Twitter, Instagram & Blogging

Using social writing & media

in the classroom

HHS - 2/18/15

Social Media in the Classroom: Why?

• Model appropriate online behaviors geared on learning and communication
• Extend classroom learning beyond the school day
• Connect authentically with peers, experts, and teachers outside of the classroom
• Promote student driven engagement in an accessible forum

Reflect: Which describes YOU?

You want to learn these tools for your own professional learning before jumping in to use it with students.

Or

You have a platform you are familiar with that you would like to extend into your classroom.

Both are valuable!

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Allison Mackley shares how to use social media authentically.

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Talk with students!

Some Student Reactions

More Student Reactions

Social Media in the Classroom: Cautions

• Student & Parent resistance to platforms
• Permissions for images & names to be shared publicly
• Time investment to understand the platform and connect with others
• Don’t use it as just a substitute
• don’t use for class announcements
• don’t use as a different Google doc
• don’t just push links or announcements

Social Media in Classroom: Tips

• Start small and give yourself time
• Play around with the different platforms in your personal life before you commit to one in your classroom
• Ask your students to help you--they know more sometimes!
• Be clear on your learning objectives and goals to determine the most appropriate approaches

Social Media Options

• Twitter
• Storify
• Blogging: Wordpress, Blogger, Kidblog
• Instagram
• Pinterest

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Important AUP Notes

Students have a responsibility to develop the intellectual skills necessary to discriminate among information sources, to identify information appropriate to their age and developmental levels, and to evaluate and use the information to meet their educational goals.

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Students have the responsibility to respect and protect the rights of every other user in the district and on the Internet.

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… Network users who reveal personal information to other users on the network, including chat rooms, e-mail, Internet, etc. should exercise appropriate caution and do so at their own risk.

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The school district will educate all students about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response.

Twitter

Some ways we use it for professional learning & classroom applications

Twitter: 140 Characters of Connection

Pros

• Easy set-up & start-up & switching b/t personal & class accts.
• Easy to share links, photos, & short videos
• Great professional learning communities w/ teachers from around the world

Cons

• Noisy, overwhelming
• Has specific culture & lingo to learn
• Some students dislike mixing personal acct w school “work”
• 140 character limit (pro or con depending on purpose)

Traci Landry: How to use Hashtags

Traci Landry's Touchcast Video

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In the link above, Traci explains what a hashtag is and how she uses hashtags to navigate the “noise” of Twitter. She shares how to use hashtags for her professional learning.

Twitter: Classroom Application

• Create unique hashtag for a conversation among students
• Ask students to include that hashtag in their tweets.
• Search for that hashtag on Twitter to pull in ALL student responses.

Twitter: Classroom Application

Canvas allows you to embed a Twitter account for students to see updates from it every time they visit the Canvas page.

Twitter: Professional Use

Traci Landry’s Video: Using Twitter for Professional Learning

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In this video, Traci shares why and how she uses Twitter for her own professional learning. She says, “It’s like attending a virtual conference.”

Twitter: Professional Learning

Some Further Resources for Twitter

Edutopia: Twitter in Education

EdWeek: Why Your Whole Staff should be on Twitter & Why Educators Should Join Twitter

EdTech: 7 Twitter Tips to Help Teachers

George Couros: If noone is looking at your Twitter Account...

Instagram

Classroom Applications

Instagram: The Visual Social Media

Pros

• Short videos
• Quick share
• Visual
• Relevant to Students

Cons

• Only mobile
• Photo permissions necessary
• Difficult to switch b/t personal & class account

Instagram: Tell Your Classroom’s Story

Instagram: Tell Your Classroom’s Story

Instagram: Visual Prompts for Students

Instagram: Visual Prompts for Students

DTSD Instagram Accounts

MsCsClassroom (HS English)

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Amcult_Class (MS History)

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Hershey_AMC (MS History)

Blogging

What platform?

Why use it in the classroom?

Blogging: Have a Public Dialogue

Pros

• longer-form writing
• embed images & videos
• can be public to reach new audiences
• promotes dialogue

Cons

• can be time-consuming to set-up
• different privacy controls among platforms

Blogger: Special Education Classroom

Kidblog: Why choose it?

Kidblog: What did it add to student’s learning?

Kidblog: What do you want to do with it in the future?

Wordpress in the English Classroom

Wordpress

Pros

• Custom Templates
• Various levels of access for students
• Public
• Widgets to embed social media

Cons

• Not private
• Time-consuming to find template to feature multiple posts

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Link to MsCsClassroomBlog

Infographic- Social Media in Schools

Click on image to go to website,

click again to enlarge image.

Blog post - 6 Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom