Last week I created a lesson that asked my students to recreate a battle timeline using twitter. We started by looking at the egyptian january 25th revolution and how twitter played a critical role on that revolution and eventual ousting of the Mubarak regime. I used my own twitter account to show the students an example of tweeting, the previous day I created a tweet about the lesson using hashtags and provided this example on the worksheets I gave my students. We did not actually use Twitter as I am still a student teacher and did not want to require anyone to sign up for the social media service. My students used prepared packets covering four major battles of WWII: Midway, Iwo Jima, D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. Students then created a storyboard for their twitter feed to decided upon twitter handles creating timestamps (who tweeted when and in what order) and what hashtags they would create for their battle. Students worked in groups of four with each students needing to create at least two tweets. The end result was a twitter feed that showcased students understanding of the various battles of WWII. Reflecting on this assignment I would use this same assignment but then ask students to actually use twitter to create a twitter feed and embed the tweets on to my class website allowing parents to see what their students have been creating. This would also allow me to scaffold the lesson gradually realising responsibility to the students. I felt that students responded well to the assignment with many of them asking to use other social media apps for future assignments. Students were able to meet the objective of the lesson while strengthening their use of social media as a communication tool not just for social means but for educational and career goals.
Over the last week our group has looked at various social media sites that archive student learning in a digital setting. I will post links to the original sites so you may view these. My two partners in this project have posted about this topic April and Olin feel free to check out their pages. Our findings are posted on both Olin and April’s blog pages. The various tools we have looked at can be used in both content areas that we teach, Science and Social Science. The ability for students to utilize the social media websites they already use in daily life. Students are more apt to use these sites for academic purposes if they frequent them often it allows students to consolidate their learning in the digital landscape while truly learning the power of the social media tools they already use. Innovation Project, Part I Arpil’s Blog post Students learn best in an environment they are comfortable with. In today's technological world, students are increasingly capable of using new technologies to benefit and enhance their own learning. Therefore, it is increasingly imperative that educators incorporate digital literacies and experiences in their curriculum to fully facilitate learning, innovation, and creativity as well as engage students in communication and collaboration. Issue: Social archiving can be a very valuable tool, whether used in social studies or science classes. Whether the archiving itself is created as documentation or consumed as research, students will be given the opportunity to use technology to explore and document important events of the past. Findings:
For our innovations project, my classmates and I have chosen to explore the area of social network archives. We believe that social networking is not only a great forum for communication, but could be a particularly potent educational tool. Indeed, there are a myriad of resources at our fingertips. For instance, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Diigo, and others, are social networking tools that could allow students to collaborate, learn, explore, and communicate in a variety of ways. Over the past couple of weeks, my classmates and I have been exploring potential social archiving networks with a view to teaching. We have made use of Google Plus, Twitter, and e-mail to communicate our findings. As a history teacher, I can see many ways in which these could be utilized. For example, students could use hashtags on various social media websites such as Twitter, Instagram and/or Facebook. This could be a way to archive photos, concepts and thoughts on a specific topic for themselves, and as a way of collaborating with their peers and classmates. One social media platform that could be used is Instagram, which is entirely photo-driven. Students could share photos with a specific hashtag tied to a classroom assignment or project. Let’s say the students visit a museum. Each student could take a photo of something they see that resonates with them and post it to Instagram with a brief description about what they liked about the piece and how it relates to what they are learning in the classroom. For instance, students could be asked to post a picture of a painting they saw and explain how it relates to a certain historical time they are learning about, such as the French Revolution. Utilizing a given hashtag, students would create a digital archive of their observations and experiences relating to the concepts being taught in the classroom. Further, they could use Pinterest to create their own personal digital archive. Pinterest is a social media platform which allows users to categorize images and quotes into “boards.” Students could be asked to research a topic online and pin images related to that topic. For example, students studying the civil rights movement could research and pin images which tell the story of the struggles of African Americans during the 1960s and beyond. As another example, they could create a research archive of propaganda posters from World War II as a way to visually learn about the time period. Our students do not know a world without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest. Therefore, we should utilize these tools and resources as a way to engage students and help them learn in various manners and on range of technology platforms which they are already interested in. It is our goal to tap into these resources, making use of the array of online tools that make education engaging and interactive. |