Twitter as a Professional Learning Network

Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has quickly becoming one of the most popular social networking sites available today. Users are able to send out short, 140 character messages called "tweets" that anyone can read (unless the user sets their profile to private.) It is not necessary to have an account to be able to read public tweets, which allows anyone with a computer to read any public tweets whenever they want. Celebrities are followed by millions of people who favorite and retweet everything they post. News stations post breaking news, from weather updates to crime watches. Twitter may have started out as a way to tell everyone about what we've been eating and who we're hanging out with, but in a short time has evolved into a quick and easy way to send out information.

Twitter is now being used as an educational tool, as a way for teachers to connect with one another and share resources. One of the best parts about using Twitter as an educator is that it does not stop
when you do. Teachers around the country, even the world are constantly sharing and sending information, creating a nonstop flow of resources. As Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach described it, Twitter is like a river that "keeps flowing but sometimes you might just walk past and have a quick look, sometimes you might hang around and dip your toes in, other times you might spend hours swimming around" (Morris).

Teachers both inexperienced and veteran are now using Twitter in a multitude of ways. According to the National Education Association, teachers are using Twitter as a way to "keep up with the latest trends, news, and happenings in education, as well as communicate with fellow educators" (Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching?). This is especially useful for newer teachers, giving them an almost endless supply of assistance that they do not even need to ask for. As Christopher Bergeron said, "Twitter is like the ticker at the bottom of CNN -- only a ticker populated with information about those people or things you care about, want to learn from, or want to know about." But Twitter does not have to be confined to just being used by the teachers for themselves. Teachers can, and do, use Twitter in the classroom to enhance learning. Since Twitter pages can be made public, students do not need to create their own accounts to access what the teacher posts, nor do they need to pay for anything related to the site. Teachers can tweet review questions before tests, tweet websites that students can use to review, or, as Chris O’Neal states, "you can tweet a quick provocative question about a social studies lesson...that will keep their brains active" (Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching?)

Looking at my own Twitter page will show that I have not tweeted very much. At the time of this blog, I have sent only eight tweets. Of those eight, only one is related to education. The rest are
YouTube videos and articles ranging from petitions about police shootings to a list of dogs making silly faces. While I do not tweet very often, I do check my Twitter feed on an almost daily basis. I follow multiple education related accounts, most of which tweet almost every day, if not multiple times a day. A few of the education related Twitter accounts I follow are Mark Barnes, Jordan Shapiro, and Graphite. However, once I am in the classroom I intend to have a much more active Twitter presence. I will use Twitter to post links to review guides for my students and their parents to access, as well as other resources they find useful. I will connect with other teachers not just at my school but at schools across the nation and hopefully the world so that I can stay on top of what is happening in the educational Twitterverse.


References
Morris, K. (2013, September 23). Step 2: Using Twitter to Build Your PLN. Retrieved December 12, 2014, from http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-3-using-twitter-to-build-your-pln/

Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching? (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2014, from http://www.nea.org/home/32641.htm

Evernote: a Tool for Teachers (and Everyone Else, Too)

While it has gained popularity in recent years, many people are still unaware of Evernote. Evernote is a note taking software similar to Microsoft Word, but much more helpful. Users can create notes made up of typed text, webpages (partial or whole excerpts), photographs, and voice memos.

Evernote is free to use, though users can choose to upgrade to a $5 a month premium account. Premium accounts allow larger notes with more room for attached files, as well as other benefits not accessible by regular account users. 

Evernote is a fantastic tool for the classroom, as shown by the Epic Evernote Experiment done by the the "Nerdy Teacher" Nicholas Provenzano. For his experiment, Provenzano decided to use Evernote for everything he did in all of the classes he taught. This meant that all his class readings, homework, notes, even cross-referencing between units for his students' ease. He pointed out that the "process was long and tedious" but that he now has the notes forever. 

He then created e-portfolios for his students so that they could catalogue their work throughout the year, giving them the ability to easily go back and look at their earlier work. He brings up the point that if entire school districts were to have their teachers use Evernote, students could eventually track their work from elementary school all the way up through high school. 

A common complaint from a lot of the critics about Evernote is that it is a pain to use if the user is only using it as a note-taking tool. Whitson Gordon explains in his LifeHacker.com article "I've Been Using Evernote All Wrong. Here's Why It's Actually Amazing." He points out that in order to get the most out of the software, the user needs to immerse themselves entirely into the program.

I have not had much experience in this program, mainly because I prefer to handwrite all of my notes. However, once I begin teaching, I would like to use Evernote as a way to catalogue my work the same way that Nicholas Provenzano did so that my students can keep track of their work to see how they improve throughout the year.

References

Provenzano, N. (n.d.). The Nerdy Teacher: The Epic Evernote Experiment. Retrieved October 29, 2014.

Gordon, W. (n.d.). I've Been Using Evernote All Wrong. Here's Why It's Actually Amazing. Retrieved October 29, 2014.

Social Media in the Schools

In this day and age, technology and social media has become a part of most people's daily lives. Even our schools use social media to get information to students and parents. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) uses multiple social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

While employees are allowed to use these sites, they are heavily advised to be extremely careful about who they choose to send/accept friend requests from. At McLean High School, part of FCPS, teachers are strongly recommended to not friend, follow, etc with current students. Once a student has graduated, teachers are free to accept or send friends requests or other social media invitations from or to them. The reasoning behind these rules and suggestions is straightforward. As countless news reports have shown, "friending" underage students, or even students that are technically no longer minors but still students in the school can lead to accusations of inappropriate relationships. While FCPS does not have a formal written policy about the use of social media, its neighbor Arlington County Public Schools (APS) does. Teachers must have any social media platform approved by the school administration each year, as well as including information about the platform in the syllabus given to students and parents.
However, for every teacher that misuses social media, countless more use it to improve their classrooms and their teaching. The following video is about the pros and cons of using social media, specifically Twitter and blogging, in an elementary school classroom in Saskatchewan.

As we can see from the video, these students' learning is enhanced by the use of social media. Having students photograph their creations (Legos, clay, etc) can help build their self-esteem, making them feel that their work is impressive and worthy of preservation. By incorporating what these children have grown up using, teachers can make school more interesting and fun for the students, instead of it being a place where they just sit around and get talked at.






References
"Using Social Media in the Classroom." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

"Fairfax County Public Schools - Get Connected Social Media Links." FCPS Home Page Redirect Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

"Rules to Limit How Teachers and Students Interact Online - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.