My first Twitter Chat

So, as with started to use Twitter again, this whole Twitter just was making me nervous and I kept putting it off. I logged on and decided to join the 3:00 pm #edumatch chat and see what it was all about. I have to say it was a very pleasant experience. Very much like a chatroom discussion or even a discussion board. Fortunately, the Twitter chat was better.

I had read the previous assignments and teacher’s posting about Twitter and decided to use TweetDeck to make the Twitter chat experience better. I was lead to the chat via the Google link that was posted in under this week’s Twitter Chats and Hashtags document and joined my session. It definitely made the process easier to view and participate in. I had one window with the TweetDeck open and as recommended by Alice Keeler on her article, I opened one column for the hashtag and another for the moderator. On another browser I had my Twitter window open. This made the switching back and forth super easy for me. I saw the participants, moderator and my Twitter account all at once without having to move pages.

Participating really help close the gap I was having in regards to using Twitter. Chapter 3 of What Connected Educators do Differently goes into detail about embracing the Three Cs and it was very prevalent in this exercise. Having the limited 140 characters makes communicating with a purpose a must. There wasn’t room for me to add unnecessary information. I quickly picked up on the acceptable lingo others were using (Ts=teachers, Ss=students, ppl=people). Small details such as that kept all the answers short and simple.

Reading Alice’s article also helped because I was able to connect the dots to what she gave as advice and what I was doing/tweeting. She recommended logging in early and being ready. I jumped right in with my responses and giving feedback to others in the conversation. I even came across a current classmate joining in on the fun. This could be a fantastic way to have a “silent conversation” as an activity in class. I felt like the discussion was normal. The moderator posted the “Qs” and I responded with the “As”. I noticed how it threw off the flow when some responded without referencing which question they were answering.

To end this, the best takeaway I had from this was what Whitaker writes in chapter 3. Collaboration with passion is integral to successful teams. While answering the questions, every bit of feedback was positive. I saw when people liked my tweets and it gave me encouragement to tweetchat more. And when the moderator retweeted one of mine, it was as if a teacher thanked me in the classroom. This same activity can be used in the classroom. Looking around at more hashtags, the connections to other professionals can go on forever.

Using Labels and Curating Tools

Link to my site and the curation tool.

Link to my blog using labels.  It is on the right hand column above my Twitter feed.  Or on my website on the Blog tab in the same location.

This assignment ending up being very helpful.  The curation tool I used is Clipix.  It is a version of Pinterest pretty much.  I see it as a more professional option you can say.  That is just my opinion.  The idea is the same in that you find sites or images you like, you take a picture of the site or a link and load it to a clipboard which it organized however you like.  The pros in using a curating tool for a website is that it lets you update your clipboard whenever you like which reflects on the link you have shared or have posted on your personal site.  It is great for researching and a "dump all" when you just want to quickly organize links to come back to at a later time.

Using Clipix along with the labeling tool on my blog will definitely help users get to the information they want to more efficiently.  I did not even think about that when I originally started my blog and just added a few labels and I can see the advantage to it immediately.  I will have to dedicate more time to creating and adjusting labels as time goes on, but it just takes about 30 seconds to add a new label to an existing post.

Tutorial Link for Embedding Blogger

<iframe
allowtransparency="true" scrolling="yes" frameborder="0" width="960" height="1280"
src="http://emansedtech.blogspot.com/" style="margin: -80px 0 0 -195px;"
>
Eman's EdTech Corner
</iframe>

PowToon Tutorial

Here are tutorial parts 1 and 2 of my Recycling Lesson that I created using PowToon.  PowToon is a great tool for creating fun animated videos.  It gives the creator great customization and animation options.

To Sphero or not to Sphero...

After spending a class getting my feet wet into the large pool of technology related literacies, I have decided to share my thoughts on a nice gadget that will be making its way to my school.  My summer school director decided to have me put on a tech related summer session (which I am super psyched about) and together we decided that the best way to introduce coding and programming to students would be through the Sphero SPRK+.

We received our test Sphero's and have had a day to play with them and the drag and drop programming is very straight forward.  I love the fact that students can write programming as well.  There is also a "free style" method that lets users control the sphere like you would an RC car.  I will still be doing test runs of the programming, so far, it is fun.

Using the device also helped me narrow down the activities I will doing with my 20 students during my 3 week summer session.  Since it is a group that is above the average GPA, I am trying to incorporate socialization activities along with some creative technology activities.  Once I am a bit more satisfied with the lesson plan I will be implementing I will share here, along with pictures and videos.

7.4 Integration of Digital Skills and Tools

Exploring Web Literacy in the Digital Age

I have decided to incorporate and explore a classroom blog as a means of exploring web literacy.  The inspiration for this came from the article in this weeks lesson:  Creating a class blog:  A strategy that can promote collaboration, motivation and improvement in literacy by Dr. Hani Morgan.  

I realized that it is actually an easy way to incorporate all aspects of Connecting through participating on the web.  With the use of a classroom blog or even individual student blogs students accomplish:

Sharing - Students can create a blog that can be viewed all over the web.
Collaborating - Through a classroom blog, collaborating becomes key to a successful blog.
Community Participation - The focus on the blog can highly impact a community.  Focusing a class blog on              helping the homeless connects the class collaboration to the community it surrounds.
Privacy - All blogs sites have key privacy settings that can control who reads and comments on blogs.                    Privacy is learned through a better understanding of digital citizenship.
Open Practices - Open practices allows students to explore the methods that work well for them.  Even                though the blogs have basic templates, the customization aspects of each individual site allow for                    students to openly create something their own.



Helpful inks:

Starting a new blog:
https://startbloggingonline.com/get-started-classroom-blogging/
Existing classroom blog:
http://missgiraffesclass.blogspot.com/2016/10/25-chatty-class-classroom-management.html

6.3 Exploring Media Literacy in the Digital Age

A Family History Tale 
Grades:  6th-8th

The idea for my lesson plan came from the PBS website:  http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/povdocs/2015/11/media-literacy-and-documentaries/ . 

The purpose of creating this family documentary style video is to allow students a wider range of creativity versus a standard family tree written report.  The documentary will give students time to spend interviewing family and capture genuine reactions to the history of their own family members.  Students will be given time on computers to edit film they take via various devices of their choice.  They can use traditional video camera, tablets, iPhone/smartphone or a combination.  Software will allow them "jazz" up their documentary with various post production items like credits and music.

Items needed:

Any one or combination:  smartphone, table or video camera
Desktop/Laptop with video editing software
Outline and "script" of their documentary

The following resources have great tips and advice on creating a lesson plan involving a documentary style video:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/behindthelens/lesson-plan-4/
http://www.pbs.org/pov/behindthelens/lesson-plan-1/