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Abstract: Student Response Technology (SRT) involves the use of hand-held remotes by students during classroom lectures to electronically respond to questions. This study surveyed 350 students enrolled in one of 13 lower-division university science classes taught by five different instructors who used SRT. The survey probed students' perceptions of SRT in terms of enhancing student learning, and investigated which features of SRT students felt had the greatest/least impact on student learning. The majority of students reported that the SRT increased their content understanding, class participation, alertness, and interactions with fellow students, helped with examination preparation, provided important and immediate instructor feedback, and made class more enjoyable. Students in this study scored more positively than peer groups on survey questions related to student engagement in academic and intellectual experiences, suggesting that SRT helps to promote student engagement. Important instructor actions identified during this study that augment the enhancing effects of SRT on student learning, even in large lecture settings, include designing clear, substantive questions, reviewing correct and incorrect answers with students, and making pedagogical adjustments based on class responses.

This article shows how to engage students and improve learning and comprehension of subject material, without the traditional lecture.  I will need a little latitude with this article and the assignment of social media in the classroom. This article does not focus on the use of social media but explains how systems can be used to prime students prior to coming to class and at the same time inform the instructor what areas students are having difficulties with at the time.  This is great because instructors and students do not have to go over information that has already been learned. Social media can be the vehicles used for this type of communication. 

The PenPal News project was able to engage students and relate it to their own lives. Incorporating technology to change old school pen pals helps students connect from different states.

This speaker does an excellent job showcasing that our students are totally capable of being part of a learning network before they can even recognize what it is they're doing. Things have changed intensely since the rise of networked connections between people. School needs to adapt and use these tools that professional educators are using to improve meeting the many "standards" that Mr. Regur talks about. "We have standards just to write standards…" We need to avoid the closed off island that is being a teacher… There is no longer an excuse to be stuck in this single-player version of education.

We all create personal learning networks in everything we do. Using this in education is extremely important so that students a) know how to connect with others, and b) know how to benefit from connecting with others. I like how he called the "teacher the most important activator".

Two is a meeting, Three is a network. Steve had some great "real" advice and reasons for why we should all join PLN for a variety of different reasons to create a stronger and more educated world.

In this article faculty and graduate students at the University of Plymouth wrote about the growing use of blogging in higher education classrooms. The authors see connectivism as the theory that helps to legitimize the use of blogging in the teaching and learning environment. They acknowledge that Web 2.0 tools such as blogs give students the ability to easily make connections with their peers and others outside the classroom walls. One of the most interesting aspects of the article was that the authors advocated for the use of course blogs rather than individual blogs for the simple fact that it promotes a single platform for students to share and connect. The authors gathered much of the information for this article from a case study that they did with university students. They asked several students to complete a survey. Instead of a survey, the staff involved in the project were interviewed. Through this case study, the authors were able to produce both qualitative and quantitative data on the use of blogs. Overall, the results showed that blogs are an acceptable medium for using the connectivist model and that by and large, most students achieved the learning goals while completing the assignment.

Kelly, This is a very interesting article especially since I have had to use blogs for many courses and have considered having my own students use them as well. I definitely understand having a single platform, but I wonder if that takes away from the individuality students gain from getting to create their own.

Tiffany, I too am torn on the use of a single platform in the classroom. I love that it would be easier to manage one account rather than individual student accounts. I have over 100 Spanish 3 students (which doesn't include my Sociology and Spanish 2 classes). It could be a nightmare to monitor appropriate blog use of all of those students. At the same time, I agree that students lose the ability to create a personal site, and could be less engaged on the single platform.

This was a great project introduce students to how to get an internship or full-time job using Klout scores. Students were able engage with other, via social media, and familiarize themselves regarding Klout scores. This was a very enjoyable project and the students were very enthusiastic about the project.

Online Student Engagement Tools and Strategies

A mostly visual representation to explore connectivism as it occurs through an open learning system. Points brought up include learners making meaningful choices while exploring their personal interest in order to guide learning. And as participants engage in making connections, a natural result will be content development and eventually those more experienced students becoming mentors.

Great video that has a section about how our students are "different" than when we were in school. "They [Students] expect to learn from technology because that is what they are used to." As soon as ALL teachers realize and accept this fact, then we as teachers can be one step closer to helping our students achieve their FULL potential!

I like the idea of learners making meaningful choices. Anything that can guide students to make effective and relevant connections is a great resource. I also think teachers have a lot to learn about the way our students learn these days. The idea that students actually need to be a force in their own learning and that they expect instant gratification are concepts I have been seeing more frequently in my own classroom. Great resource!

This is a great website to aid with spelling and vocabulary. As a teacher, you can enter word lists for your students. They then can play fun games like HangMouse or word scrambles to practice. They also can take tests on the words.

Teaching spelling and vocabulary is easy with VocabularySpellingCity! Students can study and learn their word lists using vocabulary and spelling learning activities and games. Students can take final or practice spelling and vocabulary tests right on this engaging site. Premium games and automated student record keeping are available to Premium Members.

Teachers often face the question, "When are we going to use this?" This project is great because it gets students answering that question themselves. Students take a picture of something they see in the world and write their own math problem relating to the picture. This gets students thinking about why math is useful and pushes their problem-solving ability by making them formulate a good question. Once the student okays the project with the teacher, they are free to post with the class Instagram tag where other students can engage in a conversation about the problem. This is a great way to get students to engage in practical mathematics and it is easy to organize because it is almost entirely student-driven. This is a cool project that could be running year round. I could see myself setting this up and building a real-world problem bank with my classes.

I thought that this personal learning network resource was a great fit for our class. This article discusses how schools are using social media to engage students and real-world relevance, for professional development, and school, district, and teacher collaboration. They used Twitter to document and share a paper tower challenge with schools and teachers from all over the world. Twitter was used to connect with experts and students got to see that not all scientists agree on certain topics. They also connected with the community.

I like that this article looks at how Twitter can be used for students and for educators. The idea of Twitter for educators as professional development fits very well with the ideas of COP's and PLN's. While I haven't been a true part yet of a structured Twitter session for PD, I have lurked in many formal PD discussions with hashtags for our public school system and benefitted from what I gleaned.

What an awesome video. It makes me excited to go back in August and really challenge myself to use Twitter or Facebook to showcase my students. Our school district uses a hashtag #bsdpride for teachers to showcase things going on around the district and it's starting to take off. It's awesome that teachers are encouraging each other to use Twitter and begin challenges that involve students. You can tell from this video how important these students feel when their work or projects re used on social media, and are getting attention from other schools.

This case study examines which factors play into a successful MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Some of these factors include peer interaction, professor engagement, and accessible course resources. The researchers concluded that these factors are as important in MOOCs as they are in traditional classroom settings. The article implies that classes based on the philosophy of connectivism are effective, but a number of factors must be taken into account when planning instruction.

It is difficult to maintain continuous student engagement in a traditional class setting. It is doubly so when the setting is online. This study researched what characteristics promote student engagement in online classes. Course takers identified 5 characteristics of MOOCs that encouraged their continued participation in the course. For the most part, courses that focus on problems and clear solutions, contain high levels of peer interaction and teacher participation, and include many active learning activities with accompanying course resources are well-liked by MOOC participants. The authors are certainly right to suggest that future research examine courses that are not as highly participatory as the MOOCs that are focused on in this study. I wondered as I read the article if the same level of engagement can be seen in other courses.

As this study emphasized, online courses have a unique challenge when compared to traditional brick-and-mortar courses because learners are physically separated from an instructor by a computer screen. Instructors do not just have to overcome motivation barriers, but also administrative obstacles. The article's "Table 2: Summary of Strategies Used" presented some well-designed methods to increase instructor accessibility---from the "Code Clinic" to weekly live interactive discussions.

Students at Burton High School in San Francisco worked on a project where they Tweeted ideas regarding a current, topical issue. Student involvement and engagement was increased due to the use of social media, and students can participate in discussions with classmates and the teacher on the given topic.

This is an article that talks about student engagement and the use of Twitter with college students

This is a dynamic article focused on researching the effectiveness of using a rhizomatic structure within the PLN for students using a variety of social media. Researchers evaluate a variety of social media as well as their impact on both the students and instructors. Outcomes include implications of impact on faculty workload, student perceptions of learning enhancement and level of peer engagment.