Sunday, October 9, 2011

Twitter in the classroom .

WHAT IF you teach more that 100 students in one class?

When i was in college, 7 years ago, I took some courses in which more than 100 students attended. Especially, when i took English literature class, I haven't had a chance talk with my professor, but share my thinking only with classmates who sat around me. Before the lesson, I read the textbook by myself. During the class, I listen professor's lecture about such as the summary and the background of the novel. After the class, I have to write a paper about my opinion and thinking of the book to professor. I did not have a chance to share my idea about the person in the novel, or the author with my classmate who may have different opinion as mine.

Now, very smart and attractive one came up to me, Twitter !
Many articles and blogs explained how to use twitter in the classroom,  and I realized there has  been
a lot of ways to use it in teaching and learning. First of all, 'quick information'. Even in the large size of the class, every students can express their opinion and share ideas through twitter. As an example, when a teacher give one topic to 100 students at the same time, they all can twitt even at the same time without any voice. Do you think the classroom may be very silent? No. No passive, no silent in Twitter.. And teachers will not just stand in front of them. Teachers can  check and ask students what they have done/doing.


According to Jane Hart's comprehensive guide How to Use Twitter for Social Learning,
there is an specific example how to use twitter in classroom.
Pre-class: give students question so that they tweets to keep the discussion going.
During class: keep the students communicating with one another. Sharing links to relevant resources, websites. Sharing students experiences of what they have done/doing.
Post-class: sending out reminders about upcoming tests, project duedates, class-related news. 

The article, Twitter expanding our classroom- shrinking the world, shows one example how affects to use Twitter with 6th graders in classroom. the author said that twitter shrinks the world. During the class, not only learn a language, but also they learn the culture and happenings in the world.

Twitter can be used not only for teaching in the classroom, but also for professional development. Many resources (video, articles, activities, music, etc.) teachers can keep and share through twitter. Teachers can also have a more chance to intimate with each of the students individually. Easy to get feedback and easy to recognize what their students need now.

I just realized that many educators give a lot of resources through twitter and if I just follow them, I could get many resources they uploaded, I could talk with them and  even ask tips for teaching. A lot of opportunity for professional development are given by Twitter. The thing is I have to get my feet wet eagerly and continuously looking, searching, and trying to develop me.   

Sunday, October 2, 2011

  There are many social networking services to give a variety of education sources for teachers.

  Among them, I am going to introduce “EFLclassroom 2.0.”
When you open this website, you can read one great sentence, “When one teaches, two learn.” It means that teachers prepare a lot for even one mini-lesson, and while preparing, they also can learn knowledge of teaching as well.

  Many EFL teachers around the world can share the education resources and there are already many teaching and learning materials such as listening materials, videos, and games for students’ activity. If you click any member’s name or picture, you can go his/her web page and share some in common or know what he/she interests in. as an EFL teacher, it may be more difficult to communicate with EFL teachers in other countries. Thus, this site can be very useful to compare and get other different teaching styles, resources, and even opinions worldwide.


Saturday, October 1, 2011

Connectivism and Education in our Society.


Today’s teachers are like multi-players. They have to consider develop the new teaching skills following the changing society as well as consider students’ different learning styles.
Not only getting the knowledge of the subject they teach, but also other fields that teachers have to learn and apply them differently.

According to George Siemens in the article,Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, “One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete.
I think the most important thing for teachers to concern is how to deal with network and how to utilize it effectively in classroom. as we all know, online networking community has very strong power to manage our society, especially our students now are more familiar with this system than teachers.


  There are many theories to utilize in the creation of instructional environments. Among them, we need to consider connectivisom as more influencing learning theory for digital age. In a video, titled “theconflict of learning theories with human nature” Siemens argues, “anything we need to reverse the image and look at it from inside were learning is active knowledge. Creation is a function of network.”
Connectivism sees learning as the process of creation connections and developing a network. A notion of “know-where” can supplement to the ones of “know-how” and “know-what” that make the cornerstones of many theories of learning.


Resources:
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm
Siemens, G.  (2005, January).  Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.  International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Retrieved November 20, 2005
The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature (4:13 minutes)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism