I found this week’s assignment an extension of week
three and I was very glad I had the opportunity to go back to Diigo and explore
the different groups available to join. I actually joined two groups the week
we looked at Diigo bookmarking. I joined Diigo in Education and Collaborize
Classroom week three of our assignments. I was not sure what to expect from
joining the group. I get an email daily with updates on education. I find the
emails very easy to sift through, because each update has a brief description
of the article/news. If I find the article of interest I can then read it and
if not I can move on or delete the entire email. Collaborize Classroom is a
site that allows teachers, administration, guardians and students to
communicate. This week I joined Edutopia because many of the videos we watched
in this class were from Edutopia. I thought this may be a good source for
research in technology and science education. WeAreTeachers is the final group
I joined. This group has many opportunities for lessons and for applying for
grants.
The social media groups I explored are valuable to
young and old alike. As adults social media groups allow for
communication of ideas for learning and to pass along new information on content
and technology. Teachers and parents can communicate about student progress.
Young people are able to continue discussions from class and they can also do
group projects. I can think of many positive uses for social media in the
classroom. Students can keep track of assignments, groups can work outside the
classroom, parents can communicate with teachers and administrators and this is
only the beginning of social media use. It can only think of a couple of
negative issues to overcome in the use of social media. First, not every student
has access to technology; therefore the mandatory use of technology cannot be
implemented. Second, student and adult communication would need to be monitored
to be sure no bullying or poor choice discussions are occurring.
At this time in my life I would probably spend my
time in a social network with professional appeal, such as Edmodo or
Collaborize Classroom. I have very little spare time and I try to accomplish as
much as I can with as few steps. Using an educational social network could help
me with lesson planning and research. Another advantage to using an educational
site would benefit my students. Right
now the only drawback is that all my students do not have access to technology
so I cannot use the site to present and track lessons or have students do work
together outside the classroom.
I have found this assignment to be very helpful and
I will continue to use Diigo in Education for daily updates in education.
