Social Media

What counts as social media? How might you use social media in the classroom? Do you feel that social media sites should be used for educational purposes? If so, which ones? Are there some sites, like perhaps Facebook, that should be for socialization only? Why or why not?


I believe that any website that has millions of users that can communicate in any way is a form of social media.  All of the websites that I have programmed into my computer are websites that I use to communicate with my friends, family and teachers from the past.  There are many ways that I could use social media in the classroom. I think that this would be a very effective way to communicate with the generation of students that we are teaching today.  I could use them for class discussions at home over readings or something we talked about in class that day.  I could use social media sites for keeping students updated with new assignments or keeping them up to date with grades.  I feel like social media sites could be used for educational purposes but it depends on the students, school you teach at, if you feel it is appropriate and what content you are putting online for the students.  I believe that teachers and students could communicate appropriately on google+, facebook, twitter and potentially pinterest.  On the other hand, I could see how people would think that Facebook and Twitter should be kept to socialization only because of the background purpose of being social and reconnecting with people.  There are so many pros and cons to whether they should be used for education or for being social but I believe that it should be the school or teacher's decision to do so.

Article Review

http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=101 is the website that I did the review on for class today.  The information provided was very relevant and the facts that it provided were comparable to ones that I have already heard and ones I know to be true.  This website has the credentials from HONcode, which provides us with the guarantee that this website is authentic and is giving us correct information.  Along with the HONcode, this website has a copyright certification.  I believe that this site is one that I would utilize when showing future clients something about a speech disorder.  The last thing that tells me this website is a legitimate source for research is that it provides us with the references that she used while she was making her website.  It is important that you give credit and on websites that are not good to use, they will not provide the correct credentials.

Graphic Organizer

What makes instructional materials found online good?  I would have to say that in order to find a good and reliable source online you need to know your sources and the name behind it.  When I look for sources online, I make sure to read what is written on the website, check to see if it is endorsed by any organization and compare their facts to those that I either know or have found elsewhere.  If the website passes all of these stipulations I will utilize this website for my research.  Some examples that I found are from the Merlot website.  http://www.diigo.com/user/taylormarasco/259?type=all has some of the examples that I found that are very reliable and have been edited to be as correct as possible. Knowing the source of your information is very important so you don't use things that aren't true, completely biased, or just wrong in general.  I feel like sometimes it is easy to tell a fake website from one that really knows what it is talking about with the information they are providing.  If I need to do a research project I would utilize these websites from my diigo account so that I know they are proper and full of information that is actually useful to me and what I am trying to research.  I looked into speech-language-therapy dot com and it seemed to be a very helpful website.  I figured that this was an interesting, informational and reliable source to use based on a few things.  It had the credentials from HONcode which proves information to be true.  Also, the information provided was relatable to facts I already have learned and information that is relevant.

Collaborative Learning Continued

These new instructional technology tools that we learned how to use in class this week are going to be very helpful in the future when working with group members and other students or teachers in your school of employment.  These tools made putting websites together and communicating with others a whole lot easier when getting together just isn't a possibility.  These tools provide us with many opportunities to explore the web to websites that pertain to us or what we are doing as a group.  In the future I will probably build a google sites website and have my students go there if they need to do research or find viable resources online for a project.  Group projects are often difficult to do when school time is not set aside for students... I will make sure to help them put together one of these sites so that they can communicate easily and all put in their own efforts toward completing the project together.

iMovie

     If I were to start my video project over I would obviously change a few things to make it more professional and to make it so that I could show it to future students.  The first thing I would change about our project was the background voices.  I was the one who was recording and I really did not like hearing my voice the entire time because it made hearing the main character's voice a little more difficult.  There was no need for the background noise so I would really like to eliminate that if possible.  Another thing that I would like to change is making sure that everyone who is involved in the video project is on the same page with the sequence of the video so we don't sound unintelligent when we are explaining how to do something.  Those were the two main things that I would really like to fix if we were to redo our video project.  If I were to make a few more instructional videos for future use I would possibly think about doing things related to my career (speech language pathology).  I would try to include a video on phonetics, anatomy and how to do therapy on a child with a basic speech impediment.  I feel as if these would be very helpful to students and to myself.  I probably would utilize a few of my teachers, textbooks and a few online websites to back my video with research.