How Should We Use Twitter For Professional Development And Teaching

As technology developing rapidly, using lots of Internet tools for educational purpose are not unusual. In the learning of this mod, I learnt about how to use micro-blogging, namely Tweeter, to improve teaching competence.

In the article named "using Tweeter for teachers' professional development", the author mainly talked about using Tweeter for personal use. As a PLA, Tweeter act an important role in professional development. We can get suggestions, resources, answers, and supports from following others on Tweeter, and also we can give offers, encourages, and answers by writing tweets. Further more, I have learnt that there is a tool named Tweeter lists, where I can find tons of lists of people in educational field who share newest resources with the world. I can either subscribe the lists I am interested in, or follow someone inside the list to keep myself being updated about the latest news, resources, links, researches, and many more areas that I am interested in.

"The best way to get the most out of Tweeter is to use it."I learnt that lots of people stop at following and reading, but the best way that can benefits you is to really use it. Tweeter has so many functions waiting for me to exploring. As using Tweeter, I am sharing while learning, reading while writing. Not only my knowledge database can be broaden, but also the writing skill will improving over time. 

Although I am a new user of Tweeter and there are still lots of things that stay miserable about it , I believe Tweeter is a great help and resources for my own professional development.

Join a Twitter Chat

This is the first time I learnt that there is a Twitter chat for people to communicate online.I joined the group named "Education Chat" that began from 12 pm on Tuesday.To write a Tweet and join the conversation,I should add a hashtag "#edchat" for everyone else in the group to see my Tweet.I asked a question but maybe because I joined suddenly and all others were busying talking,no one replied to my question.However,I can read others' micro blogs and their conversations and discussions about a certain topic raised by someone in the chat.I saw someone asked what will happen if we let blogging be a part of CCSS. And some people thought it should be put in the CCSS. Although sometimes I can not follow their thoughts because so many people were talking, which made it a little messy, I still found the Twitter chat is a great way to sharing and learning from others, who may be the experts in your interested field. Further more, I can not only find people talking about their thoughts, but also they sharing some useful links in their Tweets for participants to read and refer. Here we can find tons of worthy and helpful information filtered by others, which is much better than you spend years finding something in the knowledge of sea online. People sharing everything they think useful for educators, talking about their thoughts regarding to a specific topic, discussing about different opinions in the Twitter chat online. Thus, as a new in this field, I definitely will learn a lot from theirs thoughts and experiences. If I keeping join chats like this, I believe it will help me significantly in improving my teaching proficiency.

Social Networking in Education

After I learned the importance of the theory of connectivism,I joined a networking community named "Classroom 2.0".And I found it significantly helpful in sharing and learning with others.

I can find lots of videos made by other members in this community.The videos are mostly about different lessons given by others.By watching these videos I believe I can learn tons of new knowledge about education.There is also a forum in which members can posting their opinions and discuss with each other,in order to sharing and learning.There are also different groups of different sub-fields,which facilitate every member coming with their own specific interested field.Members are all willing to share what they know, and there is a great amount of useful information on the website waiting for me to discover.I can learn from people who are far more expert than me in this social networking website.Further inspection is needed to utilize it to the most.

A learner is like a...

As the article named " A Learning Theory for the Digital Age"says, "Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual."In my point of view,a learner is like a computer,which needs a "programmer" to input some programs for it to function appropriately,in order to give it the ability to resolve problems independently.Like a computer,a learner firstly needs a teacher to instruct him how to learn before they gain the ability to learn from outside world by themselves.

After reading the passage and listening to the radio,I learned a new concept--connectivism."Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories."Like what I said above,a learner is like a computer because s/he needs teachers' instruction of how to learn on their own, and every learner needs to connect to each other as well as the overwhelming information around the world,in order to learn from cooperation,not only with other individuals, but also with organizations.As professor Siemens said in the radio "What is connectivism","we have a need to socialize and negotiate around knowledge." Definitely, today's world is a brand new one in which connections are indispensable,this is true in every field,including education.Because the amount of knowledge today is remarkably large,so we cannot continue the independent learning method any longer.Learners should alternate their primary learning theory and adjust to a new theory which is more fitful into this new digital world.Namely,connectivism. Through cooperating with others,we learn faster,much efficiently.

The use of Curationl Tools----Diigo and Scoop it !

In the Mod 4, I got the first access to two curation tools, which are Diigo and Scoop. To understand what is curation, I checked the website given by the professor. "Social media curation is when you filter, select, review and reposition quality content on the web for a specific audience and/or topic."

The two Internet tools are indeed very helpful nowadays because there are a huge amount of resources out there, which can be reached simply by several mouse clicks. Thus, while those materials and resources provide us with extreme amount of information, they also are time-consuming for us to find what we really need.

Diigo is a cloud-base personal information management system, where I can put anything I collected into the cloud named "my library". And I can get access to my collections from anywhere that support Diigo. "Scoop.it" is similar to "Diigo". It is a "semi-automated curation platform. Scoop.it crawls the web according to a pre-determined criteria and then allows the curator to review and reposition the filtered material prior to publishing." By using these two curation tools, I found they are extremely helpful when collecting something on any website. Also, I would like to compare these two tools by their features for you to choose which one to use.

We can use either of them to save any website and articles in order to reach them easily in the future. They all have the function of highlighting text and adding sticky notes. In addition, they provide the feature to let us add annotations to any text. And all the highlights and annotations can be pertained and access by any device you use. Because they have already been saved in the cloud. We can also use multiple tags to the website we saved for us to find them much easier in both tools. Moreover, in both tools, we can copy and paste from original article to appear in comments about site. In both tools, we can also follow others by simply click on the buttons. Of course others can follow us in reverse. 

The slight differences I noticed are as follows. First, in Diigo we can commend on each other's items but in Scoop, we can not commend but only "like" them. What's more, in Scoop I was offered many recommendations related to my topic but in Diigo there was no suggestion.

I think I will continue using both of them because the Diigo is convenient to save website while the Scoop has its advantage in follow others' topics that I am interested in. Thus both of them has some features that I really like to utilize in the future. I believe my life will be much more easier with the help of them.

By The Year of 2046

By The Year of 2046

    After I watched these two videos named "Classroom of Tomorrow" and "The Future Starts Now", I get a better understanding of the importance of utilizing advanced technology in education.Future education will embrace its revolution caused by technology.

    As technology improving, we now have tons of gadgets, such as iPad, laptop, smart mobile phone etc.,all of which can help us get access to all kinds of books and information in the world.When I was watching the video "Classroom of Tomorrow", I was so excited to see what the classroom looks like in the future.No blackboard, no chalks,and a teacher can put pictures onto the screen from his phone by simply waving his right hand!It was like watching a scientific movie.Students can even communicate with Siri in their iPhones and ask "him" whatever questions they have.Moreover,I was astonished when a boy change a window into a big screen of his phone,and manipulate apps on the window!

    Advanced technology just make education much easier in the future.All teaching processes and activities can be done under technology.Most importantly,students are interested in learning with the help of ICT,which is short for "Information and Communication Technology".Students will definitely learn better by using ICT.ICT makes school more relevant and motivating for students, and if more students learn better, more will be motivated and fewer will drop off the university.Thus,utilizing ICT in school as well as in education can also help build a knowledge-based society. Advanced technology just make learning and teaching much more easier in the future,for all the information in the world is just at our fingertips,a few mouse clicks away.

    However,problem is how to utilize ICT smartly to improve learning.A good start is to make ICT as the fifth basic skill in the curriculum apart from reading,writing,speaking and maths.

    Schools had better take students' interests in ICT, and use ICT in teacher training process, which may encourage teachers to use ICT in their future classes.

    I am excited and encouraged by these videos.I can hardly imagine what the world will be like in the near future. But whatever it turns into, I believe it must be a better and brighter world embraced by advanced technology.

    

     

Using Blogs in English Learning and Teaching

    Students are always more enjoy using Internet than studying in classroom.They are exercising reading and writing skills under no awareness.Thus,if we can import Internet tools into language teaching,the effectiveness will be unusually significant.Blog is one of those Internet tools that can be used by both language teachers and students to posting ideas,sharing materials,making comments and so on.This exciting method of learning and teaching can reduce the tedious of traditional task.
    The first way I can use the blog is to create a reflective,journal-type blog.By using this blog,a language teacher can reflect on the teaching experience weekly or monthly.And reviewing what I wrote before can help me decide what worked for the students and what did not work well.Furthermore,teachers can share ideas for teaching activities and language games using in the classroom by posting blogs,reading others', and making comments.This is a beneficial tool for communication.
    The second way I can use the blog is to start a class blog in order to post class-related information like syllabus and homework.I can also sharing reading and video materials to the students to facilitate their off-class self-study.By making a reflection about a finished class,students can make comments on the activities,which will help teachers to improve their future decisions.Moreover,language learners can benefit from each other from the sharing materials and comments they made.    Learning standards:    Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.