Using Twitter in teaching practices

As instructors, we often make the assumption that our students are mostly 'digital natives.' Anyone that has worked a college help desk. quickly comes to understand that access and/or familiarity with digital tools does not equate to a high level competences with said tools.

Here is a collection of websites that realistically address the use of Twitter. They also address the idea of taking charge of  directing the use of this powerful social media tool.


Guide to Using Twitter in your Teaching Practice ; this is a blog post from KQED with emphasis on online safety tips, netiquette, reasons and suggestions for using Twitter, and most importantly Twitter 101, resources to quickly make instructors feel comfortable, even competent in using Twitter.

Best Practices and tips for the higher ed classroom, is less comprehensive but a great tone and aimed at getting you up to speed quickly.

Here is a 6 page downloadable PDF from Illinois Valley Community College that provides a quickstart guide to using Twitter.

A bunch of ideas for using Twitter are proposed here - some useful, some obvious, and some really intriguing.

Twitter may evolve into something totally different before long. Who knows? But the connections that are possible with social media (and the responsibilities) should resonate and strengthen your teaching for years to come.

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The Illustrated Story of Facebook

I love that Facebook was created by a college student.  Do you have a Mark Zuckerberg in your classroom?  He took an idea and made himself a billionaire in a relatively short amount of time, and he continues to innovate his product.  Love it or hate it, Facebook is a technology that has undeniably made an impact worldwide.

Here's a fun, short video that gives the highlights of Facebook over its first ten years.

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What do you look like online?

 Here's something that may be of interest to your students as well as yourself.

A person's online presence is *important* and often looked at by current and potential employers.  While most people would not put up scandalous or unflattering pictures of themselves, they do not always have control of what others put up of them.  Are other people telling the story you want people to hear?

Fortunately, there are ways to minimize the damage.  Did someone tag you in a picture that you do not want showing up on your timeline?  You can untag it!

Here's a fantastic infographic that details how to remove photos of you from many social media platforms.

What story is your online presence telling?

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Using Storify in Canvas

Looking for a new and exciting way to present related articles, videos, blogs, and images over a particular topic? Would you like to have one link in your modules where students can access all of these Internet resources with one click? If so, you may want to check out a great App that works beautifully in Canvas called Storify.

What is Storify?

• A user-friendly way to make the web tell a story
• Helps you make sense of all the "noise" on the Internet
• Brings together scattered media into a coherent narrative
• Editable even after you publish; keeps your stories up to date and relevant
• Build your own Storify or select from a wide variety of published Storifys

Applications

• Instructors can put together a current and comprehensive story to provide emphasis on a particular topic, public figure, geographic local, etc....
• A different and much more interesting way for students to present research
• Provides 'one-stop shopping' for supplemental learning media

How to incorporate Storify in Canvas

• Add a direct link to your modules by using the External Apps feature in Canvas
• Embed it to a wiki page using the embed code provided for each storify

Take a look at a great example where articles are shown with notes added prior to the article:

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33 Digital Skills for 21st century Teachers

What are you going to learn (or relearn) this new year?
Meg sent this link from this marvelous website Educational Technology & Mobile Learning
She thought it would be a keeper and I hope you agree.
Not only does the author provide a list of the skills, he provides links to empower teachers to develop those skills.
Besides being a terrific resource, I believe it further emphasizes the notion that technology is not just for computer 'experts' or an option you can choose to ignore, but a set of skills that is not optional, and worthy of learning to use well in very specific ways. Furthermore, our attitude towards these skills is as important as the competent use of them when it comes to our students.

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Teaching with Twitter

Teaching with Twitter
From the website GradHacker, this article (and website) demonstrates interesting perspectives to online teaching and learning. Check out the comments, as well as the article itself
In particular this is aimed at students and instructors who are increasingly aware even expectant of the use of technologies in their lives.

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iPad Apps for Educators!

I recently got an iPad. I love it. I have visions of all the wonderful things I will do with my iPad, but searching for apps takes time. So that is why I am a teeny bit addicted to articles that tell me about great apps because it saves me some disappointment. This morning I found an article that highlights great apps for educators, so I wanted to share this knowledge with you!

Also, if you know of some great educational apps, we would love to hear from you. Has anyting particularly helped you with teaching online or are you excited about trying something new this fall?

Great iPad apps:

• 20 Apps for Educators
• 10 Apps for Teachers AND Students
• 6 Apps for Business (the business teachers out there might want to utilize these!)

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Pinterest

Pinterest lets you organize and share what you find valuable on the web. In other words, it is a social bookmarking site. I am surprised that we have never written about Pinterest in this blog. Most likely it is because many people use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
But, Pinterest can be a useful educational tool, especially in online courses. Check out the ideas in these two posts, then share your thoughts via the comments.
Pinterest: Everything You Need To Know Is In This Massive Post and
Pinterest- My New Love for Visual Bookmarking Education and Teaching Web Content

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Free text messages to students

It is believed that traditional students often prefer to communicate through text messages rather than ‘old-fashioned’ email. With that in mind, I am piloting Class Parrot. Originally developed for K-12, this tool allows text messages to be sent to registered students’ cell phones through its website. The service is free for a limited number of messages. However, instructor users get 500 initial messages and 200 free per month. There is a monthly or yearly fee for an instructor or school who uses the program. Instructors use just the website, and students do not share the cell phone number at all. I plan to use it to use it to reinforce weekly reminders (and they can be scheduled ahead of time, too).

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5 Things Students Want their Teachers to Know about Online Learning

I found the blog post, 5 Things Students Want their Teachers to Know about Online Learning, by Lisa Nielsen in her blog, The Innovative Educator, to be a worthy reminder. According the students and teachers at the iNacol Virtual Schools Symposium:

1. Socialization is important
2. Students want to see their teacher and
3. to see each other.
4. They want you to get to know them and 
5. want you to keep the course relevant. 

Although none of this is terribly new, several ideas and useful sites to accomplish all of this are included. Check this out as you refresh your courses for the spring semester.

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Electric Literature

This site may appeal primarily to creative writing instructors. But anyone who is fascinated with the evolution of technology and its impact on the arts and the creative process in general, will find this intriguing. Traditions (which are once new themselves) are twisted and bent to form something entirely new. Tweeted short stories, animations of a single sentence, and lots more.

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Does Facebook Jeopardize Home Security?

After you check your grade on your social media sites (see previous post) you might want to explore the statistics presented in this infographic and then evaluate your postings to social media sites. Be cautious about what you tell your friends because you might be providing just the information burglars are searching for.



Social Media Safety Infographic provided by CreditSesame.com an online credit and debt management company.

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Clean Up Your Facebook!!!

Facebook..................Isn't it great?! You can connect with all of your friends and family and let them know what you are doing every minute of the day................but what does Facebook mean to potential employers??

Facebook has become a covert way for employers to see what you are like outside of work. Do you post negative comments about your current employer? If so, STOP!! Do you post pictures of yourself that could be construed as tawdry or vulgar? If so, STOP!! Prospective employers are now using Facebook, so we need to spend time professionally managing our social media image.

One way to do this is to use socioclean, which is a free service that will scan your social media accounts and give you a grade. I had socioclean scan my Facebook, and I received an A. However, the service found two postings made by my friends that could be considered questionable. The site showed me the postings, and I was able to delete them.

My Facebook received an A. What is your grade?

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Fakebook

First of all I have to give Mark Jarvis credit for finding this cool tool!
I have wanted to share this since I first heard about it. Even though I haven't had a chance to use it with my class (and Art Appreciation would be a really good opportunity), I encourage you to go out and check it out for yourself.

As the name implies, Fakebook is a 'fake' Facebook. Users (students and instructors alike) can go in and create profiles of people, events and organizations, along with images, posts, links, profiles, friends and other Facebook-type tools. The website includes a 90-second or so tutorial, and an archive so that you can browse.

It's not as superficial as it might sound. Any profile would take some research, demanding both critical and creative thinking skills.

As a new and free site (except, of course, for the Premium option) Fakebook is a little rough and the examples in the archive are not well developed, but I think it holds great promise as an engaging tool for higher ed students. With the possible exception of math, most subject areas could integrate a project using Fakebook, with significant engagement with course objectives.

If you do take a look, let us know what you think!

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Piazza

It is a service that offers speedy response time and social networking. The founder shed the shackles of an arranged marriage to become an entrepreneur. What is the name of this service you ask? Piazza! Who is the founder you ask? Pooja Nath!

A recent article from The New York Times discusses the interesting background of Pooja Nath and her path to forming Piazza. At Piazza students can post questions and receive answers from both peers and instructors, and at this time the service is free.

Kudos to Meg McGranaghan for finding this article!

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Facebook Follow Up

Last semester I asked readers their opinion about instructors and students being friends on Facebook. The responses varied in nature, but all agreed that Facebook is an issue worthy of further discussion.

These replies motivated me to set up a Facebook for my public speaking students in two classes. The site only has one picture of me and I update the site weekly with links to class related Websites and Facebook apps. In the announcements area of my classes the link is posted and in an email I instructed the students to friend me if they so wanted. Out of 37 students, 12 have friended me. I have also advised them that when the semester is over I will "defriend" them.

So, I ask you, if an instructor had a Facebook just for the class, would you be more inclined to friend the instructor? Do you think that Facebook should even be a part of higher education? What are your concerns, if any, about being friends with an Instructor?

Click here to view the discusson from last semester!

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Obsessed with Facebook?

Do you ever wonder if your students are really using Facebook?

If you do, look at these new statistics from Socialhype.com and onlineschools.org. Once you have perused these statistics, you may come to the conclusion that Facebook is here to stay and if used professionally, could be a great learning tool for your students.

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Social Media Blog

Do you want to use Twitter or Facebook in your classroom? Do you have questions about how to use a social media or if it would even be effective?

Dr. Rey Junco's blog, Social Media in Higher Education, provides useful information about this ever changing topic. Dr. Junco is an Associate Professor at Lock Haven University, who conducts social media studies and has published two books on this subject. This is a great blog worth following!

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Facebook and Education

There is an ongoing discussion taking place among instructors regarding Facebook and whether Instructors should "friend" Students or not. This article was discovered and shared with us by Karen Wright - thank you Karen.

While the article does not speak to instructors maintaining professional or personal relationships with students via Facebook, the article does give 100 ways that Facebook can be used in education.

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/10/20/100-ways-you-should-be-using-facebook-in-your-classroom/

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Facebook - Friend or Teacher?

Alex Golub, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, wrote in an article about Facebook that:

The more widely you friend people on Facebook -- and it is a slippery slope -- the more and more your Facebook page becomes a professional Web replacement on Friendster's slick Internet replacement Web site. It becomes less and less a "private" space and more and more a place to show a public face to a very wide audience. In forcing you to craft a public persona, it raises uncomfortable issues of power and inequality and lurk under the surface of our actual world interactions -- which is probably a good thing.

Keeping in mind the popularity of Facebook, how do you feel about instructors and students in higher education being friends on Facebook? Have you experienced this?

Where is the dividing line between personal and professional interaction on Facebook? OR, should there be a division?

To read the entire article, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/02/03/golub

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