An Educator's Guide to using the Internet most effectively with your students.

2. Kids these days…
Always with their faces buried in some electronic device.

3. Electronics
0 As a college professor, you probably see more and
more laptops in your classes every year.
0 As a high school teacher, you often see kids distracted
by their tablets and smart phones in class.
0 Students are bringing technology into the
classroom, so how can you take advantage of that in a
way that adds to their learning experience?

4. Adding to the experience
0 “The change needed in schools is twofold. First they
need to find ways to recognize and value the learning
that goes on outside the classroom.
0 Second, they need to support this learning by
providing a space to reflect on it, galvanize and
develop it so students can recognize and transfer
those skills in new situations and contexts.” (Klopfer,
Osterweil, Groff, & Haas, 2009)

5. Recognize and value
What works for you doesn’t always work for them.

6. Think about it
0 In a study with 230 undergrads at a Midwestern
university, researchers found that one of the biggest
factors in a student reading a textbook was the quality
of the images (Jaschik, 2007).

7. Is it their fault?
0 No! A majority of these kids have grown up
completely immersed in digital technology of some
form.
0 For them, settling on using a textbook is like trying to
contact someone via carrier pigeon. It can be done,
but why use an outdated method?

8. Support
Provide the ideal digital environment to learn.

9. Providing a space
0 From slide 4: “Second, they need to support this
learning by providing a space to reflect on it, galvanize
and develop it…”
0 YouTube is a great space, full of high quality
resources. But is it the ideal space for your students to
interact digitally?
0 What if you want to share other forms of media that
aren’t videos?

10. Providing a space
0 This digital classroom should:
0 Be a centralized location all of your students can visit
0 Involve all types of media
0 Allow for student discussion and interaction
0 Allow students to share digital info extremely quickly
0 Encourage students to look for more sources of
information on that particular topic

11. MySocialCloud.com is that space

12.  This is an example of how the list of a professor with a business course
might look.
 Videos can be watched and articles can be read within the site, keeping
students away from online distractions.
 Content is kept here in one location where your students can access it
at any time through out the semester/year. Instead of visiting YouTube,
Centralized location and then Business Insider, and then Wall Street Journal, they can just
go to your course list and everything will be in it!

13.  Each of these bookmarks is its own form of media: (from left to
right) photo, pdf, web article, and video.
 Click on the video to play it within MySocialCloud. If it is a web
article or pdf, click the Read button!
 Students’ acquisition of information should not be limited to text
in a book when the Internet has so much more to offer!
All forms of media

14.  Each student can comment on the tile, and it will
be updated in real time.
 Imagine you’ve posted this bookmark about
innovation and one of your students shares it
with a friend who is in another business course.
As a result, you’ve just taught someone outside
of your classroom without even trying!
 But I just send an email whenever I want to
share something with students. Email is an
outdated system! When young people wake up in
the morning, they don’t check their email. They
check their social networks.
 Besides, how many times have you lost an email
in the clutter?
Discussion and interaction

15.  Students can use the search function to find things related to
their field of study.
 A search using the term “business” returned these results on
MySocialCloud.
 The advantage of this feature lies in the fact that you aren’t the
only expert in your field. Other key figures will have different
Explore knowledge insight and advice, and your students can benefit from all of it.

16. This is not Blackboard
Or any other tool you use for grading and posting assignments.

17. A learning tool
0 You cannot use MySocialCloud to post or grade
assignments.
0 It is used as a tool for connecting students to information
that will help them better understand the topic of the
course. Think of it as you handing them a giant packet of
resources, but instead of a stack of paper, they get it online.
0 As a leader of your field or industry, you know the most
prominent figures, the leading products, the best websites,
and when the conferences are.
0 Use MySocialCloud to share this knowledge with your
students! Help them to become leaders in your field!

18. Education for a digital
generation
0 “School leaders are key actors in re-imagining schools
for a digital future.
0 They have to recognise that their students are a
resource to be unleashed; that they have the
knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to
and develop their own learning experience…
0 This is about focusing on small levers with the
potential to create big change.” (Green &
Hannon, 2007)

19. Creating big change
0 MySocialCloud is a team of young USC students who
want to improve the way all students are learning.
0 Your students will love hearing our inspiring story; it
will get them excited about using a new academic tool
to study the topics they are interested in.
0 We cannot create this big change without the help of
each individual instructor. The knowledge you share
on MySocialCloud could be used to teach anyone
around the world! That is our ultimate vision for the
future of education.

20. Let’s get you started!
0 Before the fall academic year begins, I’d like to help
you get your profile set up. We can create a different
list for each of your courses and I will show you how
to add these resources to your profile.
0 I will also show you how you can keep them hidden
until you reach the week of discussion that pertains to
those articles and videos.

21. Thanks for watching!
0 My name is Tony Alires and I want to help propel your
classroom into the future: tony@mysocialcloud.com
0 If you’d like to see my personal lists, type this into
your browser: http://www.mysocialcloud.com/#/tonyalires
0 Works Cited for this presentation:
http://www.mysocialcloud.com/#/tonyalires/WorksCited