3.7 - Communication & Collaboration
Candidates utilize digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community. (PSC 3.7/ISTE 3g)
Artifacts:
Teacher Technology Help Page - Lee County School System
Twitter (screenshot view of account provided)
Edmodo (screenshot view of account provided)
Kidblog (screenshot view of account provided)
Reflection:
Each of the artifacts presented above were created for a different purpose. The first, the Teacher Technology Help Page for Lee County School System, is the most recent of the artifacts. This website was designed by the Lee County Instructional Technology Team, which includes me and one other person. We used Weebly, to collaboratively create the website, which was created to be a technology tools assistance website. Teachers can find tools sorted by grade level and each has a brief overview and help video. On the website, we also included a “Teacher Spotlight” to recognize teacher technology leaders in our school system and do so about once a month. Most importantly, we decided to co-author a weekly blog, which we alternate writing, to communicate to local peers and the larger community (teachers, administrators, parents, board members, and community stakeholders) about things going on in the schools.
Each week, we also share the blog post on Twitter, which you see displayed in the second artifact above. In addition to posting a link to our weekly blog post, I also use Twitter (which also feeds to my Facebook) as a digital communication tool to communicate with other educators locally and globally. Connecting with local teachers on Twitter and Facebook allows me to be updated frequently about events in all of the schools in our system. Connecting and collaborating with teachers around the world on Twitter is also an important part of being a connected educator. Educational technology enthusiasts like Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher), Steven Anderson (@web20classroom), and Erin Klein (@KleinErin) provide a wealth of information and sometimes just positive thoughts valuable for any teacher. I’ve also found that most of the connections I’ve made on Twitter are also helpful when responding to my personal questions and thoughts.
A third digital communication and collaboration tool I have found useful is Edmodo. As a classroom teacher, I used Edmodo as a learning management system, a social learning platform, and an opportunity to connect globally with other educators. I used Edmodo to communicate with students and parents, often sharing updates on class events, project requirements, and due dates for projects and assessments. In addition to this, I have joined a variety of learning networks on Edmodo and post to these to ask for ideas about potential projects. I have found that my global peers on Edmodo are quick to collaborate and I try to offer the same.
Kidblog was also an important digital communication and collaboration tool in my classroom. Students used Kidblog to generate their own blogs about the biomes of the world and then collaborated by sharing those blogs and providing feedback to one another. With the help of some teachers and students we connected with on Edmodo, students were able to use the blogs to communicate globally, rather than just within the classroom. It was always exciting for us to see the “View Stats” and see all of the places our blog had been viewed.
All of these learning experiences were important for me and built upon one another. Edmodo was the first opportunity I had to connect globally with other educators and to communicate with students and parents. It was from what I experienced in Edmodo and Kidblog that I knew that using Twitter to connect with other educators would be beneficial and rewarding. Creating the technology tool website actually occurred more out of necessity but the blog portion of the website has proved to be a very effective way to communicate locally. I would not change my experiences with Edmodo, Kidblog, or Twitter, but I might recreate or reorganize the technology tools website. In fact, that is currently under discussion. We think that separating the tools by grade level might not be as effective as it might be to separate the tools by category.
Each tool has a different impact on student learning, faculty development, and school improvement. Kidblog and Edmodo had a positive impact on student learning in my classroom because students indicated they enjoyed these digital communication tools. Twitter has had a positive impact on faculty development and school improvement, which is indicated in its use during both system professional development days and the requests I often get to share material and blogs I have viewed. Our teacher technology tools website, with its weekly blog, has likely had the most impact on faculty development. This can be assessed by the use of the digital tools in teacher’s classroom, which also has a positive impact on student learning, and in conversations with teachers, administrators, and other staff about the website and blog.
Each of the artifacts presented above were created for a different purpose. The first, the Teacher Technology Help Page for Lee County School System, is the most recent of the artifacts. This website was designed by the Lee County Instructional Technology Team, which includes me and one other person. We used Weebly, to collaboratively create the website, which was created to be a technology tools assistance website. Teachers can find tools sorted by grade level and each has a brief overview and help video. On the website, we also included a “Teacher Spotlight” to recognize teacher technology leaders in our school system and do so about once a month. Most importantly, we decided to co-author a weekly blog, which we alternate writing, to communicate to local peers and the larger community (teachers, administrators, parents, board members, and community stakeholders) about things going on in the schools.
Each week, we also share the blog post on Twitter, which you see displayed in the second artifact above. In addition to posting a link to our weekly blog post, I also use Twitter (which also feeds to my Facebook) as a digital communication tool to communicate with other educators locally and globally. Connecting with local teachers on Twitter and Facebook allows me to be updated frequently about events in all of the schools in our system. Connecting and collaborating with teachers around the world on Twitter is also an important part of being a connected educator. Educational technology enthusiasts like Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher), Steven Anderson (@web20classroom), and Erin Klein (@KleinErin) provide a wealth of information and sometimes just positive thoughts valuable for any teacher. I’ve also found that most of the connections I’ve made on Twitter are also helpful when responding to my personal questions and thoughts.
A third digital communication and collaboration tool I have found useful is Edmodo. As a classroom teacher, I used Edmodo as a learning management system, a social learning platform, and an opportunity to connect globally with other educators. I used Edmodo to communicate with students and parents, often sharing updates on class events, project requirements, and due dates for projects and assessments. In addition to this, I have joined a variety of learning networks on Edmodo and post to these to ask for ideas about potential projects. I have found that my global peers on Edmodo are quick to collaborate and I try to offer the same.
Kidblog was also an important digital communication and collaboration tool in my classroom. Students used Kidblog to generate their own blogs about the biomes of the world and then collaborated by sharing those blogs and providing feedback to one another. With the help of some teachers and students we connected with on Edmodo, students were able to use the blogs to communicate globally, rather than just within the classroom. It was always exciting for us to see the “View Stats” and see all of the places our blog had been viewed.
All of these learning experiences were important for me and built upon one another. Edmodo was the first opportunity I had to connect globally with other educators and to communicate with students and parents. It was from what I experienced in Edmodo and Kidblog that I knew that using Twitter to connect with other educators would be beneficial and rewarding. Creating the technology tool website actually occurred more out of necessity but the blog portion of the website has proved to be a very effective way to communicate locally. I would not change my experiences with Edmodo, Kidblog, or Twitter, but I might recreate or reorganize the technology tools website. In fact, that is currently under discussion. We think that separating the tools by grade level might not be as effective as it might be to separate the tools by category.
Each tool has a different impact on student learning, faculty development, and school improvement. Kidblog and Edmodo had a positive impact on student learning in my classroom because students indicated they enjoyed these digital communication tools. Twitter has had a positive impact on faculty development and school improvement, which is indicated in its use during both system professional development days and the requests I often get to share material and blogs I have viewed. Our teacher technology tools website, with its weekly blog, has likely had the most impact on faculty development. This can be assessed by the use of the digital tools in teacher’s classroom, which also has a positive impact on student learning, and in conversations with teachers, administrators, and other staff about the website and blog.