Social Media in the Classroom

Hicks (2013) blames our culture's negative aspects of social media for why teachers are unable to use social media fluently.  I also agree that I am leery of using social media in my classroom. I have recently created Kidblog accounts for my students. Although I know it is a private site, I am still nervous about the content of what students post.  It is like a time bomb for drama waiting to go off. However, I also know that it is necessary that we as teachers begin to give students opportunities to communicate digitally in an age-appropriate, safe environment. 

If we intend to model for students how to craft writing for the purpose of posting to social media, it only makes sense that we are involved in these types of online communities ourselves.  Sharing our own online discussions with students and focusing on the purpose of these discussions will bring to light how communicating using social media can help us learn and share ideas with others.

Below you will see a conversation that took place between myself and my coworkers on a social media site.

Hicks (2013) uses the MAPS heuristic (mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation) to analyze texts.  Edmodo is a great media for teachers to use to participate in closed discussion with particular groups of professionals.  I am part of several online communities through Edmodo.  The discussion above took place under my school community.  Teachers are able to join and have discussions related to topics under review from our staff.  For example, the conversation above was prompted from a chapter of a book we were reading for a book study.  We knew that we, the teachers at my school, would be the only audience we would have.  This enabled us to discuss things in the context of our classroom and our school in more open and candid manner than we normally would.  Because students will more than likely also be participating professionally through social media, I think it is key that we incorporate this kind of interaction into our classrooms on a consistent basis.

References:

Hicks, Troy (2013). Crafting digital writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Audio and Video Texts

            
         After reading Chapters 5 and 6 from the book Crafting Digital Writing, it became clear to me that my original introductory video could be enhanced greatly in order to appeal to my audience in a more effective manner.  I will specifically address the elements of the two videos I created using the MAPS acrostic Hicks (2013) mentions in his book.  MAPS stands for mode/media, audience, purpose, and situation.  When I originally created the video, I did not consider these details.  However, when creating the second video, I did.  The mode or the genre of my video stayed the same as both videos are introductory videos.  However, the media changed drastically.  The original video was simply recorded from my iPhone and shows me speaking and giving information about myself.  The second video includes pictures, music, and several video clips.  These forms of media were combined to create a video from the website www.wevideo.com.  The audience of my video stayed the same. However, because I considered my audience before creating the second video, I was able to provide text and photos that would add to the audience’s understanding of who I am and feel a deeper connection with me as a person.  The purpose of both videos is to introduce me, Anna Theros.  The purpose of the second video is also intended to entertain the audience. The situation changed somewhat because the original assignment was to simply video myself introducing myself to the class (Hicks, 2013).  The second assignment required me to enhance my current video with 2 or more of the following elements Hicks (2013) included in his book: narration, panning and zooming, repetition, time effects, film effects, transitions, sound effects and music, and captions and text.

            I chose to redo my video instead of editing it because I wanted to use wevideo.com to complete the assignment.  I was able to incorporate repetition at the beginning of my video by having members of my family and my Sunday school class say “our ________” to show what relation they had to me.  Wevideo.com also allows you to create transitions throughout your video.  By a click of a button I was able to add music to the background of my video.  Captions and text were also added to the video to support the narration.  

  
Click on the picture below to view my second introductory video: 

References:

Hicks, Troy (2013). Crafting digital writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.