Twitter, Jing, Edmodo, Wordle

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 140 million active users as of 2012, generating over 340 millions tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day.  It has been described as "the SMS of the Internet.”  I have a twitter account but I really don’t know how to use it.  I have tried many times but I have never been successful at learning how to operate it.

Here are a few ways to use Twitter in a classroom:

• Use Twitter to inform students of upcoming exams, assignments, trips and projects. This live feed of class activities helps students remain on task. The ability to use Twitter for class announcements also provides greater flexibility when making changes to the class syllabus.

• Post conversation topics and example questions on Twitter for student consideration. Enabling students to reply to the class Twitter feed encourages class discussion outside of the classroom. This is possibly the greatest benefit of using Twitter in the classroom as it promotes a greater sense of community.

• Twitter is a large community with many professionals in every field of study. You can use Twitter to host a class discussion with the author of a book, a politician or an award-winning scientist. The accessibility and speed of Twitter can yield some inspiring virtual classroom visits.

Here is a "how to" video for Twitter that may help others grasp a better understanding of how to use it.

Jing

Jing is a fast and easy way to capture images and create videos of what you see on your screen.  With Jing, you can capture what you want to say with a picture or a video instantly.  I had never used Jing until I got to this class and I found it very beneficial for putting pictures of videos online as opposed to saving the whole picture.

Here are a few ways to use Jing in a classroom: 

• Give your students the information they need, when they need it. 
• Record your feedback as you grade papers.
• Take a snapshot to share with your class.
• Your students can even use it to collaborate, or ask questions.

Edmodo

Edmodo is a free, secure, social learning platform for teachers, students, schools and districts.  Throughout this semester, I loved using Edmodo because it was so easy to turn in classroom assignments and to see when things are due.  Also, I loved being able to look at my grades any time as well as projects that I have created throughout the semester.

Here are a few ways to use Edmodo in a classroom:

• Edmodo provides teachers and students with a secure and easy way to post classroom materials.
• Share links and videos.
• Access homework, grades, and school notices.
• Teachers and students can store and share all forms of digital content--blogs, links, videos, pictures, documents, presentations, and more.

Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.  The first time that I had used Wordle was at the beginning of the semester.  I really liked it because you could create a picture with your choice of words.

Here are a few ways to use Wordle in a classroom:

• Summarizing the content of an essay or any piece of work. Useful way of telling people what the essay is about.
• Wordle can be used by the teacher as a means of assessment. Student creates a Wordle of their presentation and uses that as the basis for a discussion.
• Self Reflection.
• Summarizing survey results from text fields.
• Illustrate a student’s writing with a picture.

PBS Teachers

PBS Teachers

Pbsteachers.org is a very good website for teachers to use to create and develop lesson plans.  The website splits up the lesson plans by grades and by the subject that the teacher may teach as well as the topic that the teacher may be teaching. This website provides outlets of media such as videos, slideshows, and online games that may be beneficial to their students. If a teacher is looking for a new idea or an interactive way to engage students, this website offers many opportunities to do so. This website can help teachers develop new ideas to create their own lesson plans as well as projects and games for their classrooms as well. Here is an example of a video from the K-2 Health and Fitness section of pbsteachers.org

This resource is for grades K-2 and it is designed to test each student’s sense of smell and taste and try to see if the student can tell if they are related in any way. I really liked this resource because it is age appropriate and I believe that the students will enjoy it.  Also, I like the fact that it is interactive between the students and me throughout the entire process.  I know that kids tend to get off topic sometimes and the video in the middle of the experiment will reel them back in and help them stay on task.

This online activity is for grades K-2.  It is a fun game called “Freddy’s Switcharoo”. The object of the game is to collect only healthy foods in the shopping cart and it will tell the student which foods that they need to collect for that level and what good purpose it serves your body.  Once the student collects so many of them then the student will move on to the next level.  I really like this game because it is a game and all students can play it individually and it tells them why they need certain fruits and vegetables to maintain their health.

This online activity is for grades 6-8.  It is a game called “The Kayak Challenge”. This game is designed to see how long you can stay afloat on the river without running in to any obstacles.  Because most students do not go kayaking that young, this would be an alternative way to see how hard it is to control your boat through rough waters with your fingers, let alone actually in the water.  Also, it gives them an idea of what kayaking is like and what it looks like.

Internet Safety

Here is a brief overview of cyberbullying provided by Ann Luce, a PHD researcher from Cardiff University.

 
Did you know that about one-third of online teenagers, ages 12-17, have been cyberbullied?

According to stopcyberbullying.org, Cyberbullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. Despite progress in defining and identifying cyberbullying, confusion remains surrounding exactly what constitutes cyber bullying. It might help to first understand some of the various ways your child could be the target of a cyberbully.   Here are the laws against cyberbullying in every state provided through the National Conferences of State Legislature

 

Common types of Cyberbullying

Harassment- In order for a behavior to be labeled as harassment, it must be repetitive and offensive. And for it to be considered a form of cyber bullying, it must occur online. Online harassment is common among kids who use e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and social networking sites. Harassment is probably the simplest way to bully another child online. A bully can send hundreds of hostile e-mail messages and can enlist the help of her friends to do the same.

Flaming- Flaming can be described as a contentious or heated online exchange between two or more kids. It usually begins as a normal interaction in a chat room, on a discussion board, or even during an instant-messaging session.

Denigration- When a child is the victim of denigration, it means that someone has spread a lie or started a malicious rumor with the intention of maligning the victim's character and reputation. This can be carried out numerous ways: an e-mail or instant message containing false accusations and statements could be sent out to other students; a slanderous statement could be posted on a website or social networking site; a nasty passage could be written about the victim in an online slam book; or a photo of the victim could be digitally altered and posted online or sent via e-mail to others with the sole intention to humiliate and embarrass the victim.

Impersonation- This is where one child poses as or impersonates another child (the victim). Great harm can be wreaked if a child's online identity is stolen and it is made to look like the victim sent hateful or hurtful communications to others.

Outing- When someone shares personal information that was meant to remain private, it is called outing. Girls tend to use this method of cyber bullying more than boys due to the more intimate nature of their relationships. When two girls get in a fight, chances are good that both girls have a stockpile of personal information that they can share with others online that will hurt, embarrass, or humiliate.

Exposure- This is when kids post inappropriate photos or videos online. In the past, when a kid took an embarrassing or compromising photograph of another kid, just a few people were likely to see it. It might get passed around in school or at soccer practice, but the power to embarrass and humiliate was fairly limited. Today, that photo can be posted online for millions to see, and it can hang around in cyberspace forever and come back to haunt the victim even in adulthood. In the past, when kids would fight, it would be a similar situation. There might have been a few kids who witnessed the fight and talked about it for days or weeks afterward, but when it was over it was over. Today, fistfights and beat-downs are being recorded with digital cameras and cell phones and uploaded to video-sharing websites like You-Tube. The fight is exposed to millions of viewers, who can watch it or forward it as many times as they please. This type of exposure leads to unending humiliation and victimization.

Exclusion- It hurts to be excluded from cliques and groups in real life, and it can hurt just as much to be excluded from online groups. A child can be suddenly blocked from sending e-mail or instant messages to one or more other people. A child can be denied being added as a friend on a social-networking site, and it can hurt as much as being blocked from sitting at a certain lunchroom table that suddenly becomes too full or a study group that has no room for one more. To be excluded from online social activity can be like a social death to some kids. Communicating online has become a natural extension of in-person socializing and when that communication is blocked or cut off, it can be devastating. The victim is left out and has to live with the knowledge that all the other kids are talking, gossiping, making plans, and having fun without them.

Signs of Cyberbullying

1.    Social withdrawal- Your child stops playing games online or using the phone, and his or her comrades are mysteriously MIA.

2.    Fear of technology- Your child spends evenings catching up on his or her reading instead of logging on, and appears nervous when text messages pop up.

3.    Bad behavior- Teens might start getting in trouble as a way to get their frustrations out because they are being cyberbullied.

4.    Ask around- Odds are your child told his or her best friend about the cruel comments made about his or her weight in a chat room, and then they told their mom. Check in with parents you trust.

5.    See for yourself- If all else fails, Internet parental controls and monitoring software -- as well as regular, honest chats about your kid's online life -- can help you identify an elusive bully.

Ways to protect your child from being cyberbullied

• Never share information about their online activities, such as their gaming name or passwords that could be used against them.

• Never respond to a cyberbully’s attacks, which will only escalate the abuse.

• Save abusive messages or websites as evidence in case the bully needs to be reported to authorities.

• Report abuse—Every Internet service should have a code of conduct and way for you can to notify them about abuse.

Here are some safety pledges that all children are encouraged to look at and memorize before they embark on a journey in to the cyber world.

My Technology Background

Technology Throughout My Education                                                   

The Chalkboard Years

From kindergarten all the way through fifth grade in each classroom there was only one chalkboard in the entire room for students and teachers to use. We thought that this was the best thing in the world to be able to write on some type of board in the classroom and compared to older pieces of technology used in the classroom, it was the best thing. It was hard writing with the chalk because they were not the cleanest way to write.  I always got chalk on my hands.  There was only one positive aspect of chalkboards.  No matter what grade I was in, at the end of each day my teacher would select one person to wipe down the board to make sure that it stayed clean and was ready for use the next day.  We also had what we called "over heads" which was where the teacher projected notes and information on the board.

The Dry Erase Board Years

I went to a K-8 school so when I went to “middle school”, it was a separate building with classrooms and a gym in it but we had to go down to the other building if we were leaving for the day, to use a computer lab, or to eat lunch.  The building, which was usually referred to as the upper building, was much newer and more advanced than the lower building because it was built when I was in third grade.  The building had dry erase boards instead of chalkboards which were a lot less messy to write on.  I had this type of board in all of my classes until I got to high school.  We still had the over heads that we used on a regualr basis for projecting notes and assignments on the board.

The Smart Board Years

Once I entered my freshman year at Forbush High School, my county had finally received enough money to put Smart Boards in most of the main subject classrooms such as English, History, Math, and Science. The teacher was mainly the only one that got to use them.  Most of my teachers actually just used them as projection screens and really did not use them interactively. We actually got rid of most of the over heads because the Smart Boards were connected to the teacher's computers so there was really no need for over heads anymore.  Throughout my years of high school I remember using a Smart Board only once when I was presenting a project in English.  I wish that I would have been able to learn more about how to use a Smart Board before I graduated.

The Future of Education

The future of education will definitely rely heavily on technology, but in particular cell phones.  I could see text messaging being integrated in the classrooms.  Students could answer questions by sending a message to the Smart Board or even post discussion questions by texting them to the Smart Board and teachers addressing them along the way.  I could see this being utilized in middle schools, high schools, and colleges across the country.  Maybe this will help students enjoy school and have a positive attitude about coming to school every day.

Technology in the classroom has certainly changed over the years but this is just the beginning...

This video below demonstrates how technology has changed over the years from chalkboards to copiers to VCRs to the internet, just to name a few.  Many of these upgrades in technology have not only benefitted classrooms across the nation but also in everyday life.