Benefits of Using Microblogs

Given the amount of information on the Internet that is readily available, one can see why educators would want to take advantage.  There is potential here for teachers to benefit from microblogging, specifically with Twitter.  There are many different ways that teachers can use Twitter in their classroom, as demonstrated in the article, "28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitter."  Such benefits include: instant feedback, enabling discussion outside of class, keeping parents informed, and supplementing foreign language lessons.  Being a Spanish teacher myself, I was automatically drawn to this idea of using Twitter for a foreign language supplemental.  According to the article, the idea of teachers "Tweeting a sentence in a foreign language at the beginning of the day or class and ask students to either translate or respond in kind as a quick, relatively painless supplement" can help continue to develop the students' second language acquisition.  While nurturing their language development, I can also see how this use of Twitter for supplemental assignments would also serve as a form of instant feedback for teachers.  You would be able to see, instantaneously, whether or not your students were able to complete and/or understand the assignment.  Furthermore, to see how affective the assignment was in accomplishing some type of language goal. 

Specifically for foreign language teachers themselves, Twitter can serve as a way to easily connect with other teachers and professionals, as stated in YouTube videos on "Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom: Twitter for Teachers."  In this sense, teachers are able to get timely feedback from other teachers about lesson plans, how to use microblogging successfully in the classroom, etc...  Furthermore, it gives teachers an opportunity to ask questions about different topics in education, to continue their professional growth and development.  A network is being created, a network that can serve as a resource pool, a go-to for help, and a place to communicate and express ideas.   

Building Connections- Social Networking

When thinking about this whole idea of Connectivism and what that means for teachers in the classroom today, the concept of "social networking" comes into play.  In order to build and create connections that instill and continue the process of learning, social networking is something that teachers need to consider.  I found a social networking group that I feel might be useful to me called Classroom 2.0.  This group is all about how we, as teachers, can take social media and the Web and incorporate these things into our classroom, in order to enhance the learning process.  Furthermore, you have a network of colleagues who are in the same boat as you.  We are all trying to find out new information and resources that will be something that would benefit the classroom environment, and we are all, at the same time, learning from each other.  Through digital dialogue and feedback, I could learn about resources like "Brainpop".  As Alan Levine stated in his video "New Media Consortium", establishing a network of colleagues both in and out of your field is essential because we can't know everything.  It's through these networks that we can keep on learning... obtaining knowledge that will help make us better teachers for our students.

    

A Teacher Is Like A...

A teacher is like a one-man band, in today's world.  We play so may different roles in our classrooms at once, so that it creates a melody.  We play the role of a performer, trying to engage our students to make sure that they are involved in their own learning.  Creating a spark of interest that motivates them to continue learning on a day to day basis.  What we try to instill in our students is the fact that learning isn't just about today, but it's about tomorrow.  As Siemens (2005), stresses in his article on Connectivism, "learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime."  The learning shouldn't stop, once the student leaves your classroom... it should keep on going.  As teachers, we need to form those connections to what lies beyond the classroom, in order to show our students the importance of what they are learning in school.  This whole idea of of learning "must be a way of being--an ongoing set of attitudes and actions by individuals and groups..." (Vaill, 1996).

 

Teachers keep the learning current (up-to-date) for their students... showing them how what they are learning is practical and meaningful.  Therefore, a teacher needs to ensure that they are constantly learning themselves, and networking, as Siemens states, is a great and easy way of doing so.  Whether through blogging or other social networks, "learning in a network creation process," as said by Siemens himself in The Network is the Learning.  As a teacher of today, you want to ensure that you are staying current and continuing to learn, so that your students receive the best and most beneficial education.  We are a network of people; it's no longer just about the individual.  Rather, it's about what we can learn from one another, and how adding "a node (person, resource, etc.) to a network increases the entire network exponentially" (Siemens).  Where one benefits, we all benefit.