What does it mean to "Enhance, Engage, Extend?"

The theory behind "Enhance, Engage, Extend," or the 3 E's is to further student progress and improve the ways that they learn by integrating technology into the classroom. However, according Liz Keren-Kolb's article, while "using technology in and of itself is almost always a bit more motivating or engaging, it does not necessarily mean that students will engage more in their understanding of the learning goals." The use of technology, for example, in a high school world history classroom, can be extremely helpful in order to add more excitement into the class, as it will aid in gaining student interest in the course.

How Can I Integrate Technology into my Classroom?

As a secondary history education teacher, you may be wondering how to integrate technology and history together. However, the great thing about technology is how many doors it opens thanks to the internet! Before the age of computers, one was limited to whatever local archives and encyclopedia's existed in the area in order to conduct research. The internet is the best tool we have for our students, because that old newspaper article about the gold rush in an archive in California, or that photo in an archive in Australia has been been digitized and made available for the entire internet to see! Technology does wonders to enhance and extend the learning of your students in a classroom! It also is a fantastic tool to engage those students that may not be so interested in the subject or class you're teaching. There are tons of great apps, such as Socrative that can be used to engage your students through the use of smartphones and tablets. Let's face it, your students are using their phones in class. We might as well make use of this and engage our students by getting them physically involved in their learning at the tough of their fingertips.

The Three E's

Engagement

Let's say for example, you have a student that couldn't care less about World War II, but is super interested in math. You could show him some sites such as this one that help explain trajectory and the calculations necessary to accurately drop a bomb from a plane or shoot one from the ground. Then you could have him work on a report on how much training was need to become a bomber for the U.S. Military. This could even be done on a SmartBoard in front of the whole class and the students could be allowed to take turns adjusting where the target was and the correct calculations to hit the target. This not only gets your students involved in their learning, but it makes history fun by teaching the kids about what life was like during the war.

Enhancement

Learning Enhancement through the use of technology is where things get really really cool! There are endless tools one can use to enhance the learning of their students by using technology. For example, like stated in this article, students in a classroom at Vanderbilt University had the pleasure of listening to a guest lecturer in class. However, the guest lecturer was speaking in a video conference call across the world in Estonia! While this is a university class, imagine how cool it would be to have an expert on a certain field speaking with your students from somewhere else in the world! Sticking with the World War II theme, imagine the level of understanding your 11th grade US History class would gain by speaking with a German veteran of the war to give them a different perspective on the war. Technology is such a powerful tool that has enabled amazing opportunities such as this to become realities!

Extension

Extension of learning is extremely important in student learning because you want the students to be able to have access to more information about a topic if they want it. One simple way to do this, as stated in my last blog post, Twitter is the perfect tool for extending learning to outside of the classroom. By creating a Twitter account and posting relevant information to your lessons, homework assignments, etc., students can log on any time and learn more about a lesson, ask you a question, or check what the due date is for an assignment. It's a social network that most students are already using, so you're not adding extra work for them, just catering your delivery system to what works easiest for them. You can also use Twitter to post links to videos such as the one below!

Conclusion

By engaging, enhancing, and extending student learning through the use of technology, teachers are also strengthening the impact of each lesson with their students. At the most basic level, a lecture, students may retain one or two points for a few days or weeks until the test comes, and then they will forget about it. With each step up in an attempt to engage, enhance, and extend your student's learning, you are not only teaching them, but also making sure that they understand and remember each lesson and surpass the learning goals. It doesn't take much either! Incorporating the Three E's into your classroom can be as simple as having your students do research on their phones or tablets on a topic related to your lesson, or getting them to give you feedback using a formative assessment app! However, if you get your students to interview a German war veteran in a video conference call, just know that they will never forget that lesson.

References

Educating, C. (2011, October 11). Microsoft Vision of the Classroom of the Future. Retrieved September 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJu6GvA7jN8

[Engage, enhance, extend images]. Retrieved September 9, 2015 from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1015177.pdf

Keren-Kolb, L. (2014, May). Enhance, Engage, Extend. International Society for Technology in Education Journal (Web). Retrieved August 27, 2015, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1015177.pdf

M. Granberg, E. (2000). How Technology Enhances Teaching and Learning. Retrieved September 11, 2015. Retrieved from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/library/articles-and-essays/the-teaching-forum/how-technology-enhances-teaching-and-learning/ 

Miller, S. (2005, October 10). 50 Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom. Retrieved April 29, 2015, from http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

Projectile Motion 2.03. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2015, from https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/projectile-motion/projectile-motion_en.html 

[Technology integrated classroom image]. Retrieved September 10, 2015 from http://jamalyusuf.com/tag/social-networks/

[Wireless technology in the classroom image]. Retrieved September 8, 2015 from http://vingapp.com/speaking-of-ipads-student-engagement-with-technology/

Twitter: A Professional Learning Network

What Is Twitter?

If you have access to internet, television, or even if you don't, chances are you have heard of Twitter. If you haven't heard of Twitter, it is a social media platform which allows people to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". With the use of Twitter, people are able to connect, share themselves, and discover what is happening around the world. Twitter is used by all the major media outlets, celebrities, organizations, and even President Barack Obama. What many people do not think about, is how twitter can be used in schools and as a professional learning network (PLN). According to Brianna Crowley, a professional learning network is a "vibrant, ever-changing group of connections to which teachers go to both share and learn. These groups reflect our values, passions, and areas of expertise."

How Can I Use Twitter In A Professional Learning Network?

There are so many different ways to use Twitter as a professional learning network. "To use Twitter in a PLN," William Bauer states, "carefully select people to follow who share information that can inform and enrich your professional life. By using Twitter's "hashtags" (a form of keywords) feature, you can further refine the information you receive by filtering tweets for specific information. Among the various applications of hashtags, people interested in specific topics use them to organize live chats through Twitter." Twitter is an amazing community that teachers can use to share lessons plans, presentations, and documents. Teachers can also use Twitter to find excellent educational blogs, websites, apps, and other media sources. The idea of Twitter as a PLN is something that needs to be more widespread because Twitter is such a useful tool for improving our students' educations.

Twitter in the Classroom

Teachers

How can Twitter be used in the classroom? This author states that there are at least 50 different ways! First, you need to create a Twitter profile that all of your students can follow. Once your students begin to follow you, the possibilities are only as endless. You can get more ideas from your professional learning network on how to use Twitter to interact with your students. One way you can use twitter in the classroom is to assign homework and tweet about upcoming due dates. That way, your students will always have a back up way to figure out their due dates if they lose their copy of the syllabus. Another option is to have your students tweet news articles, or journal articles relevant to something you are discussing in class. The next day in class, you can have a discussion with your students about the different articles. Students can favorite those tweets, so the most popular tweets within the class could be the articles focused on in the discussion. A teacher can also tweet out articles and retweet other accounts' information for their students to look at. For a homework assignment, you can have your students read an article you tweet, and have them reply or write a journal response to that article.

Students

Twitter is a valuable tool for students because of the opportunity to connect with people from around the world. Students can follow news outlets and specific writers. They can also follow business leaders, or accounts related to the career they are interested in pursuing. Students can also use Twitter to communicate with other students around the world, or simply within their class in order to share ideas, get inspired, and continue class discussions after class. By following other educational accounts, students can also find ways to get help with their assignments.

My Experience With Twitter

When I began using Twitter, as Bauer advises, I started following educational Twitter pages such as @edutopia and @khanacademy. These are two pages that I thought would offer me some incredible educational resources. Edutopia "emphasizes core strategies: project-based learning, comprehensive assessment, integrated studies, social and emotional learning, educational leadership and teacher development, and technology integration." By following Edutopia on Twitter, I was exposed to just that. Edutopia tweets out ideas for teacher development and technology integration. I have seen Khan Academy in many commercials over the last few years, so I began to follow them as well. Khan Academy's goal is to provide a free, world-class education available to anyone, anywhere. They have had over 25 million learners that have used their programs to educate themselves. They tweet about lessons on their website. I followed a number of other educational Twitter accounts, but some were less relevant and less useful than others. Some of the better accounts I've followed were @educationweek, @edpioneers, @gatesed, and @TEDTalks. These four companies tweet about the latest in education. By following these companies, my twitter feed was constantly exposed to new information about education and learning from experts in their field. One company that my professional learning network exposed me to was @Brightspace. Brightspace is an integrated learning platform that attempts to give every student a personalized learning experience. I am happy I was exposed to this company because I would not have known about it had I not expanded my PLN. 

Conclusion

By creating and expanding my professional learning network through Twitter, I was exposed to new educational software, learned more about the latest in educational research, and gained a new perspective on using social media in the classroom. Any educator can do all of this and more with Twitter and a professional learning network. It takes your educational knowledge to new heights, and even helps you, the teacher, to continue learning your craft while you also teach your students. The idea of Twitter as a PLN, as well as using in the classroom is something that needs to be more widespread because Twitter is such a useful tool for improving our students' educations. I strongly recommend using Twitter in schools and as a tool to expand your professional learning network.

References

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/about

Bauer, W. (2010). Your Personal Learning Network: Professional Development On Demand. Music Educators Journal, 97(2), 37-42. doi:December 2010.

Crowley, B. (2014, December 31). 3 Steps for Building a Professional Learning Network (Web). Retrieved April 28, 2015, from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/12/31/3-steps-for-building-a-professional-learning.html

Miller, S. (2005, October 10). 50 Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom. Retrieved April 29, 2015, from http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

[Twitter banner]. Retrieved April 29, 2015 from http://www.socialtalent.co/blog/how-to-recruit-on-twitter-part-1

[Twitter banner]. Retrieved April 29, 2015 from http://twitter.com

[Untitled professional learning network image]. Retrieved April 29, 2015 from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/11/teacher-tutorial-on-creating-personal.html

[Untitled collection of twitter images]. Retrieved April, 2015 from https://twitter.com

Evernote and Educators

Evernote is an incredible tool that every single educator needs to begin using. One of the most important skills for an educator to have is to be organized. Organization is important in every aspect of instruction in school. Without organization, it will be incredibly stressful to be a teacher. Between lesson planning, homework and classwork assignments, grading tests and papers, meetings, and any other of the various things that teachers do, life can become fairly hectic. Evernote assists in keeping school and your life organized.

What Is Evernote?

Essentially, Evernote is an online filing cabinet for your life. You can create folders, notes to assign to those folders, and even save websites and files from your computer with it. Evernote is "one workspace that lives across your phone, tablet, and computer, Evernote is the place you write free from distraction, collect information, find what you need, and present your ideas to the world" (Evernote, 2015). The tools of Evernote allow one to take notes, save webpages or bookmarks, mark up notes on PDF files (Duffy, 2014) or other documents, and to snap a photo of whatever is on the screen.

How Is This Useful In The Classroom?

Students

Evernote can change the way our students take notes and learn in class. By keeping all of one's notes in a single "binder," it makes the thought of having a paper-free classroom more achievable. A student easily could carry one laptop computer into class instead of a backpack full of notebooks and textbooks because all of his notes would be organized into one space which could be organized into separate folders for each class (something the students already do). Evernote is also cost effective compared to notebooks because the application is free! Instead of spending hundreds of dollars to buy new notebooks each school year, one just needs to spend the few minutes it takes to download and setup an Evernote account.

Teachers

For educators, Evernote is essential! Michael Cruz suggests the use of Evernote in the classroom can be broken down into three categories, prior to class, during class, and after class. Prior to class, teachers can use Evernote to organize lessons, keep track of potential activities or sources to use in class, and create notes to share with students. During class, teachers can use Evernote to share notes with students, save pictures of the whiteboard, and access all the worksheets, classwork, and homework that is easily found in the convenient folders. After class, teachers can use Evernote to scan in copies of tests, quizzes, papers, etc and grade/mark them up. Teachers can also use Evernote for any other non-classroom activities they are involved in such as professional development communities, clubs, or sports.

Web Clipper

One of the most useful, and my personal favorite, features of Evernote is the Web Clipper. The Web Clipper is such a fantastic tool because it allows you to capture a webpage, take notes on that page, and share that page (with those notes) with people through social media or email. This works great for educators because they can use the Web Clipper to share a valuable resource with their students in class, or post it to a class social media page to view later. If the webpage is something that a teacher feels will be useful in class every year, using the Web Clipper allows the teacher to save the page and file it away instead of having to find it each year. Web Clipper is an extraordinary tool to have when doing online research or surfing the web for students as well for those same reasons. Being able to save a webpage for later that you have already marked up and taken notes on is invaluable. 

My Experience With Evernote

Over the past few months, I have used Evernote to keep my life organized. Any useful websites that I have found in class, I have saved using the Web Clipper tool. I have used Evernote to make To-Do lists, something I recommend doing because it keeps you focused and it is so satisfying crossing something off a To-Do list. I have also created a folder for each of the six courses I am currently enrolled in this semester. Inside the folders I keep my notes for all of my projects, papers, and anything else that I may need or find worth saving. My experience with Evernote has been an extremely pleasant one, and I would definitely recommend downloading it to anyone who is serious about being or becoming an educator. Once I become a teacher, I will be sure to involve Evernote in my classroom. If my school allows for students to use computers in class, and if all of my students have access to a laptop for class, I will definitely make sure to utilize as many of Evernote's features to further my students' learning.

Conclusion

With this wonderful program, I was able to keep all of my notes class notes organized in folders, keep my schedule together with To-Do lists, and save web pages with the Web Clipper function. Any educator can do all of this and more with Evernote. It takes your work efficiency to a whole new level. Teachers can even grade tests, or papers with the program, which is something everyone in the profession is familiar with. In order to stay organized and keep all of your files for work in one central location, I highly recommend beginning to use Evernote. 

References

Cruz, M. (2011, January 13). 10 Tips for Teachers Using Evernote – Education Series. Retrieved March 18, 2015, from https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/01/13/10-tips-for-teachers-using-evernote-education-series/

Duffy, J. (2014, December 30). Evernote (Web). Retrieved March 21, 2015, from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383054,00.asp

[Evernote logo]. Retrieved March 18, 2015 from http://pixgood.com/evernote-logo-png.html

The Evernote Web Clipper. (2014, July 17). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyuAn1Z_7uM

[Untitled illustration of evernote images]. Retrieved March 18, 2015 from https://evernote.com/intl/pt-br/evernote/guide/web/#4

[Untitled illustration of web clipper]. Retrieved March 18, 2015 from http://min-blog.tistory.com/941

Responsible Use of Social Media in Education

Less than two decades ago, the use of computers and technology in a classroom was pretty much limited to a calculator in order to help solve math problems. Today's high school seniors most likely started their K-12 schooling in the "age of technology," the 21st century. With the rapid advancement in technology over the past 10 years, it is inevitable that a student will encounter some form of technology within his/her classroom. Technology allows teachers to form lessons that can be more interactive and inviting to these tech-savvy students. The use of social media sites can be extremely beneficial, but they can also be disastrous. An inappropriate comment, poorly chosen privacy settings, or an embarrassing/unprofessional photo can be the end of a teacher's career. Teachers must learn ways to utilize technology in the classroom and how to interact with their students safely.

In the video below, a teacher from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan talks about the advantages of using technology. She explains that kids in schools these days "have grown up with the internet," and that "to come to school and power down" would be confusing for them because that would make school seem like a place that was not in touch with reality. Ms. Cassidy uses twitter and blogs to keep track of the students progress. When the students looks back on their work from the previous months, there are videos and posts as evidence of the progress each one of them has made. This is a perfect example of how to safely and successfully integrate social media into a classroom.



Recording progress in a blog as a type of portfolio is one of the five ways Darrell M. West and Joshua Bleiberg write that teachers can use technology to help students. While paper portfolios are still valuable, they argue that an online portfolio allows for students to include other forms of media such as "video, music or other interactive features." They also suggest that teachers can use social media sites like Twitter or Facebook to communicate with students [in a professional matter of course].

Just as Ms. Cassidy uses twitter with her primary students, twitter could be used in a high school setting as well. In this article by David Parry, Assistant Professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas, gives advice on how to use twitter successfully within a classroom. For example, an account could be created by a teacher for students to tweet news articles or videos that relate to the current topic. Students could do this outside of the classroom as well in order to continue the conversation and further the learning process through discussion with peers. As Parry suggests, students could even follow a professional figure such as an NBC reporter that would be tweeting new articles that would show up directly on that students Twitter feed. This type of classroom engagement is a fine line however as proper privacy, appropriate conversation, and parental permission are imperative.

There have been numerous occasions where teachers have overstepped the teacher-student professional boundary and lost their jobs. Teachers must remain professional at all times and remember that the purpose of being on the website is to further the students education. They should not be sending friend requests, "like-ing" or "favorite-ing" pictures, or writing unprofessional comments or messages to the students.

References

Bleiberg, J and West, D. (2013, May 7). Five ways teachers can use technology to help students. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darrell-west/five-ways-teachers-can-us_b_3228851.html

Cassidy, K [tvoparents]. (2013, May 21). Using social media in the classroom. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno

Gottsman, D. (2012, January 3). [Image of students with laptops]. Retrieved from http://dianegottsman.com/2012/01/college-classroom-etiquette-university-etiquette-for-2012/

Herb, J. (2012, April 4). [Image of a class on twitter]. Retrieved from http://instructionaltechtalk.com/using-twitter-in-the-classroom/

Parry, D. (2008, January 23). Twitter for academia. Retrieved from http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/