This assignment really marked a pivotal change in my role as both a graduate student and an educator. Prior to this assignment, communication and collaboration about technology and education seemed to be restricted to my graduate courses and did not expand much beyond that. I had very little connection to others in the field, even though I knew that the possibility was there. I just needed a little help in finding my way to making the connections.
The course to completion of this assignment was not without bumps in the road. I think, for every webinar and Twitter chat we were asked to participate in, I attempted to participate in an equal amount that were either cancelled or simply just did not happen as they were scheduled. That was my biggest issue in completing the assignment. I spent a good part of last week searching for webinars that I could attend to make up for those that I planned on attending but were cancelled.
Overall, my participation experiences were great. I am going to expand upon my thoughts and discoveries more during my explanation of each event I participated in.
Twitter Chats
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| #3rdchat 7/02/2014 |
I attended my first Twitter chat, #3rdchat, on July 2. I'm glad it occurred to me before I attempted to participate in my first chat to set up a column in Tweet Deck to follow the chat. I also placed my notifications column next to the chat so that I could catch any replies that came directly to me without the chat hashtag. During #3rdchat, I tried to participate the best I could, but most of the chat was spent figuring out the format and flow of the conversation. I did have a chance to provide some input on blogging in the classroom, and got some positive feedback on a green screen app I am interested in trying with my fifth grade video media class next year. I wish I could effectively share the enthusiasm that I felt post-chat. I am hoping to help some of my co-workers get into Twitter and participating in chats, as I feel it would be beneficial professional development at my school.
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| #pblchat 7/08/2014 |
My next Twitter chat was #pblchat, on July 8. I have to admit, I was more of a lurker in this chat, as PBL is something that I am familiar with, but not strong enough in my knowledge-base to contribute much to the conversation. The topic of the discussion was agency. I was able to relate my thoughts about the definition of agency and what that looked like in my school. While I participated in conversations, I felt a little overwhelmed by the topics discussed in the chat, and probably will not participate in this chat again. At least, not until I have a stronger foundation of knowledge and use of project based learning.
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| #MTedchat 7/08/2014 |
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My favorite Twitter chat was #MTedchat. It was nice to know that I was conversing with educators within my geographic region. Being in Montana, it is easy to feel like I am alone on a island as not many educators in my immediate area are as connected as I am. The topic of the conversation was 21st century skills, their importance and how to best facilitate them. Ironically enough, PBL was brought up, but this time because it wasn't in quite such an in-depth context I wasn't nearly as uncomfortable participating. Many of the participants in the Twitter chat I have met and visited with at conferences in person (and one person I went to high school with!), so that made the conversation feel a little more personal as well. I am looking forward to continuing to participate in this Twitter chat in the future.
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| #teachchat 7/09/2014 |
I stumbled across my final Twitter chat after I attempted to return to #3rdchat on the same day and time it was held the previous week to find it had been moved to a different day. I discovered that #teachchat was happening that night, so I decided to participate. The topic for the night was "Bring Your Own Question". This was not a well facilitated chat. The standard Q1/A1 format was not followed, rather everyone just threw out questions at random so there were three or four conversations mixed in the same thread. It was hard to follow and had me feeling pretty anxious. Honestly, I had a nightmare about Twitter chats and not knowing how to participate the night that I did this chat. One of the discussion lines that I tried to follow was on the biggest challenge we face in our classroom. I mentioned differentiating instruction as much as I know I need to. Others discussed not having enough time to get everything done. The silver lining on this Twitter chat was the prizes. The only moderated questions were giveaway questions in which prizes were given to people who responded in a certain numerical order. I won (what, I don't know yet, but who doesn't love winning)! So even though the nature of the chat was totally chaotic, and I think I will run as fast as I can from anymore BYOQ chats, I was able to network with other teachers and make new connections. I think overall, that is what I appreciated the most about Twitter chats; the new people I was able to follow and the new followers I received.
Webinars
Finding webinars to attend was a little trickier than Twitter chats. Many of the live webinars that I found occurred during the school year. I'm not sure if it is typical for more webinars to be held during the school year, or if I just wasn't looking in the right places. I tried to participate in the Teacher's Teaching Teachers webinar during the second and third weeks we had to complete the assignment, but the second week it was canceled and the third week it was held at a different time and I missed it. I also tried to participate in the I Have a Question webinar one Sunday and it was canceled. I was so glad to find out about the Reform Symposium Conference and all of the sessions it offered. It saved me from having to attend information webinars on two programs I really am not that interested in. On the contrary, I have participated in 4 of the RSCon webinars and plan on sitting in on a couple tomorrow as well. Getting to listen to Kevin Honeycutt speak again is kind of like Christmas for me, as meeting him three years ago was the catalyst that convinced me to pursue a degree in EdTech.
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| Let's Chat! Engaging Learning Through SMS, Emojis, and Chatting Apps | 7/04/2014 |
The first webinar I participated in was one from Shelly Terrell's Friday webinar series. The topic was "Engaging Learning Through SMS, Emojis, and Chatting Apps. This was a great webinar to sit in on because while I am not anti-devices in the classroom, I had not ever contemplated the idea of having kids utilize things like emojis or Facebook Messenger in the classroom. I especially liked
the Emojidick.com link. I think being able to put text into emoji form would be a really fun and beneficial activity for kids to participate in. I wanted to attend Shelly's Friday webinar on 7/11, but because she was busy organizing things for RSCon, her webinar started late and I was unable to attend. I have her Live Binder with her schedule and will be attending more of her sessions in the future.
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| Tech Educator Podcast 7/06/2014 |
The second webinar I participated in began with me thinking it was a Twitter chat. I wanted to participate in #techeducator, but quickly discovered that instead of a Twitter chat, it was a podcast facilitated like a webinar. The topic was a recap of ISTE 2014. There was a chat feature in the room, but the nature of the conversation was more sharing information rather than discussion back and forth. In spite of that, it was nice to hear about the different events at ISTE, I hope to be able to attend the conference myself in the coming years. The neatest thing I learned about during this podcast was the program Robots4Autism. These robots are programmed with lessons that help teach social skills to students with Autism. I see that as being a very beneficial way to utilize technology to support students with Autism.
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| Integrating the iPad into my Teaching 7/11/2014 |
The next webinar I attended was the first of the RSCon webinars I attended. The session was called "Integrating the iPad into my Teaching Style". I initially thought this would be a great way to gather resources for my coworkers. Each teacher in my building has an iPad to use for assessments and other activities as they wish to integrate. Our K-2 classes will also be getting new iPad minis to use in the classrooms as well. They will not have 1:1 devices, but will have enough to conduct centers or use for interventions. This webinar was not so much beneficial for new information, as it was reminding me about great apps that I know about, but may have forgot about, such as Google Drive, and Evernote. One app that I did not know about that I am interested in learning more about is called Photon. Photon is an app that supports Flash content on iOS devices. One of my biggest issues with Apple devices is their inability to support Flash. This app may have the ability to change my mind about using iPads in the classroom.
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| What the 411? Keeping Your Parents in the Know! 7/11/2014 |
The fourth webinar I attended was presented by Carla Jefferson and was entitled "What the 411? Keeping your parents in the know!". I was drawn to this webinar because in the description it is mentioned that one of Carla's issues with parent communication was working in a rural district and having difficulty getting parents to return communication and attend meetings. I teach in a district with similar issues and was interested in possible strategies to engage parents. One of the main ways Carla mentioned that she uses to communicate with parents is through Facebook. Her reasoning behind this is that no matter what a person's socioeconomic status is, or where they live, they have and use Facebook. I completely support that notion. However, in my district, Facebook is nothing short of outlawed. There have been issues in the past with parents airing their issues with the school on Facebook rather than bringing them to administrators, and that has soured the school's perspective of social media in general. I am hoping that through the positive interactions I have had with both Facebook and Twitter this summer, I can work to change the minds of those I work with to be more accepting of social media use within our school.
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