"Its a Conversation, Not a Lecture..."

In his article, How Twitter will Revolutionize Academic Research and Teaching , Ernesto Priego discusses how Twitter is playing a profound role in the new ways of sharing and receiving information from both the teacher and student. Priego discusses teaching, learning and social networks as "conversations, not lectures." This for me stuck out especially as a language teacher because I am able to understand learning and communicating in another language as a "2-way street", making it necessary for two parties to be involved. He continues his example by making the comparison saying it is not meant to be a "auditorium, but a seminar room." I think that by using hashtags, both teachers and students are able to share various things such as homework assignments for students who have missed class, questions that students may have, or even thoughts, concerns or reminders. One of the best features of a network such as Twitter is that it works in "realtime," constantly updating.
As I read the article, Losing Interest in Social Media , I couldnt help but wonder how I was going to talk about implementing Twitter and other social media sites in my classroom instruction. Afterall, the author uses an entirely sarcastic tone to rip apart the highly praised sites that glorify "friending" and "hashtags". He talks about removal of personalization and authentication of thought and education when we are all reduced to following "tweets" of 140 characters or less. In conclusion, I can see the use of Twitter for minor thoughts, sharing of useful websites, assignments, links to additional activities, or other places of interest, but leaving of more profound and substantial personal information to blogs and individual classroom websites.

Voicethread

Classroom 2.0 Voicethread

Through the use of voicethreads in this class, as well as a brief introduction to them through a library-media specialist, I have been exposed to many of its benefits. I feel that they are great to use in a classroom of any age or content area because they allow the students to be exposed to the content and then leave their own thoughts, opinions or questions when they are done. Many students are hesitant to raise their hand and ask a question in front of their classmates, and this tool allows them to be completely connected to all necessary information and work off of what they have learned. I also feel that the voicethread connects the students and teacher in a sort of "community" type atmosphere- that continues learning and confidence even outside of the classroom.

Richness...

I chose the video which correlated perfectly with the reading of the first chapter. This video had a lot to do with presenting today statistics with kids and how they are using technology and thus prompting the viewer who is presumably a teacher- with how much they are using such a widely available resource to engage their students with this familiar tool. What struck me most about this video was the word "richness." After presenting the information about how kids from such a young age are already using technology at a staggering amount of hours a day, the question then comes up, "Why?" The answer, is "richness." Now this made me wonder- what was going to follow? Richness- after all, also deals with money, and if kids this under the age of 2 were already using technology to this extent, did it have something to do with the salary of their parents? No. This was the other richness, because the next question asks, "How much does your curriculum provide?" This video aims at having the view ultimately reflect on how much technology is being used to engage students in the content. It goes on to explain how our students who use these different types of technology literally all the time, could be steered in the right direction by us as teachers to use them to their academic benefit and potential. I enjoyed this video because of its ability to make the viewer reflect on their own teachings through the information it is presenting instead of simply giving facts. I feel this could be used at the beginning of the year new-hire orientations, or staff meetings.