Journal 5

Still Beth. (2012). Ten surfire ways to destroy your twitter cred. Leading and Learning, 39(6), 10-11. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20120304?pg=34&pm=2&fs=1

 Summary: Twitter can be very useful in creating a PLN. However, there are some guidelines one should follow if they want their Twitter account to be fruitful for their followers. For example, Twitter users should refrain from using both foul language and text language. Foul language is frowned upon by school administrators, and it represents a negative version of the image you are trying to present. Text language gives followers a feeling that what you are saying isn't important enough to warrant standard English. Twitter users should also avoid posting inappropriate material for their PLN to see. If they desperately want someone to see how much fun they had at the bachelorette party, they can create a secondary Twitter account for their personal life (another suggestion made by the article. Lastly, Twitter users should have a clear profile picture and description for other users to read. People want to fill the PLN with real, useful users, and having both of these features allows them to find effective people to add. 

Question 1: How might using your Twitter account in a PLN incorrectly effect your educational career?

More and more educational specialists (administrators, teachers, etc) are using Twitter to communicate and share ideas. It is allowing the educational world to get smaller and larger at the same time. Reputations on PLN's get around, and if you gain a negative reputation by constantly breaking the rules from above, administrators and other teachers will gain a negative view of you that may or may not be correct. That is why they suggest having a separate account for your followers who are interested in your non-educational life.

Question 2: What is the importance of transparency on Twitter?

PLN's are supposed to consist of real people sharing their real thoughts and ideas. The best way to keep this line of communication open is to be transparent with your followers. When you begin to put up a front and act in a dishonest way, your usefulness to the PLN, and the PLN's usefulness to you is greatly diminished. People stop being interested in what you have to say because you keep everything shrouded.

Journal 4

Campbell Laurie, O. (2012). If you give a kid a camera.Learning and Leading, 39(5), 30-33. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/February-2012.aspx

Summary: There is a domino effect of learning when a child is handed a video camera. This piece of technology can engage the students' desire for knowledge. One question a teacher should ask themselves before bringing the technology into the classroom is "how does this piece of technology improve the students' understanding of the content?" In the case of video cameras, they can improve content understanding in a variety of subjects. In language arts, for example, students can make quick one-minute vocabulary videos, or short book reviews. In math, they can record their own thinking through a math problem and then review it to study what they did right and what they did wrong. In science, they can use video to provide a visual representation of what they were observing. Lastly, for social studies, they can go into their community and record primary sources of the events around them. Using video cameras allows children to practice problem based learning, and share their solutions with students all around the world.

Question 1: How can a teacher advocate for the use of video cameras in the classroom when budgets are low?   

I think the best thing a teacher can do is show to the administration the importance of using technology. Teachers can research classes that have done similar projects and show the success of those students. Fundraising can also go a long way in reaching the goals to purchase such equipment. It also allows the children to feel like they are taking responsibility in their own education.

Question 2: What other benefits can come from students learning to use video cameras?

Students will learn responsible handling of technology and the proper ways to care for cameras. They will learn to share the equipment among each other. They will also realize that other students will be using their camera and that they need to take good care of it so the other students will get the same opportunity as they are getting. Making videos also engages the students creativity and allows them to think in a variety of ways that typical school learning limits.

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Journal 3

Krauss Jane. (2012). Infographics: More than words can say. Learning & Leading, 39(5), 10-15. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/February-2012.aspx

Summary: Students, when learning, use two distinctive parts of their brain; linguistic and non-linguistic. Infographics provides students the opportunity to engage both of these aspects. They allows students to take what they've learned, take it apart to find where the good information lies, and represent it visually. 70% of the sensory receptors are in the eyes. Teachers are encouraged to use infographics because it allows the children to take their data and tell a rich story with it. For instance, one class studied how accessible their city was to the residents. They took note of the sidewalks, bike lanes, their neighbors abilities, and other mobility challenges. They could then take their data and use infographics to represent it. Once their infographics are complete, they can come back together as a class and work on solutions to the accessibility issue. A good infographic has three components: it tells a story, it is clear to understand, and it uses good data. The article suggests that teachers pay attention to the infographics around them to learn more advantages and techniques in using them.

Q1: Are their ways to teach students infographics if computers aren't readily available?

I think so. Infographics are visual representations of data. While computers certainly aid in making infographics colorful and clear, students can learn to draw their own infographics or create their own by hand. This will teach students both visually and kinetically.

Q2: How can teachers ensure that children understand the usefulness of infographics?

 The best way for teachers to ensure their children understand how to use infographics is to keep them present in the classroom. If the students see them used throughout their lessons, they will realize how others see and use infographics. The constant practice of interpreting infographics will ensure that children understand the importance and function of present data practically and pleasingly.

Journal 2

Ferguson, Hadley, J. (2010). Join the flock. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), 12-15. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

Ferguson, Hadley, J. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), 15-17. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

Summary "Join the Flock": Twitter is the new way for teachers (and other professions) to create community.  By getting involved in a PLN (professional learning network), teachers can use Twitter to learn from each other. Teachers can post blogs, videos, and articles for others to read and learn from. There are several suggestions of how one develops their PLN. First, they need to join Twitter and create a profile. Then by entering specific hashtags, teachers can find users that share their interests; teachers can also look up other users' "lists" of approved users to also follow. The final part of belonging to a PLN is joining in the conversation. Teachers can retweet articles and start adding articles they have found. This allows teachers to share their thinking and allow other users to comment on their tweets, creating a more interactive professional learning network.

Question 1: How can we encourage technologically challenged teachers to use Twitter? 

            By making Twitter more accessible and easily understood, we can help teachers who struggle with email to effectively use Twitter. Peers can be the most helpful in teaching these teachers how to create a PLN. If we can get one teacher to teach three more, and those three to teach three more and so on, we will soon have a large community of teachers engaging each other in person and through Twitter, building upon each other to teach the future generations.

Summary: "Enhance Your Twitter Experience": Learning to use Twitter means learning to speak a new language of sorts. There are many different terms for the different functions of Twitter. You can mention someone (@queenofsheba29), or you can use a hashtag to search for tweets containing something you're interested in. Different applications are also available to help maximize your Twitter usage. Tweetdeck allows users to view multiple streams of tweets depending on lists and hashtags. 


Question 2: Why would using a Twitter application improve a teacher's ability to build a PLN?
            Using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite allows a user to organize the information they see on their stream. This allows teachers who are interested in different topics (education, special education, curriculum, other teachers) to view each of these topics individually. Teachers can use this to create different professional learning networks, and can view each network individually rather than the giant pile of tweets Twitter tends to become.