Engage, Enhance, and Extend

When it comes to technology in the classroom, there are few other tools that can compare to how much it can improve a lesson. In the article "Engage, Enhance, and Extend," Liz Keren-Kolb explores what it each of these words mean in the context of the classroom and gives examples of how to achieve each. She demonstrates the way in which tweaking a project, or adding more layers, can help it become something that engages, enhances, and extends learning.

In many ways, English has started to become synonymous with outdated, as many students tend to associate the subject with old books written by long dead men they can't relate to. Although any English teacher could tell you that this is not true, it is still our job to show students that the books they read can be relevant to them. Aside from just incorporating eBooks into the classroom, there are a myriad of tools available to encourage students to read more, assess their understanding, and help improve their writing skills. Ben Stern has a whole article filled with wonderful tech tools we English teachers can make use of. The ones that I believe would be particularly helpful to engage, enhance, and extend learning are GoodReads, Animoto, BoomWriter, and Protagonize.

GoodReads is a website and an app that I use myself in my daily life. It allows you to plug in books you've read and rate them, as well as "shelf" books you want to read in the future. But the best feature is the recommendations, if you ask me. The books it chooses are usually spot on- I've enjoyed all the books I read that were recommended for me. I think a tool like this is especially helpful when trying to encourage students to read more. If they have a few books that they loved, they can quickly get a long list of more books they might love. Moreover, the platform has a social aspect, meaning students can see what others have read/are planning to read soon. It's a great way to extend the classroom into their real life and foster a love of reading for years to come.

Animoto is another tool I have used before, though the suggestion here to is reverse who is using it. Instead of using it to create videos myself, it can be a powerful tool in assessing a student's knowledge. Testing to see if they can make a short, yet informative, video is an easy way to check that they understood the main themes and ideas of the text. However, it is also fun while being easy to use. It is quick and easy to create projects that look like like they took hours even though they didn't. Not to mention that students will appreciate watching peer-made videos for a change of pace.

BoomWriter and Protagonize both work to help students with their writing, though BoomWriter is much more creative writing oriented. BoomWriter allows students to upload work chapter by chapter and when they are finished, they can have a printed book for $10. Having a tangible object as a result of months of hard work is a good way to feel accomplished. Protagonize allows students to post their work online and allows members of the community to comment and make suggestions. Although not every comment will be helpful and relevant, many of them will be and this gives students a chance to start trying to identify helpful comments in comparison to unhelpful ones. Both of these websites help engage students in learning and especially writing, but they also enhance it. BoomWriter fuels the sense of accomplishment that can drive a lot of students and even extends it into their real lives by giving them a physical object they can keep. Protagonize offers new insights for students on their writing that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It extends their learning beyond the classroom since it isn't just their peers and their teacher giving them suggestions.

Technology is an ever changing landscape, but if we, as teachers, can keep up with it, we can use it to transform learning. There is a long, long list of reasons and ways technology can engage, enhance, and extend learning. In a wonderful TED talk, Raj Dhingra shares stories of technology and why he thinks technology can revolutionize the classroom.

I think his ideas on technology are particularly interesting and fresh because he encourages us to think outside the box when it comes to ways to use technology in the classroom. Instead of just doing the conventional and loosely incorporating technology, he wants us to "bend the rules" a bit, or simply change our ways of thinking about technology. 

Twitter for a Professional Learning Network

Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites, boasting of a whooping 304 million active monthly users. For people of any age it is a popular choice. For most, it offers a chance to stay up to date with friends as they post about their day-to-day lives. However, for educators it provides a unique opportunity that is easier through Twitter than it ever has been before. Twitter serves as a great platform to craft a network of education resources for teachers. They can use it to follow others that will keep them up to date on the latest practices, tools, and information a teacher may need. Twitter allows teachers to stay on top of the latest teaching trends while helping them ensure that they won't fall behind when new technology comes out. By carefully selecting who to follow, teachers can be sure that they will constantly have relevant and current information in their subject area.

As an aspiring high school English teacher, my twitter consists of popular authors, technological educators, and other teachers. Although a lot of modern authors aren't taught in the classroom yet, I still find their tweets not only interesting, but important. Opinions of authors that they voice on twitter are great insights into their minds and the motivations behind their novels. Not to mention, some of them offer opinions on movies and books they've read. Stephen King, in particular, seems to quite enjoy not only sharing glimpses into his mind and day-to-day life, but also giving reviews of media he has consumed. These opinions, when coming from a published author like King, push me to look into his recommendations. Books that I find this way are often filed away in my mind as possible teaching books, whenever I have the option to pick a book of my own for the course.

What I feel like is the most crucial part of my profession learning network is the technological educators. Since twitter is a perfect platform for keeping yourself up to date on the latest information, that makes it even better for technology updates. Technology is constantly evolving, so a fast-paced social media site like twitter will be able to keep me on top of the latest trends, as long as the people I follow are on top of the trends. I follow two technology based blogs (or at least they post a decent amount of technology) and between the two I catch most of the updates I need for different tips and tricks for technology in the classroom. These twitters are Jane Bowser (@jbowser) and Jonathan Wylie (@jonathanwylie). While Jane Bowser follows Jonathan Wylie and often retweets his posts, I find that I like following him myself as well, because I think almost all of his tweets are great. Jane Bowser is a great twitter to follow because she retweets from numerous different sources, some of which I don't always choose to follow because I find a lot of their tweets extraneous. Between the two I feel like I'm constantly up to date on the latest trends to hit the educational scene.

Aside from these twitters, I like to follow some other educators and people working to advance the education field. I find that these people, who come from diverse backgrounds, all offer different insights into the classroom. They look at the classroom very differently and many are working on different goals they hope to see achieved in the educational realm. I enjoy following these people not only because I learn a lot about new teaching techniques and what is happening in classrooms across the country, but also because it reminds me constantly of all the issues I'm going to face when I teach. People like Melinda D. Anderson (@mdawriter), who tweets about the racial inequalities in education, are voices of real people who have experienced these issues. Melinda Anderson posted an article about the struggles of English language learners in the classroom. The article highlights the issues these students face as teachers and the educational system often tries to assimilate the students, frequently shoving the student's heritage to the side. Valerie Strauss (@valeriestrauss), writer for the Washington Post, is another valuable resource, for a similar reason. She writes strictly on education for the Washington Post and tweets many of her articles, meaning I don't have to go searching for the ones that interest me; their titles will simply pop up in my twitter feed. She recently posted this article about what students really need at school but won't be getting. The article explores the struggles of being a student (especially a high school one) in this day and age and what sacrifices students have to make to stay afloat in school. The article is a potent wake up call that reminds parents and teachers not to over work their children and students.

When it comes to what the professionals have to say, David Warlick weighs in on his ton ten tips for improving your Twitter PLN. His tips suggest ways to keep yourself organized and maximize your learning without consuming all of your time. However what I think his best tip is number six: "Your aggregator can grow temporary limbs. If you are teaching a new unit, find sources that will help you prepare for it and subscribe to them. When you’ve learned what you need, sever the lines." His use of gardening metaphors helps clarify what he means and makes it relateable for any reader. I think this sixth tip is really useful because we sometimes don't want to let go of resources I've found helpful. But, once we no longer need that particular line, there is no need to keep it. We need to keep out PLNs trimmed  and focused so that we don't get lost in all of the Twitters we've followed. Catherine Trinkle also writes about some of her best practices for creating a PLN on Twitter. She offers great advice but a reoccurring message of her article is to reach out and connect with others on Twitter. "Twitter is best when it is interactive and collaborative, so when you are asked for a resource or other assistance, reply. Your followers will return, in kind, to your requests for information, and your Twitter experience will be truly collaborative." In the words of Trinkle, Twitter really shines when we use to to actively collaborate instead of just reading the tweets and articles that show up in our feed. That is what makes it one of the best platforms for creating a PLN: it is so easy to make it interactive.

This second half of the semester I've found three people I've followed have been more educational than some of the others. The first person I followed that I felt like really helped me evolve was Jonathan Wylie (@jonathanwylie). HIs frequent posts about different ed tech tools that are being released and updated keeps me constantly posted on different ways I can be using technology in the classroom. Recently he even posted an article on how to make the most out of limited tech in a classroom, which I thought was honestly one of the most useful things he has posted in while. Because not every classroom is going to have a lot of technology access, so knowing how to deal with this is important. The second person I found really informative was Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher). She posts helpful links that help me become a better educator all around. The link selection is well rounded and very informative. Although sometimes I find some of her tweets superfluous, in general I think she was a great choice for a follow because I feel like I've learned a lot. Lastly, I'm really glad I followed Melinda Anderson (@mdawriter). As a middle class, white American, I know that at times I am blind to the struggles of this country's poorer students of color. Her twitter reminds me of many of the struggles they face. Since this is not something I personally face, I think it is important to be reminded that these things happen and that I should always remember this in the classroom, because it will definitely affect my student and their personal life.

Who you follow on Twitter really matters when you are crafting your professional network. Pick twitters that are interesting to you and tweet things of real substance and importance. Keep it strictly business but I think twitter can be a great tool for teachers because it keeps them current. Outdated teaching practices really don't work, so teachers need to strive to keep their methods current and update their lesson plans and courses as the years go by. Twitter can be a great tool to stay on top of the latest news and scope out the best teaching practices. When used properly, Twitter can really help a teacher become even better than they were before.

References:
Trinkle, Catherine. (2009). Twitter as a Professional Learning Community. School Library Monthly, 26. Retrieved from http://web2integration.pbworks.com/f/Twitter+as+a+Professional+Learning+Community.pdf

Warlick, David. (2009). Grow Your Personal Learning Network: New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ831435

The Use of Social Media in School

In public schools these days, teachers are constantly looking for ways to engage their students. They are constantly looking for new and fresh ways to keep students interested and involved in the class and the course material. The 21st century ushers in a new era of teaching in which passively relaying information to students no longer cuts it. With standardized testing and common core, the pressure on teachers is ever increasing. Gone are the days of work sheets upon work sheets as the new expectations are borne onto teachers of today. To keep up with this rapidly changing technological world, the modern teachers must utilize all the tools at their disposal. One method that is garnering popularity is the responsible use of social media inside the classroom.

My own high school attempted to implement this trend inside its own classrooms as well. West Chester East High School is one of three schools inside of the West Chester Area School District in Pennsylvania. A closely tied sister school to the other two, all of the schools abide by a similar rule system. Among these are the guidelines by which teachers were allowed to use social media. 

In the early days of my high school career teachers were not permitted to use social media to connect with students in anyway. Any teacher found to have a twitter that they gave out to students for academic purposes, such as tweeting about homework assignments, was asked to shut it down. I had always found this frustrating seeing how this type of thing was incredibly useful for me and my fellow students. Even youtube was blocked inside the school so teachers were unable to show us educational videos on it. The most they could do was suggest the students make a Facebook group dedicated to the class. I found this to be a serious impediment to our learning community and the ability to experiment with new and possibly more effective teaching methods. 

Fortunately, by my senior year much of this had changed. The school had unblocked youtube and allowed teachers to have educational twitters that were allowed to follow at our own leisure. My senior English teacher had a twitter that he frequently updated with changes to the homework assignments, articles he found relevant, and (because we got to choose our books and he read them along with us) he thoughts on a chapter he might have just read. These articles are his personal musings often helped spur on conversation in class, an element that might have been lost had he not been permitted to use a twitter.  

The guidelines for West Chest Area School District's policy for the acceptable use of social media are quite clear. Along with listing acceptable and unacceptable uses, they include what they call a "TAP" test. The TAP test provides three guidelines for whether or not a specific form of social media could be considered acceptable if it is not listed under either category. Moreover it includes rules for the personal use of social media and how to interact with currently enrolled students over social media. They clearly state that it is not permitted to "friend" a current student on Facebook or share a personal twitter or blog. On top of the typical social media, the district reminds teachers that the use of school e-mail, our online grade book PowerSchool, and our TurnItIn equivalent, Moodle, are all pre-approved by the district.

In the video posted below, we are shown the way in which one teacher, Mr. Cassidy, uses twitter in his Advanced Literature class. In one way is was very similar to how my professor used it, but also took it a step further. Depicted in the video we see the way students can engage with the teacher and other students in class through the use of twitter.

The lively use of twitter in the classroom to allow the students to engage in the debate and also communicate with the teacher without interrupting other students is modern and effective. It takes the use of social media I grew accustomed to a step further. I think it is incredibly important to use social media in the classroom to help engage students, otherwise they will use it to distract themselves from what they might feel is a dull lesson. It is possible that even when they are allowed to use social media in the classroom that students will still use it to roam the internet and disengage from class. This article by Susan Cumberland concisely lays out the pros and cons of using social media in the classroom. Though she claims that it will be a distraction, and may not benefit the classroom but I disagree. The video above shows just one example where using social media is a success. Though it is true that these events may occur, I believe that if a student is properly engaged and interested in the class, which is more likely to happen if social media is integrated into the course, they will not feel tempted to stray to inappropriate use of technology in the classroom.

All in all, using social media in the classroom comes with risks. However, from what I've experienced first hand, it can be a great tool to deepen the students connection and learning. If utilized properly it can be a powerful teaching tool. I don't think school systems and teachers should shy away from this new possibility and rather should embrace it.

References:

Cumberland, S. (2014, February 21). 5 pros and cons of social media in the classroom. Retrieved September 17, 2014, from http://www.schooliseasy.com/2014/02/social-media-in-the-classroom/

Expectations for Communicating Electronically with Students. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2014, from http://documents.wcasd.k12.pa.us/dsweb/Get/Document-150774/District+Guidelines+for+Electronic+Communications+with+Students_FINAL.pdf

Waterloo Schools. (2012, November 6). Social Media and Technology in the Classroom [Video file]. retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaYIvdv4jFs