CLASSROOM BLOG
Social Media in the Classroom (Twitter& Facebook)
All social media have positive and negative sides for students and
teachers in the classroom. Of course using social media in the classroom can
catch students’ attention to learn something new. One positive point for using
social media in the classroom is building a relationship between the whole class.
Students in secondary school do not spend the whole day with the same peers.
Therefore, if they start to talk to each other through Facebook or Twitter,
they will know each other more. According to the article “Pros and cons of
using Facebook in pediatric Oncology”, it states, “Facebook makes it easier for
such adolescents to make friends with other patients and to stay in touch with
people.” That indicates that not only students build relationship with each another,
but also the teachers with the students. Another advantage of using social
media in the classroom is that students will start to understand the world through
the news. Many students and adolescents use Twitter to get the news from it. If
the heading is interesting for them, they keep reading it. Using social media
in the classroom can build a good relationship and help the students start to
read the news. On the other hand, social media has also negative impacts in the
classroom. Social media waste plenty of time because students and teachers want
to check their statuses every single minute. The article “Top 10 Reasons Why Social Networking is a Waste of Time states”
“Many do not
realize when they have become addicted to social networking.” That means if you
are addicted to the social medial, it is hard for the person to leave it
easily, so the time will fly very fast without paying attention. They
want to see if someone has posted something or liked their picture. Therefore,
their main concern will be on checking their personal stuff and not reading the
news only or learning about communicating with their friends. Another
disadvantage in using social media in the classroom is that students will not
focus with what the teacher is explaining. Even though the teacher announced
that the device should be put away, it will take the students time to leave it
and pay attention to the teacher. In my opinion, Facebook and Twitter are
useful in our daily life, but students and teacher can get rid of it while they
are in front of the students or at school. If a teachers accept for themselves
to use the social media in the classroom, then they should not blame the
students if they are checking or using it.
Skyping in the classroom
Skyping in general is for talking to other people that are in
different countries. Many people use skype to communicate to their families
that are overseas because it is cheaper and the connection is better. However,
skyping has some advantages and disadvantages in the classroom. Students might
use the skype to communicate with other students in a different classes. For
instance, students in sixth grade can make an interview with a seven grader
though skype because it save time to go from one school to another. The
interview might be at the end of the year asking some questions about the
challenges that the seventh graders have faced when the switched schools and
levels. Also they may ask about the core curriculum. On the contrary, skype has
negative effects on children. Since young students, age from 6 to 10, do not
have much information about what security means, they can accept any person on
skype and start chatting with him/her without knowing him/her. The students can
easily tell the other person all the information that he/she is asking for.
Also, young children need to see the person that they are going to interact
with in order to feel comfortable to talk with. Therefore, skyping for young
children might be dangerous because it is not secure.
My point of view, is that I might use skype in the classroom with
only the sixth grader and eighth grader since these years are the transition
years from elementary school to secondary and from secondary school to high
school. Skyping might be effective to know other students’ experience before a
life changing transition.
IPads in the classroom:
As any other device, iPad has some positive and negative points in
the classroom. One positive point for using iPad in the classroom is that it
saves paper for the teacher to print. Also, if the teacher forgets to print a
worksheet, he/she can post it on the school web, so the students can open their
portal and work on the worksheet without wasting time. Another advantage for
using the iPad in the classroom is communicating. Many students are afraid or
shy to ask questions to the teacher in front of the class. Therefore, they can
use their iPad to post some question to the teacher’s portal, so the teacher
will try to answer it without mentioning the student’s name. According to the
article “Pros and Cons of using iPads in the classroom”, it mentions “You can use them as a polling tool or let students ask
questions or make comments during lectures and address them either as they come
or after the lecture.” Teachers can read the questions that the students post
and see if he/she can answer them while explaining the topic or wait to end of
the class and start reading the questions aloud without mentioning the names
and answering the question. In contrast, iPad in the classroom might not be
useful because students will always want to work on the iPad. They will be addicted
to it. Therefore, when they go home, they will also want to work on the iPad.
IPads are expensive and that is why the school has to buy it for the students.
In my opinion, teachers have to use the iPad in
the classroom because this is the electronic device that most of the students
are using outside the school. The school should provide the materials that the
students like to use outside of school to learn. Young students should not
spend much time on the iPad because they have to learn how to write on paper
and use pencils.
Google Apps for Education in the Classroom
Google is now one of the most popular websites that every person is talking about. Most of the people use google apps to help them search for anything they are searching for. Google has many features that help people to find the information that they are look for very easy. If people are searching for a location they can open google maps to search for it, or if they want to create an email account, they use Gmail. Gmail has other uses than just checking the emails. It has google docs where you can communicate with other group of friends when you have a project or you can share information that you save on the drive. Another point is that the google apps are easy to use. Therefore, if a second grade teacher wants to introduce any features about the google apps, the students will understand the process very easy. However, the google documents are all in a single location. You cannot make folder and name them, so the documents will not be well organized. Teachers that are teaching young students have to show the students how to be organized, so they will not lose important materials.
After listen the pros and cons for using google
app in the classroom, I agree with using google apps in the classroom. Even
though the documents might be messy, I will make a clear title for the document
for the students to search for it. Most of the information that the teachers
use are from google.
Daily Technology Integration in the Classroom
Young students grew up using technology every day.
Therefore, it is hard to not integrate technology in the classroom. One
important factor for using technology in the classroom is that it will make the
students happy to learn something new. Students like hands-on activities, so
they understand a concept in math. For example, they can go on a math game
website to explore what he/she had learn. On the other hand, too much
technology every day in the classroom, might lead the students to be addicted
to the technology games and, it will be hard for them to go back to the
learning environment.
In my future classroom, I will you use the
technology maximum fifteen minutes in each subject to explore what they have
learned. Students need to be familiar with some websites or apps that they can
use at home that are academic based. Students at a young age need some guidance
while using the technology. Therefore, I will provide that these guide lines to
my students.
Works Cited
Clerici, C. A., Massimino, M.,
Veneroni, L., & Ferrari, A. (2015). Pros and cons of using
Facebook
in pediatric oncology. Journal Of Cancer Research
& Therapeutics, 11(4), 1042. doi:10.4103/0973-1482.146141
Preeti
Mishra. Top Yaps. Top 10 Reasons Why Social Networking is a Waste of Time. Retrieved from
http://topyaps.com/top-10-reasons-why-social-networking-is-a-waste-of-time
Kefa Olang. Disadvantage
of Using Skype. Tech in our Everyday Life. Retrieved from http://techin.oureverydaylife.com/disadvantages-using-skype-1231.html
Ashley
Wainwright. Secure Edge Networks. Retrieved from http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/17-Pros-and-Cons-of-Using-iPads-in-the -Classroom
