Fakebook

One cool tool which popped up on my twitter was to create a Fakebook page for historical figures where students can add pics, timelines, and info about a person without acutally being attached to Facebook. The kids will love the format and can add friends, comments, videos, and pictures. Also, you can save it to look at it later or link it to a blog.

Twitter

    I had no idea that Twitter could be used effectively in the classroom, but now that I am reading about it I see a number of different ways where it could be helpful to have and to use. One idea I had about using Twitter came from the article 28 Creative Ways Teachers are Using Twitter which talked about posting in real time and emphasizing the character limit. My plan would be to have students write summaries about something they are learning. Because there is a character limit on the posts, students need to learn what is truly important to say about a piece they read. Also, this allows the class to look at the conglomeration of everyone's summaries, compare them, and see what works well about different peoples reactions. Since students are more comfortable communicating through text than through voice many times, it is wise of teachers to use this to their advantage by using resources similar to Twitter.
     Another good idea came from the Educational Twitter Chats Calendar article. This idea was more geared towards teachers personally, but it talked about participating in real time chats with other teachers about technology and education in order to expand skills and share teaching ideas.

Don Quijote

Don Quijote is an active facebook group which links teacher to techniques for teaching and students to Spanish speakers in a setting they are familiar with! Students will be shocked when their homework assignment is to go and like a facebook page and look at it frequently, but it offers great resources such as a Spanish word of the day, updated Spanish cultural articles, and many other practical links to Spanish learning!

A teacher is a bridge!

       Teachers today are not expected to be the source of all knowledge, they should simply be a bridge to help children access the information and skills they need. Most students know that with an internet connection and ten seconds, they could have the answer to any question in the world. Good teachers will use this as tool for themselves and the children. As Siemens stated in his article, "realizing that complete knowledge cannot exist in the mind of one person requires a different approach to creating an overview of the situation. Diverse teams of varying viewpoints are a critical structure for completely exploring ideas". Rather than getting irritated at the child for not coming to them for the answers, a good teacher will be happy that the child is becoming self-sufficient. This requires the teacher to encourage children with all different talents to reach out in different areas and be successful. 

        One skill which is crucial for teachers to help bridge students to success in is the area of communication and networking. Modeling good networking and giving explicit directions on how to communicate well and network are important for students learning. As Siemens stated in his video The Impact of Social Software on Learning, "our learning is one of forming connections" and then to use these connections to "stay current and learn from one another". Teachers have the opportunity to show networking by joint teaching in subjects or units where other teachers have great resources or knowledge. When students see teachers collaborating in many aspects, they will see that they do not need to be expert at everything, but rather they should use the resources and people they have around them. Teachers can show students how to collaborate and communicate with people across the world! Through modeling, specific instruction, and the willingness to admit a lack of knowledge and work at finding a solution, teachers can be a bridge for students into collaborative lifelong learning.