ETEC 527 Week 3: You Tube Adventure/Twitter Adventure

Introduction

This week were were asked to play around with You Tube and Twitter.  You Tube is something that I am very familiar with especially in the classroom.  In a social studies classroom, the most important aspect of the classroom is the content and so if a student misses my class, I need to make sure they get the content.  So I will post my lesson on you tube, so I know alot about posting videos and play lists.  However, I did learn alot of information about twitter, wikispaces, web 2.0 tools, and technology in social studies classrooms.  Below you will find my play lists and what I learned from my adventure this week.

You Tube Adventure

Twitter 

As I was going through You Tube to find the videos that would help me better understand Twitter better, these were the videos that I found.  I am not a big twitter user, as I started in my blog for last week.  I have never really been a big fan on sharing my personal experiences, so the most that I would do on twitter was retweet a news store or something that made my school look awesome.  However, after watching these videos I learned alot about what it really means to our students but as me as a professional.  In one of the videos, it mentioned that twitter can be used to build your professional learning network.  As teachers we are needing to be constantly learning new methods in our craft and Twitter seems like the way of the future when it comes to that.  Because you can use hashtags to create a PLN and it make it easier for people to find your learning community.  However, but in a political science/government class twitter can be an extremely important tool as it allows for students to see political news easy.  Especially, right now when it comes to an election year they are always posting news feeds.  Then as a teacher you could set up a hashtag and have a political debate on a news story or even have your students watch one of the many debates going on and tweet live with your students as they watch.  Twitter at least for social studies is good in that instances.

Twitter Adventure Continued:  Since we are on the subject of twitter, I did take a moment to go and look up some of the hashtags that were suggested in some of the videos. @Teaching With Soul  which when I went to go find the tag it was not there anymore so since the videos creation the tag has been taken down and @Edutopia.  I found the Edutopia to be very informational about ways to improve the classroom.  This allowed me to think that this is where I need to increase my PLN, because it seems like everyone is tweeting now a days on ways to improve the classroom.

You Tube Adventure (Part 2)

Wikispaces

Till I took ETEC 527 I had never even new that there was a think called Wikispaces, and too me still have watching the videos I believe that in a K-12 setting this application would be confusing to students.  These videos that I found even though they explained how wikispaces work and what an educator could do with wikispaces.  I just never seemed to get on board with the application.  To me wikispaces would be good in a college classroom setting where as a class or small group you could collaborate.  However, with most colleges today they have some sort of online blackboard setting that allows for a learning community to develop and to me Google Drive allows for collaboration in an easier format.  I think that to truely before I get on board with this application, I need to create my own personal wikispace and play around with it.  I learned alot from watching these videos but for me to truly get on board with technology I need to play with it to determine how I think it could apply in my classroom or future classrooms.

Web 2.0 Tools

As I was watching these videos about Web 2.0 tools I kept getting reminded of the fact that schools today really do not give us the training we need for this but keep saying you need to incorporate them into classroom.  I learned more from watching these videos about the importance of Web 2.0 tools.  Many of the videos that I watched were an explanation of Web 2.0 tools so that I could get a better understanding and change my definition of what a Web 2.0 tool was.  I now know that a Web 2.0 tool is something that not only teaches the student but it engages the student in learning, it could also be a tool that fosters critical thinking or fosters collaboration in the classroom.  Then I decided to find videos about those who taught others about Web 2.0 tools and some of the tools out their for teachers.  I learned some I had already been using like screen cast o matic, where I can record what is on my desktop and record audio with it.  I know that I will be exploring more applications with this topic.

Social Studies Technology

The last part of my You Tube adventure came when I did some video research on my subject social studies.  I found many videos that look very out of date like it was something they had created in the late 90s or early 2000s.  Now some of the videos did look like they were created recently which I did find very informative especially when they discussed primary and secondary sources.  However, when I typed in Web 2.0 tools, I found very little to help me.  It seems that for social studies most people have yet to do research into this topic.  I know for myself in particular I find that content out weighs what students do on a regular basis in the classroom.  I know that I need to present the content in a story because the story is more important.  Yes, I know what your thinking but they aren't learning that way or not all students learn that way.  To answer your statement yes I know that, but in a social studies classroom you have to do the old way and but incorporate the new way.  These videos just show me that there are not alot of technologies out there to help in a social studies classroom.  Granted as I continue my you tube adventure I need to maybe narrow my search, so that is something else that I learned in my adventure.  Another thing that I learned is that most people in a social studies classroom setting are posting their lectures online or offering some quick review method on you tube to help their students and by helping their students they are helping others.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, you tube is a great place to collaborate as a PLN (Professional Learning Network), as I mentioned in the Social Studies section teachers are posting videos and but posting on you tube people from around the world can benefit from their expertise.  Because I know from my co-teach classroom that my students benefit from multiple teaching styles.  I learned that you tube is also a good place to find informational videos to help me improve my craft or improve upon a technology that I might be having trouble grasp.  In the end, as I play more with you tube I might find other helpful tools that I can take back to the classroom.