Horton Hears a Tweet? ABSOLUTELY!!!

What a WONDERFUL title: Horton Hears a Tweet!!!  This is the title of an EduCause article by Joanna Dunlap and Patrick Lowenthal is a comprehensive and insightful article about how Twitter can fulfill the "Challenge of Student Engagement".   What I really like about this article is that they compare the process of using Twitter for communication with the process of using an LMS.  They talk about how clunky using the LMS for communication can be. It follows the process of:

 Log In>Access Shell>Locate Forum>Post Message>Wait for Response 

When compared to Twitter's "natural free-flowing, just-in-time" connection, this is a system for documenting communication rather than fostering it.

Dunlap and Lowenthal discuss the interactivity of using Twitter with both students and professionals. They talk about the positive results and benefits for using Twitter for back-channeling and on-going relevant discussions.  They even share events where students answered their own questions using Twitter as an entre to their PLN.  They posted questions about projects and received responses in 10 minutes.   The only thing that is missing is a discussion of the negatives of using Twitter - - - - I must admit that I can't think of any either, but I thought that they might have some ideas. =-)

This article is MUST-READ material for educators and students alike.  They even include a robust list of Additional Readings and Resources.

What do you think? Have you found Twitter to be as advantageous as they say?

Z

Related articles

• The art of tweeting--Jasmine's Tech Dos & Don'ts
• Tweet Tweet!
• How To Manage Twitter: Do It Your Way
• How I learned to stop worrying and tweet, Part 2
• The First Tweets from my Classroom.

Social Media Landscape Infographic

The Social Media World is huge and ever-exploding.  I was just reviewing graphics on social media when I came upon this Social Media Landscape infographic from the All Twitter Blog. 

I found this graphic most useful by reading the topics to better understand the multiple aspects of the Social Media Landscape. Once you have an overview of the categories, explore the apps that are mentioned.  Unfortunately, there are a few recent additions to the SM World that are not included (like Pinterest) but that will be included in Version 2.0.

How will you use this Infographic?

Related articles

• 2013's Complex Social Media Landscape in One Chart
• 100 Social Media Tips and Tricks | Infographics
• This business card infographic was brought to you by Staples.
• The Top Benefits of Social Media Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]

Should Students Be Able to Use Social Media in High School?

I just received an email from a high school student who was asking about my stance on filtering the Web in a school. She was taking a Law class in her school and they were researching what educators in the field said about which sites should be accessible and which should be blocked.  I have included my response below. You will notice that I have left it anonymous but I thought that it contained some interesting points:

Question: What are your thoughts about students using social networking sites on the new one-on-one laptops

Dear Student;

I am honored that you are interested in my opinion on this topic.

As frustrating as this may sound, my answer is "It all depends."

Providing one computer for each student is not about technology.  It is about providing students with individual tools that will allow them to take responsibility for their education. This means that you will have the ability to access the almost unlimited amount of information available on the web.  It also means that you must act responsibly in what you use and how you use it.

I am not a fan of blocking online sites. This reduces your access to the many resources that you may use for your studies.  However, if you have open access to these sites you must use them in a mature and responsible manner.

It is something like teaching a child about crossing the street.  You can't teach her to look both ways before crossing unless you allow her to cross it. We can't teach students about how to be safe and sane on the Web unless we provide them access.

This does not mean that you have free reign of Facebook or Twitter or YouTube. If you are Facebooking your friends in class when you should be using it to search for pertinent information, you should be disciplined for your actions as you would for any misbehavior in class.  These punishments should be identified beforehand so that both the teachers and students know what to do.

I would strongly suggest that you and your teachers read From Fear to Facebook.   It is 120-page book by a principal who was hired in Cupertino to convert their school to a 1-to-1 school. It is a wonderful narrative that explains how student, parents, teachers and administrators shaped the rules of the school. It costs $10 for a Kindle and you can get it immediately. It's twice the price for paperback. http://tinyurl.com/78sj48o    I use it in my technology coordinator class.

I hope that this has been useful. To summarize, I don't believe in filtering content unless necessary. If it turns out that the students can't responsibly use some resources like Facebook, it should be removed. You responsibilities as a student increase as your access to technology and online resources increase. If you do not act responsibly, then appropriate disciplinary actions should be taken.

Good luck and keep me posted of your success.

Leigh Zeitz
Associate Professor.
Coordinator of Instructional Technology division
University of Northern Iowa

Using Social Media to Enhance Your Professional/Personal Development

What a GREAT webinar we held today!!!

This was our opportunity to contribute to the  University of Northern Iowa Hot Topics in Education webinar series. Robin Galloway and I are gave this webinar on May 26, 2011 from 3:30 - 4:30.

Here's the Link to the actual hour-long webinar that you will be able to watch through Adobe Connect (You don't need Adobe Connect to watch this, however):
 
Using Social Media to Enhance Your Personal/Professional Development 

This webinar was our opportunity to explore how today's professionals need to take responsibility for their professional development. We introduced a variety of ways that people can facilitate their own professional/personal development by getting involved in educational learning communities. Some existing online communities were cited and then we shared some tools they can use to create/enhance their own personal learning networks.

Here are some of the resources:

Using Social Media to Enhance Your Personal/Professional Development View more presentations from Leigh Zeitz

Distributed-Learning Communities as a Model for Educating Teachers (Dede) 

Online Education Communities
Classroom 2.0 - An active education community with over 56,000 members.
1:1 Laptop Schools - An education community dedicated to connecting and inspiring educators in 1:1 schools.

Twitter
Twitter for Teachers - Terrific intro video to show how teachers can use Twitter.
Twibes - Search Twitter Groups that fit your interest.
Listorius - Lists of twitter-ers who are sorted by areas of interest. Great place to find people to follow.
How to Use Twitter to Grow Your PLN | Edutopia  - Lists of educationally focused twitter chats.
#edchat   .    #edchat website - An active Twitter chat list.
Tweetchat - This site helps you get involved in Twitter chats.

Blogging
Cited blogs:
Dr. Z Reflects - Blogging for understanding about ed tech, learning and life (Leigh Zeitz)
Cool Cat Teacher - Vicki Davis shares her life and ideas about teaching and learning.
2 Cents - David Warlick pontificates about social media, education and learning.
Angela Maiers - Angela shares her ideas and experiences about working with teachers and students.
Blogging Resources - Resource page on Dr. Z's ActiveWeb20 wiki.

Social Bookmarking
Diigo - Bookmark, share, highlight and notate your favorite places on the web
Delicious - Another bookmarking site.
Social Bookmarking in Plain English - Explained in simple terms.
Social Bookmarking Resources - Resource page on Dr. Z's ActiveWeb20 wiki.

Virtual Events
TED Talks - Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.
Hot Topics in Education: Professional Development Webinars -
K-12 Online Conference - Online conference where presenters submit 20 minute presentations that can be watched anytime. This site has 5 years of videos.
Flat Classroom Conference - Website for the Flat Classroom Conference in Beijing this past February.

Organizing Your PLN
iGoogle in Plain English - 50 second intro to iGoogle
RSS in Plain English - Real Simple Syndication explained in simple terms.
PLN Resources - Resource page on Dr. Z's ActiveWeb20 wiki.

The webinar was attended by a number of teacher, students and life coaches from multiple states.
Please keep in touch with Robin and myself:

• Robin Galloway, galloway@uni.edu Twitter: rgalloway  www.uni.edu/galloway
• Leigh Zeitz, zeitz@uni.edu  Twitter: zeitz   drzreflects.com

What additional sources to you suggest? Add them to our learning community through the comment section below.

Z

Facebook in Education?

Are you using Social Media/Social Networking in your classroom?

I don't know about you, but a lot of this jargon is getting confusing for me. What is the difference between Social Media and Social Networking? Should they/Could they all be used in your classroom?

After a great deal of research, here is my understanding of the differences:

Social Media is user-created media designed to be shared through social interaction. This can take the form of blogs, forums, wikis, podcasts, social news, etc.

Social Networking is the process of building a social structure of individuals or organizations. It doesn't have to be done over the internet. We engage in "unplugged" social networking all day long. It is primarily the system for the social interaction used to share social media. It can include Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, MySpace, FriendFinder, Classmates, etc.

Looks like a confusion of the content with the process. Content being social media while process being social networking.  The funny thing is that each entity affects the other. Social media is determined by the content that will be interesting and the medium through which it will be shared. The structure of the social networking systems is determined by the media that is shared through them. I am beginning to refer to the "whole lot" of them as Social Technologies.

I was just working on some school work when I was interrupted by the periodic twirl of TweetDeck telling me that it has detected another Tweet from my designated searches.  Interestingly enough, it yielded a few interesting resources about Social Technologies in education.

Here they are:

• 7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers (Video)
• Facebook as a Learning Tool (Video) 
• The Facebook Classroom: 25 Facebook Apps That Are Perfect for Online Education
• Every Teacher's Must-Have Guidebook to Facebook.

Do you have any ideas for using Facebook in Education?

Z 

Photo: Some rights reserved by webtreats

Using Social Media to Create Your PLN at ISTE 2010 (Updated)

Here is a link to the CoverItLive backchannel discussion that we had in our ISTE Workshop. It will take you to Lois Lindell's blog.

We had an interesting workshop. 10 people attended. There were 3 IT people who were there to learn more about what their teachers were interested in doing.  I loved their perspectives. They said that their students and teachers were involved in social media and they wanted to learn more about the topic so that they could make more informed decisions.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about strategies for IT personnel and teachers to "Play Well Together." I will cover my ideas and observations in a later posting.

Anywho, Our workshop covered a great deal of topics. We began with an introduction into Personal Learning Networks and then reviewed a number of tools to use for developing their PLNs. Here is the wiki for our presentation.


DIIGO: We began with introducing Diigo. Most of the attendees had background in Delicious.com, but we wanted them to learn about the additional features that are offered in Diigo.  We had them download toolbars and then go on a Tagging Spree. They enjoyed how they could bookmark a site, tag it and write a description. It got really exciting to see the additional things we could do with Diigo. We could:

• Twitter the posting;
• Add it to a list (which could then be rearranged, shared and used as an RSS feed); and
• Sent to a group.

What's REALLY exciting is how the list can be viewed in a live webslide show.

RSS: We did something new here. We introduced RSS feed using Diigo and then explained what it did. This is the opposite of what we usually do, but I think that it worked.

iGoogle: We used iGoogle as the RSS Organizer (We decided to use the term, Organizer, instead of Aggregator.) Began with some videos of interviewed quotes from some of my students about how they see PLNs changing the way that their students do research.

Lois shared how to she uses Diigo to follow the journal research on specific topics. I love her process and she has some useful ideas about how to organize your search into an RSS feed that you can flod into  your iGoogle Page.

Finally, Lois and I tried something new which worked quite well.  We decided to "shut up" about half way through. We suggested that the participants should find things that were interesting to them and then let them work on their own. It went quite well, but we felt like third wheels.  I guess that is just part of the process of facilitating student-centered learning.

Using Social Media to Create Your PLN at ISTE 2010

View more presentations from zeitz.

What have you found to be a useful form of Social Media to support your PLN?

How to Cite Twitter and Facebook - APA Style

Twitter and Facebook have DEFINITELY made an impact on Academia!!!!  APA Style now has defined how to cite them in a formal APA-formatted paper/article!

It's not even in the latest 6th edition of the APA Style Manual (you remember, the one with so many mistakes in its first printing that they had to call back all of those copies and have issued a reprint - the question is, how do you cite the second printing of the 6th edition?  =-)

Well, Chelsea Lee on the APA Style blog has provided guidance and examples for citing these social media sources. She says that these formats will work until more "definitive guidance is available." So I guess this means that she has received the blessing from the APA Oracles to share these rules.

Chelsea provides her guidance in two postings:

How to Cite Twitter and Facebook, Part I: General
This provides the format for just referring to a Twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/barackobama or http://www.twitter.com/zeitz) or a Facebook presence (http://www.facebook/barackobama or http://www.twitter.com/zeitz)

How to Cite Twitter and Facebook, Part II: Reference List Entries and In-Text Citations
This posting refers to citing particular posts.  These posts need to reference both the source and the specific posting.  The examples are more complicated than I want to post here so I will leave you to click on the title link to see how they work.

I teach a Seminar at the University of Northern Iowa on Writing a Graduate Paper.  I find it humorous how paranoid students get when they have to write in APA format. It becomes a barrier to writing because they are afraid that they don't know everything there is to know about APA.

IT'S ONLY A FORMAT, FOLKS!!!!!

By the end of my class, I have tried to demystify APA and convince the students that the important part of their writing is what they say and how they organize their thoughts.  The APA format is only to ensure consistency between authors and it can be implemented (and refined) towards the end of the writing process.

Sometimes it works . . . =-)

Trying to format the plethora of sources available in the world today is a moving target and I take my hat off to the folks at APA.  It's genius to run a blog that can be used to channel recommendations about formatting sources between their editions that are published about every 6 years.  It's just that educators shouldn't take the format's importance to the point of squelching creativity and original thought.

This posting about referencing Facebook and Twitter is only a small part of the many suggestions available.

What is your opinion about APA and how it's importance in teaching writing in schools?

Related articles by Zemanta

• AMA, MLA and other formats should DIE (zaid.posterous.com)
• APA Overview (slideshare.net)

Google Wave: Google Docs Meets Email (& Social Networking)

Just watched in introductory YouTubevideo about Google Wave. This was a presentation that was given at the Google I/O 209 conference (for developers). This was an early alpha demo so it crashed a couple of time in the presentation, but that is OK. They were showing this to the developers so that they would develop some apps before they release it next year.

As the title suggests, Google Wave is a new email system that merges the Central Location document concept of Google Docs with Email. This means that instead of having individual emails sent between individuals, the email will be kept in a specific place and then email would be a matter of sending invitations to the desired recipients. It makes A LOT of sense when you think about it.

Wave allows us to share photos by just copying the images into a single place and then each of the recipients will have access. They demonstrated how one person dragged the photos to the email document and it immediately appeared on one of the recipient's screen.

Blogs can be embedded in the Wave as well. It looks like the Wave is all about merging social media and breaking down the interfaces that separate them.

Since the whole system is online, it is accessible through mobile units. Unfortunately, the link didn't work in the demo, but we will believe that it works.

An exciting capability of Wave is its ability to provide collaborative writing. This is similar to the collaborative writing capabilities of Google Docs but it is IMMEDIATE. This means that your changes appear on the screens of ALL of the screens of the participants.

Wave also includes a document history capability similar to wikis. It looked like you would insert comments and track changes so it might be useful for assignment exchange between teachers and students.

I only watched the first 30 minutes but you should watch the rest to see the future.
This is AMAZING!!!

What do you think?

Z