Tackling Twitter

I am very excited about the prospect of having a learning network, and finding ways to stay current in my field. At this point, learning to navigate Twitter still feels very overwhelming to me. To be honest, the  only reason that I had a Twitter account is because a couple of years ago my 12 year old son walked out of his room and said "Mom, the Blumenthal is following me on Twitter." He has been training to work in the entertainment industry since he was 5, and got on Twitter as a professional resource. I joined Twitter to follow him, and have never really done any more with it.

When I first started looking for blogs to follow, it was a little bit of a struggle. There seemed to be too much information (always a problem on the Internet). I started by clicking on a few of the resources from the blog tutorials, which led me to other links that were a possibility. Finally I ended up looking at the people/organizations that I followed were following to round out my 20. This is a screenshot showing some of the people that I ended up following:

My plan now is to check twitter a couple of times a day and see how the tweets are looking. If someone that I am following seems to have mostly relevant tweets, then I will continue to follow them, and may look to see who else they are following. If the tweets don't seem relevant, then I will unfollow and look elsewhere.

I came across a couple of sites that appealed to me because they let you put your twitter feed into more of a newspaper format. This very much appeals to me. I use my Zite app on my ipad all of the time, and this would let me access my tweets in a similar fashion.  The first site was The Tweeted Times. Below is a screenshot of my first Twitter "newspaper" generated by this site. The fact that I can access it on the go with my ipad is especially appealing.

The other site was called Paper.li. You can list Twitter Accounts and other websites that you want to follow and it compiles a newspaper for you. Although it pulls from Twitter, it is not directly tied to twitter. This feels like it will be a very useful source, and I am definitely adding it to my tool box as a way of finding more tech information. Below is a picture of the first paper that I generated. It is another site that I am sure I will tweak as I go along.

Reflection on ISTE Standards for Teachers

Choose an instructor you have had in the past or a colleague you have observed, either face-to-face or online. Rate the instructor according to the ISTE Standards for Teachers. Develop your own rating system, and construct a blog post to justify your rating for each standard. In your post, reference 1 or more specific resources or ideas from this Interactive wiki

I hate to admit it, but the last time that I actually took a course was more than 20 years ago when I was working on my masters. I have done my best to stay current in my field, but have not really done much formal classwork. I decided to take a slightly different approach and complete a unit in my son’s 9^th grade English class. This is a completely on-line curriculum that is self-paced and has a teacher/facilitator. The unit I chose to complete was called “Where Can I find Conflict?” I thought that since this was a completely on-line course and was new last fall, it would be interesting to see how they did with the standards. Below is a screenshot of one of the pages in the unit.

1.         Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity  -- 2/4

Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

a.      Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness – Not much room for creativity when analyzing informational text.
b.     Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources  -- students were given real articles to read and analyze.
c.      Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes – students “collaborate” with avatars who are working with them to learn how to analyze texts. Later in the unit there is a discussion board.
d.     Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments  -- The nature of this course does not lend itself to this type of collaboration. Everyone who takes it works individually at their own pace.
 

2.         Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments – 2/4

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the Standards•S.

a.      Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity – students watch videos, listen to avatars and play interactive games to learn the lesson.
b.     Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress  -- the lesson is basically click through, read and respond there is no room for individual creativity at this point (later in the unit the students will write an argumentative essay on a topic of their choosing).
c.      Customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources --  all students read the same lesson, although they can work at their own pace and they do employ a variety of different ways to provide the information.
d.     Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching – I will give them credit for this since almost every page had something that the student had to respond to and then clicked on something to check their answers.

 3.        Model digital age work and learning – 2/4

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.
a.      Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations -- This is not really applicable in this course.
b.     Collaborate with students, peers, parents,  and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation – Except for emails between the teach and the student for clarification, there is little to no interaction within the course. There is quite a bit of support in the school program.
c.      Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats – I will give them credit for this since they use a variety of interactive technology tools to help the students to learn.
d.     Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning – this unit was actually about how to analyze and evaluate resources for research. I’m not sure that this goal would have been met had it been about something else.

4.         Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility 3/4

Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.

a.      Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources – this is not specifically addressed in this unit, but is emphasized throughout the entire course.
b.     Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources – A majority of the material for the course (and all for this unit) is contained within the unit. All videos are narrated with closed captions and a text version available.
c.      Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information – Again, there was no discussion in this unit, but guidelines for discussion posts always emphasize etiquette and responsibility.
d.     Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools – This is not really applicable to this course.

5.         Engage in professional growth and leadership – 0/4

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstratingthe effective use of digital tools and resources.

a.      Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning – the teacher for this course is primarily a facilitator, she is responsible for grading assignments and answering student questions.
b.     Exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others – Again, not really applicable to this type of course.
c.      Evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning – Not applicable to this course.
d.     Contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self- renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community – Not applicable to this course.

When I looked over the Interactive wiki that gave examples for each standard, a lot of them seemed to be more geared toward face-to-face style elementary school classes. Two that I thought might be used to make the course more interesting would be: 

• Garage Band (http://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/ ) which they recommended for making podcasts. Creating a podcast would give the student a chance to organize their thoughts without having to create an actual paper. It would offer a nice variety.
  
• Make Believe Comx (http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ ) which lets the student create their own comic strip. They could use this to create summaries of what they read (like creating a comic of a scene from Romeo and Juliet). This would be a lot more fun than writing summaries of the scenes, but would fulfill the same purpose.