Using Social Media

This is so "2010".

I have used Social Media for years. My AdvApp class does the SGSC and GSHS websites and does a weekly e-mail newsletter called the E-News. 5 or so years ago, we started posting delay/cancellation notices on the website (as my beloved Superintendent makes that decision around 5:30 a.m., and then calls me, that often got posted significantly before it got on the radio/tv/phone messenger service). Then a brainstorm - we started sending out an e-mail using our E-News distribution lists. Well received.

4 years ago on the alternate weeks when my daughter stayed with my ex, my daughter asked me to start texting her about delays/cancellations. That got the word out even faster (we need not consider her average of 3500 texts a month). Then a dozen or so of her friends asked me to text them as well. Then 20 or so teachers. This was fast. And the textees texted others.

2 years ago we set up a Facebook account that my AdvApps use to post corporation-wide news. I started posting the delays/cancellations on Facebook first. After all, it just takes too long to go online and check e-mail!

This year, we set up a Twitter account that my AdvApps use for just GSHS news and I tweet the delay/cancellation first. Then text. Then Facebook. Then e-mail. Holy cats! Retweets are out there before my smartphone is set down.

Admittedly, because of  all the extra in-house webwork and publishing that the AdvApps do as well as being the Tech Corps Coordinator, SADD sponsor, Bible Study sponsor, Spring Musical Conductor, and myriad other responsibilities, I do have a need to contact students frequently outside of school hours. I do not use Facebook on a personal level, but do use Twitter/texting/e-mail.

From the administrative viewpoint - is there a potential for unhappiness? Can a telephone call be a problem?
Can a letter be a problem? Can a face-to-face conversation be a problem?

Here there be dragons?Social Media works. Very well.

 

New Tool to Use

Having seen the Pearltree diagram created by Nikki Hollis, I can definitely see using that to great advantage in the classroom.
I currently make extensive use of Inspiration, but it is static and text/graphics only. Adding images / videos / links would make for a much more powerful delivery of content.
While already a pretty high end technology user in the classroom, this would add the bonus of the students adding external and current sources to their notes and reference guides and manuals created in class.

I think that the most applicable information is not a software package or the use of technology in my classroom.
I think it is rather an attitude. 

We all have shared stories of colleagues who refuse to learn new techniques. Fortunately, we have more in the camp of sharing.

We all have fellow teachers who refuse to admit that students - all our students - are changing (the core of our students is still there - a willingness to work and learn).  Again, most of us are evolving.

I am fortunate to be in a position of teaching in a computer lab with an administration that provides constant hardware/software updates - that values what I do with my students.

If I had to single out one piece - it would be VoiceThread.