Using Twitter in the Classroom

I see a lot of tweets in #edchat and #edtech about using twitter in the classroom and specific ways to use twitter, but how does this actually look like in a classroom? What programs are used to show these tweets? What do you specifically do with twitter that makes it a unique tool in the classroom?

I wanted to find the answers to these questions because I feel that twitter can be very useful in a class where students are very likely to have a cell phone (a regular cell phone can still support text-message based tweets to their twitter account).

I encourage you to watch the following video about twitter in a large classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8


Right now I will explore the following question:

What programs are used to show these tweets?
Tweetchat.com looks like a promising place to view chats in close to real time for displaying chats or participating in them at home (away from the classroom).

EduTweet is also pretty cool, it looks like it would serve like a clicker system in a classroom, the students post a tweet with a hashtag specific to the question (e.g. #math231q1) and the teacher can search this tag and EduTweet will generate a chart with all of the different answers provided by the students. I think this would be good in a math classroom for numerical answers, or even for a multiple choice prompt.

TweetDeck is used in the above video as the facilitator of the twitter discussion. I think this is nice because you can set up columns and show multiple discussions at once so the students can view these all at the same time whereas I think the others are limited in this sense. You could ask the class a question about one thing and then a second thing without removing the first question's feed so students can refer back to it if they want.


Do you have any other ideas of programs that can be used to facilitate the use of twitter in the classroom?

Revisiting 21st Century Learner

I have been thinking a lot about my previous post about my current experiences with the lack of technological support in my classes this semester at the University of Illinois. Granted the professors and TAs are of an older generation which views facebook, twitter, cellphones, etc. as distractions in the classroom, there are other professors on campus which are trying to keep up with the times.

Here are a few examples I have seen:

• Calculus professor trying to use facebook as a discussion space for students (through trial and error, has decided to use a different form of social media).
• My Professional Issues for Teachers course (EOL 440) professor initiated a Moodle chatroom during a class discussion so that those on laptops could communicate with each other.
• The use of wikis for classroom websites, posting information relevant to the course online so the students can access it from anywhere.
• A class twitter account to tweet questions to the professor without needing to be formal, allowing for quick interactions between students and professors.

I wanted to explore deeper what it would mean to be a 21st century learner as well as a 21st century teacher in college, at the University of Illinois. I am currently a section leader for Calculus II at the university of I have a class of 20+ freshman new to the university. On my first day of class I did an informal poll on the use of technology, social media, etc. Most students used facebook, about half of the students used twitter on a regular basis, and most students had a laptop. To qualify that last statement, each student in my class had a laptop but one, this student only brought a tablet (the iPad) to college to use.

Being in the same classroom as these students, only separated by 3 years, has shown me how much change has occurred in the use of technology. I am already outdated, the methods that I use in my own learning come second nature to these students. So how does this compare to my professors and the other professors here at the university?

What if I was the student who only brought an iPad to college? I want to explore this question in detail later.

So what do I think 21st century learning would look like at the University level?

• Classroom management software like Compass or Moodle would be more prevalent, and actually use the majority of capabilities (such as the chat feature in Moodle, online quizzes, a place to make resources available to students in which they can also contribute, forums, blogs, and many more)
• Flip classrooms - This is a topic showing up a lot in middle and high schools where the lecture is what is assigned for homework and the students watch the lecture at home, class time is reserved for group work and questions because that is the time crucial to forming understanding.
• I am already seeing this at the university level in our general Physics classes, previewing lecture material is part of the online coursework portion of the class.
• If you are in a course that has a separate discussion section then this wouldn't be necessary.
• Posting lecture slides beforehand is the first step to this, allowing students to think about class material before it is presented can help further classroom discussion.
• Students would have better access to electricity and the internet throughout campus. In most of my lecture halls there are very, very few outlets for me to actually bring my laptop to class to use.
• The dorms are starting to allow wifi access, but not all dorms have this. For those students with technologies which require wifi (like the tablets), this renders them useless.
• The introduction of IllinoisNet versus UIUCnet has allowed many smartphone users to stay connected without having to go through QuickConnect. This encourages smartphone use in classrooms.

I am a 21st Century Learner

As I go through my pre-service teaching program, I am constantly reminded about improving technologies and its use in the classroom. My future students will be 21st century learners, and I must be a 21st century teacher. I need to be a teacher that encourages exploration of information through tools such as the internet or other programs on computers, phones, tablets, etc. It's a buzzword on twitter, and you can find many sites dedicated to helping current teachers embrace the change in students (one great resource: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/).

But I too am also a 21st century learner. I embrace the use of my smartphone in class to google search a term I don't know, I use my TI-Nspire to quickly generate a dynamic geometric image to explore a theorem, I use my laptop to collaboratively work on assignments with fellow students, I collaborate with other students around the globe to come to a greater understanding of information.

• So why are my teachers discouraging the use of technology in my classrooms?
• Aren't I supposed to be modeling proper technology usage for my future students?
• Why am I told to put my phone away when I use it as a crucial tool in my education?
• Why are my fellow students being told to close their laptops when we are collaborating on a presentation and discussing relevant issues to the course without disrupting others by chatting aloud?
• Why am I being told to close out of facebook when the entire lecture is connected through a common social media tool so we can share articles, communicate ideas, and collaborate? Have you not read any studies about using facebook in the classroom?

I am deeply appalled by the classroom culture in my courses these past few weeks. Going around a lecture full of pre-service secondary education teachers and telling us to put our technology away is not the solution to attention issues. Climbing over desks in a full lecture is not the way to wake up a student who has fallen asleep. I have not been able to pay attention to a word the lecturer has been saying these past two weeks because of this, and the only reason I know what is going on is because I can follow along with the presentation slides on my laptop.

If I have learned one lesson in this course so far, it is if you want to or not to pay attention, you must be awake and do it the old pen-and-paper way. All technologies are considered distractions.

#ntbootcamp: Wetoku

This took a while for me to get around to, but I finally did it. I'm not happy with the video quality available on the free version of wetoku, and I am hoping to find another similar online tool that gives better quality. Here is my video that I recorded as an introduction. I am currently speaking with a few of my friends to see if they are interested in being interviewed,  too.




My goals for using wetoku in the classroom:

• Show students how math is used in real jobs (even if the math isn't done by the people, how it is still important to understand the concepts in order to interpret what the computer is doing)
• Have students explore the lives of mathematicians
• Send video updates to parents

TI-Nspire Day 2 & 3

So my three day 18 hour workshop on the TI-Nspire CX CAS has ended and I wanted to write my comments about the calculator and what I learned.

Overall Quick Review
Pros: Color screen, JPEG support, CAS, USB still accessible with Navigator system attached
Cons: Not usable on tests, too small for its functionality, nothing new

Here's points that I wanted to talk about:


CAS: The calculator I chose to get was the CAS, which is a computer algebra system. When I was growing up we called this a symbolic manipulator, the same reason we couldn't use TI-89s was because of this. As of right now CAS is shunned upon since it isn't allowed for most testing, but it is a fun tool to use when exploring variables, limits and integrals. The presenter talked about the integration of CAS into the curriculum in Canada and that someday CAS may be accepted here in the states, but as for now this tool is primarily for demonstration purposes since students cannot rely on it for a variety of uses.

Touch pad/Click pad: It is definitely a neat idea, but whenever I am trying to use the clickpad it thinks I'm using the touch pad, or when I try to bring up my cursor it takes a while for it to recognize the touch pad use. I feel that this is more frustrating to use than it's worth. What I would really like to see is using that huge color screen as a touchscreen instead, but that may be on the next model.

Handheld: The first day of the workshop we used the handhelds exclusively and I was excited to learn the new calculator, and I did learn a lot about it. I also learned that it is very annoying to use. It's set up like a computer where it has a file system and a mouse, and your main folder is "My Documents." The set up is very familiar, but using it without a proper mouse (like I would on a computer), just makes the feature slower. The next day of workshop we started using the computer software/emulator which was infinitely better. The presenter kept saying that he wanted to hold us away from the software as long as possible because he knew we'd never go back to the handheld, and he was right. This drastic change in usability (and my attitude) makes me think that this device is just crossing the line in how powerful a handheld calculator should be and stepped into what a computer program should do for a student/teacher.

Scratchpad: Ever get caught up in a document and just want to do a simple calculation? TI responded to the urge of Nspire uses to use a different calculator to do simple calculations (e.g. pulling out an 84 or a 30) by creating a feature called Scratchpad. Just click on the scratchpad button and a temporary calculator screen that is independent from the document appears for you to do some quick calculations or graphing. I think this is a sign that there's just too much going on during the use of the handheld that should be on a computer which can multitask (the handheld cannot have more than one document open at a time).

Software: Manipulating pages, creating graphs, etc. is definitely easier on the software, especially if you are preparing a fancier document that has some coding within it to display certain properties. The software itself is amazing, my fellow workshop attendants say that software alone is worth the cost of the workshop (which was around $400). Now, I don't really believe that's true. It may be in some respects, but overall I wasn't impressed with that the software was doing since I have seen most of its functionality elsewhere.

Pages/Documents: The calculator allows you to make "pages," and there are different types of pages. There is a regular Calculator page to do what the home screen in the TI-89 and TI-83/84 do, which is fine. There is a Graphs page like the graph in the 84, but it will allow for editing. There is a Geometry page which allows you to do constructions to explore geometric concepts. In the previous Nspire Graphs & Geometry were the same page, which makes sense to me. They do basically the same thing, and it pretty much is Geogebra on a calculator. I would much rather have my students explore geometric concepts that can be done in Geogebra on a computer screen and not something smaller than an index card. Another type of page is Lists & Spreadsheets, which integrates the lists idea from the 84 and 89 into an Excel spreadsheet environment. You can do statistical analysis in here easier than in Data & Statistics. The Data & Statistics page is just Fathom. There is Notes, where you can simply type and type in math boxes to get proper mathematical syntax. The last page is Vernier DataQuest, which is simply a page developed by Vernier to interact with their probes.

Navigator System: When I first head of the idea of calculators connecting wirelessly to share files I was very excited. It is convenient not to hook up to calculators individually to send files, you can send to and collect from the whole class at once. The Navigator software allows for classroom management tools such as a seating chart, gradebook, sending out polls, sending/collecting files. There are ways to make a quiz and send the file to the students and have them self-check, or if the file type doesn't allow for that simply submit it back for grading. The software doesn't tell you who hasn't submitted yet if you are waiting on someone, or doesn't show who answered what. There is no feedback system where information  is sent back to the calculators with the student's grade and what was done incorrectly. All of these issues seem to be nonissues with SMARTboard software and their clicker system, which I feel is far superior to using a calculator as a clicker. Plus with the SMARTboard you get an interactive whiteboard. Now, you can use an IWB with Navigator, but I feel that it is unnecessarily redundant.

  If I were part of a school district and my department head sent me to this workshop to see if our school would benefit from investing in the new TI-Nspire, I think I would say no. I feel that the functionality of this calculator is great, but it would be better if the students had laptops and used the full-scale programs that are on the handheld. The laptop would also be a better investment because the school could then use e-books and cut the costs (and weight from backpacks) of rebuying textbooks. The laptop can be used to do research on the internet as well, which this device cannot do. The handheld costs roughly $175 (x30 for a class), and you need the navigator system to make it worthwhile so add another $2600. I don't know how much it would cost to get a class set of laptops, but I feel like it would be more valuable even if it cost more than $7850.

Tell me what you think! I have this calculator now and I definitely will try to use it, probably when I don't have access to my computer quickly, but otherwise what uses do you think it holds for the classroom that other cheaper (or even free) programs can do?

TI-Nspire Day 1

I am currently attending a summer workshop about the TI-Nspire CX CAS and its supporting teacher/student software. It's very exciting, let me tell you that! I am learning about the CAS system and basically how it can tackle various problems with greater formatting and understanding. Less ambiguity on a calculator is better in my opinion. We learned a lot, and I can see where it will come in handy this fall in Calculus II and my other math courses. I also got a classroom poster for the Nspire and a large binder with how-tos and student activities. Today was learning how to use the handheld and demoing the navigator (which makes the nspire definitely worth it), tomorrow will be learning the software and creating our own documents.

I met a lot of teachers from various areas in Texas, I am working in a group with an algebra/geometry teacher and a physics/chemistry teacher (just what will help me best!). I feel very edtech savvy with my smartphone and picking up the handheld device quickly. One of the things the presenter brought up during an activity that he said the nspire does that math teachers do not like is how it distributes over an equation, e.g.:

Instead of applying the operation to both sides of the equation, it simply puts the equation in parentheses and writes the operation once. Now, in all honesty this is the way that I do math by hand because I understand what's going on and it definitely saves me time, but it may be hard for students to understand what exactly is going on here. This is where algebra tiles or the algebra balance will come in to play in order to show that the operation must be applied to both sides (which is what the parentheses imply) in order to remain equal.

After the workshop let out for the day I drove around downtown Houston for a little bit. I want to see if there are any tours going on so I can make the most out of this trip. More on the workshop later!