Group items tagged

More educators are wising up, they say, to the reality that most students have phones or other mobile devices that could allow them to give real-time feedback to a lecture on a text-message back channel, take pictures during a science field trip, or answer teacher prompts with online polling. And with the increasing capabilities and prevalence of mobile devices, the growing demand for K-12 students to be comfortable learning online, and the shrinking technology budgets of districts coping with the aftermath of the Great Recession, allowing students to use their own mobile devices is making more sense to more people.

Recent research shows the proportion of students owning cellphones is increasing. A January survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found about two-thirds of 8- to 18-year-olds owned cellphones, while more than three-quarters had an iPod or other MP3 media player. And an April study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reported that when you change the age bracket to 12- to 17-year-olds, 75 percent of students have cellphones—and often smartphones that are capable of completing many of the same online functions as laptop computers and netbooks.

“What we need to do as schools is to teach our kids to be responsible users,

The struggle within modern society regarding the adoption of new technologies has been framed as a dichotomy between those who oppose its tendency to redefine culture and those who embrace it. However a new paradigm has emerged among the young generation that sees beyond the bipartisan debate, rendering the debate itself irrelevant. This sense of irrelevancy among a whole new generation is mistakenly viewed as disinterest by the two sides of debaters.

s Shirkey notes, “Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring...

Regardless of the criticism, research is underway to determine the extent to which virtual technologies enhance constructivist learning

How can I maintain a professional presence on the site separate from my personal profile?If you are a teacher and have a personal profile, you can consider cre...If you are a teacher and have a personal profile, you can consider creating a group or a Page specifically for interacting with students, parents, or colleagues. Create Friend Lists to control what parts of your profile students are able to access. Pages Pages are for broadcasting great information to people on Facebook. For example, you could create a Page called "Ms. Smith’s 9th Grade Science Class" where you post daily homework assignments. Anyone can become a fan of a Page on Facebook. People who choose to become a fan of a Page will see updates on their profile. To create a Page, click here. Pages are free, you can control them with your personal profile, and they keep your profile separate from your students. Groups Groups make it easy for members of a community to connect, share and even collaborate on a given topic or idea. For example, you could create a group called "American Literature 101 Discussions" where you and your students can contribute to group discussions. Or you could create a group for all of the educators in your your department to collaborate on lesson plans and share ideas. To create a group, click here. Friend Lists Friend Lists provide organized groupings of your friends on Facebook. For example, you can create a Friend List specifically for your students. Then you can control which parts of your profile are visible to this entire list. You can also filter your view of each list’s stream of activity separately on the home page, or send messages and invites to this group of people all at once. To learn more about creating and managing Friend Lists, click here./help/?faq=16351