My first #Twitterchat

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend my very first Twitterchat. I won't lie, I was very nervous. This is because I attended the #fslchat, which is for those who teach French as a second language. Unfortunately, I know nearly nothing about French and missed out on opportunities to attend other foreign language chats earlier in the week. However, I decided to give it a go and I'm so glad I did!

The theme of this week's #fslchat was Oral Communication and Fluency. After everyone introduced themselves, we spent the hour talking about the following questions:

• Q1: Share an “Eduwin” from the past 2 weeks.
• Q2: How do you define oral fluency?
• Q3: What strategies and routines do you use in your classes to develop oral fluency with your students?
• Q4: How do you help your students to take risks when speaking French in class?
• Q5: In what ways do you assess the *oral fluency skills* of your students?
• Q6: Share a strategy for developing spontaneous use of French in class.

Although I couldn't answer these questions from the perspective of a French teacher, I believe that many of the answers to these questions apply to second language learning in general. The feedback I received from the participants was wonderful! I learned so much from them, and I didn't feel lost or uncomfortable. I felt very welcomed and privileged to interact with such intelligent, passionate people. 

I believe chats like this can serve as a great resource for professional development. Not only do you learn new tips and tricks from others, but it gives you a chance to reflect on your own teaching and learning experiences. Twitterchats can be used as an outlet, whether you want another perspective on an in-classroom issue or you want to share your excitement for an idea that worked out really well. These chats can be whatever you want them to be! I definitely recommend giving one a try, because this will certainly not be my last Twitterchat!

Twitter and Teaching?

Yes, you heard that correctly. Twitter no longer has to be that thing your student is inconspicuously browsing during class while you're trying to present a lesson on reflexives. Imagine a classroom where students are using Twitter to communicate with others in a target language. This can become a reality for both you and me! Below are a few ways that I plan on using Twitter in my future ESL classroom.

1. Create a discussion using a #ClassHashtag
Using a hashtag is a great way to filter your Twitter feed by topic. Strike up a class debate and have students posts answers using the hashtag you created. This also makes it easier for students to find what their peers had to say about the subject.

2. Correct grammar and spelling
Rather than just correcting all grammar and spelling errors, give your students a chance to play "detective." There are many instances of incorrect grammar and spelling on Twitter, even among native speakers. Students can identify tweets with noticable mistakes, "re-tweet" them, and share the mistake with their classmates!

3. Create a Twitter Poll
Twitter has a feature that allows you to create a poll, and anyone who sees the poll is allowed to cast a vote. A poll can be about anything you want: what students want to learn about, which sentence is grammatically incorrect, class activity ideas, etc. There are so many things that can be done with polls, and it is a great way to get quick feedback from your students!

4. Share language-related Gifs and Memes

Show your students that you are "hip," and that language learning can be as well! Gifs and Memes can serve as great, often witty, visualizations of almost any situation or concept. Is your student having a hard time remembering where to insert the comma? Maybe a funny image will help them remember.

5. Post homework assignments and due dates
Let's face it; your students are going to browse social media for at some point during the day anyways. Why not "tweet" a friendly reminder to complete an assignment? Even better, this can be an opportunity to quickly address any last-minute questions a student may have. I don't know about you, but I am much more likely to view a notification from my Twitter feed than my e-mail!

There are SO many more ways that Twitter can be implemented in the classroom (not just language classrooms either), which can be found here and here. As long as it's being used safely and efficiently, Twitter is a great resource to help promote a more interconnected, tech-savvy classroom!

ePals

Having your students interact and work with students from around the world promotes open-mindedness and provides different perspectives on life. ePals is a website that encourages the development of this understanding, but from the perspective of a teacher. One feature of this site is the ability to find connections with other teachers from a variety of different fields. When searching for connections, you can filter your results by country, student age range, language(s) spoken, class size, subjects, etc. You can also view others' "experiences" which often consist of successful activities and lesson plans that were implemented by other teachers. This website seems to be a great communication technology tool to help establish a network of colleagues both in and beyond your field! 

Flipped Learning Network

When choosing an educational social networking site to join, the Flipped Learning Network immediately stood out to me. I have to admit that I know very little about "flipped learning," so I turned this into an opportunity to do some research. From my understanding, flipped learning seems to involve delivering instructional content to students outside the classroom. Students then take that knowledge and use it to collaborate with others on online discussions, and then come to class prepared to engage in those concepts. This method seems to emphasize the teacher's role as a facilitator or moderator of classroom discussion, rather than the sole source of knowledge in the class. I think that this is a very interesting method. Because I am curious as to how this applies to the foreign language classroom, I decided to join the World Language Teachers group!

A Learner is Like a Country

"The network is the learning." - George Simens

Whether it's via language, symbols, art, music, etc., human nature indicates that there is a desire to externalize what's in our heads. The need to externalize our thoughts must be met in order to connect with other individuals. This natural impulse seems to be directly in conflict with many of the more internalized theories of learning that we've used to establish our educational system (ex. constructivism, cognitivism, behaviorism). Perhaps we need to begin looking at the act of knowledge creation from an external perspective. As George Siemens states, learning is the function of a network.

Since knowledge changes so rapidly, it is crucial to note that what we know today is not as important as our ability to stay current. If you don't choose to continue learning, you are choosing to become obsolete in your particular field/knowledge space. From the perspective of a learner, no one wants to be stuck in a classroom where the teacher continuously uses the same teaching strategies and doesn't accept knowledge from outside of his/her classroom. There are many different ways of learning (ex. courses), but none seem to be as effective as a network, which constantly reforms itself.

The same mindset can be applied to a country. Prosperous countries are ones that value establishing ties with other countries, learn from each other, and work together to maintain peace. History has shown that countries that have chosen to isolate themselves from the outside world are depriving their citizens of knowledge that is essential in keeping up with a progressive, interconnected society.

References:
Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age
The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature
The Network is the Learning

Comparing Diigo and Pinterest

Diigo and Pinterest are two websites that are used for social bookmarking (a.k.a organizing your favorite articles, pictures, websites, etc. that you will want to refer back to later). They have many similarities, but also some notable differences from each other that may persuade you to lean one way or the other.

* Can you highlight text in saved sites?
Diigo: Yes

Pinterest: No

Diigo has a unique feature that allows you to highlight and annotate web pages as you browse through them online, even PDF files! You can also add sticky notes to serve as comments or reminders directly on any web page. Unfortunately Pinterest has not implemented this feature.

* Can you use multiple tags?
Diigo: Yes
Pinterest: No

When you save a website to your library on Diigo, you have the option to add tags such as education, teaching, classroom, etc. to that item. You can later search for items that you've saved based on what tag(s) you associated to them. On the other hand, Pinterest does things a bit differently. Rather than using tags, you can create a "board" and save "pins" to a board based on any criteria you want. 

* Can you copy and paste from original article to appear in comments about site?
Diigo: Yes
Pinterest: Yes

From my understanding, you have the ability to freely copy and paste any information from a website you saved onto your comments section on both Diigo and Pinterest.

* Can others post comments on your site?
Diigo: No
Pinterest: Yes

Diigo only allows you to view another user's library and access any external websites they've linked in their posted items. You don't have the ability to comment on others' pages. However, Pinterest does allow you to comment directly below anyone's pin (as long as their profile is public).

* Can you follow others? Can they follow you? 
Diigo: Yes
Pinterest: Yes

Both sites allow you to follow other users, and they can follow you in return.

* Can you message people you follow? 
Diigo: No
Pinterest: Yes

There is no feature on Diigo that allows you to send a private message to another user. Pinterest does incorporate this feature, encouraging users to send messages as a way of sharing and swapping ideas.

* Are you offered suggestions for related articles?
Diigo: No
Pinterest: Yes

When you first log on to Pinterest, the first thing you will see is a bunch of "Picked for you Pins" (You have the convenience of opting out of these pins if you so please!). These are suggested to you based on both boards you've already posted and "Topics" you've indicated you are interested in when you first created your account. On the contrary, Diigo does not offer you suggestions. You only have the option to "Discover" bookmarks from the Diigo Community. Even so, you still have to manually type in a query using the search bar.

Overall, both websites have their advantages and downfalls and it is difficult to choose one site over the other. Personally, I am inclined to use both websites but for different purposes. Diigo seems to be a website that is great for personal, academic use. For instance, I can see myself using this website to take notes while reading or to collect references that I plan on using for a research paper. Adversely, Pinterest seems to place more emphasis on the social aspect of "social bookmarking". It is true that you can find very valuable resources for education and classroom technology on this site. However, it seems to me more like a visually-stimulating haven for those who like to find and share inspiring ideas for recipes, fashion, interior design, beauty, health etc. I am not here to say that you should choose one website over the other. Give both a try and don't be afraid to make your experiences on both sites as personalized as you want them to be!

Social Media and Education: An Integral Relationship

"We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it." - Erik Qualman

The quote shown above made me think abut social media in a completely new light. It seems that incorporating 21st century technology into your life has moved from being optional to obligatory rather quickly. In fact, this transition was so quick that it took a watching a video on the Social Media Revolution for me to realize how engrossed in technology our world has become. It is somewhat shocking to think about the fact that e-mailing has become outdated outside of the realm of work/school. Even watching television has become somewhat antiquated for me; why pay for cable when you can stream anything you want to watch online? This was a humbling experience for me, in the sense that I felt like just another product of my generation. However, after taking a little while to dwell on this feeling, I realized that I shouldn't shame myself or my peers for becoming immersed in computers, cell phones, etc. There is so much good that can be done with technology, especially when teaching and learning is involved.

"On our blog, my students speak up... even the shy ones." - A Vision of 21st Century Teachers

As an aspiring teacher, I should always look for ways to help align what students learn in the classroom to what happens in real life. Technology is the catalyst serving that very function; bridging the gap between classroom material and preparation for the future. It is a very powerful tool for both teachers and students. Taking advantage of technology in the classroom also encourages more global interaction, while simultaneously addressing different learning styles. A Vision of 21st Century Teachers outlines these points, and showcases a few different types of projects/assignments/activities that can be done in a variety of subject areas. Although this video was uploaded in 2010, it already seems a bit outdated (this goes to show how far high-definition video resolution has come even since only six years ago!). It would have been nice to see some of the tech they're talking about being integrated or demonstrated, instead of just seeing teachers holding up signs. Nevertheless, it was a very powerful message that still holds true. Technology will continue to become an even more influential aspect of life, and we need to embrace this in the classroom!