Social Media: What Teens Can Teach Us

The first thing I did when I opened by computer today was read "tweets" from sophomores in the Honors World Literature class here at CJ. They were tasked with summarizing sections of Oedipus Rex in 140 characters or less and to share them in a forum on their Moodle page. I had helped the teacher design the assignment earlier in the week, suggesting a discussion forum on Moodle as a venue for students to share/turn in their Tweets. 

Though the students mostly ended up paraphrasing instead of summarizing, the result of the assignment was a "feed" of "tweets" that both captured the essence of the play's drama (they were working with the end of the play - secrets revealed, eyes gouged out, etc.) and displayed a witty use of that simple symbol that has taken over social media - the hashtag. I had to share a few of them here:

The teacher who gave this assignment was pleased with the results and is considering make it a regular task in the class - good practice with an essential skill and a little bit of fun make for a good assignment in my eyes. That the students embraced this assignment and got creative with these hashtags signifies a victory - and I'm pretty sure the teacher (not on Twitter or Facebook... or any social media, if I recall correctly) learned something about Twitter and hashtags via this simple assignment.

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A bit later, another colleague stopped by my desk to share a blog post with me... and it was very enlightening. I'm sure it has made its way around social media already, since it is all about social media, but I'd still like to share it here. And wow, did it make me feel old and out of it...

The author, Andrew Watts (@thatswattsup), gives an overview of what he has observed about social media from the perspective of teens - and between his initial article and a follow-up post, he covers all the big ones.

I hadn't heard of many of the apps and platforms he explains, and many of them just don't seem relevant to me at this stage in my life. But as an educator working with teens and technology, it's good information to have.

Time to go exploring...

Sharing some SAMR examples

Substitution.

Augmentation.

Modification.

Redefinition.

SAMR

I recently introduced this acronym to the CJ faculty and asked everyone to reflect on where their teaching generally falls in this... spectrum? Is that the word? Like Bloom's good old Taxonomy, I find that our use of technology can and should fall in each of the "levels" at different times, but we do need to reach for redefinition when possible and applicable.

I shared the following videos and resources on an internal website:

• A YouTube playlist of four videos
• Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything - SAMR
• Excerpt from Ruben R. Puentedura TPCK and SAMR – Models for Enhancing Technology Integration (2008)
• Flowchart of the SAMR model from ICTEvangelist

However, some colleagues expressed interest in more examples; hence, this blog post.

Many of the explanations online are either general descriptions of the framework or use what seems to be the easiest concrete example to demonstrate - a writing assignment. Math and science teachers in particular wanted examples of how it can apply more specifically to their disciplines. The list below gives more examples - some specific to math and science, some general.

• Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklotsch - "SAMR model musings"
• SAMR in a 1:1 Math Classroom blog post from a teacher - gives some specific examples of how SAMR can apply to math
• SAMR Lesson Design Presentation from aharris425
• The SAMR Model on Apps-a-Daisy (blog) - quick chart shows examples of SAMR use in math
• SAMR Examples Prezi by Michael Hornback - gives examples of SAMR applied to English and math
• EdofICT wiki page of SAMR Examples across the curriculum
• SAMR: Model, Metaphor, & Mistakes blog post from Tech Tips for Education blog 
• Using SAMR to Teach Above the Line blog post from GettingSmart.com - gives an interesting visual representation of SAMR in a history project

Have any other good examples you'd want to share? Comment below!

I love Edutopia: Sharing a blog post about tech in the classroom

Quick share, then I promise I'll get back to my "real" work for today. While researching just now, I visited Edutopia.org, which is one of my favorite ed tech websites. In my former life as an English teacher, I loved receiving the print copies of Edutopia in my mailbox and was bummed when I read that it would be discontinued in 2010. Published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, it was a free magazine full of articles and ideas (and ads for amazing technology!) that inspired me to try new things with technology in the classroom.

I have come to terms with the loss of those colorful pages in hand as I have personally rethought the way I publish resources for my colleagues (formerly in an emailed newsletter formatted in Publisher, now here in this blog and via various email updates... hopefully linking them to this blog) and have discontinued my personal newspaper subscription because I just wasn't getting around to reading it, instead getting the highlights from social media. But I still miss the magazine and my newspaper. They just aren't always the most logical options these days.

I digress. Edutopia.org. The top headline today was a blog post titled "The Digital Lives of Teens: 'If You Don't Have a Plan for Them, They Will Have a Plan for You'". Well, of course that caught my attention. Blogger Matt Levinson, a school administrator and author of From Fear to Facebook: One School's Journey, begins with a story from a TV show to get his point across - we have to meet the students where they are with technology. It's a challenge to do so, but so essential today.

I just want to leave that link for you. A quick read, entertaining, and good to keep in mind as we turn the corner on the July 4th holiday, which to me has always signaled the turning point of summer - after this, it's the down slope headed back to another school year...