Twitter, Ning, Edmodo, and Other Social Networking Tools.
From RE 5532: Technology-Supported Literacy
How I've Used Twitter, Ning, Edmodo, and Other Social Networking Tools
Please share not just what you did and how it did or didn't work, but also your thoughts on the value of using these tools in the way you did and any future plans you have for additional uses.
Twitter I have placed a request to review the block on Twitter at our school. I think of all the Social Networking Tools it is most friendly. Many of my parents are already familiar with this site as well. I am hoping to get a response soon, for now I am working with the Edmodo site.--Candy Mooney 01:28, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
I started a Twitter page for my Kindergarten classroom about a week ago. I sent a letter home to parents explaining the purposes for using the account. I haven't had a tremendous response to the Twitter page yet; I currently have 4 parents following our Twitter page. I think more parents will begin following us if they discuss the benefits of it among themselves. My children haven't been directly involved in the typing process of the updates, at this point they are helping me decide what to put on there each day. At the end of each day my class discusses what we learned that day, and at that time I will choose something that they say to add to our Twitter updates. I can see how using Twitter could become part of our everyday literacy routine, sort of like our "morning message." I can type the message each day and have the children look for familiar words in the message. This will give us one more opportunity to practice our literacy skills each day.--Brandy 00:52, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Over the past couple of weeks, I introduced my class to Twitter. Immediately I got a great response. The students couldn't wait to get started and be my "Twitter Bug" for the day. Each day I allow one student to keep the page updated with events and interesting things we are doing in class at that time. They are all eager to do it. Parents are following us as well as our principal. I haven't had many responses from the parents about their thoughts and feelings on the technology we are using in class. There is one parent who is very appreciative of the technology I use to keep in informed of our class happenings like my weekly newsletter or Twitter.--Tonna216 12:24, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I have recently began using Twitter in class. I use it for parent and student communication. It is easily accessible for me via computer or phone. I simply tweet their homework assignments as well as any announcements. So far, this has been great in the classroom. I have had at least two parents personally thank me for using this communication tool as it has made it even easier for them to check their child's assignments. I believe that any parental communication that is effective is definitely worthwhile. Also, the students take more responsibility because they know their parents are always "in the loop."
Also, I have used Twitter to follow Science Channel and NY Times Science for current event topics tied to our curriculum. I can easily pull up our Twitter page and project it to the SmartBoard. Then, we have great discussions about topics tweeted. Finally, I am hoping to have students discuss and evaluate these events on our classroom wiki. Students have enjoyed following them on Twitter and having discussions. I hope that their discussions can successfully pour over into the classroom wiki from school and home. --Brittanyjguy 02:50, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
Lately, I have been using twitter to send links back and forth to a good friend of mine, Melissa Edwards. She is the technology facilitator at Forest Park. Thanks to twitter, Emory (one of the main tech guys at central office) noticed I was frustrated about Skype. He quickly emailed my tech. facilitator to tell him to unblock Skype. Emory and I have also been communicating about using blogs to connect different classrooms. Not only do I use it to keep up with my personal life, but also my professional life! --Sefeinman 23:40, 26 September 2009 (UTC)I plan on using twitter in my classroom more frequently, to keep updated with things happening in technology. I feel as thought it is important to build a professional learning community. Twitter is a great way to do just that. --Sefeinman 00:27, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Twitter is very new to me but is becoming a very popular social network. I have used Myspace and Facebook to keep up with friends over the years but was initially skeptical of Twitter because of its differences or I guess I should say unfamiliarity to me. :) My elementary school actually started using Twitter this school year as a way to help parents stay more updated on our school’s schedule and events. I set up an account so I could follow my school and then started using it for this class as well. This last week, I set up a classroom Twitter account for my class. I was able to pull all of the information up on the smartboard and the children were able to help me setup the account, create a username, password and profile. We made our profile private and but only basic information on the profile. Currently, we are following a few of their parents, teachers and the other fourth grade class. I am hoping that Twitter will help some parents keep up with what is going on in their child’s classroom. The biggest problem that I am running in to is that many parents at my school are not very comfortable with technology. I teach at a very rural school and very few parents are “technologically literate.” We will continue to tweet in class about our day and exciting things happening in the classroom and hopefully more parents will experiment with Twitter. I think that Twitter is just a very new thing and will eventually take off in our school. I found this website full of information about Twitter. [1] --JenLawson070 01:10, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
I have found something that makes my life much easier! I was having a difficult time tweeting multiple times a day and teaching so I have started letting my students tweet. Every day, I assign a different student to tweet for the day. The children love it and it keeps our classroom up to date. --JenLawson070 00:55, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
I have added to my use of Twitter in the classroom! Now, similar to something someone mentioned for Edmodo below, I am adding links on my tweets to the assignment. I could have my students post their assignments on our classroom wiki or have files attached on our classroom website. It is an even more convenient way of getting information to students and parents! --Brittanyjguy 01:14, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
I set up a Twitter page for my class. I sent a letter home to parents telling them how to set up an account and that we were using it it our classroom. The way we are using it is that we are communicating with the parents about something we did during the school day. We post a tweet at the end of each day. Several parents have joined and made comments on our tweets. For example, I had the parents wish a child in our class a happy birthday. The children have a discussion at the end of the day about what our tweet should say. --Ashleycaldwell82 18:52, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up a class Twitter account this past week. For now, the goal is to use twitter as an additional method to facilitate communication between parents and school. I have been tweeting homework & reminders about field trip money, school events, etc. I'm going to send home an explanation letter this week; I sent out a mass e-mail and have gotten some response, but not what I was hoping for. Many of my students have twitter but, according to them, "never use it...what's the point?". So, I guess I'm going to need to establish the point. I love Ashley's idea about creating a class tweet at the end of the day. Maybe handing ownership to the students would increase their motivation to participate.
Also, a few parents have said they can't find me on twitter. I sent them my twitter name & double checked to make sure all is spelled correctly. Any ideas? I have my tweets set to private, but don't think that should impact someone's ability to search for me. Looking forward to getting more tweet-savvy. :-)--Rjohnson 20:10, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
Update: I think there's just a slight delay between when you create your twitter name and when folks can find you. I'm up to around 10 followers now with my school account. I've been sending out homework tweets each day & have received a couple of direct messages from sick students. I like the concept. Also, slightly unrelated, finally got Skype working with my homebound student. We're going to try to "do class" with him on Tuesday! The students are way excited. --Rjohnson 17:53, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I recently set up a class twitter account, and my kids and parents love it. Not only do I use it for class updates--ie upcoming projects, tests, assignments, etc.--but, I also use it to point out items of interest. If I find an interesting online article, for example, I will tweet a quick description and then give the tiny url. The kids and parents might read it and respond. I also tweet about updates to our wikispace and when new files/links have been added. If I find an interesting and relevant site, I will tweet about that. When interesting educational shows or political addresses are coming on television (History Channel for example), I might include that information. I have noticed a marked increase in classroom participation and, overall, excitement since I started using twitter. The kids and parents feel more connected to me and eachother. --Heatherscoe 23:08, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
Twitter is new to me and I am slowly learning to use it with teachers that I work with. I think it would be great to open it up to my 7th graders to use since they all have laptops now, but currently Twitter is blocked. As we get more into our 1:1 initiative, Twitter may be opened to us. It would be great to students to tweet back and forth about homework questions or other assignments they have. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 14:05, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
My school system would not unblock Twitter no matter who I talked to or how much I pleaded. So, not being one to let rules (especially ones I think are inane) stop me, I found another way. Since I have my own laptop and broadband connection, we used it for twitter. I set up an account just for our class and invited parents to join. I tweeted about our activities. There were only 4 followers. So, this past Wednesday, we started having a "tweet of the day", to increase membership. So far, no new members. Yesterday, I sent a paper note to all parents asking everyone to join. Hopefully, we'll get new members this weekend. If membership still doesn't increase, I think I may try bribery. All students at our school collect hole punches for being good citizens which they turn in for prizes, I may start giving hole punches to those who participate in tweeting. I did talk to a parent that tweets with us and she really enjoys it so I encouraged her to talk it up with other parents. I think tweeting is a great way to quickly get information to parents and will continue to use it this year.--Melissa graham 23:42, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I set up a Class Twitter account and my students were so very excited. The plan is to post homework and links. I like the idea mentioned earlier about having a student tweet each day and will begin having students take turns doing so. I did send the link and group name home. However students have returned saying they were unable to find it. I did bribe my students with candy for tweeting this weekend. It is amazing how easily 7th graders are lured. I think twitter would be quicker for looking up class information than going through web pages on the school website. --Cajones51 12:19, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Twitter, Ning, Edmodo, the works is blocked from the server at school. The tech department was very helpful in downloading and using skype, but not as supportive on this front. Instead, I have registered for a new Twitter account that I can use to tweet from home to get important information to the parents of my students. So far I have used it to send reminders about fieldtrips and permissions slips, where to find new spelling words, etc. I have plans to tweet each time I update my class webpage, update homework assignments, need volunteers for something, remember at the last minute that class picture day is tomorrow, etc. I have invited the parents of my students to follow my account. So far I do not have any followers, but I will continue to send the information home in my newsletter and hopefully a couple of my parents will begin following me. My user name for my classroom Twitter account is Mrsjacksonsclas. I'm excited about this new method of communication! --Jessicajackson52 15:54, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I was delighted to find out that Twitter was not blocked for my school system, so I decided to create a class page[2]. I set up the account and then sent a letter home to the parents giving them directions on how to follow us. I pull up Twitter at the end of the day on the Smartboard and allow the students to tell me what they would like for their parents to know. They really enjoy it. We have also started following Ashley Caldwell's class as well. I knew our community had few homes that had internet/computer. So, as of right now we have only 2 parents following us and another parent from Ashley Caldwell's class following us as well. I hope that more parents will join once their child continues to talk about it at home. --Oscales 23:38, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Ning
I have just created a Ning network for my class and I am really excited about using it. When my students come back from break I will introduce this to them together as a whole class. I am going to let them use this network for creating blogs and other discussions about school. They will be allowed to upload pictures and videos they would like to share with our class. I will be uploading different lessons that I am teaching so when they go home and they have a question about their homework they can pull it up on our network. We like to do ipod-casts in our room and now we can post them on our networking site. Not only will my students be able to communicate on this network but so will my parents. They will all be encouraged to create an account and join in on the fun. This will also be a way that I can communicate with my parents. This networking site is similar to facebook and myspace but is completely guarded and protected by me. Half of my parents have asked me to be their friends on facebook or myspace and I wont so now I have a more appropriate way of talking with them without them invading in my privacy. I can wait to get this started.--Hetilley 15:22, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
I love social networking! The first social network I joined was College Club. That was right before myspace hit it big. On facebook, I chat regularly with the Arts Team at my school, and fellow classroom teachers. Usually we gossip, but there are times when we brainstorm the next big unit or production! I have set up 21st Century Learning. I have emailed the staff at Latham and Diggs. I am encouraging everyone to join. Because the two schools are in the process of a merger, I thought it would be a great communication tool. I have also encouraged the teachers to post projects that their students have been working on. I really hope it catches on. I have also sent home a newsletter inviting the parents to join. --Sefeinman 22:33, 24 September 2009 (UTC) The past couple days I have been thinking about ways to use social networking with my students. One main problem would be that the students do not have an email account yet. I would first have to set up an account for each one (possibly with gmail). I suppose I could always introduce them to my Ning site. They would enjoy seeing all the different staff members' pages. --Sefeinman 23:42, 26 September 2009 (UTC) I think the possibilities for a social networking site are endless. It can really help those students who are motivated by technology. If my students were older (and more privileged), I would use it as a homework tool. Because I am always sitting at the computer, it would be a great way for my students to get in touch with me in the evenings. --Sefeinman 00:27, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
I haven't used Ning, but am excited about the possibility! I am a self-proclaimed facebook addict. I know most of my students have facebook and/or MySpace pages. I like the concept of being able to create your own social network with a specific focus. I think middle school student response to this would likely be strong. I need to ask some more questions at my school to see if it's a possibility for us to try. --Rjohnson 20:20, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
I tried downloading Ning and it was blocked by the school system. I went to my technology facilitator who informed me that the school system frowns upon social networking and she would not be able to unblock it. --Cajones51 12:19, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Edmodo
Since Ning is blocked by our county's firewall, I decided to use Edmodo for my class's social networking site. So far, I have set the site up and I am sending home permission slips on Monday. I talked to my county's technologist, and he said that even though we send home an internet use form, we probably needed special permission for this sort of application. I really think it will be a good experience for my students. I intend to post assignments online, and I plan to communicate with my students at school while I am in Washington with the rest of my class.--Stacy Cabeen 01:55, 27 September 2009 (UTC)
How I Used EdmodoI decided to use Edmodo in my second grade class because Ning was blocked and Edmodo is a little more private than Twitter. When I went to use Edmodo on my classroom computers, I found that I had to download Explorer 8. Since I only have three computers in my classroom I decided to check out the mobile laptop cart. The downside was the technology facilitator had to download Explorer 8 and several of the computers would not accept it. In order to get ready for my lesson, I set all of my students up with usernames and passwords. I did not use any last names in order to protect privacy. I decided for our first lesson using Edmodo I would help them choose their avitar and their assignment was to write at least one sentence about the Revolutionary War. In Social Studies we have been learning about the Constitution and the events that lead up to the Constitution. This was all in connection with Constitution Day on September 17. I decided to have two students per computer. The students were very excited. Some a little too excited. They had a hard time trying not to press the keys for their partners. The other downside to the laptops is the students were not use to that type of mouse. That is where most of our problems came from. Once we finally choose our avitars they were able to type their sentence and send it to the class. They really seemed to enjoy reading each others responses and were complimenting each other out loud. Since most of our time was used explaining and setting the laptops up everyone didn't get a chance to type a response. I think next time I would like to try and schedule extra time in the computer lab, so everyone has their own computer. The only problem is I would have to download Explorer 8 on all of them. I would like to use this as a center during guided reading time where I post a question and the students can answer it on Edmodo. The other problem is the students were so excited they wanted to go home and try it out. They asked if they could send messages to each other. I told them right now it is for only assignments.--Patricia Edwards 00:37, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
I downloaded Edmodo last week and sent home permission slips for my students to be able to use it. I have gotten about half back so far. Hopefully, the rest will come in. So far I am using it as a home to school connection. I put reminders for things such as when field trip forms are due. I have let students know that I will check it to see if they have any questions about their homework. A lot of my kids do not have internet at home, so we will see how often it is used. I think a lot of my parents will check it while at work. I think this will be a useful tool. Being a title 1 school we are big on keeping track of the number of contacts made, this will help that. When I taught middle school I used a website where you could post all assignments, I can't remember the name of it as it was 4 years ago, but parents commented on how much they enjoyed being able to see everything. Those students were required to use an agenda, but that is only as reliable as the child who is using it. Parents felt like they new what was going on. I hope to be able to make this an easy way for students and parents to fell comfortable contacting me in an informal way. I would also love to scan in assignments and attach them, but due to copyright laws I don't know if that is possible. I will post my spelling homework as my TA types those up every week. I hope to learn more as I play with it more. --Ressler14 00:05, 5 October 2009 (UTC) I was blocked every way I went so I went around the other way. I linked my school web page to my school igoogle page (I had to give them my user name and password) so they could go to my blog. I posted a question that they had to reply back to me. They cannot do that until I take them to the COW on Thursday. Pray for me teaching 15 6 & 7 year olds how to do this.--Grandmacunningham 22:44, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
I created an Edmodo account for my class and had them sign up and use it today. I had to do a little work to make it happen because the students didn't have email addresses set up, but all is well now and we used it for the first time today. It took a little time to walk students through signing up and navigating the site, but once they knew how to use it they REALLY got into it. I sent a message to the whole group about responding about a book we've been reading in read aloud. The book is a mystery, so I asked them to post their theories thus far about the book. Once they had posted their responses I had them go through and read and respond to some classmates. They loved it and for the most part took it very seriously (I had to talk to one or two about being silly in responding to other students, but no one was in any way offensive). Many of them asked if they could go home and write more on the site tonight. Of course I agreed. I also promised them we'd come to the lab and work with this again, and that as soon as we were able they would be able to access it in the classroom and add information independent of the lab setting. One student even gave me the idea of sharing their "Reasons I know its fall" paragraphs on the site, so I think we will do that next week. Overall it was a big success, and I am so glad I tried it because I think it is yet another way I can keep my students engaged using technology.--Adover 17:15, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
I was excited when I was able to sign-up for an Edmodo account at school. I was disappointed when I realized that the site could only be accessed by administrative computers. Computers in classrooms and computer labs are set up on student accounts which makes for more strict access to various websites. My school's Instructional Technology Facilitator mentioned using a "blog program" on our classroom webpage. I have since then set up a blog for students to reply to a teacher-posed question. We are currently observing the moon each night for a moon. Students may go on the website (most students must do this at school) and reply to the question. They can look at other students' responses and include their own. In the classroom, I can project the blog on the overhead. We then can discuss students' responses. Students find this assignment to be an exciting one. I hope to still use my Edmodo account with colleagues. Currently, we have a Media/Technology Committee at school and I hope to bring up at our next meeting using Edmodo between committee members. We can express ideas, questions and concerns. --Burchamal 16:45, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
I began using Edmodo with my students last week. They love it. My county ofice does not love it however! I took the children to the computer lab to explain Edmodo to them and to give them the passcode they would need. Some of them took to it like a duck to water. Many of them have their own social networking thing going on so they really go into it it. For some others, this was brand new. Edmodo is not dificult to understand or navigate so that is a plus for me. So far I have used it to answer questions from home and to send reminders, Our team sends a weekly newsletter, so I can see the newsletter being replaced by Edmodo. I am also going to use it to let the students respond to literature and other things from class. I will also be teaching responsibility and courtesy as situations arise where students may put items on that are not appropriate. My goal is or them to add one academic item for every social item. I don't want our page to be just a way to say "hey." One problem I may face is the desire of our tech department to prevent social networking sites. I have decided to proceed and ask forgiveness if necessary. Also, for my children who can't access the internet from home, I need to find a time during the day that allows them the same access other students have. That may be a challenge. I think I will build computer time into our advisor/advise period.--Carol Sherrill 23:24, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I want to set up an Edmodo account and use with my class. Of course the site is blocked. The head of the tech dept. seems more likely to unblock this site than she did with twitter. So I am still in the process of working with her. I think this will be a cool way for my first graders to have their own version of facebook in a safer environment.--Melissa graham 00:05, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
My continuing experiment: After creating my account, getting permission slips signed, and downloading FireFox on almost every computer in the lab/in my classroom, I have Edmodo accounts for most of my students. I made them create their own account, and we used first names and last initials. A few of my students were unable to set up accounts because of issues with networking in our county. I too realized it took longer to set up such a thing with 5th graders than I thought it would. The kids were pretty capable, but the school computers were not cooperating with us as well as I had hoped. I have uploaded some files for my students, and they seem to like being able to access some of the things we have done in class from home. I am having problems with students using Edmodo just to chat instead of using it to talk about school. We've had that discussion a couple of times, but it is hard to discourage them from using the technology at all. Hopefully, we will get a little more organized as time goes along. I am not sure how I will continue to use this other than posting files, assignments, and general questions. The site itself would be more useful if if were organized more like a threaded discussion board, but it is a strange combination of Twitter and Facebook. My students really enjoy the site, so I will work to continue finding ways to incorporate it. I wish I could access other teacher's sites to see what they look like and how they have organized them. Maybe there are some examples out there.--Stacy Cabeen 00:40, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
I downloaded Edmodo and began a class account this week. I really like Edmodo better than Twitter because it is much easier to gain access. Once the account was set up students could immediately go online and create their own accounts. For those who do not have internet access at home, and I have several, I am allowing them to come during homeroom time or SSR time to set up an account using classroom computers. I plan on posting hw and class information, but am hoping to answer questions about assignments or class activites as well. One again I bribed students with candy to set up accounts. Chocolate works every time. --Cajones51 12:19, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Other
I have not used Twitter, Ning, or Edmodo in my classroom, but I do have a classroom website with the ability to communcate. I have not yet set it up to blog because I have not yet been able to take the blogging part of the WordPress workshop which is required before my site can be opened up to blogging and student/parent communication. The workshop is scheduled for this week. YAY! --Melissa Martin Whitfield 14:24, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I have set up both Twitter Ning accounts to use in my classroom. I have a friend that is leaving for South Korea next week to teach English. We had a meeting this past week to discuss how we can link our two classrooms and have our students learn from each other. We decided using Skype, Twitter, Ning, and other online tools will be a fantastic way to communicate between classrooms. Not only will her students be learning English from mine, but we will all be learning about new cultures and countries. I haven't been using this technology like I should in my classroom so far because sites are blocked or I just haven't had the tools, but I am so excited for this new endeavor to begin in a couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted on our progres. --jennifer wagoner 17:37, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
How Others Have used Twitter, Ning, Edmodo, and Other Social Networking Tools (101 Ideas)
Please share what you learn about how others have used these tools in their classroom. Please provide hyperlinks, so we can check out the cool sites you find.
Our principal has created a school Twitter account. Here parents can see daily updates for the entire school. I see the Twitter account as being a very beneficial means of communication to the public about what is going on at LES.--Brandy 00:56, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
This teacher used Twitter to encourage students to tweet and write for assignments. Also, he discusses how Twitter created a more community-like feel due to the immediate feedback with posting assignments and announcements. Check out the website! --Brittanyjguy 03:02, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
My colleague and collaborator, Barb Wollak, a speech-pathologist in St. Paul Schools tweets to share technology she finds out about. Today (Sept. 23, 2009), she got one of her students, Dustin, to start tweeting. Dustin is a high school student with neurological condition that makes it very difficult for him to learn to read. He writes with spelling prediction software called Co:Writer. Barb has commented on what an age-appropriate way of writing this is for adolescents. This morning (Sept. 25), Barb and I were talking on Skype. It seems that all of the high school students on her caseload have found out about Dustin's Twitter account and want their own.--Koppenhaverd 05:09, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
While searching for different ways I came across a website Why Teachers should use Twitter that tells us teachers why we should use twitter which I found very interesting. I also came across a couple of more websites that shares how teachers are using twitter within their classrooms. The first one How to use Twitter in the Classroom gives us 22 different ways to use twitter in our classes. A couple of ways were you can gather real world data in a matter of seconds for your students. Teachers are using twitter to set up classroom accounts so parents can communicate with the teacher and students can reflect on what they are learning and ask their classmates for help if need to. Another great website I found interesting was Twitter for Teachers where if you notice in chapter 2 gives many different ways teachers can use twitter in the classroom.
I am finding out that with Ning alot of teachers are setting up accounts for their classes to create a safe social network. With this the students and teachers can upload videos, participate in discussions online, and create their own blogs. I find Ning very useful because I can use my video clip to record a lesson and then put it on our network for parents to help their child with their homework or if a student misses school they have the lesson write there they missed.
I have never really heard of edmodo so I have been looking at alot of google searches. Come to find out it is very similar to Twitter the only difference is that edmodo is a private network were twitter is world wide. I have read that alot of teachers don't use edmodo but Twitter instead because Twitter is more simplified. I have found a couple of ways though that some teachers use edmodo. One said that she post her homework assignments up for her students and parents to see and this teacher also uses this to let the parents know when important things are happening at school (for the use of a calendar). Mainly using this more a communication tool with parents. The article I found this from was Enhancing Communication with Edmodo. All of these networks are very similar that we are looking but offer different things and ways of producing information. You have to make sure that you select the best network that will be benefit your age group.--Hetilley 15:21, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
It looks like there are a large number of middle school teachers who use Twitter to facilitate PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) cross country. Maybe I can add some of these folks to my 5111 twitter. This might be a fun idea to pitch to my principal. We have to read less-than-thrilling pedagogy books this semester in our departments; perhaps tweeting about our reads would add some formats for alternative dialogue.
[http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2009/08/100-terrific-twitter-feeds-for-teaching-advice/ Another site], classified by area of interest that gives a brief description of the person & their tweet stream.
This high school Latin teacher, uses twitter as a review method in class. She tweets challenges to students as they work on translations. The first student to respond via twitter wins the challenge. She calls it “live twitter feed instruction”; there are no details about the type of technology used…perhaps since its high school, all of the kids are using their cell phones. I do appreciate her idea about using twitter as an instant assessment tool and as a way to regroup students by their learning needs.
The University of Minnesota is partnering with Roosevelt High School to set up 21st century classes that focus on using social networking tools. This is a short news segment available on youtube that explains that partnership & includes student & teacher dialogue about it.
Here’s a list of teaching ideas for twitter. I think tweeting links to book reviews & movie trailers and creating a twitter-based book club sound like great ideas! --Rjohnson 20:43, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
This video shows how a district is integrating Twitter into classrooms. According to the teacher in the video, student engagement has increased tremendously since its implementation. --Heatherscoe 01:19, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
Cool ideas about why and how to incorporate twitter on this site. --Heatherscoe 01:23, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
I enjoyed searching for these ideas! I found a teacher who uses Twitter for many things. He has a whole powerpoint written with many different ideas. One of my favorite ideas from his list is for students to act like they are a character from a book they are reading. They set up an account using that name and then take on the roll of that character from the book. Tweets that are sent must show understanding of the character from what has been read in the novel. Students must take on the character and respond according to how they would respond based on who the character is in the story. Love it! Another idea also from that same teacher is to have a scavenger hunt for a topic that is assigned by the teacher (kind of like the online videos we watched about readers navigating). Kids look for the idea described by the assignment, tweet the answer when it is found. Once that answer has been sent in a tweet no one else may send the same tweet. Look at the power point for lots of other good ideas! --Jessicajackson52 02:45, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Edmodo
I found one teacher who would post assignments and then create links for the students to go to in order to complete their assignment. In this particular assignment the students needed to create a poem comic. They needed to go the the comic website to create their comic. This teacher is from Australia and has made his own blog about technology. He has a lot of information on this website. He also said you can easily add video such as ones from youtube to the posts without any extra paraphernalia. He did mention some downsides. 1.It is pretty easy to crack with large groups. 2.Kids can chat without teacher supervision. 3.He recommends getting permission slips. --Patricia Edwards 23:44, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
It seems like many teachers use Edmodo for assignments (as mentioned above). But one thing that is not mentioned is the students ability to post questions about those assignments directly on the Edmodo site. Another example is students sending Current Events to the site. I think it would be an excellent tool to add to your daily calendar routine (for primary grades). In 140 characters or less you could write what the weather is like, who lost a tooth, how many days you have been in school and so on. --Sefeinman 23:52, 26 September 2009 (UTC)
I am taking my students to the media center (class set of laptops) to have all of them on the computer at the same time to teach them how to look me up on igoogle. There they will find links to interactive sites to help them. I will send them assignments and they will complete the assignment and blog back to me. This will take time to "train" six and seven year old children, especially since I do not have any help.--Grandmacunningham 00:35, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
A colleague, the media specialist, at my school had a great idea for Twitter that can be adapted for the blog program on our websites. Students create a class story. Each student is asked to write a complete sentence. Each students after, must continue the story. I have decided to use this to have students create a summary of a nonfiction book we read in class. Each student is asked to choose a keyword from the text and use that word to create a sentence that could be used in a class summary of the book. This is a great way to build vocabulary in a certain subject area as well as practice in grammar and comprehension. --Burchamal 16:55, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
Ning
My coworker at school has just started using Ning in her math class as a chat area for her students to work out their difficulties with challenging math problems. This has been also become something that I am planning to adapt to my classroom as a discussion board in the next week. We are going to try the same with a discussion on Red Scarf Girl and book we are reading. One of the challenges she was having is setting up email accounts to get them on to Ning. Since our technology coordinator seems to think this is a struggle to get the emails set up? I found a great ideass from chat [3] that suggested piggy back students off an an gmail account as a dummy. When they are asked for an email, you can type in a gmail account name+student name@gmail.com. So the email would look like this: hardister+molly[at]gmail.com to sign in. I'm thinking this could make ning workable for students in elementary, etc. This may be a good option for my students who don't have their own email accounts or parent accounts to use. Also a teacher was using Ning for literature circles. As for the ads popping up there is a place that they can be blocked but you need to ensure the help site you are an educator and its an educational site. That seems like it will be helpful to me as I start my journey on Ning. Another thing mentioned here allowed me to consider the value of connecting students that may never interact within a classroom setting and allowing them to recognize the true value of a learning community. They may be surprised at what fellow students may have to offer. Also its a safe environment for those who are relunctant to speak in class. I'm currently working on getting feedback about students who have Internet access at home to begin my projects. Another neat thing mentioned in this discussion was that one teacher used Ning to set up a classroom culture for her social studies unit. The students also set up their own culture pages and uploaded a podcast about their culture. I think this is a great way to use Ning. --Amy Hardister 15:09, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Other Great Information Sources to Learn about Twitter, Ning, Edmodo and Social Networking Tools
If you find other great websites that help you understand these tools, please describe them here and provide a hyperlink for us.
Here's a cool, new Twitter tool, Twitcam. I posted 3 literacy-related sample tweets: joke reading/telling, poetry reading, and video language experience. I'll be interested what else the class can think of.--Koppenhaverd 04:41, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
Here's another cool, Twitter tool, Twitpic. I posted a literacy-related tweet using it. Again, wonder what class can come up with as literacy-related applications of this tool.--Koppenhaverd 04:57, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
And a great summary of the top 21 most-used Twitter applications with hyperlinks to each. And another 10 "must-have" Twitter tools--Koppenhaverd 04:57, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
If you have a Google Site, you can add a gadget that will show the last 3-7 tweets from your Twitter on your Google Site. I have this embedded on my Assignments page and parents can keep up with our Twitter and our webpage in one stop. This website is similar and allows you to embed your Twitter as well. --Brittanyjguy 01:19, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
This particular power point created by Ideas to Insipre has 27 different ideas for using Twitter in your classroom. Most of the ideas center around the Language Arts and Social Studies content. It is not the most well put together powerpoint, but they ideas contained within are very useful. Some of you may be able to use this within your classrooms Monday. I particulary liked the idea of story writing and summarizing, because it forces students to be concise with words. For fieldtrips they suggest tweeting your location, so parents can follow you all day long. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 13:51, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
Some of you may already use TeacherCorner.Net for lesson plan ideas, but they have some great links to how to get started using Twitter at any grade level. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 13:57, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
When I have a few minutes during class I like to have my students create stories by adding one line at a time. I would start out by saying, "When my mom looked under my bed this morning..." then a student would add the next line to the story and so on. The students love doing this because if they don't like the direction the story is going, they can change it when it is their turn. I think this would be a fantasic idea to use with Twitter. Students can keep up and and a new story line when they want. --jennifer wagoner 17:41, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Edmodo
Blog entry suggesting good uses for Edmodo.--Koppenhaverd 19:41, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
This British teacher found in action research project that girls were more likely to contribute to online conversations than face-to-face. There's a study for the rest of you to replicate.--Koppenhaverd 19:41, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
This Edmodo video gives a brief explanation of some of it's different features.--Patricia Edwards 23:02, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
Mashable mentions some of the downsides of Edmodo near the end of this article.--Sefeinman 23:53, 26 September 2009 (UTC)
This slideshare gives some good information about using Edmodo in the classroom--Adover 17:20, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
Other Social Networking Tools
Edublogs.orgis another free blog site that you can blog and set up emails for students. Not a lot of features, but for basic uses would be friendly. --Amy Hardister 15:33, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Things I learned on Twitter from RE 5111 Participants
Amanda Burcham knows how to record reading groups with Garage Band. --Koppenhaverd 00:33, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Carol Sherrill and I must be about the same age because we both remember purple ink duplication on a spinning drum (Was that a mimeograph?)--Koppenhaverd 00:41, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Brittany Guy records her students and posts the audiofiles on her class wiki.--Koppenhaverd 01:23, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Trish Edwards uses Edmodo with second graders. It is impressive that such young students can effectively understand and use technology. --Brittanyjguy 01:25, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Tonna lets her kids update Twitter (I'm guessing from the grammar of the posts; it doesn't match her level of writing.) Brittany Guy makes PodCasts. That makes her more tech-savvy than I am!--Stacy Cabeen 19:30, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
Amanda is also aware of the "no-life" factor of teachers and Candy has an adorable dog!!! Related to technology? Odessa is just as excited about Skype as I am! --Sefeinman 00:54, 1 October 2009 (UTC)
Jessica got a new laptop for her birthday. (How come the birthday laptop fairy did not visit my house?) Peggy (GrandmaCunningham) is equally content with COWs and motorcycles :-) When I grow up, I want to be adventuresome like her. --Rjohnson 20:15, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
Stacy uses excel to calculate how much money was made on a fundraiser. --Ressler14 00:13, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
Sarah Feinman is currently working on her National Boards and is taking a workshop to help. Brittany Guy uses ipods with her students to differentiate instruction. --Heatherscoe 01:30, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
Odessa and Ashley both have a smart board now! I am so jealous. Our school has 2 for the entire school. One day! Amy listens to the Avett Brothers on her ipod. Yea! I like them too! --Melissa graham 23:58, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
I should look into uploading to Walgreens.com for 10 cent pics from Ruth. And I'm eager like Jenniferis about getting a webcam for the classroom so my class can skype! ! --Amy Hardister 15:22, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
Sarah Feinman is just as frustrated with her school's lack of recycling as I am. All of us spend a lot of time looking at new technologies on the computer and juggling more than one thing at a time. Such is life! --jennifer wagoner 17:50, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
