Skip to main content

Home/ Issues and Trends/ Group items tagged professional development

Rss Feed Group items tagged

trina79

Social Media for Middle Level Classrooms - 1 views

  • Thus, many teachers are integrating technology with instruction especially since young adolescents are frequent computer users and find technology very engaging
  • teachers and students feel strongly that technology is an essential learning component because it assists with engagement, makes education relevant to students' lives, and serves as an inspiring force (p. 31).
  • "Additionally, learning experiences are greatly enhanced when all students have the technology to access rich content, communicate with others, write for authentic audiences, and collaborate with other learners next door or across the globe"
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Integration of social media has the engagement factor teachers and students seek while enabling students to gain a variety of academic and social skills
  • Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) identify seven types of social media: collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia) blogs and microblogs (e.g., Twitter, Kidblog.org) social news networking sites (e.g., Digg and Leakernet) content communities (e.g., YouTube and DailyMotion) social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) virtual game-worlds (e.g., Minecraft, World of Warcraft) virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life)
  • ncreased student engagement and learning and citizenship education are benefits related to social media use in school.
  • For example, middle grades students can discover how technology-assisted writing can foster innovation, global communication and participation, and creative problem solving with a broader communit
  • Further, Ramsay purports that technology-assisted writing can nurture student creativity, communication, and problem solving skills while developing digital citizens.
  • Additionally, social media helps facilitate differentiation by allowing the needs of creative learners to be met through a cooperative learning environment. Students are better able to balance their individualism with the need for contact with others, allowing new ideas to flourish
  • Social media can help adolescents develop and strengthen collaboration skills as they share knowledge, learn with and from others, and are active in the learning process
  • Therefore, inclusion of social media in education activities is necessary to help increase equity among students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds by increasing access to information and information technology (Darling-Hammond, Zielezinski, & Goldman, 2014; Grinager, 2006).
  • Darling-Hammond et al. (2014) recommend the following practices to promote optimal learning opportunities for all students: (a) technology access policies should aim for 1:1 computer access and ensure that speedy internet connections are available, (b) policies and practices should favor technology that promotes high levels of interactivity and engagement and that allows for varying learning choices and opportunities, (c) instructional opportunities should enable students to use technology to create content as well as learn material, and (d) learning environments that provide significant and varied levels of teacher support and opportunities for interactions among students as companions to technology use
  • The first issue many educators currently face is equitable access for students and teachers. Further, uncertainty exists on the type and frequency of professional development for middle level educators that addresses ethical and appropriate use of social networking. Additionally, educators must learn how best to help students navigate safely and monitor students in a virtual environment. Lastly, educators must recognize the possibility for distractions and overstimulation that is often linked to certain types of social media and networking activities (Chen & Bryer, 2012).
  • Educators and policymakers need to provide the appropriate technology funding and related professional development so students and teachers have the equipment, knowledge, and skills necessary for taking full advantage of what technology can offer.
  • It is imperative for educators to have professional development opportunities that enable them to learn developmentally appropriate best practices for preparing students
  • AMLE (NMSA, 2010) believes that middle schools must provide adult advocates to middle school students to guide academic and personal development in an inviting, safe, inclusive, and supportive school environment
  • Students need to learn how to make great choices about what they share and what are appropriate actions with others, and always review and manage their online reputations in light of others' ability to contribute to that reputation either positively or negatively with a few clicks of the mouse
  • Edutopia.com, a website published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation and highly regarded by the educational community, provides thoughtful resources on creating social media guidelines for schools.
  • In tandem, teachers must continue to address the issue of plagiarism including how to determine if sources are credible and having clear and consistent plagiarism policies regularly disseminated to students and parents.
  • Research suggests that discussions and collaborations are the most common social media classroom strategies (Chen & Bryer, 2012). Frye, Trathen, and Koppenhaver (2010) proclaim that blogs offer students the ability to publish work and comment on others' writing, which increases motivation.
  • Research shows that social media can increase student learning and engage students who otherwise may be disinterested in the classroom
  • Social media afford[s] the opportunity for all children with online access to contribute to the world in meaningful ways, do real work for real audiences for real purposes, find great teachers and collaborators from around the world, and become great teachers in their own right. (
  •  
    The information in this article supports one of the things that my school tech integrationist is trying to get teachers to do with social media. He is asking teachers to do Penpal Schools, which will connect students with other students from around the world. I am going to be having my class do Penpal schools. I also want to try out having my students blog about books we are reading in 7th grade language arts after reading about the benefits of blogging in this article.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    How is your school liking PenPals Schools? I started using it in my classroom but found it to be too time consuming and the questions were a bit overwhelming in the project that we chose. My students were also not getting responses in the way that I expected them to. A lot of them were just getting a lot of "hi" from their Pen pals instead of anything useful.
  •  
    Very cool! I really wish I had students at an older age level. Though I can do something like this for 2nd graders it is more difficult with their reading and writing skill levels. Still a pretty cool tool to use for students and teachers alike. Thank you for sharing!
  •  
    Social Media is important. When I was in middle school and high school we didn't learn about social media or how to be safe on the internet. It was more of a foot note than a subject in class that we learned about. Blogging was foreign to me until now. I feel like I have missed a lot because of this.
Nikki Lyons

edWeb: A professional online community for educators - 1 views

  •  
    "edWeb.net is a highly-acclaimed professional social and learning network that has become a vibrant online community for exceptional educators, decision-makers, and influencers who are on the leading edge of innovation in education. edWeb members are teachers, faculty, administrators, and librarians at K12 and post-secondary institutions. edWeb is a place where educators who are looking for ways to improve teaching and learning can gather and share information and ideas with peers and thought leaders in the industry. Any educator can use edWeb for free to create a personal learning network or professional learning community to make it easier to collaborate, share ideas, and move forward faster with new ideas and initiatives, particularly those than leverage technology to accelerate improvement."
Heather Davis

20 Great Online Resources for Elementary Teachers - 1 views

  •  
    20 different websites are given to give teachers access to lesson plans that engage students and provides outlines to support a classroom that supports technology, common core, and professional development.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    20 different websites are given to give teachers access to lesson plans that engage students and provides outlines to support a classroom that supports technology, common core, and professional development.
  •  
    Websites like this that have a list of other places to go make it easy to keep your resources organized and who doesn't love free online resources!
  •  
    This website is a lot like the one Tabatha posted, I like that there are websites out there that can give a teacher multiple resources on just one page, it takes the search out of teaching, which is really appreciated from a busy teacher. This is mainly for teacher use, but students benefit.
Zoey Salisbury

Innovation Starts in the Classroom | Digital Promise - 0 views

  • Encouraging teachers to incorporate technology into the classroom has motivated and empowered them to seek it out.
  • Administrators now view their role as giving guidance on how to manage technological infrastructure, providing professional development, conducting internal research, and scaling teacher practices that make an impact for students.
  • “How to change classrooms has to come from teachers,”
  •  
    Technology Classrooms are developed by the teachers
trina79

7 Benefits You'll Notice When You Start Learning to Code - 7 views

  • Learning to code has made it into the mainstream, meaning that anyone can learn - you just need concentration, patience, and diligence. I did it, and so can you.
  • It’s been shown that learning to code can help you do better in other subjects that you’re studying or learning. Within programming, you learn how to break down a problem into individual steps and to use a language that the computer understands to logically create a working program.
  • A key area of your life important in growth is a successful career. Learning to code helps achieve that through many avenues and opportunities.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Financial success is an important goal for many, and learning to code can have a significant impact there. No matter what your career, profession, or background; programming skills are useful.
  • 7 Benefits You'll Notice When You Start Learning to Code
  •  
    This article would be beneficial to share with teachers so that they know the benefits of teaching students to code. Coding in the classroom has long range benefits that could lead to students having many options in their future careers. Additionally sharing this article with students would show them that while coding is fun; they are also working on developing skills that can help them in the present and future.
  •  
    I really like this resource. I will definitely be looking at this as I get ready to write my final paper. This is different from all of the other articles that I have seen because it is not directly related to coding with students. I could see how this could be beneficial for a young professionals group all the way up to a senior citizen center.
  •  
    It's interesting how all of these things connect with coding. As a computer science major I can see how all of these can be impacted by coding, yet I never thought of them. After reading this article I definitely can look back and see this occurring through out the past two years!
1 - 6 of 6
Showing 20 items per page