Web 2.0 classroom management

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Permalink Reply by Faith Shabat on March 26, 2010 at 5:09pm

I teach k-4th grade. The social media is scary because of some of the possible repercussions, which you won't know about until you try each one, or hear from someone else. I've been using Classblogmeister, which sends all posts and comments to the teacher for approval. I tried Shelfari, but stopped it because it was sending my kids book suggestions, and sending them the link to their site, which could have outside (non-educational) suggestions. I've been using Voicethread, and so far havne't received any outside comments (but I'm nervous!) I just started Kerpoof and Glogster. We'll see how it goes. I've been warning the kids that it's their responsibility to keep their work appropriate. So far, I haven't seen anything inappropriate posted on either of those sites. I think it would be so helpful to share experiences. My administration is very fearful, so I get a lot of resistance. I'd love to hear other folks' experiences, especially with Lower School kids.
Thanx for starting this conversation,
Faith

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Permalink Reply by Cheska Robinson on March 27, 2010 at 8:20pm

Faith,

I think you hit in right on the head when you said that the key to using Web 2.0 tools is by using and sticking to one at a time. There are so many Web 2.0 tools out there and unfortunately we won't really find out its real strengths and weaknesses, especially in its filtering aspects, if we don't experiment with it and use it for a good chunk of time. Another upside to doing it this way is that you learn how to deal with situations as they occur, and right now experience with Web 2.0 and its many possible repercussions is the best thing you can offer to encourage reluctant teachers and fearful administrations. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Cheska

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on March 26, 2010 at 6:12pm

I integrated a lot of Web 2.0 technologies into my elementary (third-sixth) classrooms for five years, and I was surprised at how few classroom management issues I had. When it comes to management, I see things on two levels:

1.) behavior management
I had significantly fewer behavior problems whenever I brought technology into the classroom because all of the students were on task. (It was so significant, I began integrating a lot more technology into my teaching.) Also, I found that the biggest punishment for my students was not being allowed to use the technology. If a student mis-handled the hardware or broke any of the tech rules, they would lose computer privileges. The first offense was one class period. The second offense was a full week. And the third offense was for the remainder of the semester. (Parents were notified after each offense.) I explained this to students, and no one ever went past a first offense -- it was torture for them to sit to the side and complete an assignment on paper while their classmates were making movies.

2.) Internet safety
I'm one of those crazy teachers who doesn't believe we should use Internet filters. Rather, I think it's important that we, as teachers, teach our students appropriate Internet behavior. At the start of every year, I would teach a lesson specifically on netiquette/using the Internet appropriately. A big part of this lesson was Internet safety. Students were taught to never use last names or photos and never to communicate with anyone they didn't know. They were taught the difference between reliable sites and non-reliable sites, as well as related links on a Web site vs. ads with links. If students ever came across anything inappropriate, they were instructed to close their laptops and raise their hands immediately. And they did -- in five years, there were only a couple of incidents of inappropriate content, and the worst of these was a photo of a woman in a bikini.

In my classroom, teaching netiquette and Internet safety was extremely important because my students were almost all first-generation migrants, and their parents usually didn't know much about the Internet. If students surfed the Web at home or at friends' houses, no one was monitoring them. So my lessons became integral in their understanding of rights and wrongs on the Web.

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Permalink Reply by Shaughn O'Neal on March 28, 2010 at 9:34am

Katy,

I cannot agree with you more. I have had the same experience. I have several kids with fat discipline files. No joke, I have not had ONE discipline problem from those kids all semester! I love it! However, I have had trouble with the kids who normally perform well academically and are used to being told every move to make. They struggle when they come into my classroom and I will not tell them how many sentences they need or it is not an easy rote memorization lesson. These kids are good at playing "the game of school", but not at applying what they know. Our students do well academically, score high on standardized tests and so forth. I truly think some teachers feel this technology thing is a fad. so it is hard to convince our teachers doing things differently is even necessary. This creates the argument "why do we need to change things when we already do well?" I am an elective teacher in a high performing high school. As you can guess, I rank pretty low on the value scale.

Your internet safety lesson is something I need to do better. Do you have any resources you suggest that discuss ways of doing this?

Thank you for your reply,
Shaughn

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on March 28, 2010 at 6:11pm

I think that "why should we change" argument is a common one. This story might be a good way to start the discussion of why ed-tech really isn't a fad (remarkably, it was written in 1939). Then, you could show teachers the "Did You Know?" video and discuss it.

Your comments about your academically successful students are interesting. It sounds like a lot of those students are good on the lower levels of Bloom's, but aren't used to being challenged with higher-level thinking. I think technology provides a great opportunity to challenge these kids. I think, in the end, teachers need to decide whether their job is to prepare kids for a state test or prepare kids to be successful life-long learners. The resources I mentioned above might be good instigators of this conversation.

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Permalink Reply by Shaughn O'Neal on March 28, 2010 at 6:42pm

Wow Katy, what great resources! I will definitely use these. It is amazing that was written in 1939.

You are exactly right about the higher order thinking. I do not know why I haven't been able to identify it that way. But what is funny, I have said many times in the past few weeks "we are doing this because it is higher order thinking." I feel frustrated regularly at the lack of quality in their work I am seeing. They do not like to put forth anything beyond knowledge and comprehension.

Thanks again for the resources and insight!

Shaughn

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Permalink Reply by Andy on March 27, 2010 at 9:28am

A good lab management program that is free is iTalc. It makes class management easier as you can monitor all student stations simultaneously and provide assistance to individual students through taking over control of their stations or sending them a text message. http://italc.sourceforge.net/

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Permalink Reply by Shaughn O'Neal on March 28, 2010 at 9:16am

We do have Vision, which sounds like the same technology. However, we really can't even get many teachers to that point. Sadly, computers are being used predominately for word processing only and that is not on a regular basis. Thanks for your information.

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Permalink Reply by Tess Ausman on March 29, 2010 at 12:17pm

Andy, is there a Windows 7 client for iTalc? I am very intersted in this. Do you have other information?

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Permalink Reply by Cheska Robinson on March 27, 2010 at 8:14pm

Hey Shaughn,

I'm just curious...what were some of the teachers' fears of using and incorporating Web 2.0 into their classrooms?

Cheska

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Permalink Reply by Shaughn O'Neal on March 28, 2010 at 9:13am

Cheska,

Thanks for the reply. I believe their fears are change and giving up control. Providing them with examples of other classroom management plans was my passive aggressive way of saying to them 'you need to change the way you think about teaching.' I know that if I am not careful feathers get ruffled very easily with teachers. I also know the benefit of changing the way we think of teaching. My school is heavy with the talking head in front of the classroom. Because I teach an elective, it is hard to convince others the things I am doing in my classroom can be done in all classrooms. This all started when Facebook was unblocked this semester. I personally was not a Facebook fan, but decided this does not look like an easy battle with students. So I started reading about the uses of Facebook in the classroom and in February my 2.0 classroom took off. Because I have embraced Twitter, Facebook, and Blogspot, in my classes daily I am starting to feel under the microscope by other teachers. My administration is very supportive, but yet very conservative. Meaning no one is taking the lead on sharing all of this wonderful technology with staff. I believe in it so much I am trying to carefully share and ease the minds of teachers. My goal is for teachers to start reading now, have time to think about it and maybe incorporate something new next school year.

Shaughn

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Perino on March 28, 2010 at 3:14pm

Shaughn,
I have been reading through your posts on this thread of Web 2.0 classroom management.

One major thing that I have been working with staff on is "backward planning." We take the objectives, vocab, events, people, etc. that they would have tested on and make those part of a rubric for a final project. Sometimes we plan a project with a specific technology in mind...sometimes not.

For instance, I have a class that is making documentary movies with the objective to make a logical appeal and an emotional appeal on the subject of "clean water." There are 4 teams & the concepts are VASTLY different, but all equally good in their own way so far.

There is another teacher with whom I collaborate on planning projects...she's a theology teacher. Her current unit is teaching the sacraments...in a Catholic school...knowing the sacraments is like tying your shoes...one of the first things you learn...but try teaching juniors in high school something new about it. Well, I believe we are! There are 3 major phases of the project:

The "teaching" phase, the "creation" phase, & the "reflection" phase. In the "teaching" phase, the teams have to write an article for a youth ministry newsletter [which they design] to describe the "nuts and bolts" of the sacrament...all the theological terms and catechism stuff that was learned & discussed in class...written in a way that the article would appeal to other teens. "Tell What You Learned"

In the "creation" phase, the teams conceive of an analogy...a way to make the sacrament real for people their age & create an example to illustrate it. In this case, we decided not to tell the students what kind of medium to use to illustrate such an analogy...she is getting everything from movies to charcoal drawings to musical compositions to cartoons to stand-up comedy sketches and more. "Show What You Know"

In the "reflection" phase, the students are given an opportunity to articulate what they learned by doing this project. They provide a description of how the creation illustrates the analogy of the sacrament. They also describe their journey in creating this analogy. A few of the reflection papers have even moved us to tears.

I guess the point I'm making is that managing the technology is done most easily if the students are busy creating something...if they are engaged in the material which is being taught & tasked with DOING something with it..."policing" technology is almost a non-issue. They use GoogleDocs, GoogleCalender, & GoogleChat for collaborative planning.

Thanks,

Jenn

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