Social Networking in the Classroom and on the Job

Oh Facebook. So many wonderful possibilities, so many tragic misunderstandings. What a lot of people don't realize is that they do leave a digital footprint whenever they tag a photo or post a comment on social networking sites. People need to be especially aware of how websites like Facebook can actually cause a lot more harm than good in the professional world. It is incredibly important to keep up a professional front on social networking sites; watching what you say and removing incriminating photos of yourself (or just not posting them at all) is incredibly important. Anyone can access Facebook, including potential or current bosses, administration, students, and their parents. Teachers need to pay particularly close attention to what they do on social networking sites to avoid negative backlash, whether it be angry parents, bosses, or news reporters.

With that said, social networking sites can be a wonderful teaching tool to use in the classroom. For example, students could create a profile page based off of a historical figure. English teachers could assign characters to different students, who would then have to create accounts based on that character, including their likes and dislikes, who their friends are, their favorite quotes, etc. The students could then be told to interact with each other as their characters would interact with one another. A great example of this would use the play Romeo and Juliet. The first post on Romeo's Facebook wall would probably be something about him and Rosaline ending their relationship and being dragged to a ball by his friends. Mercutio and Benvolio could write on his wall and his new relationship status would become "it's complicated" with Juliet Capulet.

Facebook is easy to incorporate into a classroom with techniques like this in mind. As an English teacher, I could use it to assess the depths to which my students understand character development in the different works we read throughout the year.

Using Technology in an English Classroom

For this post, I will be commenting on the article "Plugging In: What Technology Brings to the English/Language Arts Classroom" by Sara Kajder. Kajder begins the article by noting that technology should never be used to teach students; it cannot replace a teacher. Instead technology should be used as a tool to aid understanding. She explains the three "nonnegotiable" questions that she asks before introducing new technology in her classroom: "How does the task at hand help to empower my middle school students to be powerful communicators, rich thinkers, and compelling writers?" "How does this technology allow us to ‘do it better?" and  "Is this task a rigorous complement or alternative to existing curriculum?” (Kajder, 7). If the answer to any of these questions is "No," she explains, then she does not use the technology in the classroom. However, on many occasions, Kajder has found technology to be a wonderful compliment to her existing curriculum, especially in the forms of web blogs, online collaborative projects, interactive tools, and digital video tools. She points out that teachers should not assume that students know everything about technology and reiterates that teachers should not use technology in the classroom unless there is a clear benefit to be gained (and of course if any of the three questions cannot be answered in the affirmative). The case that she gives as an example is her seventh-grade Language Arts classroom and students who range from "tech-savv[y] to the most hesitant" (Kajder, 8). She discusses the above mentioned activities that the students completed with technology and how much it benefited her students.

I felt that this article was very informative. The class that Kajder depicts is far more realistic than many people assume; it is easier to believe that all students today are tech-savvy than it is to try to teach them basic computer skills. The projects that she discusses, which include the Favorite Poem Project, Poetry Forge, web blogs, and iMovie, all seem very much related to the content area and actually inspired my to use some of these tools as well. I feel that these projects would have all scored fairly high on the chart of Transparent Integration and were more transparent than opaque.

As I mentioned, I would love to use similar resources in my own classes. If Kajder evaluated these sites and tools on her three point question system and found none of them lacking, I have to assume that they would be decently effective in an English/Language Arts classroom. I am not afraid to use technology in my classroom if the benefits outweigh the negatives, and the ideas that she presents for teaching poetry seem as though they would really help motivate reluctant poets to learn.

Kajder, Sara. "Plugging In: What Technology Brings to the English/Language Arts Classroom." Voices from the Middle 11.3 (2006): 6 - 9. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.

The Ethics of Technology Use

How necessary is it for me, as a teacher, to use technology ethically in my classroom? I would say it is essential. If I were to pirate materials online and then use them in my lessons, what sort of message is that sending to my students? As a teacher, I consider myself to be not only an academic instructor, but a life coach as well. In a world in which students spend more time playing video games than they do speaking to their parents, I feel that teachers need to help further their students' moral knowledge just as they need to further their knowledge in English or mathematics. If I download something illegally and use it to teach my students, the bigger message that they will receive is that I condone activities such as downloading materials online without purchasing them. 

I, however, am not completely innocent in terms of downloading things online. This summer, I was hired to tutor a girl in Japanese. I had a textbook and workbook from when I was just starting out, but I needed a new copy of the workbook for my student to use. Instead of buying a new one or forcing my student to buy one, I downloaded a new copy. The job never came to fruition, though, so I deleted the downloaded workbook from my computer. At the time, I felt that I was doing a good thing by getting the materials that my student would need without any added cost for her, but I now regret this action despite having purchased the workbook from the company previously. I definitely don't want to show support for downloaded material, least of all to my students. I will never do this in the future - anything worth using in my classroom is worth paying for.

In my classroom, I will make sure to use only the technology that I can access legally, such as videos on YouTube (that aren't copyrighted) or websites specifically used by teachers. Perhaps I would even have a short lesson on the negative effects of downloading pirated materials. I want to help my students to see that illegal activities, no matter how innocent they seem, are never a legitimate option in life.

Monitoring Internet security is a major issue in the digital age. Opening a certain web page or email can result in a debilitating virus, which usually never ends well. I also would not like having my students click on a link and find their computer screens flooded with inappropriate advertisements. Before I have my students do any sort of activity online, I would make sure to investigate the website thoroughly to make sure that nothing inappropriate or harmful will come of using it in my classroom. I would also advise my students to create secure accounts to prevent hacking issues in my classroom.

Online Classes

I am a digital native, but I do not believe that teachers can be replaced by computers. Computers are not instructors, but tools used to help aid teaching and learning. I do, however, think that teachers need to change up their methods of teaching to adapt to today's students. Teachers are only as effective as their methods, and when our students change, so too must our practices. If a person wishes to be hired as a teacher in the future, they must be willing to implements technology in their classes.

There are some subjects that require one-on-one teacher-student interaction, like learning to play an instrument or a particularly tricky math problem. Each student may need the material to be explained to them multiple times in different ways before they can understand what it is they need to do to succeed. Computers cannot facilitate this, but teachers can. A teacher can see what a student needs in order to help them succeed. In terms of math classes, computers may not be able to detect cheating (like having a cheat sheet or a calculator) that a teacher would easily be able to stop.

I like the idea of offering online classes to high school and college students who have a choice to take them, but I don't think that they will replace regular classroom settings permanently. I have taken several online classes so far, and I can say with certainty that I much prefer being in a real classroom versus a virtual one. It's so easy to forget about a class you don't attend regularly, especially when students have a full class load. Additionally, school districts like GRPS may see online classes as the future of education, but they need to take into account their school population. Do most of their students have home computers or the internet? I know where I am teacher assisting, many students would be completely unable to participate in online classes because they don't own a computer. If online classes are really the way education is headed, and effort must be made to get these students connected somehow. I feel as though that would be a major obstacle for many districts.

As for the original question regarding my thoughts on the opinions posed in the videos, I feel like having a more technology-based high school experience may have helped, but only to a certain extent. My high school was by no means underfunded and we therefore had a lot of technology in the classrooms already. I recall working with online stock market games, video editing software, and website-building programs, just to name a few. Some classes, like a particularly boring history class I took, could have been much more engaging for me personally if they had departed from the typical lecture/note-taking format, and online or technology-based resources could have helped. Some courses were just fine as they were. Would I have rather had online classes? Definitely not. Would more technology in the classroom have been a good thing? Of course.

Media Literacy

This week, we listened to a lecture about how media influences societal values and how it affects our perceptions of what is true. Calling to mind the media's portrayal of men as hyper-masculine and women as ultra-feminine, we heard about the importance of teaching student how to process and analyze the information they receive from the media in order to think critically about what they see on television or the Internet.

In my own life, I feel that some of my ideas are altered by the media. I will occasionally read online news stories or look for information on upcoming elections, and in those cases, I may be swayed for or against a certain person or political party because of what I read. But do I base my idea of what is beautiful based on commercials for Olay products? Not so much. With a few small exceptions, I do not base my idea of my own beauty or worth on what I see on T.V. or on the Internet. Any issues that I have with myself are based on my own ideas of what beauty is, not on what I'm shown in commercials.  I do feel, on a different note, that because of my exposure to media, I am a more informed person. For example, watching documentaries or reading about an event that happened across the world gives me a greater insight into different cultures and many other concepts to which I would not have otherwise been exposed.

I feel that in order for students to create and analyze multimedia projects, they must first be able to read and write. Obviously critical thinking skills are things that every student needs to have, and I feel that they should be able to use these skills for more than just reading and writing. I feel that a nice medium should be reached between teaching the skills that students need to function (reading, writing, spelling, math) and the more creative endeavors (music, art, technology). Students really do need both in this new, technologically infused world that we live in, and I feel that both areas should be available for students to study in schools.

Bridging the Gap

Swain and Edyburn's article, Social Justice: Choice or Necessity, discusses the social justice implications of using technology in the classroom. They offer information about the division that is created between those who know how to use technology and those who don't.

I did not grow up without computers or Internet access. When I was a kid, my dad fell in love with computers and went to college to learn more about them (he had not previously held a degree). I don't actually remember a time when we didn't have a computer, so I clearly did not want for technology during my school. Similarly, because I lived in an affluent neighborhood, I did not know anyone who didn't have a computer by high school. I'm sure that there were some students in my area who had to go to the public library if they wanted to use the Internet, but I couldn't actually point out anyone in that situation.

Having the Internet at home definitely made a difference in my schooling. Almost all of my classes required some sort of paper or work outside of the classroom involving research, so having the Internet as a research tool was vital. I additionally used Sparknotes for many of my English classes, which helped me to see things in readings that I may not have otherwise. We also had to do PowerPoint and video projects in a lot of my classes, so not having a computer would have made assignments like those a challenge.

As a teacher, I do feel responsible to bridge the gap, but that's a lot easier said than done. It's not as though I can buy all of the computer-less families their own laptops, but it would be unfair to expect students who don't have computers to complete research work in the same way or timeline as those with computers. To attempt to bridge this gap, I would probably take a survey of my students at the beginning of the year, asking which of them do and do not have computers. Then, if I decide to assign projects that would require a computer, I could make an effort to pair up students who don't have computers or the Internet with those who do. I will also let the students work on research in school at the library or computer labs. Hopefully this will help to even the gap a little bit in terms of the grades that those without computers could get in relation to those who have computers. I would also make sure not to place students into categories - those who can use computers for education and those who will need to use computers in a vocational setting.

Thoughts on Sir Ken Robinson

I agree with a lot of what Ken Robinson says about the need to put more emphasis on nurturing children's innate creativity. The part that struck me particularly was when he spoke of the choreographer from Cats, which has always been one of my favorite musicals. It is interesting to think that had she been a little girl today, she would have been put on Ritalin and told to sit still, just as Robinson said. Her story reminds me a lot of a student I have in one of my 6th grade classes named Dakota. He is always moving around, has a really hard time focusing on what he's supposed to be doing, and disregards the idea that there is a time and a place for everything. I'm fairly sure that if he was taken to a doctor, he would be diagnosed with ADHD. I have often wondered if medication would help him calm down a little, but I worry that there is a better way to deal with his behavior that would still keep him hyped up about life. It's very conflicting, especially after listening to Robinson's talk. This boy, who has so much trouble concentrating that he's doing poorly in school, needs some outlet for his energy, but I don't know how to find one.

In Robinson's lecture, he talked about how kids are being over stimulated by all of the things coming at them: music, television, video games, commercials, and even the Internet and computer games. Then he later talks about how students feel that the traditional way of teaching traditional things is boring students, so it's no wonder they don't pay attention. I agree with both of these points separately, but when placed side by side, I feel conflicted by them. If students are being over stimulated by computers and technology, should we use them in the classroom? At the same time, though, if we want to keep kids interested in class, we have to use new ways to teach them. But will the use of technology cure their boredom or make their supposed ADHD worse?

In my classroom, I plan on using technology such as PowerPoint to help make my lessons more effective and will have my student do technology-based projects such as videos, wikis, and podcasts. These will be a helpful departure from the typical book report.