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on anecdotal information (and a continuing influx of young teachers) I would think that some of these statistics are outdated, but I'm hoping we can use this blog to better align our personal and professional practices - we need to be able to see how we could apply these tools in the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.