Digital Badge # 7: Chapter 8 : Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media

Digital Badge # 7

Chapter 8 : Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media

3 Concepts:

1) Electronic Communication Between Teachers and Students

There are numerous types of electronic tools that teachers can use to communicate with their students. Some of the most popular ones include: email, teacher websites, blogs, online discussion, and wikis. This pretty much describes everything that we have used in this class so far! I think it is very important to have these tools because it gives students access to contact you, see what is due for homework, study important concepts, and create projects online. There are opportunities for teachers to practice synchronous and asynchronous communications. Synchronous is a type of communication that occurs in :real time” with a cell phone or through text messaging. There is a short wait time to hear from the second person. Asynchronous is a type of communication that involves some type of time delay. This could be through email, discussions, and blogs. Our textbook provides great reasons as to why integrating electronic communications into your teaching is effective. Students will be more engaged, it allows sharing of information with parents, allows publishing of student work, and teaches beyond the school day. I found an awesome video on Vimeo that shows a training session on how to use electronic communication with students.

Video: Electronic Communication with Students

2) Using Email and Text Messaging as a Teacher

Email has become one of the most popular forms of interaction for teachers. They are able to email other teachers, administration, and parents. I think it would be a great idea to have students create their own email accounts to practice writing professional emails and practicing proper “netiquette”. It will also allow students to email their teacher about assignments and other classmates for group projects. Text messaging has become a popular form of communication between students. I am not a fan of the students really using their phones in class. However, there are some apps that the students could use that would benefit the whole class. Students who do text message more frequently have to be careful about understanding what “text speak” is. For example, most students try to shorten their words with text messaging. Got to go turns into g2g or great would turn into gr8. This could also teach students to be more aware of their spelling and sentence structure.

3) Wikis as a Collaborative Learning Strategy

Wikis are such great tools for teaching students about any subject you choose to teach. A wiki is a blogspace or website that is collaboratively created and edited by a person or group of people. Wikis allow students and teachers to: use technology in a meaningful way, collaborate with peers, and publish writing and creative work. And receive feedback from others. Wikis promote creativity and collaboration in order to create an organized and informational website. More and more teachers are creating them to display important information on topics such as science and math. There are some strategies that must be used when creating wikis for students. These include: deciding on group processes, choosing the nature of the wikitext, watching for inappropriate/plagiarized material, and giving grades for the students work.

Conclusion:

There are numerous ways that we can communicate with out students by using technology. Students are now able to work from home, contact the teacher and their peers, and create group work online. These concepts are beneficial for students who go to school online and also in a live classroom setting. Students can benefit from creating wikis with other peers or with their teachers. Students will also learn proper spelling and grammar by analyzing text messages and conversation lingo. This chapters is very important for teachers to understand how to communicate and collaborate better with their students by using social media.