Education Interaction Through Technology

Twitter has been an interesting experience for me. At first, I was very reluctant to get stated with Twitter. I am not much into social media, and the thought of making comments on material in a public arena made me a bit uncomfortable. It was not until I entered my first Twitter Chat that I began to feel a little more comfortable and realize that the chats were really just people like me out there trying to find common ground and encourage each other. The first chat I entered was the BC ED chat. There were a series of standard questions like: “What is your definition of wellness?” “How have your first two weeks of school been?” and “What are some strategies that work best for you when starting a new week?” I really appreciated the other people’s answer to the question: “What are some strategies that work best for you when starting a new week?” There were many varied answers like humor, prayer, alone time, small acts of kindness and planning to prepare for the week ahead. Although many of these ideas may seem basis and ordinary, it really helped me to hear them again and add them into the start of my week. Adding my observation hours into an already busy week of classes, I needed some good advice on how to start out my weeks. I had participated in this chat on a Sunday night, so the timing was perfect as I was just starting out a new week. I looked forward to putting some of these ideas like prayer and small acts of kindness into action in that week. I really felt starting off the new week with these strategies helped encourage feel more organized that week. There was also comfort knowing that others struggle as a new week begins too.

AIso, I was slow in the beginning following different educational experts and history gurus until I got the hang of how Twitter really worked. However, one history page that I begin following was FCO Historian which is the Foreign and Commonwealth Historian. In addition to posting places that you can visit that centers around history like museum, or historic homes, this twitter page also posts random history facts. One fact that caught my attention was the statement that not all people believed that WWII was unavoidable. The statement intrigued me, so I clicked on it. When you click on the fact, it takes you to an article that will give you more information on that statement. The article elaborated on the statement that many people felt that WWII could have been avoided. I retweeted this statement so that others would see it too and then go to the article to learn about the people who felt that WWII could have been avoided.

One educational expert that I am following is Alfie Kohn. In several of my education classes we have read articles and watched his videos. As I have read his articles, I have agreed with most of Kohn’s observations on education, so I was excited to find and begin following him. One recent tweet of Kohn’s that I “liked” was where he talked about how students mindlessly follow directions because they are conditioned to do so. He said students will automatically ask what they should do next, rather than think about the situation, and just do what make senses to do next. In my current observation, in a middle school social studies class, I have seen this same situation occur. The students will finish the assignment the teacher has asked them to do and then they ask, “what should we do when we finish the assignment?” Instead of taking a breather and sitting quietly at their desk, or pulling out a book and reading, the students feel like they need to have a direction from the teacher. After reading this tweet by Kohn and seeing this similar situation happen the last few days in my observation classroom, I realized how students do feel like their time always has to be organized for them and how this thought deters them from thinking on their own and acting without direction on what to do next.

I look forward to continuing my journey through Twitter and all the new things I will learn and can pass on to others.