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Yes and no. Yes for all of the reasons that we hash and rehash every time we have a meeting about appropriate use, bullying and access. No because we are limiting our students in myriad ways. I've written other blog posts on Connected Learning and the benefits of learning collaboratively. When students work collaboratively on meaningful inquiries, we know that they are experiencing an increase in understanding, achievement, self esteem and motivation (thirteen.org). When students work collaboratively using social media, they are exposed to a whole new wealth of positive consequences. Everyone can work asynchronously, teachers can use guidelines to scaffold use, work can be documented in one space and students can work on creating a positive digital footprint (Rubenstein, 2014).
I took myself to task this year and started blogging with my sixth graders to document learning, create a type of ePortfolio of their technology work, and also to model and scaffold positive, constructive and collaborative uses of social media. Each student has a Google school account. These accounts are 'monitored' by the district filter and occasionally by their homeroom teachers for inappropriate language or communication over email and document sharing. As an extension, Blogger is enabled. With each multimedia project I assign my students, I ask them to upload/embed the final project into Blogger and write a reflection about what they learned and how they can apply these skills to the 'real world'.
How can we, as educators, change the stigma surrounding the use of online multimodal tools? In our classrooms, every day, we can demonstrate and encourage the use of the tools that students can use in a structured, supported, monitored way. The use of Blogger as a classroom tool has required 'selling' to parents and administrators alike. Encourage the students to go home, get online and SHOW their parents what they are working on in class and to tell them WHY it's so important/great/awesome. When speaking with parents, let them know the accounts are monitored, privacy settings are set appropriately, and that district policies are being followed regarding names and photos. Shamelessly advertise your students' work to administrators and colleagues. Tweet out pictures of them working hard. Blog about it. Send an email to the students' teachers or an administrator with a link and the subject line, "Check this out!" and laud all of the important work the students are doing. Tweet the benefits with a picture: "Creating content, using and integrating multimedia tools. Application to the real world. Can't measure that on a standardized test." (it's under 140 characters) And when that fails to get a response, cite the Common Core State Standards as evidence that what you are doing is promoting learning. There are a lot of digital tools and multimedia uses referenced in the ELA standards. Use them.
The Blogging is going well...check this out!
Amalia
Cady - she loves football so included a couple of posts about that, too. Fine with me!
Utah
Resources:
"Cooperative and Collaborative Learning: Explanation." Cooperative and Collaborative Learning: Explanation. Thirteen.org. Web. 01 Oct. 2014
Rubenstein, Grace. "The Way of the Wiki: Building Online Creativity and Cooperation." Edutopia. N.p., 13 Apr. 2014. Web. 02 Oct. 2014.