Are you TIRED of the....

....same old material being presented to you in class?? Blah blah.  Do you want some spice in your life and learn through others in your field and through technology?  Twitter is a great way that will allow you to stay connected to the outside world by ‘following’ others and seeing what’s important in your chosen field.  Twitter allows you to follow artists, educators, singers, athletes, and many more individuals as you can live with them throughout a day in the life of them.  

            You can use Twitter in the classroom in a variety of ways.  One way that I know I would use it is  in my classroom would be if teachers and students from around the world can collaborate on projects using Twitter as a communication tool that simultaneously educates students in different classroom and cultural protocols.  Since I know I will be doing something in the foreign language or ESL route, this would be a great way to incorporate communication into the classroom.  Not only would this allow students to use technology, but it would also let students use an ESL NYS standard for communication with other individuals and others from around the world.  In the web page titled, How to use Twitter for Social Learning, it states that Twitter allows portrays easy access, and there are many websites that allow viewers to use this tool in presentations, activities, and allows teachers and students to understand how to use Twitter. 

              Twitter can be successfully used in any classroom at any grade level and content area.  Some ways that teachers are using Twitter is for review of tests/quizzes, answering questions, instant feedback, communicate with professionals of individuals in your field of interest, set up a poll as with many other ways, as stated in the web page, 28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitter .  I think that any subject teacher can use in their classroom.  Math teachers can allow students to communicate with other mathematicians while in English class, students can catch up on authors of that time or poets from a different era.  

P.L.N.....Personal Learning Network

The Educators Personal Learning Network is a network in which ESL/EFL teachers can refer to when needs ideas and keep in touch with other teachers in around the world!

When exploring this website I noticed some really nifty things that would beneficial in any ESL/EFL classroom. Some of the major headlines on this site were as followed:

My Page:  Easy set-up! (all it involves is an e-mail address and a password)
Members:  Comment or "give a call" to over 11,000 members who can give you advice or ideas for your classroom
Videos:  Want to critically think about something?  The video headliner will allow you to access many different types of videos from Online Learning to Digital Learning in a Social Studies classroom
Forum:  Search, comment, and reply on several topics relating to learning
Events:  Attend or view events in your area (some of these events will allow you to stay home and attend right at your own computer!)
Groups:  Join groups that allow you to have say in several ideas.  Some groups I thought were important were Language Learners and  IPads in the classroom.
Blogs:  Blogs, blogs, and more blogs!  View several blogs posted by teachers, professionals, and parents of students!
Leaderboards:  Have a question of want to see the #1 video? Check it out!
EdChat:  Talk with members and see what's new!

A learner is like a.....

"A learner is like a human evolving from ape to humankind, you are able to see change and improvement over time"

When I first looked at this assignment it took me a while to comprehend the quote, “A learner is like a…”.  Some things that came to mind were words such as diverse, changing as the years pass, evolving, and improving.  Even though none of these terms fit into the quote directly; I thought that “A learner is like a human evolving from ape to humankind.  A learner is always learning at different speeds and the learning abilities of student are evolving and changing with time.  

  

“…Where we have come with computers, we are now at a point where an individual, can do significantly more with the aid of a computer which was never ever possible in the past..” This was stated by George Siemens in the video The Changing Nature of Knowledge, in which he explains his view on the changed nature of knowledge and his learning theory of connectivism.  Throughout this video clip, he used the word ‘connect’ many times.  One time that stuck out to me was when he said that individuals connect with others and form more connections with data bases that are the main forms of knowledge at this point in time.  The learning ability of the learner use to be in the minds of the individual, but with the complexity of our databases nowadays, students can connect to many outside sources that just solely are inside of their minds.  

As stated in the article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, George Siemens, states that connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.  With the increased use of technology nowadays, students, adults, and children stay connected through the use of social networking, news, media, etc.  When individuals stay connected through this process, they then have the ability to stay connected through different fields and continue to improve their learning process.  The connectivist theory is evolving in ways that individuals connect such as, going from telegrams, to letters, to emails, to phone texts!

Same video-clip, Similar IDEAS!

When completing this Mod I noticed that when I was adding my education blog feds, I saw that Meng Zhang had similar thoughts with regards to the 21st Century Education in New Brunswick, Canada video.  It was interesting that she shared the same thoughts and ideas as me and made me have a "Oh yeah" type response when reading her posts to the video. This idea was that in years from now there will be no textbooks for students, it will all be in a little gadget that holds all this material. So....I guess I have to start touching up on my technology!      

This video was interesting in that it had no sound, however, was extremely beneficial because it showed the audience ways in which technology will advance throughout the years.  I am excited to see that as technology is improving in todays classrooms, how it will effect the learners that it surrounds.  Being a first year teacher, I want to incorporate as much technology in my classroom because years down the road, everything will be technology based.  In my classroom, I noticed that virtual tours are a great way in which students can first hand experience 'life' in that certain area without even being there. 

 

Technology, technology, technology!

21st Century Education in New Brunswick, Canada   

This what one of the videos that I thought was more interesting because a. there was no sound and b. it was really an eye opener to see how advanced technology will be in the next couple years.  From when I was in elementary school to the elementary school I teach in now , there are many uses of technology that students can use such as SMARTBoard, over head projectors, Elmo's , etc.  I can only wait and imagine the ways in which technology will change! 

This is one video that will make people pay attention to because there was no sound so that they will have to stay focused on the screen.  I found it interesting that they repeated the question Did you realize? several times as a way to show the audience how different technology will be in years down the road.