Engaging Students 140 Characters at a time

Another great article about engaging students with Twitter from Faculty Focus - just click to read it!

Facebook Reaches 500 Million Users

Facebook officially has 500 MILLION members as of yesterday (July 21, 2010) - you can see the entire article here: http://mashable.com/2010/07/21/facebook-500-million-2/

Interestingly, the last 100 Million were added in just 5 months!

Using Social Media in the Classroom - Presentation Outline

What is Social Media?

Why Should We Embrace It?

Social Media Tools and How to Use Them

Wiki's - Twitter - Facebook - Blogs  -  YouTube & YouTubeEDU  - TokBox

Conclusion

Other Great Resources

What is Social Media?

This doesn't mean that you have to start tweeting, blogging, friending, and other things. But, you CAN use what's already out there!

Why Should We Embrace Social Media?

Why Should We Embrace Social Media?
(Source: Why Educators Should Become Hackers)

1. The old school conceptualization of the classroom as a place to receive knowledge has outlived its usefulness. Society in general, and today's college students specifically, are more interested in participatory methodologies.
2. Most of today's college students have never known a time without the communications technologies that are blended into their lifestyles.

Ask any pilot and they will tell you, that it is surprising how well humans can adapt to situations where we need to divide our attention between various tasks. There's an old pilot saying that "driving a car is like sleeping compared to flying." 

It's no surprise that pilots have lower car insurance rates (because of a lower probability of getting into an auto accident) than the population at large. I would venture to guess that pilots have less car accidents is because they have developed skills and habits to help them manage their attention and concentration in a
demanding environment and that driving  a car does not require anywhere near the same demands.

Now, imaging your students processing information like pilots - in a typical day they are connecting, consuming, and creating in the digital space paying attention to many things at once. Then, they walk into the college classroom where things move a lot slower and engagement demands are low (possibly near 0). While I don't expect faculty to be "entertainers", I do presume that we'd capture more student attention, interest, and insight if we engaged our students at a higher level than we do in the traditional classroom.

Wiki's

A Wiki is a web site that lets any visitor become a participant. Wiki's are constantly "under revision". The most common Wiki is Wikipedia - an online encyclopedia with millions of contributors and editors.

The word "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian Language, meaning "quick."



WIki's in the classroom are all about getting your students to work together - PERFECT for group projects!

Five uses for Wiki's in the classroom:

• Lesson Summaries
• Collaboration of Notes
• Concept Introduction and Exploratory Projects
• Dissemination of Important Classroom Learning - Beyond the Classroom
• Individual Assessment Projects

Sites where you can create a Wiki:

• www.pbwiki.com
• www.wikispaces.com (can try free)
• www.wetpaint.com (free)

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Other Resources:

• Wiki Walk Through - step by step
• Cool Cat Teacher Blog - FANTASTIC information!
• The Art of Using Wiki Pages to Teach

Twitter

What can you say in 140 characters or less? You'd be amazed at what you really CAN say!

The rising interest in using Twitter as part of college courses has been validated by the fact that Twitter has a simple user interface - there's no sharing of vast amounts of personal information - making it an ideal choice for faculty who want to ask students to join them in an online social space.





Only 140 characters means being careful with how and what you communicate. Challenge students not to abbreviate or use texting language. (Remember that when they graduate they won't be able to use that shorthand language in the workplace!)

You can also use Twitter for research and search specific topics:


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Other Resources :

• How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement
• The Language of Twitter - Top 10
• Twitter Tips for College Students

Facebook

First things first, you don't have to be "friends" with your students. Second, being "friends" on Facebook is only a term describing a connection made between users.

I have found in the few years that I have offered to be friends with my students, that I build a much better student/teacher relationship. I get to know them much more, and they get to know me in the same way. It doesn't compromise my teaching or grading criteria, that remains the same. The biggest advantage is that we are able to communicate much more in and out of the classroom.

I'm thrilled when students who haven't been in my class for a year ask my advice on something, or even ask a question related to the class they took with me. If somehow I was able to touch a student's life just a little more because we were friends on Facebook, then I feel that it's worth it and that I've done my job.

(Plus, if they can put up with the crazy antics of my kids and my political comments every once in a while, they deserve to be my friends!)

Just a note, if my students decide to "unfriend" me after the course is over, I leave that up to them.

If you don't want to be friends, you can still use Facebook in your class in a lot of different ways. You would create a class Facebook Page instead. For your students to be involved with this page, they just have to "like" the page. The result is that any status update, link, photo, or video you post will automatically be pushed to their own Facebook page.

SE 122 XHTML at NEIT Class Page

Steps to create a Facebook Page:

• Log in to your personal Facebook Account
• In the left column, click Ads and Pages, then find the button that says +Create Page
• Walk through the steps to create the page (adding any content, images, logo's etc.)
• View the page and copy the URL for your students.

Updating the page is as simple as logging in to Facebook again, clicking Ads and Pages, and selecting your page. Then make any updates you want.

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Other Resources:

• 100 Ways You Should be Using Facebook in the Classroom
• Tips for Creating a Facebook Page for your Class

Blogs

What exactly is a blog? To most people it looks like a website. It is just that, but behind the scenes it acts differently.

Blogs look and work like regular web pages, but instead of static content, the content of a blog is "posted" by a blog's author. Typically the latest post is at the top of the page. Posts are usually short and can be updated at any time. The best part of a blog is that minimal technical knowledge is required to create and maintain a blog.




So what makes a blog different?  Blogs use something called RSS - Really Simple Syndication. This means that anyone who wants to see any updates from the author can subscribe and will automatically receive those updates into their reader or browser. Behind the HTML you see in the browser, there is XML that helps determine the information that is pushed out to "subscribers."

The advantage? Your content is guaranteed to be delivered to those who want to see it. (Compare this to email, which isn't guaranteed because of ISP's and Spam Filters.)



Use blogs in the classroom to:

• Manage Your Classroom
• Collaborate
• Have Discussions
• Student Portfolios

Anyone can create a free blog at http://www.blogger.com. Create one for each class and assign students at contributors or authors, or have each student create their own blog where they can upload their assignments.

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Other Resources:

• Using Blogs to Integrate Technology Into the Classroom
• Ideas: Using Blogs in the Classroom

YouTube and YouTube EDU

Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine? It's EXCELLENT for research; you'll find a video for everything.

One idea you might try - start each class with a YouTube video that relates to that day's topic.

Why is YouTube considered Social Media?

Remember the simplified overview of social media - because anyone can create a video, upload it, comment, and rank it, it's also social media.

Create an account and then mark your favorite videos or subscribe to channels that relate to your classroom or subject. Encourage students to do the same.

At http://www.youtube.com/edu you will also find educational video resources.

If YouTube is blocked or you have a slow Internet connection, you can download videos to your PC to use in your class. It's easy to do, you just need room for the video on your hard drive. (For example, a 2 1/2 minute video downloaded in MP4 format ended up being about 8MB.)

At http://keepvid.com, copy the link to the video and click the Download button. (The latest version of Java is required.) You can save these videos in many different formats.

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Other Resources:

• Using YouTube in the Classroom
• A Teacher's Tour of YouTube
• Educational Uses for YouTube (Video)
• Using YouTube Videos as a Resource

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

Just recently I found this website. It's a great tool to keep communication open with your students. Use it to send video messages via email (recipient will get a link to the video) or have a video chat with up to 20 people at once.

The advantage to this is that there's no software to install, you just need a microphone and webcam to use it.

I find that it's often difficult to reply to email questions because the explanation is hard to communicate via typed message. I plan to use this as a way to respond to my students with questions that can't be answered with just an email. (Students don't have to have an account, but can sign up free and reply via video message as well.)

http://www.tokbox.com

Conclusion

The BEST way to encourage your students to use Social Media with their school work is to make sure YOU use it in class too! You don't have to use it all, pick what will work the best and your students will be thrilled that you "speak their language."

Purdue Lets Students Text in Class – using Hot Seat 

Hotseat is a tool that was developed at Purdue. It’s a tool that students use to participate in classroom discussion using other methods that are already familiar. (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Text Messaging) 

Instructors can pose questions and students answer via Hotseat. Controversial subjects can also be discussed without embarrassment – especially in large 100+ student classes. (The Instructor knows who made the comment, but students don't.) It also encourages more interaction among students – such as setting up study groups. Hotseat Information Page: http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/hotseat/ 

To see how things have changed, and will continue to change in the world of the Internet/Web, watch this video. It's an interesting look.

Other Great Resources

• 100 Ways to Use Social Media in the Classroom - There are too many ideas to mention - take some time to look through the list to find something that might work with your class. Numbers 72-85 are tools that will help you and your students use social media (tweetdeck, bit.ly, etc.)
  
• Embracing Social Media in the Classroom - Until recently, most schools banned students from using social media tools in the classroom. But progressive educators say this represents a major disconnect with the world that awaits them outside the school walls.  It's not protecting them today so much as handicapping them tomorrow.
  
• Social Media's Move to College Classrooms - Do you ever wonder if anyone is really listening? You'll find out in this article!
  
• 4 Tips for Integrating Social Media Into the Classroom - Tip #4 talks specifically about using it in the classroom.
  
  
• 3 Ways Educators are Embracing Social Technology