Twitter Dee & Twitter Dum

Twitter is a real time short messaging/status update service that works over multiple networks. It is mainly used on your mobile phone to communicate with all different types of people, from any where around the world. It surrounds the idea of what are you doing? In saying this, Twitter allows users to keep in contact with family members in a very personal way!



We have had a debate about whether or not Twitter is appropriate for use in the classroom. Personally, I do not think I would use this technology because it is too time consuming with no enough educational benefits. On the other hand, it could be useful for school organisations and for parents. Below are some reason for and against Twitter in the classroom context...



Ways to use twitter:


· Use as a privacy system for students to inform teachers about certain issues they may be having (using direct messages) so that it is a communication between the teacher and student only.
· Teacher can tweet a story opener, and each student has to reply by adding a sentence on. Aim is to create a class story.
· Let parents ‘follow’ their students on twitter. A good way for busy parents to have some sort of contribution to their student learning.
· Give students either a story introduction, a character description etc to begin in 140 characters.
· Teacher can tweet out a particular word and students can give either definition, synonyms etc.
· Class studying a story/novel/short story – each student/pair of students is allocated a character and the other characters discuss a particular issue in the point of view of their own character.
· Reflections – what did I learn? What I could do better next time? Etc

The following are Twitter pages used in 3 different schools..

1. http://twitter.com/leamore_primary
2. http://twitter.com/ColintonP6
3. http://twitter.com/KingstonStMary

Limitations:
· Too distracting
· Does not take into consideration students with diverse abilities
· Multitasking increases stress – affects other learning areas
· Reduces ‘on task’ behaviours
· Can go against classroom expectations – courtesy etc
· Easily off task
· Difficult to monitor/regulate
· Time consuming for the teacher
· Difficult to get started

Itchy & Scratchy

Scratch is a new programming tool that allows users to 'create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web' (mres, 2009). Originally designed for ages 8 and above, nearly all ages can use this innovative technology in some form or another. It was designed for young students to learn and become familiar with 21st century learning skills. Howard Rhiengold distinguishes some 21st century literacy's or skills which I have been able to relate to Scratch itself.



1) Attention - Scratch engages students by the freedom of what their multiple characters can do.



2) Participation - each student is responsible for how their interactive stories turn out, this in turn encourages students to try their hardest and work in a positive environment.



3) Collaboration - students are able to share their Scratch inventions on the web for other peers and other students to view.



4) Network Savvy - once students are familiar with Scratch their skills and understandings will enable them to help others and use the tool to help with other Learning Areas.



5) Critical Consumption - students will need to learn to sift through the useless information and discover personal relevance to what they are doing.



Scratch has some positive points:

-allows for creativity

-learning important mathematical ideas

-computational ideas

-interactive

-fun

-reason

-work collaboratively



Scratch has some negative issues as well:

-time consuming

-hard to work out

-does it cater for all developers?

-is Gardner's Multiple Intelligences accounted for?

-not user friendly

Jing-a-ling

Jing is an interesting piece of technology that I definitely have never heard of. It virtually is a print screen technology that allows you to capture anything on your computure at any time. After a photo capture, the possibilities are endless! Editing plays a large role in this innovation, and as you can see below, a piece of text can be edited as much as you like...

The features include a highlighting tool, an arrow tool and a text box which allows for all your editing desires! What I liked most about this concept was that this techonology is in a digital form, so sending in various ways is easy. In saying this, teachers can easily send 'editing' documents to parents who may not have enough time to actually come into the classroom and talk one-on-one with the teacher. It can give good insight into what their child needs improvement on.

Along the same lines of parent information - Jing allows short videos to be taken and then sent to whoever is interested. This means teachers can create videos of a homework schedual or a definition of a particular assignment.

In saying all this, I do believe that this innovation needs to be carefully thought out about before an integration into the classroom occurs. I found it can be 'fiddly' and time consuming, with results that do not inspire me, personally. I would probably not use Jing as a teacher as I find it unreliable - could not upload a video successfully for this blogspot in fact! However, it could be used for high school student instead.

A Bit of Strips?

I never knew such an innovative piece of technology existed until today - Bitstrips that is! If you know anything about 'facebook' you will probably appreciate Bitstrips. It is similar in the way that you can add friends and communicate, however Bitstrips allows the user to make cartoons that can and do convey meaning, describe/recount particular events, or just creative works themselves.

I really like this technology because it’s something just a little different. Something I never really thought about, let alone knew was invented. In relation to using Bitstrips in the classroom, I believe students could gain so so much from it, that it would be a disservice to your students if you did not apply it into the classroom.

The following points are reasons I believe Bitstrips should be used in the classroom:

- It caters for a broad array of Learning Areas - Art, Science, English etc.
- Allows students to be focussed on something interesting.
- Can be used as a part of an assignment, or just as free time.
- Means students are engaged.
- More likely to behave appropriately if students are content.
- The more interested a student is, the more likely they are to achieve something they consider 'worthwhile'.
- Students who are more 'technology inclined' are willing to help others (introduces collaborations).
- Also allows students to work independently.
- Caters for a range of abilities - all students can contribute as little or as much as they wish/are able to.
- Allows for open ended tasks.
- Students are not held back.
- Helps students in recounts ie. can be a visual stimulant for later writing a recount.
- Caters for Gardner's series of 'Multiple Intelligences'.
- Students are proud of their work, developing self worth and a higher sense of self esteem.

All in all, I truly believe Bitstrips can easily be integrated into the classroom, with little to no fuss. Once students get the hang it, unstoppable limits can occur!