My Take-Aways

After finishing up this class about online/blended learning, I find myself wanting to share the information with my adminstration. I think that there is a lot of anxiety surrounding a move to online/blended learning. Many teachers are afraid their jobs will be in jeopardy. I want people to know that online/blended learning doesn't mean students stop interacting with eachother and their educators. I would also like to share with my fellow teachers the different levels of using technology in the classroom. It really stuck with me, how many teachers simply replace an activity in the classroom with an identical activity on a computer. That isn't really using technology or preparing students for a world of technology. Many teachers feel that if they do this, they have done what they are being asked to do, when it comes to using technology. Students see that it is simply replacement activity.

Social Media with Students....Dunt, dunt, dunnnnnnn

I personally LOVE social media. I check my Facebook and Instagram all the time, I mean ALL the time. I even have a Facebook page for my Drama Club students. So you would think I would be all about using social media for my classroom. In some ways I am, but in a lot of ways I'm not.

First, my Facebook is for me, the not-at-work me. I want to have seperation between my job and my home-life, as much as possible. I already find it hard, since I live five minutes from my school and live in the community where I work. I always feel like I'm in teacher mode when I am out and about. I don't mind having the Drama Club Facebook page, since it isn't a class and there is so much community involvement. However, I make it a policy to not "friend" students until they graduate. This is also for them. I don't want to know every little detail about their personal lives, and I want there to be no confusion over whether I'm their friend or their teacher.

I have used a program designed to look like Facebook in my classroom, though. It is called Edmodo. It looks A LOT like Facebook, and anyone who can work Facebook can work this website. It allows for some of the same type of interaction, but has a much more academic feel. I can control who sees my page and there are no ads. Plus neither my students nor I choose to express our personal feelings (like normal status updates) through Edmodo. It is more like an extension of the classroom, not an invitation into my private world.