Twitter

Twitter

Finally I manage to follow the twitter in #Edchat. It is really overwhelming how many people participate in this forum .This incredible collaborative tool allows such an enormous information flow or should I call it overflow. The solutions offered to the various problems are fantastic. Out of the 120 suggestions I copied links for only 20 and it took me the whole day to follow up and go into the different suggested links. The system is similar to the Russian dolls where a smaller doll is placed within a bigger one…and it goes on and on. (My head is still spinning now).Here are some of the suggested links I found very useful:

vsb.li/wPoC2a  Beginners guide for ICT security J

theglobalclassroomchats.wikispaces.com/Chat+Archives 

http://bit.ly/GHmHvk  28 ways to use twitter in class

http://n.pr/ZjDsdb  learning differently intellectual  struggle is positive J

http://bit.ly/Si0yLp no child left behind  J J

ow.ly/eTYL7    30 web tools J J

http://www.text2mindmap.com/  really great tool for categorization

Though the messages on Twitter are very, very short the content is really extensive and an eye opener to what is out there. In class I would use it maybe as a research tool each students should find a site for specific information and then we bring all the info together maybe on a blog. As a tool to share specific information....Excellent!!!

When finishing up a lesson I try to round up the lesson with the question "What do you know now that you didn't know before?" So here is what I know now after being expose to the twitter section:

I know how to:

• Open a twitter account
• To add people I want to follow
• To reply to twitters
• To twitter/tweed
• To go the hagtash (more here and here) and follow the chat there
• How to shorten web addresses 

What I don't know

• To close the twitter so only students can participate (if possible).
• How to time-efficiently check the new links.
• How to organizes all the new useful links.

Light-Years Away

My feelings about learning Web 2.0 Tools.

I feel that we teachers, teachers in the Jordan Valley (there are 5 schools in the area) are light-years away from what is going on out there with teachers in the cyber world. I have participated in many courses to further my knowledge in technology and am also currently taking part a course with Dr Baker . But watching the Elluminate Webinar  was a totally different experience. Not because I was baffled by everyone being online at the same time  (have see and done that before) but rather by the savvy participants and the quick pace of the conversation. Just to copy the new adresses for suggested site caused me to watch the session twice (90 min x 2) I wonder how people conquer the new technologies that are out there. Are they all autodidacts and learn step by step watching the "How to videos" (like me) or is there a flood of courses which teachers in the US  took a long time a go? Here in Israel most teacher learn 2 or 3 new tools and still feel quite uncomfortable to try them out in the class because the devil is always in the details. You just forget one little thing and the technology doesn't work. Straight away you feel completely incompetent. Though I always tell my colleagues the answer is only 1 click away. This video best describes the situation we are in now. In addition, I feel that in order to be up-to-date you actually have to spend your life in front of the computer. Is that what people are doing? @Barbara92052531

New Blogger

I have been teaching English as a foreign language for 20 years, primary school grades 3-8. I am a certified teacher, with a BA in English language, literature, linguistics, and education. I am interested in learning and using technology in the classroom in an ESL setting. Our school is new in the field and we are just emerging users of technology.

Right now I am trying out the blog as a new tool.