PRACTICE

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Follow-up on Communicating with Students Outside the Classroom

Since I've recently realized that posting announcements to target students through email or RSS feed is no longer a very effective communication strategy, I've been exploring other options. I've looked into the use of Twitter (see earlier posts) for class and for staff development but it's still blocked at school (apparently indefinitely), so that's a no-go for now.   So I've created a Facebook Page for my students (considered creating a group or making it private but we'll see how this first run works)... in theory this means students are receiving and viewing reminders, updates, and articles I post but so far nobody has chosen to use this format to communicate with one another.  Stay tuned.

I've also provided students with a Learning Blog option for earning their writing assignment points.  Instead of writing formal papers submitted through turnitin.com and turning in extra credit reflections through Moodle, anyone who chooses the blog option will submit weekly posts reflecting on their learning, address the writing prompts and extra credit topics through their blog, and use their blog to demonstrate connections they're making between topics in class and what's going on the world (news, media, personal experiences).  About half of my students have indicated interest, so I am excited to see how many follow through.  Check out our blog collection and follow along.

Communicating with Students Outside the Classroom

I keep thinking it should be easy to communicate with students outside of class. (What did we do before email?)  I keep all course information in a Moodle, update the course announcements weekly, and force-subscribe posts to student emails.  Sounds good in theory... But apparently students no longer communicate through email - they're texting, tweeting, or connecting on facebook.  (Actually, word has it facebook is getting old, so maybe they're playing farmville.)

At any rate, I seem to be losing my ability to connect with students outside of the classroom about academic topics.  In response to my laments, I have discovered that one colleague is sending text reminders through email and another has established a facebook page for her course.  For me, this has served as a gentle reminder that just when we feel comfortable with our technology practices, we realize we're behind the curve again! As one responder to the twitip twitter versus facebook explains:

One of the big differences for me is how my generation uses Facebook versus Twitter. I’m 24, so Facebook has been popular since my freshman year of college...Those coming to Facebook late use it as a professional social tool first, and a local social tool second. My generation is the opposite... [twitter] has become a professional networking tool rather than a way to communicate with friends.

OK, my students aren't 24 and aren't making professional connections online, but I think this illustrates well that it's not only the technologies that change quickly, but how those technologies are used.

As We Move Ahead - A Brief Look Back

When I first started this blog I had recently conducted a districtwide technology survey to determine staff skills and interests.  (49.5% of staff responded: 51% K-5; 49% 6-12)

These charts illustrate self-reported use of various social media in personal lives and in the classroom two years ago.  Based on anecdotal information (and a continuing influx of young teachers) I would think that some of these statistics are outdated, but I'm hoping we can use this blog to better align our personal and professional practices - we need to be able to see how we could apply these tools in the classroom and continue to explore strategies for sharing our successes.

Up & Running?

After taking several years to ponder the feasibility of keeping up a blog for use outside the classroom I am going to give it a serious shot!  In the past I have been hampered by thoughts like, "Can I carve out the time needed to consistently update the content?"  "Can I set aside my perfectionism long enough to get into the swing of things?!"  After too much wondering I am diving in.  I've been reading others' blogs for years and figure that I can, at a minimum, provide some useful links.


My intent in creating this blog is to create a mode for sharing technology integration tips, tools, and successful strategies so we can learn from each other and continue to build on our current knowledge and practice.  Our teachers are doing great things and I hope this is another format we can use to share and discuss integration ideas.

Help! YouTube is blocked at school!

This is one of the most frequently requested tips I'm asked about by colleagues... Zamzar is a great tool for quickly converting files and videos from one format into another.  Zamzar supports a variety of file extensions and is useful for picture, document, music, and video conversions.

One really great use of Zamzar is for converting online videos into files you can save and reuse.  This will not work with video on news sites which are played within the site but it's great for youtube.  Since youtube is blocked at school, you can use Zamzar to convert youtube video into mp4 (QuickTime), wmv (Windows Media), or other video files if you access the video at home.  When the file is ready to be retrieved, you'll receive an email from Zamzar.  Simply click on the link provided and download your file.  (Zamzar is not blocked, so you can download the files at school.)

RSS feeds

I am seriously addicted to RSS feeds.  When I bought my first PC (which was sometime at the beginning of this decade but I think it weighed more than my dog... reference adorable picture for a size comparison) I set up an MSN page where I could select content like weather updates and quote-of-the-day. I suppose those options are still available, but with RSS the possibilities for my Google Reader are literally endless.  I am constantly adding feeds based on news sources, blogs, and topics that interest me.  I've lately been in the process of pruning and fine-tuning my feeds.  I've also been working hard to hook everyone I can on RSS - my latest convert is my 67-year-old mother who is in the process of expanding her browser use from tabbed home pages to RSS feeds on her nascent iGoogle page.  It's hard for me to imagine life before RSS, so this is my first recommendation for anyone who hasn't yet investigated this phenomenon.

More about RSS aggregators & feeds

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