The rise of social media throughout the world, of course trickles its way into schools and education as a whole. There are many factors to consider when deciding how and when to use social media in the classroom. As with any technology, we should not be using it for the sake of using it. There must be intention behind our actions. How you are using social media should also correlate with the age of the students you work with. It's not terribly appropriate, for example, to use Facebook with my preschool class. It is very appropriate to teach students about politics and the use of social media, like this project discussed here. Student privacy, and digital citizenship should also be taken into account. This also provides a good lesson in writing or creating for your audience. Social media can successfully be used in the classroom, as long as teachers carefully consider how and why they are using it.
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Social Media in Education
To Tweet or not to Tweet
The rise of social media throughout the world, of course trickles its way into schools and education as a whole. There are many factors to consider when deciding how and when to use social media in the classroom. As with any technology, we should not be using it for the sake of using it. There must be intention behind our actions. How you are using social media should also correlate with the age of the students you work with. It's not terribly appropriate, for example, to use Facebook with my preschool class. It is very appropriate to teach students about politics and the use of social media, like this project discussed here. Student privacy, and digital citizenship should also be taken into account. This also provides a good lesson in writing or creating for your audience. Social media can successfully be used in the classroom, as long as teachers carefully consider how and why they are using it.
I had not previously viewed social media as something that could be viewed as strictly professional. Teachers can and should utilize these tools to learn from peers and share ideas. Having a professional social media presence, is something students can learn from and parents may enjoy knowing their child’s teacher is staying up to date with current teaching strategies and methods. I am new to Twitter, but I am enjoying having it as a strictly professional social media account. These 10 Tips for Tweeting Teachers provides valuable insight into, not only the Twitter basics, but once you are more comfortable and active, analyzing your presence there. Using social media for it's highest good, versus all the negative press you often hear, should definitely get more attention. A quote from danah boyd's "It's Complicated" stood out to me, "The internet mirrors, magnifies, and makes more visible the good, bad and ugly of everyday life." This is something I think everyone has observed and I want to do my part to put more 'good' out there to be reflected.
The rise of social media throughout the world, of course trickles its way into schools and education as a whole. There are many factors to consider when deciding how and when to use social media in the classroom. As with any technology, we should not be using it for the sake of using it. There must be intention behind our actions. How you are using social media should also correlate with the age of the students you work with. It's not terribly appropriate, for example, to use Facebook with my preschool class. It is very appropriate to teach students about politics and the use of social media, like this project discussed here. Student privacy, and digital citizenship should also be taken into account. This also provides a good lesson in writing or creating for your audience. Social media can successfully be used in the classroom, as long as teachers carefully consider how and why they are using it.
Looking Back, Looking Ahead - A Reflection
What a Short, Fun Trip it's Been!
I am of an age where I can remember the world before and after technology. The biggest changes in technology came after I was done with my undergraduate degree, so technology in education was not something I had a lot of first hand experience with. But I don't live in a vacuum either, and I was using quite a bit of tech in my everyday life. I usually embrace technology, so this class seemed like a great opportunity to learn more about the current role of technology in education.
My biggest take away from this class, is that there are so many teachers doing really cool things in their classrooms with the awesome tools that technology has brought us. Whether it's making videos for class projects, creating a ThingLink for a social studies project, participating in a class discussion via Padlet or narrating a project with Screencastify. These tools provide unique ways for students to be engaged in learning, opportunities for active learning and help prepare students for the digital lives they are sure to be leading in the future. It was fun to try out some of these digital tools as a student and also read about how other teachers are implementing them. The world of Early Childhood Education is a little insular, so we don't often get to see what other grades and classrooms are doing. I was also in a non-traditional school setting for many years, so it was exciting for me to learn more about what older students are working on these days. It also gave me some insight on how I can help prepare my young students for these experiences later in their school careers.
I wish there would have been a few ideas that could be specifically used for a preschool classroom, even though I prefer we be a little lower tech at that age. I am excited to keep growing my Professional Learning Network on Twitter and participate in more Twitter chats. I think I'd like to keep up my blog as a way to log my professional development opportunities. Not only will it be a nice reflection on the PD, it helps improve my portfolio and shows my growth as an education. I enjoyed learning about so many great new tools and I am excited by the ways students and teachers can continue to grow and learn as new technologies continue to emerge.
I am of an age where I can remember the world before and after technology. The biggest changes in technology came after I was done with my undergraduate degree, so technology in education was not something I had a lot of first hand experience with. But I don't live in a vacuum either, and I was using quite a bit of tech in my everyday life. I usually embrace technology, so this class seemed like a great opportunity to learn more about the current role of technology in education.
My biggest take away from this class, is that there are so many teachers doing really cool things in their classrooms with the awesome tools that technology has brought us. Whether it's making videos for class projects, creating a ThingLink for a social studies project, participating in a class discussion via Padlet or narrating a project with Screencastify. These tools provide unique ways for students to be engaged in learning, opportunities for active learning and help prepare students for the digital lives they are sure to be leading in the future. It was fun to try out some of these digital tools as a student and also read about how other teachers are implementing them. The world of Early Childhood Education is a little insular, so we don't often get to see what other grades and classrooms are doing. I was also in a non-traditional school setting for many years, so it was exciting for me to learn more about what older students are working on these days. It also gave me some insight on how I can help prepare my young students for these experiences later in their school careers.
I wish there would have been a few ideas that could be specifically used for a preschool classroom, even though I prefer we be a little lower tech at that age. I am excited to keep growing my Professional Learning Network on Twitter and participate in more Twitter chats. I think I'd like to keep up my blog as a way to log my professional development opportunities. Not only will it be a nice reflection on the PD, it helps improve my portfolio and shows my growth as an education. I enjoyed learning about so many great new tools and I am excited by the ways students and teachers can continue to grow and learn as new technologies continue to emerge.
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Digital Tattoos and Data Mining
Making our Mark
In this day and age of social media we 'share' much of our lives online. People in Generation Y & Z have not known a world that wasn't, at least partly, digital. There are implications to sharing all this information about us. Life updates, and pictures of people in our lives can be either warm reminders, if they have passed on or painful ones of relationships gone sour, since many social media platforms are fond of reminding us what happened in the past. There are other moments you may not want to be reminded of as well, perhaps a traffic offense that gets picked up in the paper, and now will forever be available should anyone perform a quick search. Not all of this is bad or negative, but it is food for thought as to weather it should be that way. People are capable of changing their lives, should their pasts prevent them from moving on? These are ideas we have yet to find ways to deal with in this modern age, but food for thought.
In this day and age of social media we 'share' much of our lives online. People in Generation Y & Z have not known a world that wasn't, at least partly, digital. There are implications to sharing all this information about us. Life updates, and pictures of people in our lives can be either warm reminders, if they have passed on or painful ones of relationships gone sour, since many social media platforms are fond of reminding us what happened in the past. There are other moments you may not want to be reminded of as well, perhaps a traffic offense that gets picked up in the paper, and now will forever be available should anyone perform a quick search. Not all of this is bad or negative, but it is food for thought as to weather it should be that way. People are capable of changing their lives, should their pasts prevent them from moving on? These are ideas we have yet to find ways to deal with in this modern age, but food for thought.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Professional Learning Networks
"It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others" - Mark Twain
When a student tells me they loves school, or a parent tells me their child does, I say, "Me too! I love it so much I never left!" While I usually say it to get a laugh it is true. I always loved everything about school and I love learning new things. School was also something I was good at too so we had a mutually beneficial relationship. I still love learning new things, and the past few years I've been working on some personal self improvement and learning more about myself and making myself a better person. This has naturally led to now me working toward being a better teacher. I have had the great pleasure to work with many inspiring and dedicated teachers over my career whom I have learned from. I am working on my Maters and will be learning more about the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale later this summer to help me in my Preschool For All classroom.
Web 2.0 Tools
This class has opened my eyes to all the technology tools that are available for teachers to utilize in their classrooms these days. I would have loved making videos or animations back when I was an elementary student. The ability to work on a group project or post real time class responses with a website like Padlet, is a unique way to keep students engaged. Having students blog as a way to encourage writing and discussion, is a great alternative, especially for student who may be reluctant to otherwise participate. Changing technologies offer many new and unique methodologies that teachers can incorporate into their standard methods of instruction.
While these new tools are great, most are not appropriate for the Early Childhood classroom. My students can't write blogs or shoot videos yet. There are some learning apps that at good for this age, but I haven't utilized them much in the past few years. I use YouTube during music and movement time to share songs with my class and love PBS Learning Media for virtual field trips and high quality educational videos. What I have been searching for is a way to better collaborate planning and organizing my team. I have a Speech Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist who work in my room over the course of a week. They aren't there every day and sometimes are not even in my building everyday. We meet once a month for Team Meetings, which often everyone cannot attend, but finding a day that everyone can get together and plan or carry out activities for an upcoming theme is a challenge.
Enter Trello. This website lets you create boards with lists where you or other team members can add tasks, comments or ideas. That this can be done from a computer or the app, makes it very accessible and easy to add on the go. Let's take a closer look:
While these new tools are great, most are not appropriate for the Early Childhood classroom. My students can't write blogs or shoot videos yet. There are some learning apps that at good for this age, but I haven't utilized them much in the past few years. I use YouTube during music and movement time to share songs with my class and love PBS Learning Media for virtual field trips and high quality educational videos. What I have been searching for is a way to better collaborate planning and organizing my team. I have a Speech Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist who work in my room over the course of a week. They aren't there every day and sometimes are not even in my building everyday. We meet once a month for Team Meetings, which often everyone cannot attend, but finding a day that everyone can get together and plan or carry out activities for an upcoming theme is a challenge.
Enter Trello. This website lets you create boards with lists where you or other team members can add tasks, comments or ideas. That this can be done from a computer or the app, makes it very accessible and easy to add on the go. Let's take a closer look:
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Educational Technology Research
Times, They Are a Changing
As a member of Gen X, I have lived though the the rise of personal technology, at home and in schools. I still remember typing papers (which is still technology over the paper and pencil!) and when my elementary school got computers. Technology was an add on or perk back in those days and has moved into a more integrated and integral part of teaching and classrooms. The rise of pervasive technology impacts our lives and the way students learn and interact with the world now, in ways I hadn't really thought about.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Active Learning
"Students do not absorb knowledge through their bottoms!"
I was at a conference years ago, in a workshop about gross motor ideas for Pre-K and the presenter said this while explaining why it's important for students to get up and move and how it activates all parts of the brain. Her direct quote was a little less PG rated, but you get the idea. Obviously this statement made everyone laugh, but it really stuck with me about how our instruction and class day should look like. This comes fairly naturally in the Early Childhood setting as we are doing much of our learning through play, but it is just as important as students get older.
I was at a conference years ago, in a workshop about gross motor ideas for Pre-K and the presenter said this while explaining why it's important for students to get up and move and how it activates all parts of the brain. Her direct quote was a little less PG rated, but you get the idea. Obviously this statement made everyone laugh, but it really stuck with me about how our instruction and class day should look like. This comes fairly naturally in the Early Childhood setting as we are doing much of our learning through play, but it is just as important as students get older.
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Mapping Digital Spaces
Living in a Digital World and I am a Digital Girl
Our lives are more and more being played out in front of a screen. We are able to do almost everything from behind our computers or via the smart phone in our pocket. Just as computers and the internet have grown over the years, so has our interactions with it. Technology touches so many aspects of our lives and we also shape and change those digital spaces we interact with.
Our lives are more and more being played out in front of a screen. We are able to do almost everything from behind our computers or via the smart phone in our pocket. Just as computers and the internet have grown over the years, so has our interactions with it. Technology touches so many aspects of our lives and we also shape and change those digital spaces we interact with.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Trends in Ed Tech
Learn More about the Makers Movement
Articles:
Why The Maker Movement is Important to America's Future
How The Maker Movement is Moving into Classrooms
Video:
Maker Movement in Schools
Website:
Makerspace for Education
Make Magazine
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Frameworks for Evaluating Technology
Evaluating Technology Use in the Classroom
Before this week's assignment I hadn't given much thought to evaluating the student use of technology in my classroom. Although to be honest, student use is fairly low at the Early Childhood level. While I appreciate and acknowledge the importance, and usefulness of technological tools, we are focusing more on a student's communication and interpersonal skills with this age group. That is not to say we use no technology. We do use some technology with the students, we have a Benq board that we use for writing practice and we can project videos and music to. I like the idea of being more intentional when I think about using technology in my teaching.
Sunday, May 5, 2019
All About Me
Hello!
Welcome fellow classmates and anyone else who may stumble onto this page! My name is Melissa Donofrio and I love working in Early Childhood Education. I have worked in blended model classrooms for the past 11 years. I love the joy and energy my students bring to the class and I strive to help them all love school and build relationships with their peers. In my classroom you will find lots of singing, dancing, puppets, talking and laughing. I love sharing all the wonders of the world with my little friends. My profile picture is me releasing butterflies with my class last spring.
Welcome fellow classmates and anyone else who may stumble onto this page! My name is Melissa Donofrio and I love working in Early Childhood Education. I have worked in blended model classrooms for the past 11 years. I love the joy and energy my students bring to the class and I strive to help them all love school and build relationships with their peers. In my classroom you will find lots of singing, dancing, puppets, talking and laughing. I love sharing all the wonders of the world with my little friends. My profile picture is me releasing butterflies with my class last spring.
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