Friday, October 14, 2011

How to use Twitter for teaching: a communicative function

Twitter is one of  social media  that teachers can utilize for their teaching, and there are several ways that the teachers can consider to use it more creatively and effectively. The article 28 Creative Ways Teachers Are using Twitter introduces some specific roles of Twitter that provide teachers valuable information to be utilized for their teaching. To me, the most interesting and important function of Twitter among the 28 is “communication between classes”. This might be one of the most obvious functions of any social networks. I like the fact that we can share our ideas and exchange information with people from outside of the course, as well as students within the course.

Another other article, Developing a Personal Sharing Network talks about changing a term of PLN (Personal Learning Network) to PSN (Personal Sharing Network). I think this is also an interesting idea that emphasizes the function of social networks in a field of learning, as a communicative opportunities provider. Therefore, social media we use today are a means of cooperative learning through communication rather than providing knowledge only, and I would  utilize this strength of social networks for my future teaching.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Classroom 2.0 - a useful social network

                                                         

Classroom 2.0 is a social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and social media in education. I like it because it introduces many other edublogs that seem to be useful for my future blogging to be inspired. It was good to see several interesting teaching materials introduced through the forum discussions. In the section of “group”, I saw various groups that are formed for different purposes of education. It also has  many articles and resources that might be effective in learning how to manage the classroom integrating Web 2.0 technology. For any future teachers who want to know more about web teaching might be interested in this social network.   

A Teacher is Like a Compass..

The development of technology enriches our life styles in many ways. The way we communicate, spend our leisure time, work, and learn is hugely affected by a variety of technical changes. In the field of learning, a formal schooling is no more the only way we could teach and learn. Beyond the teaching knowledge at a school, today’s teachers must be prepared to guide the learners to experience and adapt many different fields of knowlege during the learning process. Within the use of technology,  lots of chances are available for leaners to find the most suited field to themselves. Moreover, the roles of teacher became much more important than in the past. According to the  article,  Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital AGE,Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime”. As this trend is continuing, a teacher is responsible for learners joining into the new learning space such as blogs, wikis, and other networks. The Impact of Social Media on Learning also emphasizes the influence of social software in learning, “The social software that we see today in form of blogs and wikis developed in order to enable the individuals to quickly change knowledge field to continue learning from each other”.
  Like this, in the digital world, we could learn more than just one knowledge field. There are a lot of opportunities to see and learn many other areas that we could utilize in the future life as well. In terms of that, a teacher must help the learners to find the field where they are interested in and suitable the most. By providing sources related to various knowledge fields  through the social media and technology, a teacher plays an important role in leading the learners to find the right path of their lives. That is why I compare a teacher of today to a compass in respect of  navigating the right direction.