Suddenly, I'm all a twitter!

I was talking to a class of 7th graders about sharing information in our world.  We are working on the NASA MMS challenge to determine why the mission is relevant to them and find a way to spread the word.  They had some great ideas about writing articles, editorials, youtube, facebook, blogs, etc.  But no one mentioned twitter.


Twitter for the Not So Famous
It turns out that most of these students thought that it was only for famous people.  They were shocked to hear that even people like me had followers (I am a little shocked myself sometimes).  The truth is that I’m a little slow to the bandwagon, some tools have come and gone before I even get to use them.    I have been a registered user for some time, but not an active one.  I too, did not immediately see how it could be useful. 


Hashtags meant something totally different in the 70’s
I started noticing hash tags at conferences.  At first, I was a little chagrined that people were “texting” during my presentations, then  I realized they were “tweeting” out some of my nuggets of wisdom and some of their “aha” moments.  What a great way to hear everyone’s nuggets.     Of course I had to first learn to decipher the language and determine what #@ RT’s and mentions were (just ask your kids).  I then began to see a lot of potential for using twitter as professional development tool.   Carrie Jackson summed up the key reasons why it can be a valuable tool for us in her blog “Twitter 101 for School Leaders: Four Reasons to Join the Conversation."


But what about the kids?
It was not until I saw how some students from Dublin ISD in TX were using it, that I saw the value of using twitter in the classroom.     They had used twitter as a research tool, to determine attitudes in their community, to lift school morale and improve school and community communications.    It got me to thinking.

I imagine that the benefits for leaders in education, may be the same benefits that our students can get. Imagine all of the latest science and technology information they can get by following NASA?  How great would it be for each student to post an “aha” moment to your class hash tag after reading an assigned passage?  Why not take it outside the room and share their key understandings and insights with the world?  Imagine being able to post new ideas and get feedback from their peers all over the world.  What a great way to connect kids with experts in the field!

What are the risks?
Of course, anything “out there” has some risks, but there are plenty of tools that can be kept private to teach students proper “netiquette.”  The world of twitter is a world of breaking news, it is Facebook feeds on steroids.  It is chock full of great articles and resources.  Seems like it could be a great way to engage kids in their own learning.


We are connecting our students in Texas and New Jersey, through the MMS Challenge.  Sounds like the perfect opportunity to get this whole twitter thing going with my students.   I am sure there may be some risks and challenges, but I’m diving in and taking the kids with me!  Any nuggets for me?

You can follow me @sanwoz, you can see what the kids are doing at #mmschallenge.

Do You Walk the Walk?

What do you get when you mix ISTE and NASA resources, a select group of educators from across the globe, and a challenge to create educational artifacts for teachers and students to learn about the Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission (MMS)?

You get educators walking the walk- incorporating web 2.0 tools and networking skills to build an international learning community – starting with a base camp at the Iste-Nasa Cyber Café Wiki and branching out to use Edistorm , Skype, google docs, Voice Thread and other tools  just to begin.  What a great learning experience to explore and utilize the capacity of some of these tools.  It increased my skills, exposed me to some great new tools and ways to use some old ones.  It also taught me the power of online collaboration with like and unlike minded educators.

 The results?  A series of showcases waiting to be unveiled on March 27^th at a synchronous celebration. 

Sneak Peak

I can share a little of ours now.  I had the pleasure of working with Jennifer Miller and her students in Dublin Texas and Tom Chambers a teacher of technology applications from Houston, Texas.   We put together the “Take the MMS Challenge” which features student research, application of the scientific method and culminating in students working as engineers, physicists, artists, or journalists to help others understand why the MMS mission is relevant in our everyday lives.

Our project can be found in this livebinder  with teacher guides, student activities, resources, web 2.0 tools and enrichment activities.  Feel free to get in there and “test pilot” the project or individual activities.  We would love your feedback!

Interested in introducing your kids to the mission, the Collaborize Classroom library has custom made questions in their library ready to go with links to some great videos and current events.  Great way to get kids reading informational text and writing for an audience!  Want to go further?  Try out the new SCAN lesson designed to get students to explore the relevance of the mission from different points of view.   “Space Exploration and You: SCAN The NASA MMS Mission” is a new free SCAN scenario designed to get kids thinking from different perspectives about the relevance of the mission. 

Now what?

Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience to walk the walk and integrate all of these tools to successfully make a professional learning community that spanned across the globe.  I am wondering how educators create these wonderful communities of learning for their students but do not create the same for their colleagues? 

Celebrating Digital Learning Together

Students in Mrs. Portland’s class in Pottsville Area High School, recently celebrated Digital Learning day by joining in a classroom discussion with students hundreds of miles away at Mt. Olive High School in NJ.  Digital Learning Day, organized the Alliance for Excellent Education, is a “nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology that engages students and provides them with a rich, personalized educational experience.”  On Digital Learning Day thousands of teachers and nearly two million students joined in encouraging digital learning by trying something new and showcasing their success.

Classroom Discussions in the Cloud
Students used the SCAN tool, designed by TregoED to promote critical thinking on complex issues, to examine the issue of cell phones in schools from four different perspectives.  As they played the roles of teachers, administrators, students and parents they brought out the issues, benefits and drawbacks, of using cell phones in school and collaborated on ideas to develop a working policy or plan to resolve those issues.  As students used screen names and avatars, they could not differentiate their classmates from their peers at the other high school.   Unlike a regular classroom discussion where some students may overshadow others, online discussions include all participants in the discussion.  The SCAN tool walks students through a problem solving process in an engaging Facebook-like platform.  

Many issues were brought out during the discussion including the use of smart phones for research and emergencies, as well as the distractions that they could cause in the classroom. Students made many suggestions that would allow for their use, and take care of the problems they might cause. 

Putting 21st Century Skills into Practice
This inter-school collaboration was a great example of using digital learning to strengthen the learning experience.  As all students were thoughtfully engaged in the discussion of the potential impact and pitfalls of the beloved cell phone in the classroom, they were also practicing using the 21^st Century Skills of communication, problem solving, collaboration and good digital citizenship. 

Discussing Discussions

As an old dog, always looking for a new trick, technology has taken on a large role in my professional development.  Beyond the faculty room and my colleagues, workshops, blogs, classroom, and webinars, this year I have discovered the discussion group to be one of the most valuable tools in my professional development tool box.  While I shied away from being involved in the original discussion groups on listservs, email groups that focused on one subject area, I have discovered that there are many online discussion groups full of great educators with all kinds of expertise, just waiting to give you advice and support at the click of the mouse.   Most recently, educators in the Teaching Writing Forum on the English Companion Ning had a great discussion centered on Problem Based Research.  All it took was a simple question – Have you done this?  How does it work? - to let the learning begin.  The input on this conversation ranged from great idea starters, mechanics, critical thinking strategies, to assessment.  Beyond the discussion forum, groups form around common interests and you can sort them by most active, etc.  What a great way to share ideas and resources!  In this community alone, there are 46 groups ranging from “Free to Educators” to “Collaborative Projects.”   Some of the other communities where I have found supportive, creative, active, and practical groups are the ISTE Community Ning, edweb.net, and LinkedIn.   Check them out!  Find a group and get in on the action.  You will find the feedback and creativity of these collaborative groups to be invaluable in professional growth as you do not have to reinvent the wheel.  Why not take advantage of the free advice of your colleagues and share some of your own?  Hmmmm...maybe I should start a discussion group on discussion groups!  What's your favorite?