Using
Social Media to Share/Communicate/Reflect
It's
time to face the facts – students love using social media!
As a teacher at the beginning of this course, I was constantly
looking for ways to have students turn off their personal devices
(phones, iPads, laptops, netbooks, e-readers etc). However, after
learning about how I can use social media as a teaching tool, I have
learned to send students to these tools instead of pulling
them away from them.
Blogs:
My
students have each created a blog using the website KidBlog. They
regularly create posts about different topics and are required to
comment on the posts of their classmates. Consequently, students are
peer-assessing without even realizing it! They check the posts for
spelling, grammar, writing conventions, an ability to clearly
organize thoughts etc, and leave an online reply so that the author
can revise his/her work.
Audio
in the Classroom:
In
history, my grade seven classes are writing monologues from the
perspective of a historical person who played a part in the Seven
Years War. However, not only are they creating the monologue, they
are using Audacity to add background music and sound effects to their
audio recording to establish the desired mood and tone for their
piece.
Twitter:
I
have created a Twitter account that many students and parents have
begun following. I often send out reminders about different events
that either happened throughout the day or that will be coming up.
It's great to be able to communicate with students and parents in
such an easy and effective way!
Image
Manipulation:
Since
the students have just completed their literature circles, they are
going to be working on a culminating activity. One of the options
they have is to create a slogan and logo that reflects a charity they
read about in their novel. They will be able to use various image
manipulation sites to create their piece and can provide a
justification of their ideas using a text overlay. I can't wait to
get them started!
Overall,
this technology course has been a whirlwind of a learning opportunity
for me and I look forward to continue my own professional development
so that I am best able to meet the needs of my students.
