Module 9 Using digital-age communication and collaboration tools to interact locally with students, peers, parents and the larger community

Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence 
The following article starts off saying that learning management systems are beneficial in the classroom because of grades, course work, and announcements, but they miss what happens during breaks, out of classroom experiences, and faculty interaction.  Social importance plays an significant role in learning because it raised the cognitive level of interaction to learning. The more the interaction in a social setting the higher the level of thinking happens. Your typical LMS can increase your typical day to day communication, but many challenges arise with the typical day in and day out routine. Of the many challenges, one is that there are many lost opportunities to communicate during the day. A second challenge is "losing the informal, free-flowing, just-in-time banter and chitchat that we have with students in our on-campus courses"(Dunlap, Lowenthal 2). Twitter is the Web 2.0 microbloging tool that would connect the gap of communication.  "According to the Twitter website, Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"(3). Besides giving people constant news, Twitter is also up to date with a refresh of the app, so the news and information is in real time. In addition to the classroom, Twitter is used in public relations, project management, and medical education. Twitter was used during a class experiment, and it proved to be helpful in the following examples.

1. Students had questions from the readings
2. How to embed music into a slideshow presentation
3. Communication between team members using the private message format
4. Retweeting funding information regarding higher education funding. 

Twitter made the interactions between the teachers and students more authentic and real because they did not have to log into a system and find the discussion board.  In addition to the update function and time sensitive material, Twitter also plays an important role in addressing student issues in a timely manner. That includes clarification of an assignment, emergency, or other important and serious issues. Twitter also makes, you the writer, be more sensitive with the information that you are presenting.  You are able to connect with authors and present questions in anticipation that they will reply back to you. A final positive from Twitter that students may acquire is informal learning on Twitter during their free time.  For the large amount of positives, there are always negatives. A limit of 140 characters per tweet, bad grammar can be practiced, and Twitter can be time addictive. Cell phone plans may not be supportive of Twitter and your data usage might rise, in effect, creating a larger cell phone bill at the end of the month. Five guidelines were presented when using twitter with students, and a list follows:

1. Tweets need to be relevant to the course work
2. Clear expectations for the students
3. Model the guides lines
4. Build and assess Twitter results
5. Actively tweet and read tweets.

Grassroots Professional Development: How Teachers Use Twitter

By using surveys, analysis of tweets, and interviews of teachers, knowledge regarding the educational use of Twitter came into view. Besides talking about their classroom ideas and practical information, Twitter gives the teachers ways to connect with like-minded educators. Social capital is the terminology regarding the value of social relationships via Twitter. With this ever ongoing social communication, professional networking and sharing of resources has increased. In addition to Twitter, blogs, Wikis, and microblogging are becoming more familiar with everyday life adapted for educational and professional use. The article continued to survey people on Twitter using the hash tag marks #edtech and #edchat. Of the completed surveys, 78% of the educators have been using Twitter for a year. All grades K-12 were used in the survey.  High School teachers were most represented followed by primary school.  63% of the teachers surveyed taught at a public school and 62% had a masters degree. Four basic themes were discovered after all survey was coded and analysed. These were professional development, classroom exercises, policy, and Internet Safety. Teachers became connected with professionals that they had previously met either at prior schools or conferences. These networks between teachers became resourceful and motivation for new classroom practices.  A random sample of tweets were referred as "meforming" and "informing".  "Meforming" are people who just update their posts to tell things about themselves; 80% of people on Twitter are meformers.  Twitter still isn't fully accepted by schools and parents.  Many believe it still isn't safe, and that is where you have to communicate with the child the expectations of the use of Twitter. Using Twitter is a grass roots reform and it is bridging the gap of trusting the student and teaching them to communicate using Twitter to gain and share ideas.

What Parents Want in School Communication

Communicating with parents can be a tricky issue. A recent survey found that parents prefer to be contacted by e-mail. Other use of communications were telephone, school website, and newsletters. At one time, letters placed in the students folder were sent home, resulting in communication. The grade age of the child doesn't change the way parents want be contacted. The same priorities for the parents still exist. These are "updates on their child's progress or insight on how they improve, timely notice when performance is slipping, information on what their child is expected to learn during this year, homework and grading policies"(O'Brien 1).  47% of parents would like an update as soon as a decision is made, and the schools need to decide on what method of communications best suits their parents. In regards to the 1st grade teachers' website, it was exceptionally well done. It was updated regularly, with titles of the books that were read in class, classroom parties were mentioned, and the teacher even had links for games for the kids to play.  Reading, math, phonics, spelling, and other subjects each had current information from the teacher. On top of that, reminders for the parents were visible.

Five Steps to Better School/Community Collaboration

Brendan O'Keefe starts off by saying that for education to be real and valued it must have strong connections within the community. The local, state and federal government are unable to fix the problems that we face at a local level; it is up to the individual communities to fix these problems. O'Keefe found 6 themes that helped transform schools. There are "community/business school partnerships, parental collaboration, curriculum connected to real world experiences, student voice, cross generation learning, and locals designing solutions to local problems"(1). When respect is being practiced between the community, ideas will move quickly in a positive environment. To ensure to a positive school community relationship, a positive idea must be envisioned. A great way that O'Keefe mentioned to build a positive relationship is to have community walks.  Go to businesses around the community, and knock on their doors and try to connect with the businesses; this will also build positive relationships within the community.  Another way to connect with the community is to set up the curriculum in a way that the local businesses will be able to connect the business ventures to what the students are learning in class.  It's great to see an organization called, "Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools" being formed by students to save their schools. On the Facebook page, there are other comments from students explaining and voicing their right to a good education. Videos and pictures also have been updated to express the students' opinions.  Besides videos there are news articles talking about issues with the Chicago schools.

Reflection:
I love Twitter; while reading the article, one of the positives they mentioned was the up-to-date and constant information.  That is the number one reason why I like Twitter so much.  I can get news, sports, traffic problems, or weather reports at anytime. It is also fascinating to see the connection you can get from famous and important people.  It is almost like being able to text anybody you want, regardless of who they are.  The article talking about the grassroots aspect of Twitter was interesting in the fact that many teachers use this to connect with colleagues that they have worked with before.  Many times it mentioned that they won't share resources or URLs but brainstorm about ideas and topics.  Its a great idea, because we have different ideas on teaching various topics.  Dealing with the topic of communication with parents; at my school the parents want the information as quickly as possible.  For example, if there is a pending snow storm, parents at my school need to know ASAP because they need to find childcare because many times both parents are working.  We will have our school name scrolling on the bottom of the TV, and also have a "call blast" that will call all the parents pertaining to whether we have school or not.  I really enjoyed Mr. D's website.  The information was updated and organized in an user friendly method.  Parents even had the opportunity to provide feedback.  What a great website to model mine after!  The bar has been set high.  Connecting the community with school is very important.  The school I teach at has a tough problem with gaining support within the community. Community walks, maps, and curriculum can all be modeled to bridge the gap between the local businesses and my school.