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The concept of amplified education is fascinating!
The Free Dictionary defines the verb "amplify" as:
To make larger or more powerful; increase.
To add to, as by illustrations; make complete.
When I think of amplifying teaching and learning, I think of:
being able to reach a global audience (instead of the audience of one)
collaborating with potentially thousands of people
collecting authentic data (through crowdsourcing)
learning with people from around the world (impossible without the use of technology)
having a voice (instead of having to rely on a middle man to give me permission, decide if I should be heard or not)
having access to information beyond my own research capabilities and time (learning how to search people in addition to information alone)
moving from using technology as a substitute to redefining teaching and learning
I am excited to be able to "amplify" my thoughts (pun intended) by "making learning larger", "increase" the perspectives and best practices… work on adding puzzle pieces of teaching reflections from my learning network.
Together with Andrea Hernandez (USA), Chic Foote (New Zealand) and Silvana Scarso (Brazil), we will practice what we preach and amplify teaching and learning via a Twitter Chat, sparking a conversation and moving forward to
define amplified teaching and learning
share resources
support each other
learn with others
crowdsource examples of best practices in professional development and from the classroom
practice amplification skills
Interested? Join us for our first #amplifiEDU Twitter Chat on Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 at 8 pm EST
Amplified Education-Join us for the first #amplifiEDU Twitter Chat on Wednesday, Sept 9 at 8 pm ESTClick To Tweet
Our topic will be: Set the Tone for the New School Year : Amplify Learning (in honor of the Northern Hemisphere returning to school)
#amplifiEDU Twitter Chat: Set the Tone for the New School Year : Amplify Learning -Wednesday, 9/9…Click To Tweet
We have prepared 5 questions and 2 challenges
If you have never participated in a Twitter chat, why not give it a try? We promise we won’t bite and make it worth your while.
Amplified Education-Join us for the first @amplifiEDU Twitter Chat on Wednesday, Sept 9 at 8 pm ESTClick To Tweet
You can check out the following resources to wrap your mind around Twitter Chats:
Participate in a Twitter Chat by Sue Waters
How to join a Twitter Chat by Vicki Davis
Participating in a Twitter Chat by Alice Keeler
5 Tips for Managing a Fast Paced Twitter Chat by Craig Kemp
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:13am</span>
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Steve Hargadon invited me to participate in the Teacher Entrepreneurship Week and asked for an interview to talk about my perspective.
With a tagline for Teacher entrepreneurship: Realizing and understanding that the middle man is gone! , I was on board.
In 4 days he recorded and curated interviews with almost 40 educators.
Four evenings of interviews, broadcast live on Google Hangouts on Air / YouTube. Steve Hargadon guides us through the world of teachers as agents of creation and change.
THE LINEUP:
Adam Bellow | Alice Keeler | Angela Maiers | Anne Mirtschin | Barbara Bray | Ben Wilkoff | Bernard Bull | Bill Ferriter | Chris Sloan | Curtis Bonk | Dan Meyer | David Warlick | Dean Shareski | Erin Klein | Esther Wojcicki | Gary Stager | Jon Corippo | Julie Lindsay | Karen Fasimpaur | Lee Kolbert | Lisa Nielsen | Lucy Gray | Matt Harris, Ed.D | Mike Lawrence | Nicholas Provenzano | Nicole Tucker-Smith | Paul Allison | Ramsay Musallam | Richard Byrne | Rushton Hurley | Shabbi Luthra | Shelly Sanchez Terrell | Silvia Tolisano | Steven Anderson | Suzie Boss | Sylvia Martinez | Tom Whitby | Vicki Davis | Will RichardsonSee all the recordings here.
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:12am</span>
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This post if meant to be seen through the lens of Looking and Documenting FOR Learning from the perspective of administrators or staff in charge of supporting teachers’ professional development and ongoing learning.
I worked with teachers and administrators this past week at the Bavarian International School in Munich, Germany. Rachel Jackson, teacher librarian (mostly on Twitter) & Kim House, Technology Coordinator (mostly in a TodaysMeet backchannel) did an incredible job in documenting the work over our 3 days together.
Not only did they document what they "heard", but also
curated resources supporting the conversation topic
as well as made specific connections to
their school’s culture, questions and concerns
previous professional development
individual and collective teachers’ mind and skill sets
Kim & Rachel were an invaluable asset to document in the backchannel, giving the school a chance to unpack the documentation to look for learning and use as a stepping stone of what’s next at their school.
How can you use the documentation of professional development as a tool to LOOK FOR LEARNING?Click To Tweet
How can you use the documentation of professional development as a tool to LOOK FOR LEARNING?
[<a href="//storify.com/langwitches/looking-for-learning" target="_blank">View the story "Looking For Learning" on Storify</a>]
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:12am</span>
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Interested in working with me? Consider hiring me as a consultant to coach your administration and staff to develop shareable content for your school.
There is a difference between Social Media IN schools and Social Media FOR schools.
There is a difference between Social Media IN schools and Social Media FOR schools.Click To Tweet
While social media in schools deals primarily with policies around how to use (or not use) social media in the classroom with students, social media for schools is about storytelling and getting their stakeholders (teachers, students, administrators, parents, community) to spread these stories.
In the best case scenarios, social media IN schools is focused on:
developing best practices HOW to use social media to support teaching and learning
connect, communicate and collaborate through social media to an authentic global audience
In worst case scenario, social media IN schools is focused on:
preventing the use by students
regulating the use of social media by teachers
not allow access to prevent network security issues, institutional transparency, cyberbullying, etc.
This post does not focus on any of these issues, but on the potential of using social media FOR schools. Telling the story of schools serves several purposes:
curation (find, filter, organize, connect and present) information for their stakeholders
adding value to a conversation, topic, theme, initiative with quality content
sharing of best practices in teaching and learning
making quality content visible to and shareable with others
creating connections and a network of schools to advance education
documenting institutional memory
Column Five states in the video, The Value of Visualization,
Your message is only as good as your ability to share it
Your message is only as good as your ability to share itClick To Tweet
The quote above begs the question, how schools are leveraging the power of sharing their message via social media and grow their ability to develop shareable content to contribute to a global educational community?
Let’s look at developing shareable content for schools through an academic lens and in terms of branding schools globally as a learning community.
Let’s consider the why, who, what and characteristics of developing shareable content.
WHY SHARE?
According to The New York Times Customer Insight Group, there are 5 reasons why people share. How do these reasons relate to the reasons why schools might be sharing?
Feel connected
Share school and team spirit and belonging through different venues. How are stakeholders connected to teaching and learning at the school? Who is involved in initiatives and projects? Who is part of the school community?
Define themselves
What do we, as a school, stand for, support, believe in? How do we fit in the community? What is our mission? What are our goals as a school community? What are we accepting as demonstration of our core values?
Entertain
Schools share images, videos and other media to provide enjoyment and give an insight to school life, capture teaching and learning as well as share products of student and teacher creativity.
Support a Cause
Schools spread initiatives and calls to action, encouraging support for variety of causes.
Build & Cement relationships
Schools are building, growing and cementing relationships with community members, local and global businesses, current and past students, families, faculty, experts, consultants and global educators.
WHO & WHAT TO SHARE?
Students share
own learning
Students document their learning journey through the use of digital portfolios that are visible and accessible to an authentic global audience.
Teachers share
own learning
Teachers experience reflective, metacognitive, connected learning through the use of their own professional learning portfolio
professional development
Teachers collaborate and contribute to a school’s professional development blog to document and share their professional development experiences ( conferences attended, online learning, professional readings, etc.)
student learning
Teachers capture evidence of learning (and its process) to inform further teaching. Teachers also share student work and learning to connect globally with experts and peers to amplify learning.
Administrators share
own learning
Administrators are models of life long learners for their faculty and students. Through curation of resources and reflection of their own learning in progress, they make their commitment visible to others.
teacher learning
Administrators share bright spots of teaching, learning and innovation at their schools with a global audience
school initiatives
What are the goals of moving a school initiative forward? How will you achieve buy-in from stakeholders? How will you share information about background, supportive resources, progress, successes, etc.?
lead storyteller
Administrators should be the lead storytellers of their school. Lead storytellers do not leave what is being said about the school to others. They choose, what and how the story of their school community is told.
Community shares
school experiences
The best marketing tool for any brand is when others share their (positive) experiences with their own network. This type of endorsement is worth more than if it were coming from the brand itself.
events
taking advantage of multiple "points of view" and documenters , gives the audience an amplified perspective and "coverage" of any event.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAREABLE CONTENT
The content created should exhibit the following characteristics:
Title: must be capturing
We only have a split second to catch the attention of our audience in the age of information overload. The title should capture the potential viewer’s interest and encourage to share with their own network (word of mouth or/and online network) Think… "5 Ways to Avoid the Back to School Blues" or "Hurrah, The School is on Fire"
Content: relevant, timely, useful
The content must by relevant to the potential audience. Is it relevant to tweet out the school’s lunch menu? (Depends on the audience… students, faculty, parent community… possibly… a global audience… most likely not). Think… Looking to make global connections for your students to participate in a project about the 2016 Olympics? Make sure the content does not get disseminated a few days before the start of the games, but allow time to form these connections. Disseminate content, useful to others, to teach and learn about the Olympics the months before the upcoming games.
Accompanying Images and Videos (and other visual content)
Our brain processes visual content at a much faster rate than text alone. Statistics support that your audience will be more likely to click on a post if it contains a visual versus text alone.
Think… infographics, Memes, short video clips, how-to-guides, high quality photography
Added Value
Shareable content usually provides some sort of added value to potential audiences to encourage re-sharing. Simple copying or repackaging of material created by others (might also infringe on copyright) does not support building of a creative, innovative school brand. Find ways to add value for others by curating and filtering information, adding perspectives to issues, make connections to thoughts, ideas and concepts visible to others. Think…" Carol Dweck’s Growth versus Fixed Mindset is sweeping the educational arena around the world, we are sharing with you how our faculty is applying her work in the classroom…."
Appeal to Emotions (joy, fear, surprise, self-esteem effection, trust, hope, pleasure, uncertainty, amusement)
Nothing can be stronger than provoking emotions in your audience to encourage them to share your content with others. What matters most to your audience: their children, their teaching job and career? their education? Career readiness? Safety? Create content that appeal to any of these emotions) Think… fostering loyalty and driving school advocacy. How about about holding a contest for alumni to contribute photos of their years spent at your school or create an infographic about your school’s alumni college success or a video following a recent graduate to a feeder school?
Easily shareable
Make it as easy as possible for your content to be shared, streamline the process as much as possible for your audience. Make your content available on different platforms to encourage the users of these platforms to share with their network. Think… Have social media share buttons embedded in your posts (Tweet this, Pin This, Like Us on Facebook, etc.). Best if you can make one-click sharing available.
Defines people
We share with others the things that define us? Take a deep look at what defines your school and its community? Is it academics? Is it Sports? A combination? Is your school known for innovation? Show your audience a version of themselves, a way they define themselves or as they want to be seen by others and they’ll be more likely to pass it along to their network. Think… content that demonstrates leadership in innovation among competitor schools. Content that supports the vision of the school employing top educators of the region.
Illustrates thought leadership
We live in a moment in history, where change happens at lightning speed. Traditional pedagogy, tried and proven to be effective for decades, suddenly is proving to not prepare students with the necessary skills and literacies for their future. Every school, every administrator and every teacher is presented with opportunities for action research in any area of educational interest. By choosing to explore these opportunities further, we all are becoming pioneers redefining and transforming teaching and learning. Think… Capture and document the learning process your school is undertaking as you implement digital portfolios.
Adapt, Remix and Improve
Stand on the shoulders of your network. Learn from others, adapt, remix and improve on their work. Become part of an ecosystem to collaborate and improve education. The different puzzle pieces making up the ecosystem feel first hand how contributing makes each component function better. Take a closer look at Creative Commons work from other educators and schools and create content to add value, share examples or perspective. Think…sharing means amplification
Insight to real world stakeholders live in
Share content with your audience that demonstrates to them, you have an insight into their real world. Do you want students/parents/teachers to help tell the story of your school, create content that gives them insight into their own world and they will help you spread the word. Think…content that illustrates how to survive pre-teen and teenage years. Create content that guides your students through the selection of high school courses. Illustrate how to manage homework load.
Interested in having Silvia work with your school to develop a social media strategy?
Contact her to discuss consulting options.
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:11am</span>
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While my last blog post was focused on developing shareable content FOR schools via social media, I have taken a step back to look at the bigger picture and the different components schools need to consider and gain fluency in order to best harvest the power of social media for them.
awareness of the difference between social media IN schools and FOR schools
social media strategy for schools
social media platforms and tools: characteristics, capabilities, type of content suited for particular platform, image/video sizes
characteristics of shareable content
Interested in having me work with you, your school, administrators, teachers and students? We will unpack the power of social media for telling your school’s story, brand yourself as an educator to support your school’s brand and create a social media strategy for your organization or professional brand. Contact me to get started!
Download Social Media FOR Schools infographic for free (pdf)
While social media in schools deals primarily with policies around how to use (or not use) social media in the classroom with students, social media for schools is about storytelling and getting their stakeholders (teachers, students, administrators, parents, community) to spread these stories.
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:10am</span>
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Announcing the second #amplifiEDU Twitter Chat for this upcoming Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 8 pm EST!
Our topic of discussion will be: Becoming More Connected!- The 7 Degrees of Connectedness.
Your moderators: Silvana Scarso (Brazil), Chic Foote (New Zealand), Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (USA) & Andrea Hernandez (USA)
Join Us #amplifiEDU Twitter Chat, Wednesday, Sept.30 @ 8 pm EST- Becoming more connected- The 7…Click To Tweet
The topic is based on Rodd Lucier‘s blog post Seven Degrees of Connectedness, which in turn was amplified when I created an infographic of the same name.
Looking forward to seeing you and perhaps stepping out of your comfort zone to amplify your own connectedness by going beyond being a lurker!
Our Questions for the Twitter Chat:
Q1: Look at the 7 Levels of Connectedness infographic & self-assess. Please share where you think you are as a connected learner.
Q2: What does it take to become more connected? What has brought you to your current level of connectedness?
Q3: What are the rewards of being connected?
Q4: What discourages you from connecting?
Q5: Can you find a tweet to connect with? Take the time to reply to someone else.
Q6: What is ONE THING you will do to amplify your level connectedness or your area of influence?
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:09am</span>
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I spent an intense day with administrators (Heads of School, Directors of communication, admission) at the AASSA (Association of American Schools in South America) Social Media Institute discussing social media FOR schools (not social media IN schools).
You can find the documentation including resources and examples in this post.
Description: Gone are the days of having to discuss the existence and importance of a social media presence for schools. Faculty, students, parents, stakeholders, potential families and employees, and a people-network, vital to your organization, are expecting interaction, curated information and just in time news updates. Who is the lead storyteller at your school? Social Media has changed the way we communicate, curate, archive and disseminate information. Schools no longer push out content as a one sided conversation. Who is overseeing what, when and how something is being said about your school? How do schools harness the power of social media and embed authentic, collaborative, and networked communication, learning and marketing?
The day was divided into 4 sessions
Social Media 101: Introduction to Social Media concept. Review the social landscape of the year 2015. What does an integrated and interconnected network mean for your school? What can social media do for your school in terms of learning, marketing, outreach, faculty recruiting, retention and professional development?
Social Media Platforms and Tools: Look at the "current" social media platforms. We will highlight the nuances of each. Which social media platform is best suited for a specific purpose? How do you streamline various platforms? What types of media or information is being shared?
Strategic Social Media Planning: Develop a social media strategy for your school. Know your constituents and know the kinds of content they want and need. How do you curate resources customized to their needs? How do you connect via social media your faculty to experts and colleagues to collaborative grow and learn as professionals? How do you grow your social media presence and network? What do you want the world to know about your school? What is your school’s digital footprint? What does your online brand communicate about the school?
Social Media Hands-on: Work on your own professional social media presence. Experience the power of social networking. Learn to create engaging content (photos, videos, questions, mission driven, etc). Experiment with social media writing genres, #hashtags, visual design tools, digital storytelling and strategically grow your network.
Here is the accompanying slidedeck to the workshop for your to review, share and use, as your school is starting or continuing their journey into social media.
My first question was to find out HOW schools were ALREADY using social media. I asked participants to share via a Today’s Meet backchannel. I realized that there is a difference in responses between WHERE (as in social media platform) the school "is on" (much easier to respond to) and HOW a school is using social media.
I also asked attendees to share their social media comfort level, as well as their school’s and personal (as in professional educator) social media presence by filling out a google form. Here is the landscape of participating AASSA schools social media presence
School Websites:
American School of Brasilia
Escola Campo Alegre
The Columbus School
Albert Einstein
Colegio Maya
Pan American School of Bahia
International School of Panama
Colegio Jorge Washington
Colegio Internacional de Carabobo
Colegio Interamericano
Pan American School
Associacion Escuelas Lincoln
Interamerican Academy
Carol Morgan School
American School of Rio de Janeiro
Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito
Chapel School
Colegio American de Quito
Academia Cotopaxi, American International School
Uruguayan American School
Escola Americana de Belo Horizonte
Escola Americana do Recife
Georgetown International Academy
Below you will find the social media presence participants shared… a perfect opportunity to view, notice, consider and be inspired how social media is used for branding (personal/professional and as a school), as well as being able to "harvest" feeds and usernames to build and grow your own network.
Blogs:
Barry Déquanne (Head of School American School of Brasilia)
Nicholaas Moster ( Middle School Principal, Carol Morgan School)
Twitter:
AASSA Member Schools (AASSA curated Twitter List)
International Educators (AASSA curated Twitter List)
International Administrators (AASSA curated Twitter List)
Twitter Hashtags:
#AELPD
#gradedpd
#CDSlearning
Facebook Pages:
Colegio Menor Campus Samborondon
Colegio Menor Campus Quito
International School of Panama
Colegio Interamericano de Guatemala
Escola American da Bahia
Colegio Roosevelt Alumni
Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro
Pan American School of Porto Alegre
International School of Panama Alumni
American School of Brasilia
Academia Cotopaxi & Imagine Education
Colegio Alberto Einstein
Colegio Jorge Washington
Uruguayan American School
Colegio Maya Guatemala
Georgetown International Academy
Escola Americana Belo Horizonte
Carol Morgan School
Interamerican Academy
Instagram:
Colegio Menor- Quito
Colegio Menor - Samborondón
ISP Arts
Escola Americana de Belo Horizonte
Colegio Jorge Washington
American School of Brasilia
Pinterest:
Barry Dequanne
Academia Cotopaxi
YouTube:
The Colegio Maya
Carol Morgan School
Colegio Roosevelt
Colegio Jorge Washington
American School of Panama
Colegio Interamericano de Guatemala
Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro
LinkedIn:
American School of Brasilia
Colegio Interamericano de Guatemala
Academia Cotopaxi
Escola Americana de Belo Horizonte
Carol Morgan School
Toby Travis
Roberta Coelho
Barry Dequanne
Social media FOR schools is about storytelling. We are also telling the story of ourselves as life long learners, as educators, as professionals. In order to make our stories more visual, we took a look at how we can incorporate the cultural phenomenon of the selfies to put ourselves into the stories, a way to document that we were part of an event, of a learning experience or a process. For some participants, it was the first time taking a selfie.
By taking a look at what the questions or concerns are, schools will have a great starting point to continue (and share) conversations back at their schools
Participants were also challenged to think about the story of their school. In a world, were potential readers and viewers make a decision if they will read, listen, view or watch what you are sharing, the skills to be able to summarize, be brief and visual are highly valued. How would they tell the story in 15 seconds! Watch a few examples in the video below.
Social Media FOR Schools: Your School’s Story in 15 Seconds or Less from AASSA on Vimeo.
The backchannel on Today’s Meet continued to prove a valuable platform as it was used to share:
connection requests
further resources
questions around conversations to be continued
examples mentioned in conversations
Discussions around POLICY seemed to be a priority. I encouraged participants to take a look at these two policy examples and consider the difference between Acceptable Use Policy and Responsible Use Policy
Take a look at further resources below with list of questions to guide developing a policy.
How to Create Social Media Guidelines for your School by Steve Anderson
Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools by Dr. Alec Couros & Dr. Katia Hildebrandt
Recommended reading list for Social Media FOR Schools:
Show your Work by Austin Kleon
The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki & Peg Fitzpatrick
The Power of Branding by Tony Sinaris & Joseph Sanfelippo
Digital Leadership by Eric Sheninger
The Power of Visual Storytelling by Ekaterina Walter & Jessica Gioglio
While newbies practiced to summarize, curate or connect their resources, thoughts and ideas in 140 characters on paper… others, with a Twitter account already, were encouraged to participate by using the #AASSA hashtag to document, take notes and share out.
[View the story "AASSA Social Media Institute" on Storify]
Interested in continuing the conversation about social media FOR schools? Share HOW you are using social media for your school in the comment, use the #socialmedia4schools or #AASSA (For International schools) hashtag.
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:08am</span>
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The 3rd #amplifiEDU Twitter Chat has been scheduled. Mark your calendars and join us!
October 14, 2015 - 8 pm EST!
Our topic of discussion will be: Documenting FOR Learning.
Mark your calendars for the #amplifiEDU Chat. October 14, 2015 - 8 pm EST! Our topic of discussion:…Click To Tweet
Your moderators: Silvana Scarso (Brazil), Chic Foote (New Zealand), Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (USA) & Andrea Hernandez (USA) and Katrin Barlsen (Argentina)
While we will be digging deeper into the topic, Documenting FOR Learning, by following the Q1/A1 chat format (see questions below), we will continue to practice what we preach and use this opportunity to AMPLIFY teaching and learning.
Last Twitter chat was documented through the lens of a Twitter Newbie through a screencast of the chat- Becoming More Connected, commentated and individual components of the chat unpacked (structure, format, mentions, hashtags, etc.) pointed out and the speed of the conversation slowed down for newbies to be able to follow, become aware and even potentially participate.
This upcoming #amplifiEDU Twitter chat will be documented through the lens of CURATION. Using different documentation techniques, we will make thinking, learning and perspectives around the topic of documentation FOR learning visible. You will be able to catch the product of that documentation (and all future documentations around amplified education) by subscribing to the amplifiEDucation blog, by following the @amplifiEDU user or the #amplifiEDU hashtag on Twitter.
Questions:
Q1: Why documenting FOR learning?
Q2: What can you document?
Q3: How do you get into the habit of a "documenter"?
Q4: What will you accept as evidence of learning?
Q5: Have you taken the time to connect and respond.
Q6: What will you DO with the documentation?
Q7: How do you become metacognitive about documentation?
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:07am</span>
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This post is part of C.M Rubin’s monthly series in the Huffington post: The Global Search for Education: Our Top 12 Global Teacher Blogs. This month we are answering the following prompt:
Can Social Media Have a Role to Play in Managing a Successful Classroom?
As in previous posts in the series, I am examining the prompt from a semantic point of view and ask myself immediately: What do we consider " managing a successful classroom" (and even what does it successful mean)? I also stumbled immediately over the word "CAN" and cringed when I wondered if it could say "Should" or "Must"? Semantics aside and out with an easy and short response: YES, social media can play a role in a successful classroom.
Maybe a better question would be: Why is Social Media not playing a larger role in managing successful classrooms?
Social Media is one venue (of many) to LEARN… why should it not play a role in our schools?
Our students are gravitating (on their own) to Social Media for learning on their own terms outside of schools… why should we not take advantage of that for their learning in schools?
Learning for the 22nd century increasingly means being social and connected… why should we not take advantage of the platform to support that kind of social and connected learning ?
Social Media adds so many layers of depth to traditional learning strategies to include modern/now literacies… why would we not want to expose, facilitate and support our students in becoming literate in the area of global, network, media, information literacies and digital citizenship?
Communication has changed in the world around us. It is more visual, it is more concise, it is shareable, it is exponential in terms of the reach of our communication…how is this reflected in our current curriculum and pedagogies? (to quote Heidi Hayes Jacobs: "What year are we preparing our students for?")
Information has changed our lives. The way we have access to it, the way we filter it, the way we consume it, the way we need to evaluate it, the way we produce it, the way we disseminate it. Social Media plays an integral part in the way information flows in our daily lives… why would we not give the learners in our classroom the opportunity to play, experiment, touch, mold, nurture, take apart, put together, create, disseminate, connect and learn to live and thrive in a world of exponential growth of information? Why are we not preparing our students with the critical skill of searching, not just information, but people trough our human networks.
The lines between our lives and "digital lives" are blurring at an accelerating speed, just as the difference between citizenship and "digital citizenship" is becoming hazier… why would we not embed authentic learning opportunities in our classroom to foster positive citizenship (analog and digital)?
The world is shrinking. Connecting, communicating and collaborating with people from around the world, due to technology, is sometimes easier than the same task involving people from the same geographic location… how can we not give our students the opportunities to broaden their geographic and cultural horizons by interacting beyond their culture, language and perspective
Take a look at some of my documentation over the past years from the trenches of Social Media in the Classroom:
Transfer of Modern Skills, Literacies, Fluency & Independence 4th Grade Style
CSI Twitter- Crime Scene Investigation
Tweeting with Elementary School Kids
Guide to Twitter in the K-8 Classroom
Twitter HOTS & Establishing a Twitter Routine in the Classroom
The Middle Man is Gone: You Have a Voice
Assessment in the Modern Classroom: Part One: Twitter
Assessment in the Modern Classroom: Part Two- Taxonomy of a Skype Conversation
Assessment in the Modern Classroom: Part Three- Blog Writing
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:06am</span>
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The #amplifiEDU Twitter chat from September 30th, was documented through the lens of a Twitter Newbie through a screencast of the chat- Becoming More Connected, commentated and individual components of the chat.
On October 14th, the 3rd #ampliefiEDU Twitter Chat was held with the topic of Documenting FOR Learning.
Amplifying learning sometimes means looking at information, filtering, evaluating that information and re-mixing that information, possibly through a different medium, to make that information more visible and accessible to a larger audience. Different people, documenting through their own lens of CURATION can tell the story of that information from different perspectives.
Using different documentation techniques, we can make thinking, learning and perspectives around the topic of documentation FOR learning visible.
Twitter Storify Archive (by choosing to archive the Twitter Chat, also filtering non-pertinent information), we are curating and amplifying the chat, making it available for future use, amplifying the audience asynchronously, beyond the ones who were present at the actual time of the chat)
Sprouting new Ideas by Melina Seifert (Melina shares a bilingual post (English & Spanish) and further amplifying her learning by making it accessible to non-English speakers)
Curating People by Andrea Hernandez (Andrea creates and infographic and uses the time invested in creating that infographic as part of her learning and thinking process versus seeing the infographic image file as an end product)
Below you will see an infographic as I shifted through all responses to the 6 main questions posed during the chat and grouped them visually together for a better, more organized overview of participants’ responses
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 07, 2015 11:06am</span>
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