Initially, I was nervous about using Twitter. I am not a big fan of social networks in the first place and I do not spend much time with them. In fact, the only account that I have outside of this class is Facebook and I am almost never on it. However, after participating in the online Twitter quiz in class today, I have found that using Twitter is actually very easy. Although Twitter can get confusing because of all of the people who Tweet, it is still a good method to use to communicate. After using the Tweet Deck program, I found it much easier to keep track of all of the different Tweets. My only problem was that I kept forgetting to place the hash tag in the message and I had to redo a few of my Tweets. Otherwise, it is a good collaboration tool.
I can see how Twitter could be useful in the classroom. Everyone in the class would be able to participate in answering a question instead of just calling on one or two people. If I decide to use Twitter in my classroom, I might require everyone to make a new Twitter because mixing an outside social life in with class discussion could be very distracting and the students might become too wrapped up in what their friends are Tweeting about and neglect to participate in class. Another problem I can see with this is that students might lose their face-to-face social skills if Twitter is used instead of verbal class discussion. As with everything, balance is key. Students need to learn how to use technology but they also need to know how to actually talk to people.
During this week in class, we worked collaboratively in groups of three to create a presentation that serves as a call to action for teachers who have not yet integrated technology into their lesson plans. Our class broke up into groups of three and we used Google Drive to create a presentation. Then, we shared the presentation with the other members of the group. For the rest of the class period on Tuesday, we worked on the presentation together. Since our presentation was going slowly, each person in our group individually worked on the presentation on Wednesday so that we could be sure that it was done on time. On Thursday, we looked at the presentation together and agreed that we were finished with it.
Working in a group online is much different than working in a group in person. On Tuesday, it was easier to collaborate because we could talk to each other and determine what needed to be done. On Wednesday, the day that we were all working independently, it was difficult to collaborate efficiently, especially because we all chose to edit the presentation at different times. In the end, it all worked out because we once again had the chance to talk to each other in person. Working in a shared document is nice because each person can do their own work and one person does not have to put it all together in the end. Working online is also difficult because you are limited in how directly you can talk to the members of your group. If everyone knows exactly what they are doing, working without verbally speaking can be efficient, but if members are confused, working online can just make things even more confusing.
In order to create our presentation, we had to read an article entitled "Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in Our Quest for Technology Integration?" by Peggy A. Ertmer. Ertmer starts off by explaining to readers that computers can be a "valuable and well-functioning instructional tool" only if classrooms have "(a) convenient access, (b) are adequately prepared, (c) have some freedom in the curriculum, and (d) hold personal beliefs aligned with a constructivist pedagogy." She tells readers that the first three requirements have been nearly met, but that most teachers still have some vendetta against using computers in the classroom. Ertmer explains the difference between beliefs and knowledge. Teachers have beliefs on how they should teach. Beliefs are formed through past experiences and cultural influences. Unfortunately, they are not easily changed. Convincing a teacher to switch from a system that they learned by and have taught by for years to something completely new is not an easy task. It can be especially hard to convince them if they had a bad experience with technology in the past or have only seen computers that constantly crash. Technology is becoming an almost required skill for any job and teachers are still hesitant to use it to teach their students because of bad experiences they might have had.
Our presentation tries to explains to teachers that technology is not a problem. We explain how their belief system works and why it is so difficult to change their teaching beliefs We also try to convince teachers that technology is becoming necessary in day to day life. The video on the second slide is a very powerful tool to convince hesitant teachers. By creating this presentation, we hope that teachers are convinced that technology has come a long way from the computers that you had to type long codes into just to get a blinking star. It is no longer just a distraction. Technology is the way that we learn today.
