Social Media in the Classroom

After three weeks with students we are getting into ipad apps and programs like Edmodo and kidblog.org.  Next week we will be going live with a Skype call with a class in another state to add another tool to our digital learning.  I have been discussing digital citizenship a lot with students and discussing the difference between social and academic language and what is expected when we are using tools that are generally viewed as purely "social" and talking about how they need to be "academic" when used at school with peers.

I have turned to teachers that have more experience and are sharing their tools to help make the experience successful for both teachers and learners.  Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano blog, known on twitter as @langwitches,  is a great tool for all things technology and social.  I am using her as a guide for my new dive into social media with students.  I believe one reason her students are so successful is because she creates expectations that are explicit for students and she can assess them appropriately.  Her tools to guide students also make me feel more confident about implementing social media.

My next attempt with social media will be to have students write tweets on an Edmodo backchannel, review them, then post on twitter. I also wanted to create a hashtag that would be tied to our classes blogs but also one I could tie to the school so teachers, staff, and maybe parents could follow and tweet back.  My hope is the hashtag will become something teachers at National Teachers Academy use when tweeting to share ideas among staff as well.  I believe we are all learning and need to model this for students as well.  I plan to use #ntalearns to tag our class tweets and professional tweets I want to share with my school learning community.

Follow our learning on twitter @ntastudents1 and look for our upcoming blog posts!