaries

Oral Histories

The Apple website has some great lessons that integrate podcasting into instruction.

Here are some more ideas for integrating podcasting into the classroom:

• Biography Series - Students can create podcasts showcasing biography reports. These reports can be kept together for students to listen to.
  

• News Broadcasts - Students can create news broadcasts of the month's classroom happenings. These can be posted on the classroom website for families to listen to.
  

• Listening Center Library - Students can create "books on podcast" for their peers to listen to as a center. This can be a great motivation for students to practice their fluency.
  

Podcasting in Education

Podcasting holds vast potential in the world of education. I am thankful that we were given this assignment, because I already have so many ideas floating around in my head. Podcasting can give students an outlet to express their creativity. I can only imagine the level of motivation that would be present if students were able to create podcasts of their own news broadcasts, original scripts, and writing pieces. Podcasts would be a wonderful way for students to share with each other, and with other classes, what they have learned and created. I also plan to have students create podcasts of our monthly newsletters to post on our class website. Podcasting can also bring pen pals/key pals to another level. Students can create podcasts to send to their pen pal/key pal rather than sending their written or typed work.

Click here to see a video about meeting standards with podcasting. This video is a little bit lengthy, but is extremely useful!

Podcasts also have the potential to be wonderful instructional tools. In previous years, I have searched for books on CD and most of the time, my searching has ended in failure. With podcasts, I can easily create my own listening center for students using the books that we are reading for the week. I feel slightly overwhelmed with the possibilities of podcasting in education, but I am excited to implement many of them in my classroom this coming school year.

Podcasting 101

Podcast? What's that? The word podcast has been floating around for some time now. So, what is a podcast anyway? A podcast is, in essence, an online feed of digital-audio content that can be downloaded for use on a portable media player, such as an iPod. The range of podcasts available is endless, and basically provides listeners with an on demand library of content to listen to. According to Wikipedia, the most common uses of podcasting are creating radio-type shows, distributing lessons within a school, creating audio tours of museums, and distributing public safety messages. The possibilities are endless! The links below contain libraries of podcasts that you can download for your listening pleasure:

Podcast Alley

Podcast.com

Podcast Bunker

You can also download podcasts from iTunes.

I know what you are thinking! How can I create a podcast? Many HCPSS teachers have the program Garageband on our computers. I learned to make a podcast easily using Garageband. I simply created an audio file using Audio Recorder (another program on our computer), chose the podcast option in Garageband, dragged my audio file in, added some musical background, and exported my new podcast file to iWeb. It was easier than I thought it would be. I created a podcast version of the welcome letter on my class website for parents and students to listen to. Take a listen! I plan to continue using podcasts on my class website to inform parents of the latest happenings in our classroom. I will probably have students create podcasts for the website, too! The following websites go over some basic information about podcasting:

Podcasting Tools

HowStuffWorks

Please feel free to add anymore sites and/or insights that you have about podcasting!

How can wikis be used amongst coworkers in a school?

As I sit here and think about how wikis can be used between coworkers in a school setting, the possibilities are endless! My first thought is how amazing it would be to have a wiki site created where teachers could add lesson plans, activities, and materials by objective. I can see this being extremely beneficial to teachers. As educators, we are always looking for new and innovative ideas to use with our students. Imagine what this wiki site would look like if every teacher in the county put one idea per objective on the site. Teachers all over the county would have endless ideas to integrate into their instruction. This idea can also be taken to the team level. Grade level teams within a school can create a wiki site where they can share resources as well. I have a friend who uses a wiki site with her team to take minutes for team meetings. Teachers can alternate who will take the minutes for each meeting, and can add to the wiki site each week from their own computers. I would love to hear how you have used wikis with your coworkers!