Tweet Tweet for Education

Twitter has served for several years now as a social media frustration and praise outlet. In 140 characters or less, users of this service can say whatever they wish. The topic of these tweets ranges from political to personal commentary. Twitter keeps a lot of people connected to the world in a really accessible way.

I activated my Twitter account for school. One of my classes freshman year of college required me to go on Twitter and tweet responses back to posed questions my professor provided. I didn't use Twitter as a reliable source of information because it was presented to me as a social media program. The subject matter shouldn't all together be ignored though because it does touch on real life issues presented by the community in which we live.

The biggest educational perk I've seen from Twitter is the endless amounts of information you can search. I recently learned that #hashtags can be researched on Twitter in order to find tweets that have that same keyword in them. For example, I searched #Ferguson and saw a multitude of controversial opinions from people across the country. Twitter can be educational!

Just like any other website available to the entire world, facts presented on Twitter need to be taken with a grain of salt. Teachers can use Twitter in order to keep in contact with each other and help create well organized and effective lesson plans.

Twitter can be used in a teachers' PLN, or Professional Learning Network. Clinte Lalonde comments on the logistics of Twitter in his journal entry, "How important is Twitter in Your Professional Learning Network."He comments on the community Twitter creates by also noting the importance of being an individual teacher. Lalonde informs, "while a PLN involves negotiating social relationships for the purpose of learning, it is also a very personal and intimate construct in that decisions about who to include in your PLN are personal, autonomous decisions." Teachers make their own plans while being able to collaborate through livetweeting, chats, and shared links from other professionals across the globe.

Lamonte also conducted a study with educators to see what they thought the biggest benefit of using Twiter in the teaching process is. The openness of Twitter won the teachers over. Lamonte wrote, "participants relayed numerous stories and anecdotes about people "dropping in" on conversations they were having with people in their PLN, adding a richness to the conversation by adding in comments or observations about whatever was being discussed." The more conversation the better!

Another commenter on the Twitter network informed me on how I can use Twitter beyond its search engine abilities. Luz Chavez of Green Light Professional Development wrote a post entitled, "Twitter: How Teachers can use it as a PLN." He says that Twitter usage is all about who you follow as a teacher. We can "follow education experts, conference presenters, teachers at other schools, and professional organizations for teachers," just to name a few. The more people you follow the more information you get. The more information you get, the more you know about the education field you work in!

Personally I haven't used Twitter enough. Before conducting this research, I only ever used it for a social outlet and quizzes. I didn't realize teachers around the world used Twitter to connect with one another about specific learning tools they wanted to use in their lives. Now I follow a couple education based accounts called English Education and Higher Education. English education focuses on how English is taught around the globe and gives updates on teacher meetings being held online as well as provides lesson plan templates and educator commentary on teaching English to students.

Higher Education gears itself towards graduate students and teachers getting higher degrees. It shows students and teachers in education what they can do to be more well rounded and how they can stand out with their knowledge. I hope to use this site as reference when I'm working on my doctorate and masters in graduate school. The account also shows other peoples' progress of learning, academia awards, and theses. I will use both the English Education and Higher Education accounts to get advice and get involved with people doing the same thing I am with learning how to teach English. 

It's one thing to talk to fellow teachers at your own school, but Twitter alows access to teachers from anywhere who may have more experience with what it is you're trying to learn. Twitter gets teachers involved and talking as one collective unit.

I still say on the surface that Twitter is a social media complaint source of spotty incomplete information. Teachers who know how to use it however, are able to dive into learning deeper and easier than they would have been able to do without it. I like Twitter now that I know more about it, and will use it in part to stay connected with the world around me as well as in the classes I teach.

References

C Lalonde. (2012, September). "How Important is Twitter in Your Professional Learning Network?"
http://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=2379624

L Chavez. (2014, Febuary 27th). "Twitter: How Teachers can use it as a PLN."
http://glpd.greenlightlearningtools.com/blog/2014/02/27/twitter-teachers-can-use-pln

10 Ways Teachers Can Use Twitter For Professional Development [Electronic Image]. (2011). Retrieved December 12th, 2014, from: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/10/twitter-for-professional-development.html

A Principal's Reflection [Electronic Image]. (2014). Retrieved December 12th, 2014, from: http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2014/06/twitter-as-tool-for-academic-discourse.html
           

Evernote in the Classroom

Evernote is a handy organizational tool used to break down and categorize information found and stored on flash drives or any other external device. More than an organizing tool just for the sake of knowing where things are, Evernote allows you to add files, rename files, and create files under one sub category.

Teachers can have different grade levels and subjects organized in one easy place without having a million tabs to sort through. According to Evernote enthusiast Mark O'Neill, "Evernote has its own OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service which means that it can read text, whether it’s computer keyboard text, text in a PDF document, a photocopy of some text (say a page of a book) or even text in a photograph." A lot of times transferring word documents to online databases causes problems that can agonize any user. Evernote helps to eliminate that.

O'Neill also points out what I discovered on my own; Evernote provides every user with a unique email account that prevents ones mailbox from being too clogged. Another cool feature we both seemed to find was the accessibility of files. Everything is finally in one place. As a teacher, I can have all my materials without all sorts of files. Currently I use it for reminders. I have notes I take on my phone, but often I forget to check them. It is nice to be able to speak into Evernote and have that note saved alongside all my other documents. I've learned through my research, that some features are only available through the trial version. I've used both because my mother has an account too.

I've really only ever used Evernote to make lists and reminders. I've started to have it organize files as I have a hard time keeping up with my flash drives. Turns out, you can actually save everything you've ever come across online in Evernote. Tweets, websites, files, PowerPoints, recipes, pictures, you name it! What's also neat is that Evernote is accessible on computers, iPads and iPhones. Don't worry android lovers, it works for you too.

A concern I had, and one that Mr. O'Neill points out, is the privacy of all this. I mean after all, if everything in your entire life is on place, it's pretty easy to steal. To my relief, Evernote has an answer to this too. It's something called encryption. Basically Evernote requires you to create a password for text or files you wish to hide from others who may see your laptop. Just be sure to not save your encrypted password in Evernote.

Just like organizing files, Evernote also has the tools to organize searches. What I mean is, Evernote can organize your toolbar with your 'pinned' most frequent searches. You have the option to pin which websites you visit most, and can change that at any time. O'Neill taught me how to organize the links too. This can be referred to as a table of contents. O'Neill says this is useful because "[it] is much neater than having a loose collection of links lying all over the place. This way, I have a good overview of everything." When you can see everything at once, you save time by not digging for files.

Evernote is going to be a transitional program for me. I like having hands on materials just so I know it's safe and in my hands. However, it is nice to know that I can easily access all my files in one place and I don't have to remember URLs or file names. I could see myself using this as a teacher to have individual students' files that we can both access, as well as personal assessments I can turn in to parents and my principal. Students themselves can use Evernote in order to store handwritten notes, PDF's, and other important files.

Jennifer Carey is a teacher and she wrote another helpful post telling me about Evernote. She said her "students with an Evernote notebook simply share it with me. This eliminates the need to collect 85 sloppy, hand-written spirals or three ring binders." All the documents the students make can be shared with just the teacher. This makes grading more orderly. The PDF documents that the students make are only reachable through the full version of Evernote, which is why I would want that.

Overall Evernote is interesting because both teachers and students can use it in the same ways. Where the grading is easy for teachers, the turning in becomes as easy as sharing is for students. Those students that don't like typing their notes (students like me) might have a hard time transitioning to Evernote. I think that students should be able to hand write their notes if they please. As I've found through Ms. Carey, students can submit hand written notes and any other form of writing they've done into Evernote without having to type. A student who knows how to store and find all their materials without having to use a million different programs will have a better chance for successful progressive learning.

References

M O'Neill. (2012, September 1st). How to use Evernote: The Unofficial Manual. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-evernote-the-missing-manual-full-text

J Carey. (2013, June 25th). Evernote: A Great Tool for Organizing Teachers and Students!

http://plpnetwork.com/2013/06/25/evernote-teachers-classrooms

Technology in the Classroom

Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge, LA is a private K-12 educational institution that encourages the appropriate use of technology for both teachers and students. Epsicopal’s faculty is expected but not required to attend seminars off campus that instruct them on utilizing technology in the classroom. The school also has on campus training for all faculty members. The school even has an IT department bringing in new software and technology for the teachers to use in their classrooms. Through donations, Episcopal was able to get document cameras and SMART Boards for almost every classroom. The teachers are not required to use any of this technology, however it is paramount that they learn how to use it before deciding to keep it or not. The guidelines on technology are a little different for incoming teachers, who must attend technology-training courses.

The eight hour training program new teachers are required to attend instructs them on the school’s website, email, grading software, and other programs they might wish to use in their classrooms. By the time teachers enter the classroom they are confident and ready to show their students how valuable a resource technology is if used properly. Episcopal is fortunate to have many different technological assistants showing faculty the ropes. Students are required to use technology learned in the classrooms to do various projects and presentations. No resource goes to waste. As a college prep school, Episcopal prepares its students for the most technologically advanced higher education institutions out there. In fact, many students find it to be more challenging than the colleges they attend after high school due to the vast amount of technology they are exposed to in the classroom.

While technology in the classroom is certainly good, there are potential downfalls with it concerning students and teachers outside the classroom. Episcopal does address this as well. Students can bring their laptops to class, but they are not allowed to go on any social media websites during that time. The school has firewalls preventing any student from logging on to these sites. Teachers have access to laptop carts for their classrooms where they can have their students log in to work on simulations and any other educational website. Outside the classroom, students are not allowed to post pictures of themselves in uniform on any social media site. They are not allowed to be friends with faculty members online, and they are not allowed to say what school they go to online. This keeps the school out of the students’ personal lives.

It is important to note that not every school is like Episcopal. Many teachers fear the use of technology in the classroom. They say it’s too hard for them to separate their personal lives from their teaching lives (Bidwell, 2014). Teachers don’t want to have to worry about their students finding them on social media. In this day and age misuse of technology for teachers can cost them their jobs. This discomfort for teachers comes from not knowing how to properly use YouTube videos, blogs, and interactive websites in the classroom. The best way to fix that is training, which is something Episcopal does very well. Social media is a gift, not a right. If future teachers don’t get the proper training to use it in the classroom, then they simply won’t use it. As a domino effect, students will enter the real world unprepared and unfamiliar with the latest technology for jobs everywhere.

A video that harps on staying technologically innovative is seen in the link below. It demonstrates how important it is for our children to stay at the same pace with technology. The Wordle serves a similar purpose by highlighting the words ‘appropriate’ and ‘communication.’ These words are creating the goal of technology in and outside the classroom, while also pointing out other buzzwords needed to be considered for technological advancement. Our children’s’ education are in our hands. We better stop focusing on ignorance and start focusing on innovation.

References

Bildwell, A. (2014). Check out that selfie: How to use social media in the classroom. US News:A World Report. Retrieved from www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/17/check-out-that-selfie-how-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom

Episcopal High School. (2014). Technology. Retrieved from www.ehsbr.org

Gabgorilla. (2011, October 20). Technology in the classroom: Digital media. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbVKPhVCRFI