Week 4 (Group A: Jarrod Conner)

Jennifer Swartz article is probably one of the most creative and easiest way to get students engaged in classroom discussion, projects, and other assignments in and out of the classroom. This social media platform has endless uses with almost seemingly endless resources. The ability to connect with your students at any time of the day through twitter can enhance teaching beyond the walls of the classroom. Think about it, a student goes home, forgets what they learned a few hours ago (because they are too busy flipping through pages and snapping away) and then BOOM a tweet pops up on the lock screen and triggers their mind to think about the discussion they previously had in class. Who knows, that student might even chime in and reply. What better way to continuously engage with your students at any time of the day. Even better are the resources available to teachers. With the list of Twitter chat pages, a teacher can reach out to a colleague for assistance, advice, or just to have a conversation on the same topic they discussed with their classroom. It would even be cooler if they invited that person to join the class discussion. This Professional Learning Network (PLN) is money in the bank when it comes to diversifying your class discussions and teachings.

In Confessions of a Digital Storytelling Teacher Jason Ohler goes into great detail on how we seem to tell a story in every conversation when engage with another person. It can be in person, over the phone, in passing, and on our Facebook pages (showing my age). With the advancements of technology however, now we can share that story with more people in a shorter amount of time. This is why I somewhat disagree with Ohler’s comment “Because the Internet and traditional media forms like radio, TV, newspaper and magazines continue to crank like there is no tomorrow…” in the sense that it is not these traditional media forms that are crank, it is more of the social apps that causes the public to learn for a lifetime. These platforms are so much faster in getting out the information than the traditional methods. It takes hours if not days to get an article ready to print in a newspaper and it takes minutes to crank a post or tweet. I mean you can post a story to your snapchat quicker than you can take the picture.

With the ever changing of technology at record pace and social media platforms like Twitter, it almost seems inexcusable to not incorporate technology in to one’s daily lesson plan. Also, with resources like Omeka, it makes research and interaction in a class discussion effortless for a student and teacher to promote a learning experience like no other. With a few clicks and swipes, almost every classroom literally has the world at their fingertips. For my second project I am choosing to do the RESEARCH, COLLECTING, & ARCHIVING HISTORY ONLINE. I believe this will help me best showcase the life of Solomon Northup. Using this method will allow me to present my facts and research in a systematic way to assists people in understand the life struggles and accomplishments of Solomon Northup.