EduClipper and Google+ Resources for a modern classroom

        This week I investigated the social networks of Educlipper and Google+ to see how they could be useful in the classroom. I created an account with both and started researching different educational tools and resources that each site offered. I was pretty impressed with the ease at which each could be accessed and the effectiveness that they could each have in the classroom.
  Educlipper is a new resource. It mimics that feel of Pinterest, only instead of pins, you can save and organize clips. Educlipper is made for educators, so their are less clips to sort through when doing a search. You can also set your profile with the grade levels that you are working with so that your suggested clips are more appropriate to your needs. This site allows you to "clip" articles and ideas that you like and organize then into different boards. These boards can be shared with other teachers or even your students. I did a search for physics and found videos, labs and even links to sites about how to flip your physics class.  One aspect that is different then Pinterest is that Educlipper allows you to create classes that your students can join. You can then drop a clip into the class for them to access, or upload your own file for the students. I really appreciate that this site allows you to upload from your computer, Google Drive or Dropbox. Students can also create and share their own boards full of the information that they found and/or the media that they have created. I found the site to be very user friendly and believe that it could be used by students of all ages to get great information and ideas. I would also encourage students to share their own creations!

Google+ seems to be a collection of social media in one. At first glance, I immediately thought of Facebook. The opening page allowed me state my interest and I was then looking at a collection of animal and science photos and also some pictures stating that "big" girls are sexy and to always be yourself. I did not immediately see anything useful. As I dug a little deeper and read an article by TeachThough, I realized that while Google+ does resemble Facebook, it also resemble Twitter and Instagram. It can also be used to join or create Personal Learning Communities. I joined the National Geographic Education community through Google+ and was instantly connected to a page that has amazing pictures and post from others leading to great classroom projects and information. I then looked through a collection called "Physics World". This collection was full of amazing physics articles and photographs! I am just getting started with Google+, but I am interested in following people, similar to Twitter, to see what other educations and people working in the field have to share. One amazing community that I joined is Google Classroom. Educators are learning about the different educational applications that Google has to offer, then sharing their experience with others in the community. This is a great resource for me as a teacher, and a great way for the students to connect to others with similar interest. As a teacher, you could also use Google+ to make announcements and share information with students and parents at any time of day!

The Networked Classroom

      When I began teaching, I was the center of attention! The students would listen as I spoke, follow along as I modeled problems and rarely question the information that I present to them. With a incredible increase in the availability of devises and the increase in accessibility to online resources, there is a need to shift the focal point from the teacher in a central role, to the teacher as a facilitator.
      I believe that creating a network where the students are able to communicate with professionals and other students from all over the globe is a wonderful resource! Students can connect with doctors and lawyer and even celebrities in some cases to learn more about their lives and educational backgrounds. This type of connection is an amazing way for students to individualize their education and get engaged in their learning. Having a networked classroom could be a great way to get resources, but I still feel that their is a need for some direct instruction in the science classroom, especially when it comes to laboratory activities. I would love for students to reach out to their peers and professionals to get ideas for laboratory activities that we could perform in the classroom.
     Being new to the idea of a networked classroom, I do have some concerns. If students are allowed to create their own networks, how can we ensure that their information is correct and that their contacts are in fact who they claim to be? As a high school teacher, I will see 150+ students a day! I struggle with wanting to let go and allow them to take control, while keeping them on task and safe from cyber attacks. It can also be a challenge to determine which of the students are actually contributing to the learning networks and which ones are acting as bystanders. It would be tough in the beginning especially with the amount of students that I see in a day. 
    The strategy that I would take to begin to turn my classroom into a networked classroom, would be to start with a list of approved connections to set down a baseline to model the type of connections that I would expect them to make. I also would start doing this process with only one of my classes until I can get a firm grasp on how to help the students as they progress. I likely would set a somewhat flexible limit to the amount of connections that they make in a given amount of time in the beginning to allow me to keep a better watch over the connections that they are making to ensure their safety. One article that I came across while trying to determine ways to create a networked classroom is from Educators Technology. This provided me with a list of apps and Web 2.0 tools that the students and I can use to make videos, share images or even send messages. I found this very helpful as I try to envision what a network classroom may look like. I also enjoyed reading this article that conveniently has already had the main points highlighted to help me better understand what a networked classroom is. 

References: 

     Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

     Penuel, W., Roschelle, J., & Abrahamson, L. (04, February). Research on Classroom Networks for Whole-Class Activities. IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE'05), 50-56. doi:10.1109/wmte.2005.56

How can Twitter benefit my classroom?

     I have been aware of Twitter for many years  but never gave a lot of thought into joining. I thought Twitter was just like Facebook, a site to use to connect with friends and family. It wasn't until recently that I started to see the benefits of Twitter as an educator. Twitter is a form of blog that limits the user to only 140 characters. It allows you to give information in short statements that can be easily accessed by others.You can choose from a wide variety of sources to follow from friends and relatives to news sites and government agencies.
   In the future, I can use Twitter in my classroom to keep my students informed. This information can come directly from me as short reminders or links to web pages. The information can also come from the news feeds of reliable scientific sites, such as, NASA or Popular Mechanics. This is another great way to allow students to individualize their education. Students can choose what feeds to follow based on their own interests or the type of information they are trying to acquire. They can even connect with their peers the classroom to ask questions or give comments about their work.
    While reading an article online published by TeachHub, I realize what a great resource Twitter can be with the use of hashtags. I can have students respond to questions and give feedback with the use of a particular hashtag. I then look up these hashtags through my Twitter account and check for understanding in real time without having to individually ask each student to reply, or going through stacks of papers at the end of the day. Hashtags are easy to create and add on to a tweet. Once a hashtag is established, all I would need to do is click on the hashtag and all the tweets containing that hashtag will be displayed. I believe as an educator this is a great way for the students to get involved and monitor their understanding. I believe this will also help students feel a sense of ownership in the classroom.
    In the future, I will also use Twitter similar to a discussion board. Students will be encouraged to post questions that they have, and their peers will have the opportunity to respond. This activity will help to create a student-centered learning community that allows the students to have more control over their classroom experience. Student will be able to share information with one another, such as, links to great web pages or video tutorials on YouTube that were helpful. Allowing the students to gather resources not only gives them a sense of belonging, but will assist the teacher in gathering resources. One of my biggest challenges is trying to find resources and activities for the students that are engaging and helpful on my own. It is amazing the resources the students find and share with me. Often a student will show me an app that I would not have been aware of otherwise. Students are always eager to teach me something new!
       I also see myself using Twitter in the future to connect with students and parents. Currently my students can access my calendar to see the assignments that we've done by logging into Schoology. Creating a hashtag within Twitter and tweeting a short assignment list for the day would be faster and more convenient for a lot of students. Since most of my students have smartphones, and Twitter can be accessed as an app, believe my students are much more likely to follow my Twitter feed than to login to Schoology and check for announcements. Parents would also appreciate knowing the expectations for their student for the day. This would alleviate a lot of the miscommunication that seems to happen between home and school. It may also eliminate the need for lengthy printed newsletters.
     One of the biggest benefits to me as a teacher would be to create a virtual faculty lounge like described in the article from Global Digital Citizen Foundation. This would be where I would engage in a Personal Learning Network with others who are teaching similar subjects. We will tweet about the units we are working on, discuss what went well and maybe what didn't go well. A digital faculty lounge greatly expands my network from a few people that I work with and a couple I know from college into a global society where I can get ideas that stretch far beyond anything that I've seen done in a science classroom to date. Using Twitter you can see others ideas in a manner that is quick and to the point. This overview would help to determine if it is something you want to read further into, in which case we could request links and more information from one another. This is great for teachers who already struggle with time management. I have spent more time than I care to admit reading through lengthy blogs looking for ideas and coming up empty-handed. I would have loved to get a short overview so that I could decide if I wanted to continue with that particular piece of material.
   In closing, I think that Twitter is a great resource to use in the classroom. It connects you to others you may not otherwise meet, allows you to stay connected to your students and parents, and allows students freedom to individualize certain aspects of their education. I am excited to try Twitter in the classroom this August!

References:
       60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom. (2014). Retrieved July 13, 2016, from https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/60-inspiring-examples-of-twitter-in-the-classroom

Miller, S. (n.d.). 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom. Retrieved July 13, 2016, from http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (n.d.). Web 2.0 how-to for educators.

Why personal learning networks?

    Personal learning networks are the future of education. Education has looked the same for the last one hundred years or more. (Richardson, Mancabelli 2011)  The teacher is at the front of the room, the students carry several thick textbooks full of information and are asked series of direct questions to gauge learning. Access to information is no longer limited to purchased workbooks or practice problems developed by the classroom teacher. The educational world that we are entering into is a place of creation and collaboration. (Richardson, Mancabelli 2011) The internet is full of amazing resources and ideas but, before we jump in with both feet, educators must first determine where to find quality materials and positive ideas that will strengthen students education.
        One way to accomplish this goal is to enter into a personal learning network. These networks can be through sites like the NSTA, EdWeb, or even popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook   (Richardson, Mancabelli 2011). Personal learning networks will allow us to connect with teachers around the globe who are teaching similar subjects. Collaboration outside your usual group of local educators opens up a great opportunity for both educators and students. There have been many times that I have struggled to create quality laboratory experiences for my students. I would spend hours sifting through the results of a google search. After a lot of frustration, I chose one that looked promising, but in reality turned out to be sub par. Had I been part of a personal learning network, I could have asked teachers who have experience with similar topics and received advice and feedback on what they do in their classroom. One of the members in my network may have been able to advise against that lab and offer a much better solution. It may have saved me several hours sifting through forty different ideas and saved my students and I the frustration of inaccurate results. I could also help my fellow teachers by sharing my experiences with them and materials that have proven useful in my classroom. There have been a few times in my career that I have created something for my classroom that I was proud of, and would have enjoyed seeing others benefit from it as well.
         It is my believe that the use of personal learning networks can dramatically change the dynamic of the class from being teacher centered to student centered. Using Web 2.0 tools students can create and share their knowledge with one another and get instant feedback on their work. This feedback is not limited to just the subjective opinion of that classroom teacher, but can also be seen by their peers in the classroom, or even by professionals outside of the classroom. One example would be to have students use social media to conduct a survey and ask family and friends to participate. The students can then use the survey to determine a topic on which to create a presentation of their choosing, possibly a blog or info graphic and she how that information effects their audience by opening a discussion over the information. The workforce that are students will enter into will require such skills as we as a society begin to act more globally then locally.

Here is a list of websites that I found helpful as I researched Personal learning networks
Mind/Shift
Teacher Challenges
Educators Technology and Mobile Learning 


References: 
         Richardson, W.,& Mancabelli,R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press