Twitter Chat

The topics that were discussed in this Twitter Chat #edchat dealt with using technology in the classroom. It’s important for education systems to provide students and staff with the tools they need to build proper skills for the 21st century. “As a teacher in the 21st century, it is important to accept that fact that technology integration in the classroom is a must. With technology, everyday learning will be able to meet society’s ever growing expectations and prepare students for the real world” (Meller, 2015).

 

One of the articles emphasized the idea that technology that can be used in the classroom doesn’t have to be limited a computer or a tablet, but can include so much more, like cameras, GPS, games, robots, and more (Gorman, 2015). Although it is important to include technology in the classroom, it is also important to make sure that the lessons are purposeful and go with the curriculum.

 

Another article discussed students bringing their own devices to class (Meller, 2015). While I think this is a good idea, not every school or class is going to have access to access to a computer at home let alone a tablet they can bring into class.

 

I found while on the Twitter chat, it was mostly people sharing links to articles or blogs, which I didn’t think was necessarily a bad thing. It didn’t seem to be an actual conversation, but that educators were utilizing Twitter to share their ideas, resources, or links they thought other educators might enjoy reading, too. This Twitter Chat taught me that Twitter is so much more than people writing mean tweets about celebrities or posting GIFs that relate to finals week, but that people can exchange ideas about any topic they want, in this case education and technology to help fellow educators.

 

Twitter Reflection

Who would have thought so much information could be found with a #? I had a personal Twitter before I made one for educational tweets, so I understood how to use hashtags, but I never realized how much information can be shared using Twitter. Educators worldwide are able to share information and resources to millions of new teachers like me in a matter of seconds!

I have found a lot of good sources and blogs using Twitter such as a Washington Post article about 50 great apps for teachers from @teachley. I thought it was an interesting article because being a teacher in the 21st century, it is so important to keep up with modern technology. Almost everyone I know either has an iPhone, an iPad, or an Android, which all use apps. The article includes “a list of ‘awesome’ apps for teachers from Scholastic Instructor magazine offering activities for a wide range of subjects (Strauss, 2015). Not only does it include the subject for the app, but also the price.

Another article I found using Twitter was an @ScholasticLearn article called "Conquering Math Anxiety: Five strategies to help students who fear math". I thought this would be a good resource to use in the future so I can help my students if I had some that didn’t like math.

I think Twitter will be good for me to use in the future when I am a teacher because I can access millions of articles, blogs, and videos that I might need to as resources. There is so much to learn about technology and teaching and Twitter is a great resource to get information from teachers all around the world!

 

Feedly Reader/RSS

I’m not going to lie to you, I had never heard of Feedly Reader or RSS before this class. But I can tell you one thing that I am never going to forget it. Feedly Reader is basically a collection of articles based on what you are interested in. At first, I was a little confused on how to use it, but once I got the hang of it the articles started pouring in.

I found a lot of articles that interested me. One of them was from the CoolCatTeacher. It seemed like someone I definitely need to follow this and I am so glad I did! Vicki Davis brings humor into the world of education. In her article called “10 Ways to Stay Motivated at School (even when you’re nearing the end), Davis writes in a way that it feels like you have known her for year. She starts out “I’ll admit something, I dread April and May. With every fiber of my being. Can I admit this to you? Will you judge me?” I loved this article so I started doing some digging to find more entertaining, yet informational articles from the CoolCatTeacher.

 

Another article I found on Feedly was “#Iwishmyteacherknew Examples Revealing All Around from te@chthought. This article really got me thinking how important it is to get to know your students! This seems like something that might a good class assignment in order to get to know students. Although this article was pretty sad, it definitely got me thinking of things I can do in my own classroom.

 

One thing I really liked about Feedly Reader was that you can read the article on the same page without having to go back and forth between tabs. I found that to be very convenient while I was looking through all the articles that popped up on my feed. I think when I am a teacher, I will use Feedly because it has a lot of great resources, especially the CoolCatTeacher. I found it very easy to navigate and find interesting articles.  

 

Diigo

I had also never heard of Diigo before I signed up for it for this course. I honestly found it to be a little bit boring and confusing to navigate. It seemed to kind of like Pinterest, but without the fun pictures to look at. I do think I would will continue using it because I really liked the articles I found, but I just wish they would brighten it up a little bit! But please Diigo, make it more inviting so us visual people don’t get pushed away.

 

One of the articles that I found using Diigo was another article from te@chthought called “A Dictionary For 21st Century Teachers: Learning Models & Technology”. It is an online dictionary of jargon and terms used by 21st century teachers. I thought this might be a good resoruce to have when I do become a teacher and have to take part in conversations with other teachers. Having this dictionary might keep me from embarrassing myself by not knowing that the heck they are talking about in a meeting or something!

 

Another article I found that was interesting was an article from Mind/Shift called “Can Learning Really Be Fun and Games?” I talk often about how I want my classroom to be full of laughter, but I didn’t know this was possible. “When Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad and CTO of Best Buy visited Pai’s class recently, he was struck by not just the fact that technology was being used, but how Pai organized the class. ‘He groups the kids on how their brains learn,’ Stephens said. From what I can tell, this is what learning should look like” (Barseghian, 2011). I thought this article was very cool because it may have seemed like the teacher was just letting the kids play, but he was learning about how they were learning through these games. 

 

 

Also, feel free to check out my Future Classroom board on Pinterest!