First+Reflection

= My Project So Far =

We have been engaged in this process for about three weeks now. I have eleven students and one parent contributing out of twenty five. I would have liked a larger sample to gather feedback from but I am very grateful that I have students that were willing to help me. One of the challenges to getting students to help me was that they were not allowed to use Facebook for various reasons. In my research section of this project, I will be addressing the issues that parents and educators have with Facebook.

I asked my students to access all three websites at least three times a week. I post "check ins" on Facebook (example: "like" this comment if you have seen it) as a method of keeping track of who is really helping me. I wish that I had a method of keeping track of whether or not they have been using the wiki or the classroom website at all because I really have no way of knowing.

Today I created and sent out the [|second survey] for the project. This survey targets only the people that are helping me with the project. I have asked for feedback on what they are using, what they like and what they could suggest to make it better. My plans are to take the results of the survey an apply their suggestions to the three communication tools. They will then use the new and improved versions and answer a final survey at the end.

I have internally surveyed myself about what methods I prefer. All three tools offer unique options and are useful in their own separate ways. My challenge is to find out which one tool or combination of two tools is most useful and convenient to use for myself and my students. Here is what I have come up with:

Classroom Website: I do not like my classroom website. I find it's capabilities limited and that has very little use except as a jumping off place to access the other methods of communication. The only thing is, it is the only option that I have that is fully supported technically by my school board. My plan after this project is to use the website as a place for students and parents to find links to the classroom wiki and my grade keeping site, Engrade.com. I would like to not have to update this page at all during the year unless I need to add further links. Having said that, the results of the survey that I sent out today could change that.

Senior Eagles Wiki: This has proven to be a very useful tool so far this year. It is a place where all 75 of our senior students have contributed in some form or another. I like that I can post their assignment instructions online. This became very useful last week when I had to call in sick. In my emailed sub plan, I just directed the sub and the kids to the wiki where they found their assignment and the links that they needed to finish it. I also really like that all three senior teachers post the students homework on one page. It allows the students to see that we are working together on the same Outcomes and really solidifies us as a team, not three separate classrooms. It is very useful for content materials, in school use and having access to what we have done in school at home (or anywhere else). Having said that, I think that it can not be used on it's own. It does not have the real time notification capabilities that I also would like to have with my class.



Facebook: I really an enjoying using Facebook with my students. I like knowing that when I post a reminder or a link they will most likely see it as they are usually on Facebook everyday. There has been a few times in the past few weeks that I have thought of something that I forgot to tell them, posted it on Facebook and wished that I had more than eleven students that would see it. I try to post links or videos about things that we have done in class or talked about, even if it was not "curriculum related" just because I thought they would be interested. I also post videos and links that I think will help them with their homework that night. Having said that, I think that an even better way to accomplish this would be via Twitter, where we would not have the complications of having private profiles that I would be privy to (right now on Facebook, I block their wall posts from my News Feed to avoid crossing that line into their private lives). I did not use Twitter for this project as very few of my students are using Twitter regularly but maybe it is something that I can think about discussing using with them in the future. Again, there are ethical issues with using Facebook and Twitter with my students but I will address those later on in my project.

My ideal usage of these three tools would be the classroom website as a place to find links only. This must be maintained because it is available on the school website and that is the first place that students and parents go to access information. I would then like to continue using the Senior Eagles Wiki for it's school content and collaboration capabilities. I would like to be able to continue to send out short reminders and links via Facebook but would love to have more students accessing it. Maybe after the pressure of having to help me with a project is lifted, more will be so inclined. I am also tossing around the idea of just creating a Facebook Group or Page that they could join without having to Friend me. We will see where this takes me in the next few weeks!