Twitter in Education

One of my colleagues sent out an email last week asking for a vote in a "microgrant" competition in order to receive a flip camera for her class projects. Since I truly feel that this sort of media is the wave of the future for young learners, I was quick to go to the website and cast my vote.

I turned right around and mentioned that should she truly hope to win, she should send a tweet out to all of her followers. Having remembered the "tsunami" of tweets during the edublog voting period, I felt that this would be a great way to up her numbers.

Since she is not quite the "tweeter" that I am, I asked if I might send a shout-out to all of my followers through Twitter. Sure enough, she jumped from somewhere back in the list to 3rd place where she has held steady for the last few days. It may not be from my tweeting, but in all honesty, I simply think it might be, because the surge was directional proportional to my tweets.

I firmly believe that tweeting is beneficial in education for many reasons. One of the most exciting was that of this latest experience whereby through my tweets, a number of my followers were directed to the magnificent projects that are hoping to win a flip camera for their classroom. This is collaboration - like many instances - at its best.

How I am spending my furlough day

Today is a furlough day for teachers in my school system. I have much to do to prepare for submitting grades, but I have the honor of doing it while observing one of the leaders in the nation for school library media specialists, Buffy Hamilton at Creekview High School. Her media center is recognized under the label, "The Unquiet Library". I am here, and it is true to its label.

My Statement of Educational Philosophy

As I see it, an exemplary educator must recognize the individuality of the child and that each child’s learning style is different. This is true in reference to culture and family backgrounds as well. Not only do students want to be heard, they must be heard. The learning environment is a two-way street, and mutual respect is the key to its success.

Each child truly does want to learn and does look to the adult as a guide through the learning process. A true educator understands that the student communicates best when felt that he/she is being guided in a manner that leads to progress, rather than solely assessing one’s work through quantitative means. Students thrive when the educator is passionate about their own personal success.

Furthermore, each and every child excels at something; sometimes it is a question of recognizing the talents of the individual student, and creating a unique environment whereby he/she can thrive. Educators should always seek out a means of recognizing this, even when it entails dealing with an entire classroom of students.

Standards must be established and set at the beginning, and must be well communicated to the students. When students do not know what to expect, they are simply unable to recognize the need to meet them. In sum, students would rather have standards and structure than to than to try to interpret – with the possibility of misinterpretation - what is to be expected of them.

The student of today is technologically savvy; rather than limiting or denying the student access to those environments in which the child feels the most comfortable, it behooves the educator to learn from the child, and incorporate these technologies into the learning environment.

It is vital to understand that the 21^st Century is a fast-paced and ever-changing environment with an increase in the delivery and quantity of information as never seen before. It is incumbent on the educator of today to guide the student of today into this Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 world, by staying at the forefront of changes in education, being active in virtual and online environments, advancing one’s professional career, and promoting the positive value of social media in education and setting an example for the student of today by using such technologies in a legal and ethical manner.

Finding Dulcinea and Sweet Search

One of the highlights of my weekend is assisting at an Elluminate online class via Classroom 2.0 and although I find all of the classes very interesting and great learning experiences, this weekend's feature was particularly interesting to me.

A former attorney, Mark Moran, has created a search engine that is student-friendly, with numerous features that are suitable for the classroom as well as allowing students the possibility of adding content - Web 3.0, here we come.

I recommend that all educators take a look at this site in depth, as even its title is intriguing - Finding Dulcinea, Librarian of the Internet.