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Today I dove into the world of twitter! Although I am an avid twitter user, this is my first time using it from a professional teacher stand point.

My teacher put on our syllabus that we would have to attend a twitterchat. I felt as though I needed to prep just so I knew what to expect. While I was searching around twitter, I found that #edu14 was currently trending. I would say in a matter of 5 minutes I was reading hundreds of tweets and knew exactly what #edu14 was. It was truly mind blowing how in a matter of minutes #edu14 meant nothing to me, to me learning about an entire conference happening about technology used in higher ed. Needless to say, I felt prepped and ready to attend my first twitter chat.

Bright and early this morning (7AM) I attended the #ELTchat. Let me tell you, nothing gets your brain going more quickly than a group of teachers bouncing ideas off of one another. Today's topic was flipping. For me personally, I knew very little about flipping. Within 15 minutes I not only knew what flipping was but I knew resources that could be used, motivation for students working outside the class, how to effectively use your time in class, and how to work with students who did not do the prep work. I'm seemed as though many of the people on this chat attend regularly and to my surprise were very welcoming to answer my questions and give me feedback. 

I think a twitterchat is a good form of professional development. For the #ELTchat in particular, they vote on a topic to discuss each time. Therefore, you can vote on something you'd like to learn more about or something you think you could have a great deal of input in. It gives teachers the opportunity to share their knowledge with one another, ask questions, and bounce ideas off of one another. What's nice is that when someone says something you like you can favorite it, or shares a resource you can retweet it. That way you have this stored to your account. Also, if you search the hashtag an later on, all the tweets on that topic will still be there. Even if you don't get the time to actually participate in the chat, you can go through and read what people talked about that day.

Needless to say, this is definitely a resource I would use again in the future. 

See you in the twitterverse!!! @McManusEdTech

New and Improved Pen Pals

For this blog, I’ve been asked to explore the website ePals! ePals is a web-based tool that helps students from grades K-12 interact with other students from around the world.

Features of ePals

The main feature of this site is for teachers to find other classrooms that their class can interact with. I found a lot of teachers create an account for their specific class. For example, while browsing the site I came across this ad:

As you can see the teacher gives a brief description of their class stating the age, native language, and goals. There were DOZENS of these postings from countries all over the world. 

There is also a feature called ePals Clubhouse. This is a place where students can connect with each other and publish their writing, play games, create art. The website is incredibly interactive and gives students the opportunity to speak and work with other students.

Parents are largely concerned about who their children are speaking to on the internet. A nice feature about ePals is that it is a protected space for student interaction. The teachers can manage and monitor what the students are able to see and interact with. ePals complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

How I'd Implement it in My Classroom

One activity I found on the site that I was really liked was creating your own cultural profile. First, I would find a teacher who had English speaking children in their classroom that were willing to partake in an e-mail exchange. What I would do is have each student in my class and the other teacher’s class create a cultural profile. This is where a student fills out a Cultural Profile Worksheet that has information about them as well as photos. Each student in my class would be assigned to a student in another class and they would look at their cultural profile. They would read each other’s profiles and create a dialogue based on what they read. If the teacher agreed I would like students to be able to Skype with one another after they have created their questions.

Although this activity would take more than one class, students would have two goals.

• Students will be able to fill out a cultural profile worksheet using information about themselves.
• S tudents will be able to generate 5 questions they could ask their ePal after viewing their cultural profile.

This would fulfill NYS ESL Learning Standard 4 that students will listen, speak, read and write in English for classroom and social interaction. They will be writing about themselves while filling out the cultural profile worksheet and the questions they have for their ePal. They will be reading when they are reading their ePals cultural profile. They will be speaking and listening when skyping with their ePal and having a conversation using the questions they had written.

Overall, the site is incredibly fascinating. It gives students the opportunity to interact with people their age that they probably would never have the chance of working with otherwise.

DIIGO vs Pinterest....... Which would you choose?

As teachers we often find ourselves coming across a lot of resources while were at school and saving them to the school computer. We sometimes find them at home while we're on our laptop. There are even times we find things while browsing on our phone while we're out and about. 

Over the past week I've been exploring the world of DIIGO and Pinterest. Both of these sites help you not only find resources, but have a place to save them where you can access them from any computer, smart phone or tablet.

Before telling you my favorite, I wanted to share some pros and cons I found with each site. 

DIIGO Pros

• You can highlight on the sites that you've bookmarked and saved to your library. This makes it easy to find the specific information you're looking for when you refer back to it.

• You can use multiple tags for each site you bookmark. Diigo will recommend a few tags that you can use but you can also create your own.

• You can also have your own write up for each site. Make a few notes so when you're referring back to your library you can read a brief description of the site. If you want you can even copy and paste from the original article to appear in the notes/comments about the site.

• You have the ability to follow anyone with a DIIGO and they can follow you! This makes it easy to view other peoples pages.

• You can message the people you follow to ask them questions, make comments, or just strike up some conversation.

DIIGO Cons

• You cannot post comments on other peoples DIIGO's. If you have any questions or comments you have to message them directly.

• Although you can follow others, I personally had some difficulties following people. When you hit follow, a CAPTCHA message appears that you must complete in order to be able to follow them. On multiple occasions a CAPTCHA wouldn't load therefore I could not follow new people.

• You are not offered suggestions for related articles or resources. 

Pinterest Pros

• If you're posting something to Pinterest, you have the ability to create your own tags so people can find what you've posted. You can also search specific tags when you know what you're looking for. Although you cannot tag the sites you've found, you can pin them to your own personal board that you've created.

• You have the ability to write about each site you've found in the "community questions". Here you can make comments or ask questions about the site you've found.

• You have the ability to follow people and they can follow you. 

• You can direct message people on Pinterest.

• You are offered suggestions for related sites. For example, you can search the word education and every post that someone has tagged the word education in will appear.

Pinterest Cons

• You cannot highlight text on sites that you "pin" to your boards.

Although both sites have great ways to find resources and access them again later on any device, I would have to say that Pinterest would be something I'd continue using over DIIGO. I found Pinterest to be a lot more user friendly and easier to manage. All pins have photos attached which helps you sort through them quickly. It was very easy to find hundreds of boards relating to what you're looking for.

What would you choose!?