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Using Social Networking to Build 21st Century Skills – Finding Common Ground – Education Week

Posted on November 20, 2011 by admin

Using Social Networking to Build 21st Century Skills – Finding Common Ground – Education Week

By Peter DeWitt on November 17, 2011

21st century skills are critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity
For those of us who have been educators for a long time we have always taught our students how to think critically, communicate with others, collaborate on projects and be creative.
Today’s students are surrounded by many more distractions than we ever thought were imaginable. Those new tools that educators often see as distractions need to be used to positively engage the social network generation.
With an increase in handheld devices, does the social network generation have the same communications skills that we do? Or do they just communicate differently?
Whether we like it or not that is how students communicate with each other these days. They actually thrive on connecting with their peers in numerous ways.
The truth is, I have become a huge fan of Twitter and I’m inspired by some of the tools that my students have in our schools.
We built an instant community of learners and ended up creating our very own professional development session that lasted about an hour.
I had the opportunity to follow up with some educators in one-to-one conversations. They sent me blogs that I never would have found on my own. If you’re an educator who loves education and connecting with other educators, you should seriously consider joining Twitter.
Using these amazing resources allows us to really teach students to think critically, communicate with others, collaborate on projects and be creative. In addition, students will see that we are not behind the times because we are suing tools that we know students enjoy and use every day.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Research: Twitter in Education; another case for the PLN

Posted on November 19, 2011 by admin

Below are my highlights from a research paper about Twitter in educational use. The full report can be found here: JOLT – Journal of Online Learning and Teaching.

This research again makes a case for the professional benefits that teachers obtain from a PLN (Personal Learning Network).

I have compiled this post using the Diigo highlighting tool in the Diigo Toolbar. It’s a fantastic tool.

Abstract of the research:

This research study provides new insight into how teachers use social networking sites, such as Twitter, as professional learning networks. The researchers surveyed and analyzed the public Twitter feeds of classroom teachers to determine the specific purposes for which teachers use Twitter. The K-12 educators in this study engaged in true dialogue, where evidence of actual conversation occurred in Twitter over 61% of the time. Continue reading “Research: Twitter in Education; another case for the PLN”

Report Findings: Fostering “Innovative Teaching and Learning”

Posted on November 19, 2011 by admin

This report by “Innovative Teaching and Learning” was sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning. It contains very interesting and pertinent points about creating a culture of innovative teaching in schools.

2011 ITL Research Findings and Implications

Full report here

This report provides the findings from the 2011 analysis across 7 participating countries.

Key Findings from ITL Research in 2011

Innovative teaching supports students’ development of the skills that will help them thrive in future life and work.
However, students’ opportunities to develop these skills are typically scarce and uneven, both within and across the sample of schools in the study.
While ICT use in teaching is becoming more common, ICT use by students in their learning is still an exception.
Innovative teaching practices are more likely to flourish when particular supportive conditions are in place:
- Teacher collaboration that focuses on peer support and the sharing of pedagogical approaches
- Professional development that involves the active engagement of teachers, particularly in practicing and researching new teaching methods
- A school culture that offers a common vision of innovation and consistently encourages new types of teaching
- Researchers observed examples of innovative teaching at the classroom level. However, coherent and integrated support for the adoption of innovative teaching was lacking in most of the schools and all of the systems in this study.
- Students: efforts to provide ubiquitous ICT access to students must continue to ensure that all students have equal opportunities inside and outside school to develop the skills they will need for life and work.
- Teachers: they need professional development opportunities that leverage the most innovative teachers in each school to drive peer collaboration focused on teachers themselves designing, practicing and researching the innovative teaching approaches that develop students’ future skills.
- Schools: critically, school leaders need to cultivate holistic and shared visions of innovation that integrate advanced pedagogies with technology.
- Systems: innovative teachers and schools need the kinds of assessment and performance accountability measures that help more innovative teaching and learning to flourish.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Summarising in 140 characters or less with my students

Posted on September 11, 2011 by admin

Had fun today. We watched a Hans Rosling video on poverty in my Year 8 class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpKbO6O3O3M

It’s a great video and the students were certainly interested. I wanted a response from them afterwards and decided on the spot to let them ‘tweet’ their response. We first had a very interesting converstation about what Twitter is, who uses it (Turns out that two students are very active and experienced Tweeters) and what all the @ # and RT meant.

Then the students used http://www.lettercount.com/ to keep track of the amount of characters. Below is a selection of their ‘tweets’. The students really seemed to enjoy it. Continue reading “Summarising in 140 characters or less with my students”

Twitter Has 100M Monthly Active Users, And 40% Of Active Users Don’t Tweet | TechCrunch

Posted on September 11, 2011 by admin

Twitter Has 100M Monthly Active Users, And 40% Of Active Users Don’t Tweet | TechCrunch

Interesting how 40% of tweeters only read. Understandable really. I think most Tweeters started as lurkers, I certainly did. My main drive when I tweet is sharing. I’m interested in what people share, and I want to give back. Continue reading “Twitter Has 100M Monthly Active Users, And 40% Of Active Users Don’t Tweet | TechCrunch”

My #PLN

Posted on May 9, 2011 by admin

I have just completed my first year on Twitter. I signed up two years ago, but ‘lurked’ for a year because I just didn’t see the point. I thought it was for people tweeting about what they had for lunch. How wrong I was…. Through Twitter I have built up a fantasic PLN (Personal Learning Network). I have learnt more than I ever thought I would, found more interesting links, got new ideas for my teaching and met interesting people. This is certainly one of the best forms of Professional Development for me.

An archive of my live tweets is here: http://thinkedu.net/blog/twitter/

I co-wrote an article on the use of Twitter for History teachers.

#edchat + other great edu #hashtags

Posted on January 12, 2011 by admin

(From http://edupln.ning.com/)

#Edchat is a discussion conducted on Twitter twice each Tuesday. The educational topics are chosen from a poll posted each Sunday night. There may also be a guest speaker, usually an Educational Expert. There are two chats to accommodate the global time zones. The first chat is at 12 noon EST and the second is at 7PM EST. The Chats are scheduled for an hour, but often carry on longer. People enter and leave at will. All chats are archived and may be accessed at a later time. Continue reading “#edchat + other great edu #hashtags”

Twitter, my favourite PD

Posted on January 2, 2011 by admin

I have been on Twitter since April 2010. Before that time, I was like many other people: “Twitter, another outlet for vain people to let the world know they’ve bought a pair of shoes on sale…”

But now, after following many educators and tweeting about 5 or 6 messages a month, I have joined the other camp and now I can say: “Twitter has provided me with the best professional development ever” and “Twitter is the most important part of my #PLN (Personal Learning Network)” Continue reading “Twitter, my favourite PD”

ThinkEdu Blog

Thinking, Learning, Teaching by @vanweringh

Tag: twitter