The Realities of Social Networking

There seem to be a few main motivators for people to use social networking...

1. Its a way to stay connected to one's world.
2. It allows individuals to collaborate through sharing ideas and knowledge without being together in person. 
3. Its a form of self promotion through personal and/or professional networks.  

Most social media interactions fall into one of these categories and although there are many instances where it has been used for bullying or given a negative connotation, social networking isn't a bad thing.  It is a way for individuals to communicate and collaborate with others around the world in ways that weren't conceivable two decades ago.  Social networks have revolutionized the way business is conducted and how individuals learn.

In the classroom, social media can be a powerful tool that enhances the learning experience and allows students to interact with other students (locally or globally) who are learning the same material.  It gives students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and learn 24/7, not just when they are in the classroom.  Students also benefit when their teacher uses social networking to collect and share ideas with other educators to develop interactive lessons that engage students and lead to student achievement.   In just one week of using twitter to follow tweets (not quite ready to send my own tweets yet) I have accessed numerous articles on current education initiatives and found tons of online resources that help integrate technology into the classroom.  It is a much more efficient way to research teaching techniques then just doing a google search....magically my twitter "inbox" is filled with new ideas, articles, and website links  each time I log on and check the feed.

Digital Footprint

   Internet users need to be aware of the good and bad consequences that come from sharing information and creating a digital footprint.  It is amazing to find how much personal information is available online and scary to think that even though I control what I put online, there are other organizations that post my personal information without my consent.  For example, I was a leader of my church's youth group for a few years and would publish announcements in the church newsletter that is also posted on the church website.  In some of those announcements I would include my home and cell phone numbers and now those are available to the public.  When I submitted the announcements it never occured to me that the information would be online and everyone has access to it. 
   It is everyone's job to ensure that beginning internet users learn how to use the internet responsibly.  Part of that is understanding what is appropriate and how easy it is for something to become part of one's digital footprint that will have a long term negative impact.

Why Technology Should be Integrated into the Classroom

Technology is everywhere and for most people it is an integral part of their daily life.  Students are attached to their technology (phones, music players, computers, etc) to such a degree that it would seem unnatural for them to spend a day without having access to it.

It is important that we as educators make an effort to integrate technology into the classroom experience as much as possible because students have developed relationships with each other and grown to understand the world around them through the use of technology.  They easily adapt to rapid change and expect to learn from the interactive experiences that can be provided by computers and cell phones.  Teachers have an opportunity to enhance a student's learning experience through the use of technology.  However, technology shouldn't be haphazardly included in a lesson.  Instead, it is the teacher's job to identify how each type of technology can be used effectively to increase student learning not just entertain them.


Week One Tool:
A tool that I can see implementing in my math class is the livebinder website.  Over the past year I have been thinking about I could have my students create a math portfolio containing pieces of evidence showing their growth as a math student over the course of the semester.  Students would be able to easily organize the information by units of study using the binder tabs.  They could load in videos, written assignments, and scanned pdf's of their work.

Reasons to Blog with your Students

12 Reasons to Blog with your Students

As a math teacher it can be really easy or really challenging to incorporate technology into a lesson.  Using blogging as an assessment tool seems like a really useful and engaging tool to assess student learning in a language arts class or a history class or any other class that involves a significant amount of writing as a form of expression.  It might take a little more creativity to develop a way of using blogging as an assessment tool in a math class.  I would imagine that students could blog about how they would go about solving a problem or maybe justify an answer.  They might also spend some time blogging about vocab terms and how they relate to the unit being studied.