I should have started blogging about #eblock when I started using twitter in the classroom, but truthfully it started out as an experiment. I didn't realize it would gain the momentum it did!
The very reason I got on to Twitter, in fact, was to use it with my classes. Last December, I walked into one of my English 12 classes (E Block) and said,
"Listen, I want to try something different with you. I don't know how it's going to work, but let's get to using it together..."
At first, I used Twitter as a medium for students to complete exit slips. I'd ask things like: What did you think of Hamlet's reaction? or How are you finding the language of the text? Students were already accustomed to responding using pen & paper and by posting to my blog, so I didn't actually think that tweeting their responses would be any different. The first few tweets from students were quite simple - there is a 140 character count, after all - and quite frankly, vulgar (from an English teacher's perspective, anyway.) I started to worry that I was perpetuating lazy text-style conversations.
What started happening, though, really amazed me. Since students could see each other's immediate responses, they started policing each other. They would say things like, "Dude, you know everyone can see your tweet, right?" "This is Senior English, I'm sure there's a more correct way to say that..." I started to realize that my students had to think about their tweets; they had to be more concise (and precise) with how they expressed their thoughts; they were becoming more and more aware of audience. We started using Twitter regularly: as exit slips, as back-channel opportunities to respond (I used Twitterfall to project tweets during discussion)... We even composed twitter poetry.
It was also interesting that my students developed very strong opinions of how others represented themselves online. We discussed digital citizenship alongside literary texts and the consequences of producing a "forever text". In fact, one of my students walked into class one day after seeing the youtube video of the UCLA student ranting about Asian students and said, "She did not leave a very good digital footprint, did she?" What more could I say of the learning that was happening?
There will always be naysayers when it comes to twitter, but I have to remind myself that even if it is a fad, our students still have to live in that fad-world. I'd better darn well teach them how to use it in creative and constructive ways! In the end, what my students and I realized was that twitter (and social media in general) has the power to inform, reform, and transform learning... if we actually practise using it!
06 June 2011
Twitter: I want to know why.
THE email I've been waiting for all year arrived, today:
Dear Ms. Ignacio,
[My child*] asked for permission to open a twitter account. I need some justification as to why she needs to use twitter... I do not allow the use of social media [in my home]. I do not have facebook or twitter. The family uses a communal computer.
Also, at the general meeting at [the school] there was mention of all these social media and the dangers associated with them. I'm glad that my children are not using it, but when [*] mentioned using it in your class, I wanted to know why.
What a great question, right?!
At first, I was a bit defensive - actually, a lot defensive. I started stressing because I knew I now had a responsibility to respond. I thought back to my own initial resistance to both Facebook and Twitter. I thought about the news stories and other narratives around identity theft and bullying. I thought about the current separation I still have between my three twitter handles. Then, I realized that she was not entirely misguided in her decision to disallow the use of social media in her home. I decided that I wouldn't try to convince her of anything, but instead I'd tell her why I use Twitter.
"...I use it to engage students in discussion, to assess learning, and to teach digital responsibility and citizenship...students have to learn to be concise - since they may only use 140 characters, students have to present themselves publicly and engage each other in meaningful discussion,... I get to hear from everyone..."
I sent links to articles. I told her that her child would not be "penalized" for not tweeting - the student had already mentionned that she was not allowed to use Twitter and we had already found other ways for her to participate (exit slips, posts to my blog). Maybe the parent will read the articles, maybe she won't; maybe she'll try it for herself before allowing her child to get a twitter handle, maybe she won't. The one thing I know for sure is that she has to realize the great potential social media has to affect learning, in her own time.
For me, Twitter has definitely made me more aware of my awesome responsibilities as an educator.
Dear Ms. Ignacio,
[My child*] asked for permission to open a twitter account. I need some justification as to why she needs to use twitter... I do not allow the use of social media [in my home]. I do not have facebook or twitter. The family uses a communal computer.
Also, at the general meeting at [the school] there was mention of all these social media and the dangers associated with them. I'm glad that my children are not using it, but when [*] mentioned using it in your class, I wanted to know why.
What a great question, right?!
At first, I was a bit defensive - actually, a lot defensive. I started stressing because I knew I now had a responsibility to respond. I thought back to my own initial resistance to both Facebook and Twitter. I thought about the news stories and other narratives around identity theft and bullying. I thought about the current separation I still have between my three twitter handles. Then, I realized that she was not entirely misguided in her decision to disallow the use of social media in her home. I decided that I wouldn't try to convince her of anything, but instead I'd tell her why I use Twitter.
"...I use it to engage students in discussion, to assess learning, and to teach digital responsibility and citizenship...students have to learn to be concise - since they may only use 140 characters, students have to present themselves publicly and engage each other in meaningful discussion,... I get to hear from everyone..."
I sent links to articles. I told her that her child would not be "penalized" for not tweeting - the student had already mentionned that she was not allowed to use Twitter and we had already found other ways for her to participate (exit slips, posts to my blog). Maybe the parent will read the articles, maybe she won't; maybe she'll try it for herself before allowing her child to get a twitter handle, maybe she won't. The one thing I know for sure is that she has to realize the great potential social media has to affect learning, in her own time.
For me, Twitter has definitely made me more aware of my awesome responsibilities as an educator.
01 June 2011
Newbie
Well, here it is, my first post to my "professional" blog - whatever that means.
When I started teaching, I decided to keep a little imitation-moleskin notebook in which I wrote little anecdotes of my teaching day: ah-ha! (oh-no!) moments, shoulda-woulda-coulda reflections on class activities, etc. It started as a daily practise and at the end of each month, I read over my thoughts and tried to adjust my teaching practise. As the years passed, I wrote less and less. I suspect it's because I had no objective (or subjective) feedback.
Enter - Me. Blogging.
Now, I have to admit that I am not new to blogging, per se. I have blogs which are quasi journals to chronicle daily life, memory-keepsakes of events I want to remember. I created them as footprints of some sort, maybe even as a kind of time capsule and I imagined some descendant finding one of my blogs one day in the distant future as a testimony of my existence. It hadn't occurred to me to blog as a way of sharing my learning as an educator. After all, I had previously only blogged for the time being, for myself - which is not entirely undesirable, but I wondered how blogging was different from journal writing or even keeping a diary (gasp! - at my age, really?). Would my interest in blogging wane like it did for journalling my teaching day?
Two years ago, I started a blog for my classes. At first I used it to summarize class activities, but over the last year, it has become an avenue for assessment, a method of engaging students further in discussion, and a place for students (and parents) to revisit class activities or re-view videos and links. This past October, I also decided to get twittering. I realized fairly quickly the power Twitter has for my own professional development and by extension, the power that technology has for transforming my teaching.
My Twitter PLN has given me a million and one ideas for using technology in my classroom and my administrator keeps encouraging me to blog about how I've been implementing technology. I suppose I should have started this blog earlier as a companion to my tweets, but truthfully, I had no idea where to begin. I feel like such a noob - but, that's not necessarily a bad thing now, is it?
When I started teaching, I decided to keep a little imitation-moleskin notebook in which I wrote little anecdotes of my teaching day: ah-ha! (oh-no!) moments, shoulda-woulda-coulda reflections on class activities, etc. It started as a daily practise and at the end of each month, I read over my thoughts and tried to adjust my teaching practise. As the years passed, I wrote less and less. I suspect it's because I had no objective (or subjective) feedback.
Enter - Me. Blogging.
Now, I have to admit that I am not new to blogging, per se. I have blogs which are quasi journals to chronicle daily life, memory-keepsakes of events I want to remember. I created them as footprints of some sort, maybe even as a kind of time capsule and I imagined some descendant finding one of my blogs one day in the distant future as a testimony of my existence. It hadn't occurred to me to blog as a way of sharing my learning as an educator. After all, I had previously only blogged for the time being, for myself - which is not entirely undesirable, but I wondered how blogging was different from journal writing or even keeping a diary (gasp! - at my age, really?). Would my interest in blogging wane like it did for journalling my teaching day?
Two years ago, I started a blog for my classes. At first I used it to summarize class activities, but over the last year, it has become an avenue for assessment, a method of engaging students further in discussion, and a place for students (and parents) to revisit class activities or re-view videos and links. This past October, I also decided to get twittering. I realized fairly quickly the power Twitter has for my own professional development and by extension, the power that technology has for transforming my teaching.
My Twitter PLN has given me a million and one ideas for using technology in my classroom and my administrator keeps encouraging me to blog about how I've been implementing technology. I suppose I should have started this blog earlier as a companion to my tweets, but truthfully, I had no idea where to begin. I feel like such a noob - but, that's not necessarily a bad thing now, is it?
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