Social Media Tools

Education is rapidly changing!  Technology is ever present in our classrooms.  This new technology has its pros and cons.  The key is using the technology to increase student learning and must follow sound learning theory.  Guidelines need to be established as to the appropriate use of this technology. If these few things are remembered technology can be a wonderful learning tool in the classroom.

I have talked about the use of various social media such as Twitter, Edmodo, and Schoology in previous blogs.  These sites can help keep students and parents informed on what is going on in the classroom, and can allow students to get help on questions in a timely manner.  However, they can also be problematic.  Teachers need to remember that they are role models for their students and sometimes their parents.  What is put out on these sites is pretty much public and remain there forever.  Future employers can see this information and so can your students, their parents, and administrators.  Here are some great tips for social media users.

One great social media site that is great for obtaining resources is Pinterest!  This is a free site that allows you to search for resources, and images on the web and place them in easy to find categories or folders for easy access.  I have many categories such as recipes that I have now started to organize into subcategories such as beef, desserts, and such.  I also have many teaching resources.  I have a file for each subject that I teach.  I also have started developing folders that have topic specific resources in them such as the revolutionary war, Native Americans, and immigration.  Here is a link to my personal page.  Check it out and see just how many resources are out there that have been shared by other teachers.

Another great tool that I have discovered is Symbaloo.  Symbaloo is a site that allows you to bring together all of your favorites sites into one easy to find spot or collections called web mixes.  They also have a free education site.  Here is the link to SymbalooEdu.  This site allows teachers to create web mixes that can be used for personalized search engines.  I could locate sites that would be suitable for my students research projects and add them to a web mix.  I can then share the URL with my students (using a URL shortener) so they could access this tool easily.  I have also created a web mix of frequently used websites for my student to have one click access all in one spot.  I plan to place links to these on my class web page.  I have my students use my web page to access many of these sites so that they know how to have access to them from home without having to remember web addresses.

Screenshot of my Web Mix

Tutorial Video for SymbalooEdu

I hope I have given some great ways to find resources, keep in touch with students and parents, and guidelines for safely using social media.  Always remember social media can be your friend or it can be your biggest enemy.  It is all in how you use it.