Blog #6, Social Media

Social Media can be considered to be any website which allows collaboration and connectivity between users, having some objective or purpose. For example, Twitter allows people to connect to each other and share their thoughts in 'Tweets". "Social" implies that collaboration is facilitated, and "Media" implies the purpose behind it, being communication of some sort of media. There are many ways that social media can be used in the classroom. The diagram above illustrates the possible uses of several of the larger social media websites. For example, YouTube or iPadio could be used to share to any audio or video presentation that students do. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pintrest could all be used as the platform for a class-wide brainstorm forum. With the trend towards more and more reliance on technology for communication and production, using these tools is evolving from helpful to almost essential. Students must learn to collaborate using technology and using these sites in classroom in very helpful in reaching that goal. Using these could also increase student interest and effort, and humans are naturally built for collaboration and community. However, some of these social networks have a downside when used in the classroom. Websites like Facebook and Twitter which are often used outside of class, and have more strictly social uses could be a distraction to students which could hinder their focus. That being said, all social media sites include some degree of non-educational uses. So, a good guideline to follow when using social media in classrooms could be to use the sites which are less popular, and so fewer students would be prone to distraction. Not only that, students will then "learn to learn" how to use technology, which will help them be able to adapt as more and more ways of collaborating online are developed. 

Blog #5 - Educational Resources Online

This week we discussed online resources for education. We discussed what made a resource valid, and possible ways to apply these resources in the future classroom. A few good criteria for a valid online resource can be seen in the graphic attached above. This graphic compares the aspects of an online resource which can either confirm it as valid or red-flag it as a possibly unreliable source.  In summary, a few criterion for a reliable online resource include cited sources, good grammar, positive peer reviews, university or government websites, and information which is consistent with cross references. Some examples of valid sources which I found were journal cites such as "MERLOT" and "The Chronicles of Higher Education", as well as university websites which include articles and resources from established professors and experts.  In cases such as academic writing and teaching or researching, it is important that you know where the information you found originated from, in order to ensure validity and protect against plagiarism. In other instances, such as appeasing personal curiosity, it is not as important to ensure that your sources are 100% valid. 

Once you have learned to determine whether an online resource is valid, then you have opened the door for an unlimited array of teaching aids and strategies, which will help your students grow and learn in an increasingly technological world. 

Article Review - Feb 14, 2012

http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/eek-a-science/42112

The article which the above link leads to is called "Eek! A Science!" and is written by David Barash. It discusses the misconception that science is an academically-superior, creatively-inferior subject, especially in relation to the humanities. I found this interesting because it is a misconception which I have never considered nor challenged in my own intellectual career.  Science is not superior or inferior to any other subject by any terms, but is just different.  I have often seen science as completely structured, with no freedom or creativity, and as a result have gone about my science endorsement classes with that mentality. After reflecting on this article, I have realized that I often restrict myself as a result of keeping these misconceptions. That being said, I must realize that science can be creative. Experiments, connections between topics, and especially the discipline of teaching science can be very creative and unbounded. Granted, it is a different way of manifesting this creativity, which I must practice to learn. To do so, and to redeem my science classes from the restricted mindset of creativity-starvation will be the key to enjoying these classes, and to being a successful teacher of the topics.

Blog #4 - Technology and Collaborative Learning Classroom Ideas

This week in class we discussed several online resources which could be beneficial technologies to use in classroom instruction. These were Diigo.com, Google Sites, and Wikis. There are many ways that these can be utilized in the classroom, and the goal of this blog is to mention a few ideas which may be applicable.

One way that Wikis can be put to use as a teacher could be in the development of rubrics. As the instructor, I could post a skeleton rubric for a particular assignment, and then invite the class to edit that rubric and collaborate in its development. This could have been another innovative way to develop our rubric for the video projects as well.

Another idea could be to encourage students, or simply as the instructor, to create a Google Reader RSS site which would bring current events about the particular school subject to it. That way students would be encouraged to remain on top of the events surrounding the subject of the class, and would provide an easy way for me as an instructor to find current events which I could share with the class in order to promote an increased interest in said subject.

As related to the coaching field, Wikis could be very beneficial as well. Sites could be created for individual teams which could include collaborative records of stats, rosters, strategy, opponent film, and lists of student health records. This would bring all of those aspects of coaching into one common area, where all of the staff could collaborate, contribute, and discuss with increasing ease.

All of these ideas in mind, the resources we discussed in class today would be very beneficial in my possible future as an educator.