Social Media and the Student

I believe it would be important to not have individual accounts set up through the school for students younger than policy allows. (I did not realize that this was federal law that the rule was based upon.) I have not used a school account, but many of my the parents are friends on Facebook. I find that it has improved communication.
One of our school corporation's elementary schools has a PTO page. It is run by the parents and seems to be a great tool. It worried me at first that it would be a page for blasting teachers or school policy. However, they have done a great job of making it an informational page. I do think that we have to be cautious, though, of not excluding those not using this technology.

Classrooms using this media must make sure that the usage is truly academic. I don't believe it is appropriate to require individual accounts for the students. (Some things need to be parental decisions. Social media direct access is one of those.) How do we give the child access when the parent has not allowed this in their home? (Whether a personal choice or in one case that I know, as a punishment for inappropriate usage.)

So many tools...........

There are often so many computer tools to choose from that it becomes overwhelming. I would love to give Popplet a try with my fourth graders this fall. I had seen it over the past few years, but have never explored it. I love the looks of the project for this course that was done using Popplet.

I will also explore Pearltrees at some point, but don't see it happening before the start of school. Popplet on the other hand, will be checked out soon. My students do a lot of webs with the language arts teacher. If this could be done, it might encourage her to incorporate it into her classes.

The Useful and (Well, not so much)

The online and blended learning course is truly testing my patience with beloved technology. Seldom have I had it to be as frustrating at home as it is at school. At school, I have been accustomed to trying to log in and the server to ultimately be down. At home, that has not been the case. (I am in the mode of trying to figure out if it is a computer issue or an internet issue. After replacing the modem/ router, I am fearing that the computer is simply not liking me.)

I love to use technology in my classroom and generally feel like I am more than willing to take "risks" in trying new things. Therefore, this has been one of my favorite weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed the suggestions of possible sites for students from Michele Eaton. I am anxious to implement a few of them and see how the can be incorporated into my students' learning and eventually assessment.

I am thinking that parents are not going to be as accepting of some of these ideas since they do not get the immediate feedback that they often like. A few last year were upset when we tried to do some projects that they were not involved with. I think the time involved explaining the projects and the overall enthusiasm of students helped to win these parents over, but once again, it took time. Evaluation is much more subjective and this is going to be a challenge, as well.

My other challenge at the moment is that I do not know what I am teaching (subject wise) in the fall. We are departmentalized and with a new administrator, we are awaiting our schedules. I am guessing that I will be teaching science and/or math, but that is not set in stone. Therefore, to try to picture any of these ideas within my fourth grade classroom is difficult.

I have to admit that I am also struggling with the lack of a human connection in this course. I am far too "social" for the way this course is arranged. One would think that being able to be invisible to the person you are asking questions of would be a positive thing. I am finding the exact opposite to be true. I guess I like to be able to discuss things face to face.

What are we doing WRONG? Better yet, how do we do it right?

After watching this business oriented TED talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y, I have to wonder where we are headed in education. I guess I was not surprised to find that the greater the reward, the less motivation there was to complete the task effectively. I know that I work best without a "have to" pressure. I am a creative thinker, but I know that I cannot think most freely when I know that there is a time limit. Give me a task and let me work through it on my time, I am usually successful at finding something that works. On the other hand, if I am forced to deal with that task in a "you need to do this or else" and do it NOW mode, I am usually going to draw a blank. In fact, with that pressure, I will find myself trying to think through EVERY single idea and not fully exploring any of the possibilities in depth. I am more than willing to help colleagues, but hope that they give me the task and let me ponder-- at least most of the time.
I came to education as the high ability teacher for our corporation's elementary schools twenty-seven years ago. My job was to encourage students to use divergent thinking. I knew that often times that was not going to fit my time frame in class and allowing that freedom was counter to what the students had been taught in school up to that point. It was hard to undo the thought "there is a right answer to everything" and you must do it NOW!
When I first moved into the regular classroom, I brought those skills I had taught my high ability students with me. I know that my students in those early years were more creative thinkers than my current students. Over the years, I have fallen into the trap of following a set of standards and a textbook to meet those standards. My own creativity has suffered, but the most sad news within that scenario is that my students have become little parrots. They can tell me exactly what I want them to (usually), but they often cannot solve a problem on their own. I really do need to let them develop their wings and move back to my own foundation. What good is education when it only teaches the material information and not how to apply it? Or even to find new information on their own?
Now that I think about it, that nest really isn't where the students need to stay for life. Let's fly!