1. Rebecca Haught
CI 350
Review of 5 Twitter accounts
Alec Couros
The first suggested educator I followed on twitter was Alec Couros (twitter
handle: @courosa). He has been one of my favorite accounts since then. He posts a
lot of links to ideas for using technology in education. One of my favorites was a link
that talked about using “memes” to connect with students. Memes are viral images
with sarcastic comments on them. One example was the grumpy cat picture, with
the words reading, “what I look like if you’re talking while I’m talking.” Memes are
really popular with students from ages 12 to 22. Not only can teachers make them a
fun way to communicate with their students, but they can encourage students to
make their own memes correlating with what they would have imagined a general
in civil war saying or a character in a book. Another tweet he posted that I have been
thinking about a lot, because of the character education pillar in 21st century
education was a tweet that read, “Are we raising a generation that find it difficult to
do good things for people without publicizing it to YouTube, Twitter, etc.?” I really
wondered about this. They say character is what you do when no one is watching,
but students these days feel this need to post everything on the Internet. This tweet
has made me wonder how I can show my students the value in not posting some
things.

2. Eric Sheninger
Eric Sheninger was the next educator that I followed (twitter handle:
@NMHS_Principal). He was definitely an interesting perspective, because he is an
administrator. He posts a lot of articles that are pro social media in education. I
agree with him, so I have really enjoyed the reading. He posted an article recently
that was “The Significant Benefits of Social Learning.” The article discussed ideas
such as the ability to get immediate responses to their questions, the ability to tag
questions and answers for faster searching, and the fact that students gain more
confidence through online collaboration. Students love social media. Trying to force
them away from it will literally never work. They will always find ways to access it
when they are not supposed to. This principal believes that we should harness the
desire students have and use it to educate them. Another tweet he posted was a
retweeted that read, “Students yearn for creativity, not tests.” We have discussed
over and over that project based learning is more effective that a test with 30
multiple-choice questions. Through creative projects, students can learn more, and
actually enjoy learning, instead of dreading it.

3. Steven W. Anderson
The third account I followed was Steven W. Anderson (twitter handle:
web20classroom). One of his recent tweets really caught my attention. I am a big fan
of flipping classrooms. He posted a link to an article that was about flipping faculty
meetings. That is an incredible idea. I know, as a teacher, I would love to watch my
meeting through a video or listen to a podcast at home, write down my questions,
and then meet so we could ask our questions. Students learn through modeling, if
we want to flip the classroom, we should flip it for the teachers as well. Another
article he posted was “4 web tools for student portfolios.” I really like the idea of
having students do a portfolio instead of a final exam. This allows them to really
review and look over the work they have done for the year, and now with online
portfolios they have it forever. The article listed a few I had heard about and a few I
had not, but the point is that online portfolios are wonderful. Students can see their
work from home, parents can see it, and they can submit it all online. Practicing this
in all ages is best, because in the real world, an online portfolio is an incredible
resource.

4. Chris Wejr
The final educator, but stranger I followed was Chris Wejr (twitter handle:
@ChrisWejr). This may have been the only person I didn’t get a ton of great info
from. He had a lot of great ideas, but a lot were directed at K-5 education, and while
it’s important that I stay up to date on all age groups, I am mostly interested in older
students. He did recently post a great picture that was “7 things to remember about
feedback.” It is always important for teachers to take into account what and how to
give feedback. I have received feedback from teachers that just said, “This is bad.”
That was incredibly unhelpful. I tried really hard on that assignment, and I was
completely discouraged to try it again. Probably my favorite part of this twitter page
was the motivation posts. He would often post a quote or an idea for how to
motivate students. One of these was a picture called “what a student really needs to
hear.” The quote that followed was about how the teacher was not going to let
quitting be an option for that student. Many students have parents, peers, and even
other teachers who let them quit, and let them fail. They need to know that it is not
an option in your class, and you won’t allow it.

5. Harold Blanco
Last but certainly not least I followed a teacher whose opinion matters to me
very much, Harold Blanco (twitter handle: @ci350class). Harold Blanco is the
teacher for the technology class I am in now. Not only do I enjoy his tweets about
biking, but also I have seen several good technology in education links that have
helped me out. One he posted recently was “7 Ways to Find Better Blog Topics.” I
plan on having a class blog. Students will be able to read it and comment on it. I can
use this as an evaluation tool for myself. One of the ideas was to ask the audience
what they want to hear. I hope in the future I can ask my students to tell me what
they would like to hear me talk about, whether it be a lesson we did, or opinions on
a school rule. Another link he posted was about “destroying the stereotype of social
media in education.” I can’t wait to use social media in my classroom, so I hope to
either be present after the negative stereotype leaves us, or be a part of the change
to make that happen. We have discussed over and over again how we should
embrace social media, and teach students how to use it for their education, instead
of forcing them to put their phones and computers away.