Digital Badge #F

While reading chapter 8 in the text this week, I found the section “Sharing Information with Families” to be interesting. This was because I believe that sharing information online with students and their families is an effective way to keep students and their parents updated without spending an enormous amount of time. For about six weeks, I worked as a long-term substitute in a Kindergarten classroom. Keeping each individual family informed about what was going on in the classroom was difficult. Not only did each child have their behavior reports I had to fill out daily, but I also had to include any upcoming events or information that needed to be provided, as well as news and help for homework. If I was able to provide that type of information on a website that all families could access, it would have saved a great amount of time, allowing me to spend it in a more useful manner. I believe this type of communication also helps with the higher grades such as middle school and high school because students can access their assignments and pertinent information without any problem. I do, however, dislike that in many areas not all families have access to internet or the proper resources to view these types of webpages. Unfortunately for some schools, this type of communication with families may not be useful.

Another section of the text that interested me was “Using Email and Text Messaging as a Teacher”. I found this to be a valuable section because texting and e-mailing is so widely used in everyday life for almost any age. The text states “for school-age adolescents, text messaging is the predominate form of online communication- more and more teens would rather text than talk on phones (Lenhart, 2012a)” (Maloy, 193). Clearly, texting (when used appropriately) is a great way for teachers to communicate with students about information such as upcoming assignments or reminders. The majority of teens today own a cell phone; many younger students are now possessing cell phones as well. One of my previous professors also works as a 5^th grade teacher and a large amount of his students own their own cell phones. He uses a program that allows him to send out a mass text to his students without displaying his personal cell phone number or allowing them to text back. There is a downfall to this type of communication as well, though. While observing in my middle school classrooms, I have noticed that many students are having a very hard time with writing. Generating complete sentences with the correct punctuation and spelling seems to be a difficult task and I believe a big part of that has to do with students texting with “textspeak” or “digitalk” at such a high rate that they are forgetting what it is to actually write academically (194).

One more section from chapter 8 that I found to be interesting was the “Connections & Possibilities” article included on page 199 titled “Twitter for Teachers” (Maloy). I, myself, do not have an account on Twitter, but I have seen first-hand the powerful affect it has in many different areas. The text states that this specific social media page processed “250 million tweets a day in October 2011, with the number growing monthly” (Maloy, 199). While many people use Twitter strictly for social pleasures, it can be a valuable tool for teachers when it comes to delivering information to students. With the use of hashtags, information is organized and can be easily searched. Students can also “look for conversations in specific subject areas, such as #scichat and #scitalk for science, #engchat and #engtalk for English/language arts, #mathchat for math, and so on” (Maloy, 199). Many students may also enjoy being able to communicate with their teacher in a world where they are already so comfortable in. As a future teacher, I would like to create my own Twitter account so that I will be able to share information with my students.

Below is an article I found to be interesting and helpful when it comes to texting in the classroom. It helps explain when it is appropriate and the effective ways it can be used:

Teaching With Text Messages 

http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8

Sources:

Maloy, R., O’Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning  with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Venable, Melissa. (2012). OnlineCollege.Org. Online Colleges (2014). 3 Oct. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.onlinecollege.org/teaching-with-text-messages/