Activity #16 (before #15) - My research about Twitter in the classroom

WEB 2.0 & STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

I actually have been looking into the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom in terms of their connection to student engagement. Since I love me some #edtech and I had to do research on something, I thought it might be a good idea to explore this whole Web 2.0 from yet another front. This front was more technical in the research. I'll just include a little of it here, as it gets a little dry.

One of the big topics that has been studied is the use of Twitter. To date, Reynol Junco has done several studies on how Twitter helps engagement at the college-level. One of his papers, The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades, is very interesting. Using the National Survey of Student Engagement he and his partners found that the experimental group had an increase in both engagement and semester grades.

I guess I figured that Twitter would engage students more, especially if they were already Twitter users. However, the degree to which engagement happens with the use of Twitter was unexpected. As far as grades are concerned, I didn't think Twitter would have been that important. I would think that it would take a lot more than some Twitter posts to actually increase grades. Well, it just goes to show that engagement is VERY closely related to grades. This just drives home the need for me to use Web 2.0 more in my classes.

MOOC's & THEIR LEADERS

This is fascinating to me...open, online classes. That sounds crazy. I have a friend that is a professor at Northwestern University that is launching his MOOC in September and currently has almost 20000 students signed up for it. WHAT!?! Are you kidding me? That's just plain nuts! I must admit that I have almost no frame of reference for this stuff and am learning from Owen every day (one of Owen's writings on the matter: http://owenyoungman.com/2013/07/13/mooc-hysteria/). It seems that this topic is something high schools should look into. For example:

• Almost 4.3 million "students" are "enrolled" at https://www.coursera.org/.
• There at 417 courses
• 84 colleges and universities are offering these courses
• Courses are FREE

I can't help but to think that high school teachers, especially in humanities, need to take advantage of these learning opportunities. For instance, Owen is one of the world's experts on media having been responsible for the Chicago Tribune's web presence, Red Eye, and Trib Local. His place in modern media education is at or near the top. Learning from him is EXACTLY the kind of content high schools need to use to engage students and get them ready for college-like environments.

GO MOOCs!!!

Here is a preview of Professor Youngman's class from YouTube:


References:

Junco, R., Heiberger, G., & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119-132.

http://owenyoungman.com/

Learning at Starbucks with Activity #14

K12ONLINE

Going One-to-One

I love to find new outlooks on going 1:1. There are so many different ways to do it and manage it. This particular talk is from a pretty experienced guy. The fact that he throws in a little research talk is great, but I wish he would have had a little more to hand to administrators that aren't sure about 1:1 deployment.

BTW...love the music.

The Flipped Classroom for Administrators


This resource is great one for everyone, not just administrators. It helps the average teacher get a frame of reference when dealing with administration when trying to flip one's class. As a future (hopefully) administrator, this is a great little resource as it answers many of the questions people have about flipped classrooms.

The formation of knowledge with Activity #13

FLUBAROO QUIZ

This is an easy quiz maker and an easy way to get feedback ASAP. Giving quick quizzes to kids is an easy way to keep them on top of the learning process. Here's my go at a quiz:

SOCRATIVE
Here is a little try at the Socrative quiz. This is going to be a huge addition to my classes as I think getting a pulse of what's going on will help guide my teaching:
http://m.socrative.com
Room Number 934008

PADLET
I like this feature so that students can get an idea of what others know. This would be a great collaboration tool.

Created with Padlet

Activity #12 - Stuff I not only can use, but SHOULD use

There are plenty of educational resources out there, but not all of them are something I find to be adequate. That's not to say they aren't good, but I'm not willing to budge on some of the mode of how I teach physics. That said, there are plenty of things out there that my students can gain knowledge from that I need to use. Here is an example of one of those things:

Visualizing Vectors in 2 Dimensions: Visualizing, adding and breaking down vectors in 2 dimensions


This, along with thousands or millions more, is something my students need to see/hear. That's because I can't be the only source of knowledge for them because that's not reality...especially in 2013. If we want kids to be able to gain knowledge from many different places, we need to guide them to those types of places. The more we guide them to GOOD information, the better our student will understand and the better they perform.

Actvity #11 - I'm not so sure I can do that

This is one of the best class activities that I've ever done. I'm not just sucking up...I'm serious. I know for a fact that I have messed up the use of digital media before - likely several times in this class. It is simply because I'm ignorant to all of the rules. Now, with a score of 80% on the quiz it may seem that I'm not all that good with copyright knowledge still, but I can promise you that I am. I can't wait to be on top of my game with digital media and making sure I do things right.

I have noticed CC stuff all over this class. I wish at this point that I had tried a little harder to look into it, but I will from now on. It is something that I want to make sure my students pay attention to it. It is unlikely freshmen will care a lot about these rules, but as long as they get some input from me and other teachers, eventually they will get the idea that there is an ethical way of using shared media.

Sharing is something that I don't intentionally do. I have my stuff out there on the web, but I never really worried about other using it. That said, I should make a point letting people know that my stuff is out there for them to use and share. Now, most of my content is not great (or even adequate), but I think there are a few out there that might want to use what I have. With CC, I could make those apprehensive about taking feel better about taking and making it their own.

I think CC is something that Google should build into their IMAGES section. It seems that it would be easy for them to differentiate CC content and non-CC content. This would allow for people to work even more seamlessly from one thing to the next. It would certainly make sharing my work easier.

Activities #'s 8-10 - All of this and a little of that

PREZI
I guess I'm really not a fan of Prezi's. I know that their are many of us that do, but I feel like the information is lost in the motion. From a learning theory standpoint, they are certainly distracting, but that is from the standpoint of old theories. I don't learn well from them, but I am guessing that as time goes along, our kids will grasp on to material like this. I just need to work on my creativity.



VOKI
I'm all about the silliness in getting a point across. Voki's can do just that. Posting thes on my website or blog work as great ways to emphasise main points that kids remember. They are creapy, but I think a lot of fun can be had with them. I actually used another one of these as my introduction in a grad class. Most thought it was fun.

ANIMOTO
This is an easy way to edit video clips. I'm not sure that I will use this in my classroom just because Physics doesn't lend itself to this unless I was flipping my classroom. However, I think this could be put to great use in a project-based class.

Activity #7 - It would be a negative to be without THE+

There isn't much for me to get excited about with Google+. Not because it isn't awesome, but rather I have been using it since it came out. In fact, I started messing with it before it was officially launched. I find it to be a great addition to the Google family. The biggest drawback is the fact that more people aren't on it because they see it as a Facebook knock-off. Too bad. It offers everything good that Facebook has and throws in some Twitter-like aspects, blogging, smartphone photo back-ups, Skype-killing video chats and a million other thing.

I love the Hangout feature. I will say that the video aspect of it is what I like the best because I can chat with multiple family members face-to-face at the same time. Now that it mashed together with Google Talk, the chat feature has allowed me to chat with friend, colleagues and students when I need to. I've Hungout via my phone, laptop and tablet.

I am now trying to figure out the best way to manage my Google+ accounts. I think the best move would be to use my dist113.org account for school related thing (class material and communication with student/parents) and keep my personal account for personal and professional (outside of district business) stuff. I have many people in this class in my D113 Learning 2.0 Colleagues circle for one account and Work circle in the other. Oh, well. As long as I'm connected, I can always clean up my circles later.