Because I am new to all of the social activities related to technology, conceptualizing what each separate entity is, is super confusing to me. So please feel free to summarize general concepts for me. It will be so helpful! Most of this blog will probably not be that interesting for you. I'll just be honest. I am likely very far behind all of you, so it will be more of a summary of the reading than helpful insight. Lucky for me, we all have to comment, yeah! Below are the articles in question with some elaboration and comments.
Building Your Professional Learning Network with Twitter
I can see how using twitter would be a great way to help break down the physical walls of the classroom that separates teachers. I love to collaborate with other people who are interested in a topic that I am. I would prefer getting up and talking with someone in person, but if the walls of the classroom prevent that from happening, maybe this can help out. I will probably be that teacher who hangs out by the hallway door to chat with other teachers that are doing the same thing. With Twitter I can reach people on the other side of the building (or world)! Amazing!
It can also see how this would be a great way to spread the knowledge that teachers know in a concise way. I will have to learn to love reading about other people and their experiences. I already do that in person, but it is different when you have to read about it. Is there an application that I can put on my phone to speak the tweets out loud while I'm driving?
Cybrary Man's twitter hashtag list
This seems to be giving a common language to communicate with major groups that are out there with regards to education. Specifically for me, I could use #mathchat and #math. It could be a good way to send out information to people that are interested in a similar topic! It is a way to make a greater contribution to the body of knowledge out there on an educational topic. It is an organizational feature for discoveries, instead of having to discover everything on your own. I am a fan of not reinventing the wheel. This language helps access information from so many experienced people when you are looking to expand your teaching. It is intriguing to gain multiple perspectives.
28 Creative Ideas for Teaching with Twitter
Since I always have my phone on me, I send myself emails or text messages to take notes. If I get into Twitter, I can quit sending myself text messages on about what I'm trying to accomplish. I think what is appealing about it, is that I can search text to access the information much more quickly than using tabs in a notebook.
This may be a tool that I could use to communicate to parents about the topics in class. It could give some credibility about what you are accomplishing to the parents, since they only hear the perspective of their children when they get home. I think this would have to be purely factual, clear and concise. The impression you give to your parents is so important. There would be a large amount of responsibility associated with portraying what type of person you are. And goodness, don't misspell something! That would look so bad!
Join the Flock/Enhance Your Twitter Experience (read both together)
This seems to put pressure on spending time to be on Twitter or else you will be disconnected with the people around you. There is a lot of pressure to make your personal profile describe yourself well. Are there any implied social rules that people on Twitter follow? Such as, do not tweet if you are not knowledgable enough about a topic. Let me know all of you already experienced Twitter people in class. What should I be aware of? Are bad stigmas accidentally created by who you associate with? Can that be managed? I will probably learn that part as we tweet, but feel free to give me some advise. Also, is there anyone that you follow that you would recommend? After all, we have been grouped in our 504 class by common majors and minors.
Tweacher (n): The Twitter Enhanced Teacher
First of all, it is ironic that the title of this article on twitter in not recognized in spell check. I'm not sure how the English language will ever officially catch up to the new language being created from technology.
The opening paragraph talks about how to use Twitter in the classroom to make the learning accessible to the class instantly. I think this is an incredible idea, but someone like me who is not yet familiar with the medium could get lost very quickly in trying to get to the information and perhaps distracted and not able to focus their serial brain on the topic being discussed in class. Maybe as a note to myself as a to be teacher, I can pause for a bit and make the environment safe to communicate from student to student to make sure everyone is on the same page. I'm sure if you repeat using a particular technique, it will become more efficient as the class goes on, but there is time lost in trying to manage the technology when the time is so limited to begin with.
When the article suggests the idea of checking for understanding from the class, it is a good way to keep everyone engaged, but there will be a lot of uncomfortable feelings, because it is like cold calling. Maybe good to use in moderation, but not continuously.
Note to only use this in high school because you must be 13 years or older!
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