This week my studies continue with the reading from William Kist's book 'The Socially Networked Classroom'. Chapter 3 has many points I found interesting.
"Some districts end up becoming locked down with unsupervised surfing strickly prohibited."(pg 47) Though this is one way to make sure students don't find themselves in areas they shouldn't be, it also creates difficulties for the educator in using technology in the classroom. Years ago my campus had us so locked down, we couldn't even get onto Youtube. Now, I'm not saying Youtube is pristine with information, but it has some really good videos and songs to engage students. How, for example, am I supposed to convey the power of lightning without showing the raw power via video? My campus finally cleared youtube for teachers computers and I was able to show instructional videos, snippets of videos to support the lesson, or music videos to engage students in the lesson, such as the Lab Safety Rap. The book talks about teachers wanting to keep, what the students write, private. This can be accomplished via Intranet instead of using the internet. The only problem with this is that it's not giving students the experience, I believe, they should have that they would obtain through the internet.
For me, in the past, I used Edmodo for our classroom discussions and work. Edmodo has apps that you can add as well, for a cost. Edmodo was a wonderfully safe way of communicating with each other. One major concern with online discussions is cyberbullying. That very first year I used Edmodo, I had a student cyberbully another student. I caught the incident quickly and took a screenshot of it. Then I got into Edmodo as an administrator and deleted the post and put the student on 'read-only' status. I handed the documentation to the office for records and informed the parents of those involved. The remainder of the year went beautifully!
Last year my district had our students work through Learning.com. This site takes students through a variety of lessons explaining basic computer commands, typing, and how to keep your information safe on the internet. I was very pleased with the lessons. Online safety is very important today and becomes even more so the more technology becomes part of daily life.
Plagiarism is another concern of teachers. The book explains how copyright has changed. I know that when I first set up my website I had some groups ask to use my images, as long as they weren't making money from my images then I didn't have a problem with it. I walked into a science classroom once and found images all over the classroom, five or six were mine. I didn't know the teacher, but I also didn't have a problem with them using the images since I changed the image to save space on my hosting plan by changing size and resolution, making it not a quality image. I said something to the teacher and terror crossed his face as he was concerned at how I felt about it. However, as mentioned before, this can be an uneasy area for teachers and the best thing, I think, should be done is modeling how to use such images or information off the internet and show students how to give credit where credit is due.
One of the 'questions to consider' on page 51 says, "Some have the opinion that in a Web 2.0 world, every text belongs to everybody and that anyone should be able to use texts created by others to form new hybrid texts whether for educational use or not. Do you agree or disagree with this opinion, and why or why not?" Well, I definitely say no, the text doesn't belong to everyone. It's for this very reason, I've not posted my poems or stories. I'd like to get published one day, in fact, I've almost had one of my poems added into a poetry book. The reason I didn't allow them to print my poem is that they wanted to take a verse out, to me that's like cutting part of a painting because they don't like that part. I told them not to add me to their book.
In chapter 4, classrooms rich with technology and connectivity to the internet was discussed. First let me say that I agree with Kist when he said, "learning wise consumerism of the Web 2.0 is even more necessary when kids are allowed a little more unfiltered access."(pg 71) I have let students on the internet before and I had to monitor them constantly. During class lessons, I had two students deviate from the assignment to surf what they wanted to see. I easily caught both students by observing and checking histories on the computers before they turned it in. I'm surprised the students didn't think of clearing the history first.
The chapter spoke quite a bit about Ning. This social network is quite interesting and would be something that educators should definitely consider when having students work in social media. With Ning, you basically create your own social network. I found a brief article that lists things you can do with Ning. I love lists, by the way! Kist goes on to describe how others have used social media in the classrooms for literacy, projects, assessments, and lab assignments. One thing that I did think of and he spoke of was how a teacher in New York had students work online, but that he had to create more structure for his class because they were gearing towards State Testing, and the ESL students needed that structure to give them a better chance of doing well on the testing. Will educators always have to bend to testing? They say don't teach to the test, just cover the TEKS and it'll all be fine, but it's not. When I studied for my ESL certification exam so I didn't just trust what I learned in classes, I had to study to see how they structured their questions and found things like, assume you have the perfect classroom, for your questions. Kist says students were very engaged when using social media in the classroom.
Resources:
The Socially Networked Classroom by William Kist 2010
Lifewire: What is Ning?
"Some districts end up becoming locked down with unsupervised surfing strickly prohibited."(pg 47) Though this is one way to make sure students don't find themselves in areas they shouldn't be, it also creates difficulties for the educator in using technology in the classroom. Years ago my campus had us so locked down, we couldn't even get onto Youtube. Now, I'm not saying Youtube is pristine with information, but it has some really good videos and songs to engage students. How, for example, am I supposed to convey the power of lightning without showing the raw power via video? My campus finally cleared youtube for teachers computers and I was able to show instructional videos, snippets of videos to support the lesson, or music videos to engage students in the lesson, such as the Lab Safety Rap. The book talks about teachers wanting to keep, what the students write, private. This can be accomplished via Intranet instead of using the internet. The only problem with this is that it's not giving students the experience, I believe, they should have that they would obtain through the internet.
For me, in the past, I used Edmodo for our classroom discussions and work. Edmodo has apps that you can add as well, for a cost. Edmodo was a wonderfully safe way of communicating with each other. One major concern with online discussions is cyberbullying. That very first year I used Edmodo, I had a student cyberbully another student. I caught the incident quickly and took a screenshot of it. Then I got into Edmodo as an administrator and deleted the post and put the student on 'read-only' status. I handed the documentation to the office for records and informed the parents of those involved. The remainder of the year went beautifully!
Last year my district had our students work through Learning.com. This site takes students through a variety of lessons explaining basic computer commands, typing, and how to keep your information safe on the internet. I was very pleased with the lessons. Online safety is very important today and becomes even more so the more technology becomes part of daily life.
Plagiarism is another concern of teachers. The book explains how copyright has changed. I know that when I first set up my website I had some groups ask to use my images, as long as they weren't making money from my images then I didn't have a problem with it. I walked into a science classroom once and found images all over the classroom, five or six were mine. I didn't know the teacher, but I also didn't have a problem with them using the images since I changed the image to save space on my hosting plan by changing size and resolution, making it not a quality image. I said something to the teacher and terror crossed his face as he was concerned at how I felt about it. However, as mentioned before, this can be an uneasy area for teachers and the best thing, I think, should be done is modeling how to use such images or information off the internet and show students how to give credit where credit is due.
One of the 'questions to consider' on page 51 says, "Some have the opinion that in a Web 2.0 world, every text belongs to everybody and that anyone should be able to use texts created by others to form new hybrid texts whether for educational use or not. Do you agree or disagree with this opinion, and why or why not?" Well, I definitely say no, the text doesn't belong to everyone. It's for this very reason, I've not posted my poems or stories. I'd like to get published one day, in fact, I've almost had one of my poems added into a poetry book. The reason I didn't allow them to print my poem is that they wanted to take a verse out, to me that's like cutting part of a painting because they don't like that part. I told them not to add me to their book.
In chapter 4, classrooms rich with technology and connectivity to the internet was discussed. First let me say that I agree with Kist when he said, "learning wise consumerism of the Web 2.0 is even more necessary when kids are allowed a little more unfiltered access."(pg 71) I have let students on the internet before and I had to monitor them constantly. During class lessons, I had two students deviate from the assignment to surf what they wanted to see. I easily caught both students by observing and checking histories on the computers before they turned it in. I'm surprised the students didn't think of clearing the history first.
The chapter spoke quite a bit about Ning. This social network is quite interesting and would be something that educators should definitely consider when having students work in social media. With Ning, you basically create your own social network. I found a brief article that lists things you can do with Ning. I love lists, by the way! Kist goes on to describe how others have used social media in the classrooms for literacy, projects, assessments, and lab assignments. One thing that I did think of and he spoke of was how a teacher in New York had students work online, but that he had to create more structure for his class because they were gearing towards State Testing, and the ESL students needed that structure to give them a better chance of doing well on the testing. Will educators always have to bend to testing? They say don't teach to the test, just cover the TEKS and it'll all be fine, but it's not. When I studied for my ESL certification exam so I didn't just trust what I learned in classes, I had to study to see how they structured their questions and found things like, assume you have the perfect classroom, for your questions. Kist says students were very engaged when using social media in the classroom.
Resources:
The Socially Networked Classroom by William Kist 2010
Lifewire: What is Ning?
Excellent! I really agree when you state that monitoring a students every move on the internet is one way of assuring they do not do anything their not suppose to, but then that's not truly allowing them to fully engage with the tool. Many of the teachers "fear" technology for this reason alone, but there are so many programs that allow for monitoring of students, without completing blocking or "Big Brothering" them. Furthermore, if there is a clear management plan with consequences predetermined, so students know the consequences for misusing the tools, many of these issues can be solved before they even occur. Great post and I wish more educators shared our opinions!
ReplyDeleteTrue, I do want them to fully engage, but I've found history's on the internet searches where students were really not where they needed to be. I had one student looking up Football players and all the images they could find, obviously not on task. Its those few students that cause more monitoring to be needed.
DeleteAbout the question that every text belongs to everybody: I think the sentiment was that if you put the information online, there's really nothing you can do to stop anyone from taking it. What I believe Kist was saying is that the least you should do is to put a license on it that requires crediting the creator. I agree that if a publisher wants you to edit your work then it is your right to deny that request. As far as sharing educational resources, I think more teachers should consider using a Creative Commons license before posting/sharing or using a site like Teachers Pay Teachers.
ReplyDelete