Social Media

Social media is any internet site that allows interaction amongst peoples all around the world. Social media has made a huge impact on the entire world during the past few years. The impact of social media has impacted schools throughout the years. I know, being a student myself, that peers around me are constantly using sources of social media constantly throughout the school days. Because of this observation, I believe that it is important to embrace rather than shun sources of social media. TappedIn is an example of a social networking site that I believe can be vital as a teacher. It is always great to have people working with you who have experiences and advice to give, but with TappedIn, we are exposed to educational professionals from all around the world to get advice from. If I, the teacher, were determined to incorporate an activity into the classroom about a specific topic, I could go onto TappedIn and ask other education professionals for help and advice. Resources are endless with tools like TappedIn. All social networking sites can be used as learning tools when used correctly. I feel that the biggest issue that schools have with social networking sites is that when they discourage them, that discouragement encourages students to use the media even more. Instead of shunning all social networking sites, schools need to be smarter about it. Schools should encourage social networking sites, but encourage using the sites for a purpose. I believe that their are times that no student should be on a social networking site, but it is my (the teacher's) job to establish those moments. Social media is a huge part of the world today, and will continue to be, so instead of acting like it is a bad thing, we need to embrace it and use it to our advantages as teachers.

What makes instructional materials found online "good"?

Material found online needs to allows be evaluated before a teacher presents the material to his/her classroom. When looking for good material online, we must first ask ourselves about the credibility of the material. Where did the material come from? Does the material make sense? Is the material appropriate for the classroom? These are just a few questions to ask oneself about the material being evaluated. Teachers must always be aware when using websites like wikipedia because the validity of the material is always in question. Any random person can go on that website and make any changes he or she desires, so wikipedia, which is not necessarily a bad website, should be reconsidered when looking up material. Wikipedia can have valuable resources (books, articles, websites) that may be great for a presentation. An example of a reliable website is the Library of Congress. I am personally using this website for my social studies' class project in which I am trying to find primary resources. The Library of Congress is a great resource because random people can't go on and rewrite anything they want. Lastly, instructional materials found online can vary in importance in regards to validity. If a teacher is looking for a class activity to try in class, it wouldn't be as important as to where the activity came from as opposed to someone writing a research paper. In the end, we always need to be aware of the importance of validity surrounding our online research.

Article Blog Post on the Chronicle of Higher Education

While strolling through the website, I stumbled upon an article entitled, "Education Gap is Growing Between Rich and Poor, Recent Study Shows." Knowing that this would impact me as a future teacher I decided to read the article. The article discusses the study that shows the education gap. Throughout the years, the achievement gap between African American students and white students has actually decreased, but the gap between rich and poor students has increased by 50% since the 1980s. I will need to be cautious of this study because I will need to know how to handle the kids in my class. I will be able to understand that the social economic status that students come from effect them as a student. Knowing this will allow to to understand certain students who need the extra push and motivation to do well.

Instructional Technology Tools in the Classroom

Tools such as Wiki and Google Sites allow collaborative learning to take place inside the classroom. With these tools, every student within the class has the opportunity to view, edit, delete or add an kind of information they deem appropriate. These tools allow multiple students to work with one document, but it gives them all the chance to participate in the learning process. An example a teacher could do to incorporate one of these tools into the classroom maybe to create a classroom website. Once the instructor has created the website, he/she could assign different groups of students to work on separate parts/pages of the website. Doing this allows all students to partake in the construction of the website, but it also allows them to read and edit their peers' materials.

RSS and Diigo give the class and/or individual students an opportunity to be exposed to multiple sources at once instead of finding all of the sources individually. These types of tools could be extremely helpful if your students were working on a research project. The tools would allow the students to save all their best sources and information so they can easily access it. Both of these tools allow students to be organized, so they don't have to keep searching through multiple websites for bits of information they deem essential.