Social Media in Education

Social media is a powerful tool when used properly. Today, educators can network with one another virtually and share information concerning effective teaching techniques and new technologies. 

Here are several social media accounts that I follow to hone my craft as an educator:

https://www.facebook.com/Susan.Wise.Bauer

Susan Wise Bauer is an author, historian, and educator who has had a tremendous impact on my teaching philosophy. She regularly posts informative articles on a variety of subjects. 

I recently read an article on Bauer's Facebook page that helped me understand the need to guard against scammers. Today, scammers have developed sophisticated methods of deceiving their prey. They may attack through email, cell phone calls, texts, or even mail. It is essential to stay on guard and verify the source of these communications. Scammers often use email accounts which are similar to legitimate accounts. For example, instead of an email from customerservice@capitalone.com, you may receive an email from customerservice@gmail.com asking you to verify your account information. It is especially important that we help our students understand and recognize these threats before they fall victim to these attacks.

https://www.facebook.com/edutopia

Edutopia is a great resource for educators. Their social media page provides inspiration and information concerning what works in education. Posts span a wide variety of subjects, and you can count on multiple posts each day. When I am feeling uninspired, or I simply do not know the best way to convey a lesson, I head to Edutopia's Facebook page for support.

A recent article on Edutopia's social media page provided readers with information concerning how learning happens. "Whether it’s putting on unfamiliar boots for exploring a salt marsh or daring to hold a crab, deep learning can take place when we are challenged to try new things—as long as a foundation of trust and belonging is there first."

I love that Edutopia's posts include articles, videos, and links to helpful websites for educators. It is also very helpful to interact with other educators through comments on various articles. This is a resource I will always take advantage of as Edutopia stays up to date on the latest innovations in educational technology.

https://www.facebook.com/veritaspress

Veritas Press is another excellent social media page that provides educators with a wealth of information. With a wide variety of subject matter, Veritas often posts relevant articles concerning history, literature, and democracy from a classical Christian perspective. Veritas' social media page is a constant source of inspiration and information for me.

In a recent article, I learned about the ancient historian, Thucydides. The point of the article was that we should be learning from the past mistakes of others in an effort to avoid making those same mistakes. The article was powerful and informative. One quote struck me as particularly relevant for us today: "Sometimes history gives warnings; other times it provides solace. In some cases, it shows you the cliff and gives you an opportunity to avoid falling off it." It is important that we teach our students to value history, literature, and democracy. This social media page gives us ways to make that happen in our classrooms.

Module 7 - Assistive Technologies and Digital Equity

Digital equity means ensuring that all students have equal access and opportunity to digital tools, resources, and services to increase digital knowledge, awareness, and skills.

Ensuring digital equity in the classroom takes thought and attention. Assessing student’s needs through evaluation should be an ongoing process. It is essential that educators get to know their students at a deep and meaningful level. What are students’ academic strengths? Weaknesses? Are there physical impairments which require accommodation? Cognitive impairments? The heart of an educator should always be concerned with seeing each student realize his or her full potential.

Fortunately, many assistive technologies exist which make this possible. There are tools to help the visually impaired and hearing impaired. There are tools to help those who are physically or cognitively challenged. If there is a need, educators should research ways that the need can be met to ensure student success.

In the instance of an ELL student who is just beginning school, there are many tools available to help teachers communicate with them in meaningful ways. Simple applications can be downloaded on smart phones which translate languages. These tools will be especially helpful when communicating with parents who do not speak English.

Some things educators must consider in the classroom include making sure all students have equal access to technology. Not all students have devices and internet access at home. These students must be allowed to complete online assignments in the classroom. They may need extra assistance in learning to use their device or application.

Group projects are great for encouraging peer assistance and collaboration to ensure each student receives attention, instruction, and learning. Educators must be mindful when forming groups to pair students with varying abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

It is also helpful for educators to allow flexibility in meeting requirements. This allows students to display their knowledge in creative ways. Some students may struggle to communicate verbally, while others may struggle with written communication. When allowed to submit work in a variety of ways, students are able to fully demonstrate their understanding of the material.

In my future classroom, I plan to ensure digital equity by getting to know my students and their individual needs. We are seeing more and more ELLs and special education students in the traditional classroom. This is a wonderful thing! It teaches children the value of diversity and differences in learning styles. Students learn to empathize with one another, and together we can seek ways to ensure every single student is successful in the classroom.

 

Module 6 - Student Assessment

Student assessment has come a long way in the last decade or so. When I was in elementary school (several decades ago), student assessment generally consisted of taking a written test after being taught a lesson, chapter, or unit. The assessment was always graded for accuracy, and its purpose was to show how much information I had retained. It was rarely, if ever, used to help the teacher assess his or her teaching methods.

This module has helped me think about student-centered assessment in a whole new way. If teachers will adapt their assessment methodologies toward actually assessing how their students learn, then everyone in the classroom wins - student engagement increases and real learning occurs.

So, how do we make this shift as educators? We must learn to think about and assess our students' individual learning styles and interests. We must reflect on the 21st century skills our students will need to be successful in life. Next, we must design lessons that will engage our students and equip them to succeed. It is imperative that we move beyond the same old assessments and standardized tests that we likely experienced in the classroom. 

Fortunately, there are many technological tools available that will make this feat easier for busy educators. There are tools online, many of them free, that will assist educators as they assess their students' passions, learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses. Teachers are empowered to create simple surveys and administer them virtually to students, and data is captured and recorded to be used for many purposes, including teacher reflection. This will allow teachers to fine tune lessons that will capture the attention of their students and deliver content that is timely, relevant, and engaging.

In my future classroom, I plan to use Google Forms to administer a survey at the start of every school year. I will ask my students simple questions about themselves that will allow me to determine their learning styles, interests, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. This will help me tailor lessons, group projects, and assignments that will meet their individual and collective needs. I will reassess students midyear and end of year to monitor our progress.

I also plan to use Quizlet and Kahoot! to help me hone in on specific areas of weakness in my students' understanding. These fun and engaging tools will allow me to assess my students' content knowledge and see if I need to review material or move instruction in a new direction.

Module 2 - Curricular Frameworks Reflection

According to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, there are six levels of cognitive learning.  These six levels are applying, remembering, analyzing, understanding, creating, and evaluating. 

The wording in the taxonomy was changed from the original noun form to verbs. Also, when thinking of the levels of learning, it is more helpful to think of them as working cogs which center around the main cog, creating, rather than in the original pyramid form.

Lower order thinking involves remembering, understanding, and applying, while higher order thinking involves analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

"Skills are needed in the 21st century that go beyond basic literacy. Students must be able to read critically, write persuasively, think and reason logically, and solve complex problems. A successful 21st-century student must also be adept at managing information—finding, evaluating, and applying new content understanding with great flexibility." (www.21stcenturyskills.org)

The 4Cs are learning and innovation skills that will help students succeed in today's technological world. These essential skills include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Critical Thinking involves analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, making decisions, and solving problems.

Communication can be written, verbal, or multimedia messages. Students must be able to share information with others while expressing their thoughts and opinions clearly. Strong listening and evaluating skills to aid collaboration are essential.

Collaboration includes the ability to work well with others to accomplish a goal while remaining flexible and sharing group responsibility.

Creativity encompasses abilities such as brainstorming, refining ideas, being responsive to ideas from others, and making ideas tangible and useful to others.

With Bloom's revised taxonomy and 21st century skills in mind, educators must create lessons that encourage students to explore and master these abilities. Group projects which allow students to effectively communicate and collaborate with others are essential to their success. Students should also be introduced to complex problems to solve and allowed flexibility in choosing technological tools to work with to accomplish their goals.

In my future classroom, I plan to have a project each quarter that requires students to analyze and evaluate a problem. Students will be required to work together using technology to find a creative solution to their problem while engaging the 4Cs in their daily activities.

Module 1 - Technology Integration and Framework - Reflection

 According to Robert Marzano, "Standards hold the greatest hope for significantly improving student achievement." 

ISTE Standards for Students were created for this very reason. ISTE maintains: "Today’s students must be prepared to thrive in a constantly evolving technological landscape. The ISTE Standards for Students are designed to empower student voice and ensure that learning is a student-driven process." These standards were created at the national level.

Let's explore the ISTE standards:

1. Empowered Learner - Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

2. Digital Citizen - Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

3. Knowledge Constructor - Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

4. Innovative Designer - Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

5. Computational Thinker - Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

6. Creative Communicator - Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

7. Global Collaborator - Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

Standards also exist on a local level in Alabama. They were created with extensive use of the ISTE standards for students. The Alabama Course of Study: Digital Literacy and Computer Science provides the framework for the study of technology from Kindergarten through Grade 12 in Alabama’s public schools. These standards for content are fundamental but not exhaustive, and they provide the minimum content requirements for each grade.

To help teachers successfully implement technology standards in classrooms, several exceptional frameworks have been created. They are TPACK, SAMR, TECH, and PRIMM.

TPACK was created to help align technical, pedagogical, and content knowledge.

SAMR helps teachers design lessons using technology that engage higher order thinking skills, promote rich learning experiences, and impact student achievement.

The SAMR model is defined below:

Substitution – Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change. 

Augmentation –  Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, but with functional improvements.  

Modification - Technology allows for significant task redesign.

Redefinition - Technology allows for the creation of new tasks that were previously inconceivable.

Substitution and Augmentation are the lowest levels of technology integration in the SAMR model. Enhancement of education has occurred, but lessons have not yet reached the transformative level. Modification and Redefinition are the highest levels of the model in which transformation occurs. Here, students begin analyzing, evaluating, and creating their own data and tasks.

TECH was created to help teachers think of the SAMR model in a way that focuses on people rather than tasks.

TECH aligns well with the SAMR model:

Traditional - Teacher designs the lessons with traditional pedagogy but with technology supports.

Enhanced - Teacher integrates multiple technological tools in a way that enhances the learning experience.

Choice - Teacher sets broad goals for students in which they are able to choose from various technological tools to accomplish a chosen task.

Handoff - Students' interest drives the learning experience with teacher guidance and flexible choice of tools and technologies to achieve and authentic and exemplary product.

PRIMM is a framework used for teaching computer programming to students. 

The PRIMM model is defined below:

Predict - Read through the code and write down what one thinks will happen.

Run - What happened when the code was run?

Investigate - Why does the code behave in a certain manner?

Modify - Make changes to the code to help aid in one's understanding.

Make - Write one's own code to solve problems.

This module has helped me understand how the various technology integration frameworks apply to the lessons I will present. I am particularly inspired by the element of global collaboration. 

In future lessons, I will seek ways to allow my students to connect with others across the globe. I particularly enjoy teaching science, and I have a love of gardening. As I teach Life Science going forward, I would love to have my students collaborate with students in an area with a similar climate and compare the differences in agricultural techniques. Ideally, each set of students would be allowed to cultivate their own garden plots, record and analyze data using spreadsheets and other tools, and collaborate with others concerning ways to improve existing agricultural techniques. 

Additionally, I would love to introduce a unit on robotics where students must choose their own design and create their own robots using limited resources. With a background in IT, I would enjoy teaching students basic coding techniques that would be helpful with this project. PRIMM will come in handy with this unit! 

In the past, I have had my students cultivate a garden plot, and I have had them use technology to learn and collaborate with one another, but I love the idea of infusing technology in ways that will help my students further engage in rich learning experiences with their peers across the world. I also love the idea of virtual field trips to places we would otherwise not be able to visit. Finally, I keenly realize that with all this technology comes the responsibility to teach my students to be good digital citizens.