According to the authors of this article, "to be truly effective, online learning must facilitate the social process of learning." So their article is about encouraging and utilizing online social interactions, particularly Twitter, to enhance learning. The authors discuss how a typical LMS can "constrain how online educators design and develop their online courses," because it is missing "just-in-time" interactions that occur outside of class. And these interactions can have strong instructional value and strengthen interpersonal relationships between students and teachers that can enhance the classroom learning community. Contact between students and teachers is considered "critical for student engagement because it influences student motivation and involvement." Twitter is considered beneficial because it occurs outside of the typical LMS--so it is less constraining, more informal, and helps create connections on a more emotional level. When activities are primarily occurring within an LMS, social presence is not adequately enhanced. The authors describe Twitter as "a powerful, convenient, and community-controlled microsharing environment," and they used it successfully with the students in their online instructional design and technology courses. As a result their students were able to "engage in sharing, collaboration, brainstorming, problem solving, and creating within the context of our moment-to-moment experiences;" and the interactions occurred more naturally than if they occurred within their typical LMS.
The authors listed several benefits of using Twitter in online learning: Addressing student issues in a timely manner, writing concisely, writing for an audience, connecting with a professional community of practice, supporting informal learning, and maintaining ongoing relationships. Possible drawbacks were also noted: Twitter can be time-consuming, addictive, encourage bad grammar due to character limit, potential data/texting fees, just to name a few. The authors also provided an informative list of guidelines for using Twitter with students; and they listed two unexpected benefits of using Twitter with their students (related to the Community of Inquiry framework): Cognitive Presence and Teaching Presence.
My Thoughts: I really like the idea of using Twitter as an additional component of online coursework. I personally don't use Twitter all the time; it's more of an occasional thing for me. I use it for sharing fandoms I'm guilty of belonging to, sharing my artwork or student work, sharing links to articles or info that I find interesting, or relevant to teaching and learning etc. It can be a great way to communicate with people who share your interests, to be sure. I think it could be used with K-12 students too, but with caveats and definite guidelines that would have to be in place for its use. Some other social interactions tools could also be used in a safer environment for students. The authors even mentioned one of these, Edmodo. Schoology would be another one that would be good for students. But I can definitely see the benefits of using Twitter, made much more clear by the authors of this article.
The Design of an Online Community of Practice for Beginning Teachers
This article begins by discussing statistics about the number of beginning teachers who leave the profession within the first five years of teaching (39% according to Ingersoll's study from 2001). They included a large list of the most common reasons that teachers quit teaching. The authors stress that a "greater emphasis should be placed on finding strategies to retain teachers." They also note that Induction and Mentoring are key factors in the solution to retaining teachers, and that teachers who participated in these activities during their first year of teaching were less likely to leave the profession. The use of the internet for induction and mentoring activities is stressed as having great potential as a "medium for support and guidance" of new teachers. Some various online programs of this type are introduced and outlined in the article. An in-depth look was provided at the BEST (Beginning and Establishing Successful Teachers) program, a website designed in Australia specifically for beginning primary and early education teachers. Though the site seems to be defunct now (or perhaps evolved into something else), it was originally designed "around significant problem-based issues identified by beginning teachers." The website provided communication tools that enabled ongoing support and reflection. It was unique in that instead of establishing new communities for teachers, it built on existing ones that were already created at universities for pre-service teachers. Student were introduced to this site before they even graduated, so that it would be there for them after they began teaching. The BEST program is based on Herrington and Oliver's (2000) nine characteristics of authentic learning environments. And the whole site used the Internet Cafe metaphor, in order to create a friendly and inviting environment.
My Thoughts: First I'll just note that this seems to be an older article, so several of the links are outdated or no longer work. So I couldn't check out most of the sites that were referenced in the article that interested me. I'll also add that I had interest in this article because I left teaching in 2007. There were many factors that affected that decision, only a few of which were school-related. And I had always planned to return to teaching (although I've been looking with no luck since 2009!), so it was supposed to just be a temporary absence for me. But I was interested to read about the various programs this article noted since I have experience as a teacher who (regrettably) left the field. I can definitely see the benefits of this type of website and program. I think all new teachers need a reliable support system built in to help them--even beyond the first year. And I think a site like this could provide that ongoing support.
I had a mentor teacher my first year of teaching--all new teachers in my district were required to have one. That teacher was great, but she wasn't a teacher in my content area. So even though I did learn a lot from her and she was always there for me, I think I could have gotten way more out of it if I'd had a mentor teacher in Art. And having a website like BEST may have helped too, though I wasn't aware of a site like this at the time I left teaching. Who knows if I'd have still left, but being able to reach out to more teachers through social avenues (which wasn't quite as common back then as it is now) could have been a great resource as a new or even seasoned teacher. And it might even have played a role in my ultimate decision to leave teaching...we will never know though.
What Parents Want in School Communication
This article discusses a 2011 survey of 50 school districts to "learn the communication preferences of both parents and non-parents." Among its results, it showed that parents wanted to use internet/electronic communication more than any other option for delivery of school news. However, social media (Facebook, Twitter and blogs) actually ranged near the bottom of the results though. The results also showed what types of information they want to have communicated: updates or insight on child progress, timely notice when performance is lacking, info on learning goals for the year, and homework and grading policies were the most desired types of information among all grade levels. Behavior reports were also deemed as important for elementary parents. Parents also wanted a calendar of events, curriculum descriptions, info on students safety, and educational program updates. 47% of parents said they would like this information as often as decisions are made. 36% of parents also wanted monthly updates. The article ends by stressing that each district should research and develop a strategy of communications that meets the specific needs of their own community.
My Thoughts: I think this survey did a pretty good job of discovering what kind of information parents of students want to receive, the method in which they want to receive it, and how often. It was interesting to me that social media appeared at the bottom of the results, but it was good that electronic/internet communication in general was the most desired. That is really the fastest and most efficient way to deliver information, and let's be honest: it saves a lot of trees too, from organizations that are historically the biggest consumers (and often wasters) of paper products anywhere. And as the article suggests, I think all schools should survey their parents and find out what their wishes are with regard to communication. It just makes sense: find out what they want and then give it to them how they want and when they want it. Win, win.
Mrs. D's Class
I really like the layout and content of Mr. D's first grade class, even though it appears it's not being used anymore. It is setup in a blog format, which I think is very effective and makes it easier to edit. He has pages there for various content area resources, an interactive calendar page, an email link for making contact, and a list of learning games that the kids either use in class and/or can use at home. Lots of good information there for parents.
My Thoughts: I think Mr. D. could have a little bit more on his website than he does. My ideas would include pages for:
- Grading and Homework Policies,
- An About page with information about himself--even a photo would be nice,
- Info about learning goals for the year for each new class.
As a parent, these are things I would like to see on a teacher's website myself. Mr. D. may have switched to another type of electronic news, so maybe that's why this site seems out of use now. But I think this site overall is pretty good as far as communicating with parents. I'd give it a grade of 'B.'
5 Steps to Better School/Community Collaboration
This article describes the need for "strong, authentic community connections and actions" in order to create real education transformation; and the need for schools, communities, and businesses to come together to support young people and their learning. It highlights the important themes for education transformation:
- Community/business school partnerships
- Parental collaboration
- Curriculum connected to real world experience
- Student voice
- Locals creating solutions to local problems
- Include the Community in the vision of School (Experiential Learning)
- Include ALL stakeholders (Parents, Students, Teachers, Biz's, Community Members, etc.)
- Creating a Community Resource Map (Skills people have to offer)
- Connect real life experience with the Curriculum (Meaningful Learning, Project-based learning)
- Create a Community Challenge to reinvent the school experience
My Thoughts: I think the key focus in this article is on transforming schools through contributions from everyone in the community, because creating meaningful learning and education should involve everyone and should capitalize on each person's strengths. I like that there is emphasis on meaningful and relevant learning experiences, and on project-based learning, because these are things that our 21st century learners need. I browsed the Facebook group, Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools. Their mission was to ensure that all people have the equal access to quality public education, and they were a student-led group. It seems like it was a great group for those Chicago-area students, who seemed determined to fight against Charter Schools, because they were effectively robbing CPS of funds and causing public school closures. So the students rallied together to help fight this. The FB page hasn't been active since October though, and neither has their Twitter account.
Reflection
After reading the first article, I think I can see many pros for teachers using Twitter with their students in online courses. I think teachers of any grade level can utilize Twitter, as long as some rules and guidelines are in place for its use. Although I think alternatives such as Schoology or Edmodo might be a better solution for social interaction for K-12 students, since the social environment can be more easily monitored and moderated by teachers.
I also really like the idea of new teachers (or even veteran teachers) having online communities they can utilize for induction, mentorship, and ongoing professional and emotional support. But in many ways, teachers can still do this without a dedicated website, thanks to Facebook groups created for pretty much any individual/professional need you can think of. And even Twitter can be used this way to some degree, not to mention audio and video chats and other in-the-moment technology platforms.
With regard to Parent Communication preferences, I think the results of their study would be fairly common, but local school districts could benefit from surveying their students' parents with similar questions. That way, districts and teachers can provide the exact type of communication that is preferred and deliver it to parents in a timely and effective manner. That is definitely what I would want to do for my students' parents, when I get teaching again. And I'd definitely create a website to provide them with as much of their desired information and communication as possible.
The five steps to better school and community collaboration makes a lot of sense. Don't we all want the same things (for the most part) for our students: for our kids to have meaningful and relevant learning experiences--relative to real life experiences--and to be successful 21st century learners? It just seems logical to help utilize the community and all of the people and skills within it to make those goals a reality. I'm not sure that it's all really do-able though, considering that schools are driven by standardized testing and little else. And as long as that is the case, school transformation is going to be little more than a lofty ideal rather than an attainable reality. It's good to dream though.
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