Final+Reflection

= Final Reflection = December 7, 2010

Digital Role Model
When I started this project, I was looking for the best way to communicate with my class. I succeeded in figuring out how I would like to do that but was I also realized is that I do not just want to //communicate// with them in a one sided way, I want to //collaborate// with them online and watch them collaborate with each other. Once I realized this, I envisioned my kids commenting on the videos and links that I would post, posting things of their own and generally engaging in school after school. This did not happen. I realize now that this is because they do not know how and I need to show them. It all comes down to something that I wrote a little about this semester, being a digital role model.

Facebook
The results of my surveys are clear, my students really like using Facebook. One other things also became very clear right from the beginning, the really like having their homework reminders delivered to them. (see below) Am I pandering to their dependency by doing this? I think I might be. I like to try and make them responsible however, having three ways for them to see their homework eliminates the opportunity for them to claim that "they did not know it was due". One thing that I do like about this is being able to post a reminder or information that I forgot to share with them during the day and knowing that most of them will probably receive it that day. Social Media offers opportunity for so much more than that. To get them to use Facebook as a collaborative tool, I would have to guide them, give them examples of what to do and suggest opportunities for them to do so. Since using Facebook is discouraged by my school board as of right now, I do not think that I will be pursuing the use of Facebook any further with my students and will not be encouraging them to engage in anything other than accessing their homework and the occasional message. My original plan was to deactivate the account after this project but decided that I would be taking a step backward rather than gently pushing forward.
 * ** What do you like most about using our Facebook group ?**
 * just getting the homework :)
 * it shows up in the news feed
 * That mrs.stinson puts homework on it every day
 * It gave me what the homework was for that night and upcoming events ||



**Senior Eagles Wiki**
When it comes to using for a tool for collaboration, I think that our Senior Eagles Wiki has been very successful. I designed it so that all three grade 7/8 classes at our school could collaborate and have the same access to resources. I am really the only teacher that contributes to it, other than posting homework updates, but the small steps are part of the journey. I use it to post instructions for projects, classroom lessons and activities, subject information and many other things. My students use it to embed their projects, and collaborate to resource lists. It would be great if my kids would access and use the wiki on their own, from home but I guess that may be expecting too much from them. They need to be taught and guided into using the tools that are provided to them to collaborate outside of school and as they are still adjusting to all of the other changes that I have brought to their classroom. We will get there, I am just glad that they use it when I ask them to! We will continue to use this wiki this year and until a new and better tool comes along.

[|Classroom Website]
I have found our classroom website to be restrictive and boring, however, it is tied to my school website and is the first place that my parents go to when looking for information about my class. I will now only be using the class website as a place to provide links to the Wiki and my online grade book, [|Engrade.com]. Parents will still be able to access my resources but I will only have to update two sources instead of three.

Conclusion
I set out looking for a way to effectively communicate with my students and I found that Facebook is the most effective method to reach my students. Through the course of the semester and learning about collaboration and learning networks, I discovered that I also want to find a way to collaborate with them. I realized that I had already begun collaborating with them but I would like to expand this and do more. I also realized how important it is for me to model the behaviors that I would like to see in my students, including how to collaborate. I will continue to explore new ways of providing the tools that they need and opportunities for them to learn all the while posting reminders that I am doing so on Facebook.