My review of SMART Boards, SMART Exchange and Scholastic Study Jams and their impact on teaching and learning in the K-12 setting

Intro

This blog post is broken down into three sections to review one specific technology tool and 2 educational resources and how they can be used within the K-12 setting. I will note that because of my Primary/Junior background, I will speak more in depth on how these tools are used in the Primary/Junior setting. I would also note that rather than going with more broad tools, I chose tools that I have a lot of personal experience with and used frequently during my teaching placements.

Tool: SMART Board 
(Click to view SMART Technology Website)


The first tool I would like to review is the Interactive SMART Whiteboard. I feel that the integration of this technology has completely revolutionized the way students learn and teacher’s teach; especially in terms of keeping up with modern technology and differentiating instruction. School boards across the greater parts of Canada have taken very clear initiative to implement Interactive Whiteboards into almost every classroom. According to The SMART Technology website, “over 2.3 million [SMART Boards have been] installed [globally] in K–12 classrooms, reaching more than 40 million students and their teachers”. That is an incredible statistic!


How to incorporate SMART Boards in the classroom:


SMART Boards can be incorporated in the classroom in two ways. Teachers can create interactive presentations for their lessons by using the SMART Board Notebook software, and teachers can also use the SMART Board as a window into their classroom computer. They can be sitting at their desks and yielding material on the screen or they can stand at the front of the room and utilize the touch screen technology to navigate through programs, look things up on the internet and share video/audio media etc. I will go more into detail of how to use the Notebook Software in the next section of this post, but at this point I will now break down my own personal experience and how I have seen the SMART Board being used, as well as how I have used it myself.
I was first introduced to the SMART Board in university and before we began incorporating it into our lesson plans we were given a brief but detailed presentation on the basics of how to effectively use the SMART Board, as well as some neat tips and tricks. We were blown away! I thought to myself, if I am this impressed with how this technology works then I imagine students must be just as excited to use it. So I made it a point to learn the ins and outs of the Notebook software on my own computer so that I could create lessons using the technology. This was in hopes that my students would be excited to participate in interactive lessons. I learned how to embed video and audio into every lesson, and I made sure to incorporate a lot of interactivity into my presentations to avoid feeling like my lessons were one big power point presentation. I would have students come up and do the clicking for me, (great for those kinaesthetic learners). I also used the SMART Board to access media in my classroom. For example during a lesson on compassion I showed my grade 5 students a Youtube clip of the story behind the child who won the Sports Illustrated kid of the year award in 2012. The clip told the story of a child, Connor, who showed compassion for his younger brother who suffered from cerebral palsy. Connor decided to include his brother in triathlons by having him ride in a coach that he attached to the back of his bike and then he would detach the coach during the running portion and push his brother past the finish line. The story brought my students to tears. The message was firmly delivered and the children had a very clear grasp of what compassion was before completing an assignment where they had to demonstrate their understanding. To fully appreciate how this was so effective on my class I urge anyone reading this post to watch the amazing video clip:

Imagine being able to share the emotions that this clip evokes with a classroom. That is just one example of the many ways in which I have used the SMART Board to enhance my lessons. One of the greatest things about being able to use the SMART Board with students is it allows ALL of the technology that I have been talking about on this blog, (Twitter, Instagram, Classroom Blogs, Youtube, Google) all of that can be used on the SMART board with the class in a safe and effective manner. Teachers can even freeze the SMART Board screen while they preload a site or a clip to avoid the children being exposed to any unwanted pop ups, advertisements etc. 

My Review:

Overall my review of the SMART Board is a 5/5. I love that this tool is being integrated into the classroom. I think it is highly effective in reaching audio, visual and kinesthetic learners. For example, one of the great things about making a presentation using the Notebook application is that the software is loaded with virtual manipulatives such as Tangrams. A teacher can be teaching a lesson in Patterning and Algebra and rather than have to draw out the Tangram or have students gathered around a table looking at small manipulatives, the SMART board allows a clear view of what the teacher would like to demonstrate. The teacher and students can be manipulating on the board while students have the physical manipulative in from of them to work with as well. It makes working together and interacting with eachother in a “whole group” a lot easier.

Students are growing up using touch screen technology from Infancy so in order to be leaders in 21^st Century education it is integral for teachers, (if they have access to it) to learn how to safely use this tool in the most effective ways possible. Please watch the video below, (another great tool: Youtube how to videos) if you are unfamiliar of the basic uses for the SMART Board.
I found that the SMART board was an invaluable tool in my teaching and would be very grateful to have a classroom with a SMART Board.

Resource: Smart Exchange 
(Click to go to Website)

SMART Exchange branches from smarttech.com and is a resource for educators to share presentations which they have created using the Notebook application. It is an excellent resource and one that I have used many times!

How to incorporate SMART Boards in the classroom:

SMART Exchange is international. You can choose your country and go further to find presentations that are not only grade specific but that are literally straight out of the curriculum. While teaching Rocks and Mineral to my Grade 4 class I found a number of excellent presentations which offered a review of everything the children had learned before the culminating task. The presentation was perfectly aligned to the curriculum, but I would urge every teacher using SMART Exchange to always download and walk through each presentation and tweak the content to directly reflect your students learning. I would often use Presentations I found on SMART Exchange as a template for my own lessons because they already included videos, pictures and interactive animations that take a lot of time and effort to make. I was able to make the presentations my own and suit them to my own students learning. Please watch the short video embedded here in order to understand the benefits of Smart Exchange.

My Review:

Smart Exchange is another 5/5 in my opinion. I think it is a great tool for teachers to use to share presentations that they worked hard on. I found most of the time I only used the presentation as a template but even doing just that saved me a lot of time on choosing background and pictures and even a lot of the text was very relevant. The fact that a lot of these presentations have a notation to let the teacher know exactly which curriculum expectations their presentation covers, makes it a very helpful and reliable resource.

A personal note/warning about SMART boards and Notebook Software:

Although I am a huge supporter of using the SMART board tech and software I would still like to say that these tools must be used responsibly and safely. The SMART Board is not meant to replace the teacher. I fell that personally it is a fantastic asset that has helped me reach my diverse learners in ways that excited them. But I know there is concern that the screen will replace the teacher but I am confident that this is not the case. The screen is a tool; it is a manipulative in itself, used to help the teacher to implement familiar technology in the classroom that will give the students greater access to more knowledge and information. The other warning is, (as I mentioned above) with SMART Exchange, every class is different, every learner is different. SMART Exchange presentations can provide an excellent foundation but teachers need to carefully fine tune lessons to ensure that their students are being reached effectively and with information relevant to them.

Resource: Scholastic Study Jams 
(Click to view website)

This website is one that I used many times in my placements. It is a great resource that teachers can give to students and or use with students to help them study material that they learned in class. It covers math and science topics and the website is laid out so that children can easily navigate through the topics to utilize activities and videos for effective learning. 

How to incorporate Study Jams in the classroom:

It is a fun, engaging way for students to review for a test. I prefer to use this tool once I have covered all the material myself and then I sift through the many practice quizzes, songs, games etc. that cover the topic, (I used this while teaching Rocks and Minerals as well as Matter and Energy), and I make sure that the students are only looking at the material we covered in class, and material they will need to know/understand for their Culminating Task.

When I taught Grade 5 Matter and Energy I booked some computer time for my students and I gave them a list of websites that had different study resources they could explore. The resources included different games, powerpoint presentations, quizzes, videos etc. As I walked around to see which resources appeared to be “trending” on my students screens what I saw was that all of my students were bopping their heads and singing out loud to the Study Jams video I had suggested they use for review. What was amazing was that the Video was so entertaining and catchy that the kids couldn’t get enough of it. The video also contained very important information, in fact, most of the answers to the test were covered in the song. What ensued was that all of my students ended up doing amazing on the test because they memorized the video. I even made a bonus question from the lyrics because I thought the song was such a great study tool! 

Click here to -> Watch video

My Review:

I would give this resource a 4.5/5 I love this resources and think it is really a fun and clever tool for Scholastic to have created. The only suggestion I would have, is that when using this resource with students be sure to review the resources first and closely with curriculum expectations in hand. Also, when giving it to students, be specific! Make sure they know which link to click on and what information is pertinent for their review. We want our students to use these resources but we need to guide them to the right ones so that they are not overloaded with information that is not going to be on their test. I was very lucky that the Matter and Energy song went perfectly with what I wanted my students to know. There was no information that wasn’t already on their review sheet. I would absolutely recommend this resource to anyone teaching for junior grades.

Additional Resources:

If you are interested in looking at more resources and resource pools feel free to visit the links below. 

As 21^st Century Educators we are blessed to have such a vast pool of educational resources!

Ontario Educational Resource Bank http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/bank.html

 - An Excellent group of resources for K-12 teachers

“As Ontario's learning object repository, the Ontario Educational Resource Bank (OERB) offers a growing number of free digital learning resources to teachers and students, from Kindergarten to Grade 12. There are thousands of resources, including units, lesson plans, activities, maps, and interactive learning resources”

Learning Gateway for DSBN http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/gateway/

- another website offering a pool of interactive web resources put together by DSBN

How do the OCT Ethical Standards and Standards of Practice Relate in the 21st Century?

To quote a great 21^st Century hero (that I know my P/J friends will appreciate): 

“With great power there must also come great responsibility”

The interest of this blog post is to convey the idea that the OCT Ethical Standerds and Standards of Practice can be applied to the use of 21^st Century technology in education. Teachers’ need to apply the standards of practice to how they use technology responsibly with their students and in the classroom. They must also adhere to the ethical standards when using technology with their students as well as during personal time, (especially with regards to social media as well as classroom technology). 

Standards of Practice

click here to access OCT Standards of Practice 

SUMMERY: Technology can be an incredible and powerful tool in the classroom and it can be used in many ways to help promote and encourage the standards of practice as outlined by the OCT framework. For the purpose of organization I will list the Standards below and describe how I think each Professional Standard is enhanced by using technology.

Commitment to Students and Student Learning

Technology allows teachers to document student learning more efficiently. Efficient documentation allows for more equitable and fair demonstrations of learning. It can allow for better communication and more celebration of student achievement. For Example: I know a teacher who celebrates their students achievements by taking pictures of their best works and proudest moments, (according to the students themselves) and sharing those pictures on a screensaver during the lunchour. It isn’t a part of the curriculum but it is a fair way to reward success, show caring and commitment, and have students contribute to the learning environment.

Professional Knowledge
I am learning more and more how technology is increasing my own bank of knowledgeable information. The OCT Advisory states that technology is our  "Students window to the world today”; that couldn’t be more true. In order for teachers to increase their professional knowledge they must be able to use technology as a tool for gathering and transferring information to their students. There is a plethora of valid an valuable information online and teachers need to use online academic resources in their teaching in order to stay current.


Professional Practice 
 


It is explained on the website that teachers must: “use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of individual students and learning communities.”  Technology is integral for staying current.

Leadership in Learning Communities 


Collaboration is easier then ever. As I had seen with many of the blogs I wrote about in my last post, children can use Twitter, Skype and many other different forms of social media to have a voice in their community and to learn about social projects. All of the teachers blogging and sharing thoughts, resources, ideas etc. are all demonstrating how we can positively use technology as a professional tool to communicate with other leaders.

Ongoing Professional Learning 

Ongoing professional learning and development tools are more accessible than ever. Teachers can use technology to communicate new ideas with each other, take online courses, do research, stay current etc. The opportunities to learn while using technology are endless because they are always moving forward and changing.

The Ethical Standards for Teaching

Click here to access OCT Ethical Standards

Care, Respect, Trust and Integrity

How they relate to the standards of practice and using technology

Teachers need to apply these ethical standards to how they make use of technology in and out of the classroom. We are teachers and during the school hour we are also caregivers of vulnerable persons so we are then held to the standards at all times.

Watching the OCT Advisory and Reading the Ethical Standards, many things come to mind: laptop use, professional online conduct, social media etc. and with all those things considered, one point expressed in the OCT advisory (video clip) rings clearly with me. What we put up in a public domain is “there forever”!
Teachers and students both need to realize that although we can hope that some things such as e-mail and private messages are in fact private, the truth is that we can never be too cautious of what we type, skype, post or stream. because we can never be entirely sure  who has already seen or saved our information even if we change our minds.
As soon as we finished law class in teacher’s college 90% of my colleagues ran home, changed their names on social media, checked out tagged pictures, googled themselves; all to make sure no leftovers from careless teen years ended up on social media. For many it was a relatively easy task, after all, we were all teacher candidates and at least criminal record free! But as I had mentioned in a previous blog post there have been cases where teachers have been fired for what are seemingly appropriate activities such as drinking a beer on vacation. What may be fine for a teacher to do on their personal time can also be seen as diminishing to the reputation of the student and the school, especially If evidence turns up on the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that our private lives be kept offline for the safety of our students and ourselves.
What is equally important is that teachers are communicating this message to their students as well. Both students and teachers should beware of over-sharing information and always prescreen all media before posting it to the Internet.

Here is a link to the video format of the OCT Professional Advisory which bridges the information included in this blog post. 

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY: ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION, SOCIAL MEDIA FROM ONTARIO COLLEGE OF TEACHERS

For more information on internet safety, teachers and parents can visit: 

http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/default.html 

Reflection/Review of 3 Blogs Related to 21st Century Teaching and Learning

NOTE: As this is a school assignment as well as a post I have written this post in more of a formal essay format in order to keep my thoughts clear and concise.

Introduction: 

21^st Century teachers are extremely fortunate to have access to amazing educational tools through modern technology.

Internet access has completely changed the world. Human beings have access to more information than every before. One of the greatest resources we have as educators is each other. Education blogs, created by teachers, for teachers allow us to creatively connect with one another and share relevent information. Teachers may blog to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions as well as lessons, tools, information and resources.

This week I spent some time searching and reading education blogs and found that there were two distinct types of blogs that classroom teachers were using. There are Bloggers who use their blogs as professional learning tools, (as I am doing right now) and there are classroom blogs used as blended learning tools. Professional learning blogs are modes of communicating opinions, facts or resources with other teachers; classroom blogs seem to be used more to communicate with students, parents and other members of public interest.

I have chosen three Education Blogs to review as an assignment for my AQ course #9f61brockTech. Of the three blogs, one is a professional learning blog, one is a classroom blog, and the last one seems to bridge the gap between both.

Classroom blogging as a means of communication with students, parents and the school community

Review of Mr. Salsich’sClass: Fifth Grade Explorations in Learning (<-click to visit)

Summery/what I liked:
One of the critical questions I have had about blogging is how to incorporate it in a primary/junior classroom and what would that look like? This blog helps answer that question.

Mr. Salich is a fifth grade teacher from Conneticut USA. This blog belongs to Mr. Salich and his fifth grade class of “24 smart and creative students”.

My first impression is… I love this blog! I think creating a classroom blog is a fantastic method to introduce fifth grade students to technology and communicating on the computer. There were so many cool things incorporated in this blog.

In the sidebar under the Global Projects page I explored the links to find out that

Mr. Salsich’s class is participating in World Educational Projects with teachers all around the world. For example when I click “London” on the interactive map,  a word bubble pops up to say “We did a "Mystery Skype" call with Mrs. Monaghan's students in Middleham. It was our first Skype call outside of the United States!” how exciting is it that these students are getting to connect with students in different countries?

The first post as you enter the blog is from Decemebr 4^th and it’s titled “Marshmallow Poppers”. It walks you through the trials and errors of the class’ attempt to do this science experiment. The lesson itself shows evidence of backwards design and effective questioning; I appreciated that he highlighted the student’s questions and problem solving strategies. What made the post exceptional was that he incorporated pictures and even a video of the children, filmed and narrated by the children which started off with one child saying “What attitudes for success did you use while doing this project?” to which another students responds, “I think the attitude I used the most was perserverence…” WOW!

My favourite thing about this blog is that student learning and participation is the primary focus. I feel like through reading this blog I get a good sense of the class interests, learning goals and personality. It is clear that Mr. Salisich has a passion for teaching, which has certainly sparked a passion in his students.

Overall look:

The layout is very user-friendly. When you visit the page you are greeted with a banner of all of the students posing in silly moustaches; this instantly made me laugh. I could tell that this was going to be a blog that was not only educational but also fun to explore. Mr. Salsich shares videos of the students’ pictures and other forms of media that make this blog look fantastic. The layout of the blog is great, there are links provided to other blogs that the students follow as well as widgets, archives, tags etc. all of the elements I would like to see in any classroom blog.

Red flags/safety:

I could go on for a very long time describing how I think this teacher is doing a fantastic job in protecting his students, communicating with parents and establishing a very safe environment for his students in their online presence. The most important thing about this blog is that there is a guidelines page that seems to explain exactly how this blog is being monitored and it is explicit about the safety of the children. “The following guidelines have been established to ensure the safety of our students when blogging. The guidelines are also reminders of how to use the blog to improve writing and keyboarding skills.” I have not seen any “Red Flags”, to speak of.

Final thoughts:

Great job Mr. Salisich’s grade five class. I really enjoyed exploring this blog and would love to have a blog just like it for me own class one day. I commend this teacher for being able to demonstrate exactly how a classroom blog can be an excellent educational tool and means of communication for students, parents, staff and the worldwide educational community.

Blogging as a professional learning tool and as a means of communicating with the school community:

Review of Tim Lauer's blog (<-click to visit)

Summery/what I liked:

Tim Lauer, Principal of Meriwater Lewis Elementary School in Portland, OR, writes this blog not only as a professional learning tool, but it seems to also function as a tool for communicating with parents and students as well. What I enjoy about this blog is that I feel like it is a light, easy, user-friendly blog, which I could visit weekly and not feel overwhelmed trying to catch up on posts. The posts are relatively short, well written and to the point. The author exhibits his personality, engages in dialogue and shares his opinions without having posts become too long or convoluted. I found some of the blogs I had visited simply contained too much information and as much as I really enjoy reading posts about opinions (I know that my own blog right now is already overloaded with long opinion based posts), what I enjoy about this blog, and what I aspire to have on my own blog is that there is a lot of information to be gained, mixed in with personality and opinion.

I appreciated the blog posts that were anecdotal; I find they helped me to feel connected to the blogger. For instance the latest blog post from March 25^th titled, “The Town Theatre” is a picture of an abandoned cinema in Tim’s home town, which he remembers going to as a child. The picture is creative and I love that it helps the reader feel nostalgia with the author.

Overall look:

In terms of how this blog is laid out I think it is my favourite of the three blogs I have reviewed. The tabs at the top, use of widgets and layout make it very easy to navigate. The colour scheme is bright and not too busy, which is a good strategy as a bright, busy background would likely take away from all of the pictures and media which are embedded into the blog, (a strategy I might incorporate into my own blog as I introduce more media). The teacher integrated pictures and various forms of audio and digital media, which gives the reader lots of diversity in what they are viewing. He has embedded the schools “Audio Postcard” as well as their Digital magazine, which are both fantastic and great ideas for any school to do.

Red flags/safety:

This blog does a very good job of making posts personal while keeping them professional. A parent, fellow teacher or student would be able to read this blog and feel as if no boundaries were crossed and there has been no over-sharing of unnecessary personal information.
My only critique would be that there was a post made on March 22^nd which is about the authors experiences at a teaching related conference and although the post is excellent, there is one picture where the teachers are gathered and sharing a pint of beer. Though that is completely appropriate for adults to be doing, if this was a blog meant to be shared with students and parents it would be a better choice to crop the beverages out. Also, there are other teachers in the picture that may not approve of having their photo posted with alcoholic beverages. I recall reading about a young teacher, Ashley Payne, who was let go for displaying a Facebook profile picture in which she was enjoying a beer during a trip to Europe. One may never be too careful.
This is a clip from CNN detailing the information regarding this story:

Another comment to make about this blog is that there are many pictures of the students from the author’s school, it would be imperative that the author has permission from the students parents to post pictures of their children before they were published.

Final thoughts:

Overall I think that the students and parents are very lucky to have such a tech savvy principal at their school. There is much to be learned from reading this blog and I think it has been excellently executed. I plan to continue to follow Tim and I feel like I have learned a lot from viewing his blog.

Using blogs as professional learning tools

Review of Beth’s Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom  (<-click to visit)

Summary/what I liked:

This blog has been done by Beth a former Classroom teacher who has become a K-12 Technology Integration Specialist in Massachusetts. The first thing to note about her blog is that its primary interest is on sharing her opinion about topics in Education Technology. I found that there were some blogs that were used to review technology, some that were used mainly to share resources, Beth’s blog was primary focused on opinion based pieces with some supporting evidence and a lot of anecdotes about strategies and methods she practices with her students. It is teacher to teacher directed and she seems to be speaking to her fellow educators rather than the general public. Although her blog speaks a lot about using technology and her thoughts on different advancements she also has motivation posts, which reveal that she also seeks to inspire her fellow educators. In a post titled, “Be Different, You Are Different” she encourages her peers to celebrate the diversities of their students;

 “I am tired of talking about standards, assessments, averages and classifying students. I don’t want to read about combating bulling and tolerating differences.  I want to celebrate the individual and all their “quirkiness”.  It is the people who did not fit the mold, who are not average or, more importantly, those who did not see themselves as one of the crowd who have made the biggest impact in art, science, business and literature.”

Beth’s Posts seem to have a train-of-thought pattern, she writes, what she is thinking as she thinks it, (I often do this too). She tends to use flowery language, often speaking from the heart

Overall look:

The look of the blog at first glance is quite plain. There are no pictures of Beth to greet you. In fact I scoured the blog and was not met with any faces at all. She does incorporate links into some of her posts but not many pictures at all and I’m not sure of the relevance of any of the interchanging pictures that are on the homepage of her blog because there are no captions for them. The font is nice and professional. The overall layout is fairly easy to navigate. It is clear from looking at older posts that she has quite a few people following her. Her list of blogging accomplishments and awards also assure me that her blog is widely followed. Her latest post on March 31^st is titled t”ime for an update”. She is a fantastic writer and I enjoyed reading her posts but it would be nice to have more to explore visually as well.

Red flags/safety:

I think that Beth has done a great job in keeping her blog professional. I have not found anything that compromises the safety of her or her students. I thought it was a good idea that on her “About Me” page she includes a Disclosure Statement “The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of my employers or the organizations to which I belong”.

Final thoughts:

I enjoyed Beth’s optimism and some of her opinion based posts, although, I don’t think this is a site I would visit daily or weekly. It is worth having a look at and I will check back to see how Beth updates her account.I wonder if she added more media if it would be more engaging? Overall it is a pretty good blog.

Appropriate and Safe Social Media Use in the Classroom

When integrating social media within the classroom there are many things for a teacher to consider. First, a teacher should considering the age group with whom they are working with. Social media can be used by students to communicate creatively with classroom peers and discover new world views and perspectives from people coming from all different walks of life but I do not believe it has a place in a Primary School aged classroom. Junior and Intermediate grades may be more familiar with social media and parents of these children would have to be informed if a teacher should decide to explore into these mediums with their class. 

It is important to note that before introducing students to any form of social media it is essential to debrief the parents on what will be taking place and how it will benefit the child’s learning. It is fundamental to have a safety information session with the students prior to entering any social media sites. Students are aware that social media exists but they should be educated on how social media can negatively impact a persons life and they should understand the dangers of over sharing.

My opinions on social media are varied depending on which form of social media is being discussed.

FACBOOK: I believe that Facebook should only be used in Post-Secondary institutions. Although some teachers may find it’s benefits in High School environments, I am less familiar with the dynamic in high school classrooms and I am more inclined to think there are better ways for students to network.
On a side note I would like to mention that I have seen first hand the successes of what happens when parents and teachers work together to warn children about using Facebook before they are old enough. Talking to some students at my YMCA program most of them said that they do not want to have Facebook. Although I do think that Facebook can be an excellent tool for networking and communication for mature youths and adults, the age cut off is 13 for a reason. I want these children to stay away from Facebook until they are old enough to understand and responsibly used it.

TWITTER: I will begin with an anecdote- As I sit right now in a Starbucks, I’m writing this all while I am hearing two men discussing “the Niagara Region” which I believe is in their line of work. Neither of them appears to be under the age of 50 and one of them has just said “______ must be asleep because their last tweet was from city hall 40 minutes ago”. They continue to discuss tweets and current events, the use of social media and how twitter has made them feel more informed than ever.  Social media is so popular and widely used that it is a great gift to be able to use it order to keep up to date with current events. It also allows for the sharing of ideas, interests and information without having to give out too much personal information. Students can use twitter as a way to be heard and as a way to connect with and reach others. I think that there are many interesting ways for teachers to use twitter with their students. The article titled 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom by Samantha Miller, suggests many safe ways to use twitter responsibly including ways to connect with the teacher, fellow students and the community.  I have often thought about how I myself could use twitter in the classroom.
As a project a teacher might create a twitter account for their classroom and use it as a tool for an eco-awareness project.  Children can take proactive measures under the supervision of their teacher, and under the anonymity of a classroom community to help encourage environmental responsibility and share ideas about how their class is taking proactive measures to be more ecofriendly. This could be an excellent way for a junior division teacher who’s students may be showing an interest in social media, to help promotes responsible use of Twitter as a tool for humanity. Parents may even appreciate finding their children following activists and positive figures over celebrities and their friends.

INSTAGRAM: As far as using Instagram in the classroom I cannot see many benefits. As much as I appreciate Instagram in my personal life I feel as though Instagram can be a dangerous as well. With twitter we can appreciate that it is a forum not only for sharing images but for sharing thoughts, opinions, links etc, and it creates a more open dialogue whereas when you are primarily using a tool for sharing photos it can be a bit more precarious, especially when there are other effective tools for classroom photo sharing such a Flicker.
I recently read an article about the dangers of Instagram and how it perpetuates harmful body images for young women. I found myself very disturbed by what I read. I know that I myself follow a fitness profile and decided to investigate into some of the profiles of those who post comments such as “My goal weight is 105 almost there,” what I found was #’s from preteen children which including #pro-anorexia, #proself-harm messages and something called #thinspo that left me clenching my stomach. I found that I could look into these profiles and see terrifying pictures as well as find supporters of children who are harming themselves! What scares me the most about this is that unlike Facebook and Twitter I feel like Instagram may not be catching on as much with adults as it is with younger generations. Many children’s parents may not even be aware of the fact that their children have Instagram. Facebook on the other hand is so widespread and has caught up with older generations, making it more difficult for young people to hide from their parents. This telling news story highlights the popularity of #thinspo amongst young women. The new story says that Social Media has began to implement policies that prevent these accounts from being shared, but Other stories I have found argued that Instagram has had less success than Facebook and Pinterest when it comes to monitoring these accounts. I know from my own investigating it was fairly easy to find these accounts.

In summery, as a Primary/Junior Educator I would likely only use Twitter with my students. As I mentioned above, I feel like educating students on the way Social Media can be a learning tool is extremely important but it is equally important to ensure safe and appropriate use.