#LangChat-ing It Up...Again!

A recap of my second educational chat on Twitter, told through Storify. (A follow up to my first #langchat experience)

#LangChat-ing It Up

So last night was my first 'real' teacher chat experience on Twitter. And I survived! :D

I say survived because I had tried to follow an #edchat conversation a few weeks ago, but found myself just lurking while trying to keep up with the super fast flow of discussion. Even with using TweetChat to help regulate the influx of tweets I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed and lost. But knowing all of the good things that can come from a chat session I was determined to give it another go... and I'm very glad I did.

I decided that since I'm a foreign language teacher I should check out a #LangChat discussion. They meet every Thursday at 5pm PST (8pm EST), so I set a phone alarm for 4:55pm so I wouldn't miss it. With my Tweetdeck open and other distractions aside I was ready to go this time! I also decided it might be a good idea to drag my #LangChat column over next to my Interaction column in Tweetdeck too, just in case, and it helped tremendously when I was trying to see who had responded to me so I could reply back.

Ok, on to the actual chat. The topic was, "What are some strategies that help strengthen students' reading skills?" The discussion was fluid, interesting, friendly, and not overwhelming at all--there were enough people posting that discussions were insightful and productive, yet not so many that I couldn't keep track of it all. I was able to give out some suggestions of my own and was happy when I could respond to someone's question or add to the conversation. I came away with a bunch of new ideas on how to encourage reading in my Spanish classroom, new educators to follow on Twitter, and some new followers myself. The best part about it for me is having applicable professional development and conversation with educators all over the world at my finger tips--pretty awesome! Overall, I highly recommend participating in a Twitter chat if you can--it was a great experience and one that I will definitely be doing again soon!

The Power of Words

Ah Election Coverage... you bring out the good, the bad, and the just plain nasty in people more than almost any other topic, and this past week was no different. There was a difference though in the way it was presented and spread about like wildfire, and I attribute that difference to the vast uprise of social media in our lives over the past four years. Now granted, things like Twitter and Facebook have been around longer than that (though not that much longer, relatively speaking), but when looking at how differently they were used in this election it's not hard to see that they have grown and evolved significantly since the 2008 coverage. 

Many times on both Tuesday and Wednesday I found myself sitting in amazement at how social media has truly changed they way we 'do' life. Status updates, Tweets, Blogs, and comments are such an integral part of our daily interactions that it only makes sense that we would want to discuss an important national decision like this through those means. But I saw so many instances of people who are friends in real life, or even family members, making mean, insensitive, and just plain rude comments to one another under the premise that through the internet such things are ok to say. People were being offensive to friends & 'friends' alike to the point that some were removing them from their profile or life altogether.

Now, I enjoy social media and all of the benefits it has brought us--never before have we been in such a place as to communicate with each other instantly around the world, learn from one another, get answers to questions, and access professional development resources--but sometimes I wonder why can't we be civil with each other? And where will we draw the line between debate and personal attack? Are people even able to find that line anymore? 

Which brings me to the world of education. I truly believe that negative interactions like these can often be avoided, but it takes a special type of literacy to do so--one that could be called something like Social-Tech Literacy or Social Media Literacy. This type of literacy does not just include things like ensuring that students know how social media works and are able to navigate new interfaces (though those are important foundations of it) but also how to interact properly with others online. This type of literacy education would include word choice and tone, but also the power that is contained through punctuation, emoticons, and other text formatting options. The teaching of social media etiquette and literacy will become increasingly important as we begin to integrate it more and more into our classrooms, and the reality is that someone needs to teach it! There are far too many adults and children alike using harsh, hateful language to 'discuss' a topic--when the topic could be addressed both critically and civilly at the same time--because they are unaware of how to discuss it otherwise**.

Words are powerful, and even more so when the 'listener' cannot hear the intonation through the internet text. If we can begin to address tone, formatting, and word choice in online interactions in our classrooms then we will be taking a huge step towards creating a future generation that is more cognizant of what they say, both online and otherwise. And who knows, maybe this is part of the formula for reducing the amount of online bullying out there too....One can only hope!


Thoughts? Agree or disagree? Comment below and I'd love to discuss it with you!


**(I'm choosing to assume that they are unaware of the effects of their word selection rather than it being a conscious choice, which would be an entirely different issue.)

More on Tribes

A Storify created to represent some of our class' learning about the book "Tribes" by Seth Godin.

Visitors & Residents

I watched Dr. David White's video today about the Visitors & Residents principle regarding online engagement and found it really interesting. In his presentation Dr. White proposes that people can be categorized as being an online visitor, a resident, or somewhere on the continuum in between (but almost always leaning more toward one than the other).

One comparison that he used that helped me visualize these concepts is this: 

A visitor is considered someone who uses the internet like a collection of tools in a toolbox--looking for what they need, using it, and putting it back without leaving a trace that they were there. 

A resident, however, sees the internet more like a space to move around in--to socialize, network, and enjoy (like a gathering in the park). 

As I listened to his definitions and examples I definitely began to identify myself as both a visitor and a resident for different reasons. I relate to the visitor mindset in that I like using the internet a tool--to find what I want, have it serve my purpose, and then leave it be. On the other hand I consider myself a resident at times because I enjoy some of the social, communal parts of the internet like Facebook or reading other people's blogs. 

If I had to put myself somewhere on the continuum, 1 being a pure visitor and 10 being a pure resident, I would give myself a 6.5 or 7. As I'm becoming more aware of the professional learning/networking possibilities in things like Twitter, Edmodo, and blogging, I find myself wanting to spend more time interacting  with others to see what else is out there. The recent involvement in blogging for class has made me want to develop a personal one to allow more communication with friends and family.

In the future I can see myself moving even more towards the resident side of the continuum both professionally and personally as I continue to interact and discover what's out there, but I don't know if some of my visitor tendencies will ever fully disappear. I'd like to revisit this topic at the end of the semester or the end of the year (if I remember)--it would be interesting to see if my initial reactions and predictions hold true or if I end up doing something completely different.