Must-Have Facebook Guidelines For Educators

By Katie Lepi

There are probably hundreds of different ways to use Facebook in your classroom. We’ve written about a number of them, and we know that a lot of educators out there are using the tool for everything from classroom projects to keeping in touch with parents. But before you jump into using a social media tool that’s made for sharing, it is important to take a look at some considerations. Understanding things like social media privacy concerns and potential issues can help you ensure that you’re leading your students into an online safe space. Helping your studentsunderstand their digital footprint is a big one, too.

So what guidelines should you follow when you’re bringing Facebook into your classroom? We’ve set forth a few examples below. There will be obvious differences depending on whether you’re using the tool with an older or younger group, but the basics can remain the same.

Facebook Guidelines For Educators

Keep It Professional

This is your job, after all. If you already have a personal Facebook profile, it is better to keep everything personal and professional separate. This way, you don’t need to worry about what to share and if it is appropriate for sharing with your students or not. There will be no issues of allowing some students to be ‘friends’ and others not.

You can either choose to allow your students to be friends with your professional profile or not, but know that you don’t need to be friends with them to interact with them using Groups and Pages (whether you’ve created those groups and pages or not). Many teachers find it useful to use the ‘all or nothing’ approach to friending students, even if it is on a professional profile that doesn’t share much. We’d tend towards the ‘nothing’ part of that approach – because you really don’t need to know what your students are doing in their online life, either.

Make A Page

Making a page is one of the ways we mentioned above that you can interact with your students without needing to be friends with them. When you’re deciding if a page is appropriate for what you might want to use it for, remember that Pages are public – anyone can see them. You might use a page you’ve created to keep people (both students and parents) up to date on classroom and school events, showcase the students’ work and accomplishments, and share what would be considered ‘public’ information.

Create A Group

Creating a group, on the other hand, is the more private way to interact with your students (and you still don’t need to be friends with them to do so). Thus, this makes groups more appropriate for sharing classroom work, collaborating, sharing ideas, hosting discussions, posting class notes, scheduling reminders, and other items that are not as suitable (or necessary) for public sharing.

Make It Safe

While social media is generally a much ‘safer’ space when it is classroom centric (as opposed to the free for all that is the rest of the internet), you’ll still need to implement some rules. Give your students some guidelines for interacting: they can be basic (no mean commenting!) or they can be more in depth (requiring students to give constructive feedback, respond with supporting outside resources, encourage other students, etc).

Katie was a teacher, graduate student, and is now the lady who makes sure Edudemic is as useful as possible. She oversees the editorial process and is basically a Swiss Army Knife of solutions.

Source: http://www.edudemic.com/facebook-guidelines-for-educators/

www.mschools.co.in

  

Teacher vs Student: How Each Actually Uses Social Media

By Katie Lepi on October 20, 2013

At some point in my life, a few years back, Facebook became much less….interesting to me. Much less cool, even. I thought it was me. I assumed I was getting old and that my friends, acquaintances, and I were just doing less interesting stuff. Or maybe just posting about more boring stuff?

It turns out I was right – at least according to the handy infographic below, which details how both teachers and students view some of the more popular social media platforms. Facebook is for old people (according to students) – so I wasn’t too far off. I’m old (apparently). And with just about the expected amount of no surprise, teachers and students see each platform quite differently. Teachers’ favorites are not student favorites, and vice versa. And those that are popular with both are not necessarily for the same reasons.

So is there one platform that ‘wins’ with both students and teachers? My guess is that it is probablyTwitter. Both teachers and students use it pretty actively, and it can easily be used in the classroom. Do you agree? What do you think is the most ‘all-around’ social media platform for both teachers and students (in and out of class)?

Student And Teacher Views On Social Media

Facebook

• Teacher: Love it! So fun to see pics and posts from my friends, family, even my coworkers!
• Student: Facebook? Isn’t that for old people?

Twitter

• Teacher: Awesome for connecting with other teachers. Love my Tuesday night #edchat!
• Student: Awesome for connecting with my friends. #FridayNightParty #ChelseasHouse #Don’tCareIfThisIsPublic

Instagram

• Teacher: Check out these supercute photos of my classroom!
• Student: Check out these supercute mirror selfies!

Google+

• Teacher: Have an account but don’t really use it.
• Student: Have an account but don’t really use it.

Pinterest

• Teacher: My source of inspiration for lesson planning, crafts, meal planning, and more!
• Student: A source of procrastination for grown-ups.

Snapchat

• Teacher: Snapchat? I think my students use that. #DontEvenWantToGoThere
• Student: My favorite social media app. #UntilTheGrownUpsArrive

Katie was a teacher, graduate student, and is now the lady who makes sure Edudemic is as useful as possible. She oversees the editorial process and is basically a Swiss Army Knife of solutions.

Source: http://www.edudemic.com/teacher-vs-student-social-media/

www.mschools.co.in

  

How (And Why) Teachers Should Have Multiple Twitter Accounts

By Jeff Dunn on November 16, 2013

Connected educators are learning, sharing, and connecting on Twitter. No big earth-shattering news there. But what’s the proper way for a teacher to get started? We’ve answered that questionin our Teacher’s Guide here. There is, however, an interesting question that many must consider at some point in the time on Twitter:

How many accounts should I have as a connected educator?

Should I do it all from one account because that’d be easier? In other words, should I share photos of my classroom, tips and tricks with other teachers, interesting blog articles, and maybe even some school-wide announcements?

Or should I set up multiple accounts where I have a specific account for each type of communication? That way I can be sure that I have a carefully curated list of followers for each account and I’ll know that only the right niche of people are following that particular account. (Wishful thinking, at least. I’d recommend Twitter Lists no matter how many accounts you have.)

In a new visual from the incredibly useful site iPad 4 Schools, Richard Wells illustrates why ’3′ might be the magic number for teacher Twitter accounts. I am still undecided about how many accounts an educator should have but invite you to let the Edudemic community know how many accounts you use … and why. You can do that by mentioning @edudemic on Twitter and I’ll comment / retweet you!

Do you ever wonder how schools, universities, colleges, and large groups in general should use social media? Students are often early adopters, frequent users, and overall lovers of technology and social media. Want to help? I'm always looking for fun, creative, and exciting writers to get featured. Get in touch with me at edudemic@gmail.com!

Source: http://www.edudemic.com/teachers-multiple-twitter-accounts/

www.mschools.co.in

  

How Can Big Data Enhance Education?

By Katie Lepi on January 24, 2014

Big Data is all around. Used in every type of industry to identify trends and possibility, data is also being used in education. Identified as one of the top trends in education, institutions are using them in all sorts of different ways. Think of it like the Google analytics for your classroom. Google analytics analyzes your website’s traffic and shows you what your best opportunities are for presenting certain ideas to certain audiences. Learning analytics can analyze your students and their work, and you can pinpoint some opportunity for personalization and optimization of your teaching and classroom. 

The handy infographic below takes a look at some ways that data mining and learning analytics can help enhance education. Keep reading to learn more.

How Can Data Mining & Analytics Enhance Education?

Data mining and learning analytics can help answer questions like:

• What sequence of questions is most effective for a specific student?
• Which student actions are associated with better grades?
• Which actions indicate satisfaction and engagement?
• Which features of an online learning environment lead to better learning?
• When are students ready to move onto the next topic?
• When is a student at risk for not completing a course?
• What grade is a student likely to achieve without intervention?
• Should a student be referred to a counselor?

There Are Cons, Though

• Expensive
• Time consuming
• Choosing which data to mine can be difficult
• Privacy concerns
• Creating a simplified picture from data can be difficult
• All data systems are not interoperable

Katie was a teacher, graduate student, and is now the lady who makes sure Edudemic is as useful as possible. She oversees the editorial process and is basically a Swiss Army Knife of solutions

Source: http://www.edudemic.com/big-data-education/

www.mschools.co.in

  

4 Steps To Creating Confident And Creative Thinking Students

By Katie Lepi on January 26, 2014

Think about it: when children are young, they’re encouraged almost constantly to be creative. They tell stories, play make believe and dress up, build forts, and draw pictures. Once they get to school, that flow of creativity starts to dwindle, and continues to do so as they get older and older. But the truth is that encouraging students to think creatively can be a challenge in today’s curricula and test focused classrooms. Our modern educational models don’t leave a lot of room for creative free thinking.

The handy infographic below takes a look at four strategies to boost students’ confidence in their creativity. Central to all of them is the idea of positive influence – which, as the teacher, you need to supply. If our students are confident in themselves and their creative thinking skills, they’ll be able to more effectively and efficiently address the complex, multi-faceted problems they’ll face in a fully connected, globalized world.

Steps To Creating Confident, Creative Thinking Students

In all of these steps, students should be encouraged to strive for positive traits and complete positive actions through the entire experience. 

Who Do You Want To Be?

Teens are often asked the question ‘who do you want to be?” They can define their own traits or choose from a selection of popular traits that the group comes up with.

Create Your Own Mission

Teens should create a mission designed to demonstrate the trait they chose in the first step. During this step they can look at other student’s posts for inspiration.

Post Your Action

Teens post the result of their action, such as a video or photo, which will post to Instagram. They should use hash tags for the traits they want to show.

Social Feedback

Teens view streams of actions by trait that they care about being as inspiration and give feedback and points for fellow users.

Katie was a teacher, graduate student, and is now the lady who makes sure Edudemic is as useful as possible. She oversees the editorial process and is basically a Swiss Army Knife of solutions.

Source: http://www.edudemic.com/creative-thinking-students/

www.mschools.co.in

                            

What You Should Know About Education In Finland

By Katie Lepi

Even if a trip to chilly Finland hasn’t topped your list of vacation spots, you’ve probably heard about one of Finland’s great accomplishments —its world- class (and world-leading!)  education system. Students and schools in Finland are ranked as some of the best in the world – well ahead of many larger developed nations like the US and Canada. High school graduation rates are excellent, more students go on to earn college degrees than in other areas of the world, and Finnish students pretty much rock the pants off of standardized tests. 

There are a number of theories out there on why this is – many attribute it to teachers earning better pay and more respect, less homework, more active time (like for recess), and a very minimal amount of standardized testing. The handy infographic below takes an in-depth look at some of the details behind the success of education in Finland, and what makes it work so well. Keep reading to learn more.

Finland’s Educational Success

• The high school graduation rate in Finland is 93% (compared to 78% in Canada and 75% in the US)
• 2 in 3 students in Finland go on to college
• Their mean PISA score is significantly higher than any other country (that uses that test)
• The student to teacher ratio is about half of what it is in the US (1:12 vs 1:24)
• There are about ten times fewer standardized tests than in the US
• Finnish students rarely have homework until they are in their teens – they have more time to be kids
• Finnish students have about 75 minutes for recess – US students have about 27 minutes
• Teachers there are required to have a Master’s degree, and only the top 10% are accepted into graduate teaching programs (fully state subsidized)
• Finland’s teachers are as esteemed as doctors and lawyers

Katie was a teacher, graduate student, and is now the lady who makes sure Edudemic is as useful as possible. She oversees the editorial process and is basically a Swiss Army Knife of solutions. 

Source: Edudemic.com

www.mschools.co.in

  

A Must-Have Model For 1:1 Success In Schools

By Adam Webster

Easier as it would be to pretend otherwise, the truth is that integrating mobile technology into a school is not a ‘one size fits all’ sort of thing. That said, there are some basic principles which I think probably stand true for all schools going on this journey.

This graphic illustrates the model which I think any school would benefit from understanding if not following.

Why?

To explain it briefly I believe that there needs to be a vision for WHY you are embarking upon this project (I will discuss this briefly later).

This WHY will be different for each school and that is how it should be. However, if that vision is not coming from the Head/Principal of your school/institution, then it will be infinitely more difficult to achieve your desired end result. There are a lot of Principals who don’t ‘get’ technology (Prensky might argue that this is because they’re Digital Immigrants) but that doesn’t mean that they don’t see its potential. Each school will have a different reason for engaging or not with technology, but essentially it is the responsibility of you as the person who wishes to push this project forward, to find out what that is.

Necessary Collaboration

The Principal and the Lead Teacher need to share this vision.

I have deliberately labeled a ‘Lead Teacher’ and not ‘Head of ICT’ and to me it is absolutely essential that the Network Manager and the Lead Teacher are different people as the roles are ridiculously different.

If the person leading this integration at teacher-level isn’t actually a teacher, the project is destined to be less of a success. Having a teacher who understands the benefits of technology in the classroom adds a massive amount of credibility to the project, but also reassures those around them that it can and does work because they are seeing it being done.

The Network Manager should share the vision of the Principal and the Lead teacher, but if they don’t, it isn’t a deal-breaker. What would be, is if the Network Manager doesn’t facilitate the vision coming true. This is the person who can make or break your plans and so it is important that they agree with how it is implemented and that you trust them to give you good advice. If you have this, and you have the infrastructure to support your vision, then you will be well on the way to implementing a successful mobile learning strategy.

Training

The next step is to train up a core set of teachers who will fly the flag for you. I offered each of these members of staff in excess of 7 hours training (and an iPad!). Very little of this training centred on what I would call ‘showpiece apps’. The focus is getting the right workflow, improving productivity and teaching lessons that engage and inspire in ways that can be maintained and developed over time.

This training seems to be the component that many schools forget. The iPad may be an intuitive device, but not if you haven’t grown up with touch devices, smart phones and social media. And certainly there is a massive transition from the iPad as a personal leisure device to the iPad as transformational learning tool.

It takes time to make this change and this change should happen before the students have devices in their hands. To empower your teachers, they need to feel that they have had time to adjust and learn how to make the device work in the way they want it to.

There is a huge amount that can be achieved with 1 iPad  in the hands of the teacher, and an Apple TV.

Whilst this is happening, you can still engage your students. You need a lead group from the student body just as much as you do from the staff. It may be that these are the students who will review apps, or run a ‘Genius Bar’ at lunchtimes, they may use iPads to control homemade robots, or they may just have really strong opinions about the amount of technology that should be used during the school week. Whoever they are and whatever their perspective, they can help make this journey more successful and that is why they are your Digital Leaders.

Once these groups are in place winning over the rest of the staff and the parents should be fairly straight forward, because you’re not trying to fool anyone; you will have done your research, made your mistakes, improved your infrastructure all based on recommendations and experiences in live, but controlled environments and as a result the next step – a wider rollout – will be easier.

Adam is the Director of Digital Learning at an independent school in the UK. He is also an Apple Distinguished Educator. His areas of interest are in creating and developing innovative, powerful and simple workflows using mobile technology in the classroom, and in helping schools plan for a 1:1 deployment.

Source: Edudemic.com

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