There are many different ways that technology impacts education. We talk about the impact that these technologies are having on students, but what about teachers? How can teachers use these new social tools to better use their time and communicate better within the school or district?
Here are some examples of how the new social tools of the web could help teachers:
Using IM and VOIP
Ms. Gill has ten minutes before her next science class walks through the door and wanted to chat real quickly with her teaching partner. She’s not sure if he’s in his room, but a quick look at her computer screen shows that Mr. Hayes is ‘online’ according to his Skype profile. Ms. Gill decides whether the conversation she needs to have with him could be done with a quick chat session, or a quick voice call if he’s sitting at his computer. If she decides that the conversation is best in person, at least she knows he’s in his room.
Skype is a powerful program that could be incorporated very easily into a school. A quick download and install and creation of a Skype account could allow a whole school to be able to communicate more affectively. How many times have you walked down the hall to have a chat with a colleagues only to find out their not in their room? By training a staff to use the status setting in Skype one could easily tell who’s teaching (busy) who’s free to talk (online) and who’s busy grading or doesn’t want to be bothered (Appear offline) by using these statuses, teachers and administrators could easily communicate more affectively.
Social Calendar Programs
Ms. Jacobs and Mr. Star are class partners. Ms. Jacobs’ 5th grade class has reading buddies in Mr. Star’s 2nd grade classroom. Ms. Jacobs and Mr. Star are always looking for times that fit into both of their schedules to get the two classes together for some reading time. Both Ms. Jacobs and Mr. Star have 30boxes accounts. They have shared their calendars with each other via the buddy system built into 30boxes. So Ms. Jacobs can see Mr. Star’s calendar of events and can schedule times that works for the two classes to get together. When Ms. Jacobs adds the event to her calendar it automatically adds itself to Mr. Star’s calendar so he knows what’s been scheduled. They can even leave notes to each other on the event about a topic, a specific book they would like to read, or even create a mini lesson they would like to teach their class that day.
Sharing calendars is nothing new to education. Schools are always looking for ways to share calendars of events. Using a social program like 30boxes allows each teacher to have an individual calendar and share it with their team members, the entire school, or entire district. Or if you prefer make the event private and only the teacher sees the event on their calendar. If your school still relies on a weekly paper copy of the school calendar, it might be time to think of upgrading to a social calendar system.
Wikis
The 4th grade team meets once a week to plan common units of study and discuss agenda items for the week. The problem is by the time they get through discussing the school agenda items there is hardly any time left to talk about unit/lesson plans for the coming week. That is until they implemented a wiki.
Now the 4th grade team covers the agenda items during there face to face meeting once a week and plans their units/lessons in the 4th grade unit wiki. Each teacher has access to the planning wiki via a log in account. In the wiki is a set of pages that can be edited by any member of the team. For example when planning a unit on geometry the team uses the wiki to brainstorm lessons based off the adopted math standards. Each member can add their thoughts, edit the lessons and relate them to the standards that each lesson will cover. After the lesson is taught the teacher can leave comments on what worked and what didn’t work so well in the lesson. Those comments can then be kept for next year when the lesson is used again. The following year the team can reread their comments; make adjustments as needed to the lesson, and teach it again. This also helps if new members join the team as their will be some history to how the lesson was taught in the past, plus ways to improve it.
There are many free wiki sites out there. Wikispaces.org and pbwiki.com are two popular ones. Wikis take a little getting use to at first, but once people learn how they work, how to edit and link within them, they quickly become a part of what you do. Take some time to look at wikis already created on the web. Both Wikispaces.org pbwiki.com has many wikis already being using in education and would be a great place to start.
Jeff Utecht is an international educator, educational technology consultant and author. He has worked internationally since 2005, prior to that he worked in Washington State. Currently Jeff is working as the High School Technology and Learning Coordinator for the International School Bangkok. Additionally, Jeff is the technology consultant with EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools) and has consulted for Web 2.0 companies on educational issues. Jeff is a main coordinator for the Learning 2.0 Educational Technology Conference in Asia. He has consulted with international schools and conferences globally. Jeff regularly shares his thoughts on education and technology on his blog, thethinkingstick.com. Jeff have been mentioned in several books including Reinventing Project-Based Learning as an avenue for “free online professional development” and Web 2.0, New Tools, New Schools. He has also written a chapter on 21st Centrurey Technology Planning for the book Wired for Learning. To learn more about Jeff, visit www.jeffutecht.com.
Dear Jeff,
Here I am in Brazil, back to you! After Braz-TESOL is over I’m trying to catch up on things. Great insights in teaching you gave here. I’m using many tools with my English classes to enhance learning through a motivating environment for my teen and adult students. I’m engaged in International blogging projects with them, which have proved to be very engaging for them.
You asked me where I taught in Brazil. I teach in a Binational Center in Brasilia, Casa Thomas Jefferson. Students go to English classes there after their regular classes at school.
As for changing the way teachers interact, that was exactly the point of our presentation in Braz-TESOL, Connect to Interact .
Hope to keep in touch.
Carla
This is just the kind of activities that I need to jumpstart my new job as educational technology specialist. Thanks!
Using wikis with teachers for just the kind of thing you describe is exciting, isn’t it!!!
I was in a “vertical articulation” meeting, where the 6th and 7th grade math teachers were meeting together (face-to-face) to discuss tips, tricks, struggles, etc. with teaching math to our students. Since our subject matter is so similar, most of the topics were relevant to all (Greatest Common Factor, fractions, etc.).
At the end, there was some talk about emailing other tricks & tips to each other. I suggested that a wiki would be perfect for this!
I saw the writing on the wall – this group of teachers wouldn’t be getting together for a long time, and this was a way to continue the conversation to serve the purposes we had for that day!
Do you know how 30boxes compares to google calendar?
I think this is a terrific idea. You’ve sparked my interest to get something going on this! Thanks!
Susan