This week we are exploring classroom tech tools through the lens of global collaboration. Modern classrooms are more than just a place where students learn skills and concepts that they might use years down the line. Today's students have amazingly broad access to all sorts of global resources and communities, thanks to our digital interconnectedness. Collaborating as a digital citizen means making connections outside of students' local communities that allow the content to come alive with real world applications. While researching potential tech tools to incorporate into my classroom to enhance global collaboration, I read about Twitter chats on Edutopia. Twitter chats absolutely fit the bill for a tech tool that helps students collaborate with each other as well as make global, real world connections with other communities. Teachers can start small by first using Twitter chats only with their students. It is important to teach students explicitly about internet safety and communicate with families to ensure parents/guardians are okay with the chat. The chat can then be used to encourage discussion around a new topic or review previous content. It can be especially helpful in getting shy students who don't like to speak up engaged in the discussion. Teachers moderate the chat to help guide student discussion towards deeper analysis and ensure appropriate conduct. Once teachers feel comfortable expanding their Twitter chats globally, they can do a simple search through the Twitter database to find other teachers teaching the same grade level and/or content in countries all over the world. Teachers are not just limited to chats with other classrooms--they can also invite experts from different countries into their Twitter chat to share their unique perspectives on the discussion. Collaborating with students and experts in other countries helps students develop global empathy as well as learn and practice digital social media skills. For teachers that aren't already Twitter users, there is some extra research that needs to be done before engaging their classroom in a Twitter chat so that teachers can understand exactly how to teach their kids to use the chat effectively. Jennifer Bowman's article on Edutopia does a good job of outlining some possible challenges teachers might encounter when facilitating a Twitter chat in their classroom, but it doesn't go into detail about how to set up an account and get your students accounts set up. From my experience teaching middle school, getting kids signed up and logged in can be a bit of a nightmare if the process is appropriately troubleshooted by the teacher beforehand. Another challenge teachers might encounter with this feature is ensuring students practice appropriate online courtesy, because of the somewhat impersonal nature of the chat. However, overall, I am excited to learn that so many classrooms all over the world are already using this tool and curious to expand my understanding of it to see possible applications for the middle school math and science classroom. References Bowman, J. (2017). Facilitating a class Twitter chat. Edutopia. Gonzalez, J. (2014). Teaching digital natives. Cult of Pedagogy. November, A. (2017). Inviting global perspectives into the classroom. November Learning. Spencer, J. (2016). 10 tips for global collaboration projects. John Spencer.
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Emma BooneFirst year 8th grade PBL math/science teacher and graduate student, wondering a bunch and figuring a few things out here and there. Archives
December 2018
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