Instruction with Social Media: Engaging, Efficient, and Effective

According to Mourlam (2013), social media facilitates communication between individuals and groups and allows for the sharing of updates, resources and other information. In the classroom, these traits can be very helpful with making learning more engaging, efficient, and effective.

After using other learning management systems with social media capabilities, I started using Google Classroom this year in my English and creative writing classes. While the platform allows student interaction through posts and comments, the question feature allows for content-focused interaction. The image below is a screenshot of a question with responses that I posted in my English classes with the analysis of the Emily Dickinson poem, “This is My Letter to the World.”

In relation to engaging instruction and to the MAPS heuristic of Hicks (2013), this mode and medium requires each student to engage in the content by responding to the question with text-based evidence.  For my purpose of assessing the students’ mastery of inferring main idea, I did not want them to see and be able to respond to each other’s individual responses. I wanted each student response to be valid and not a duplicate. However, once all students had responded and I had quickly reviewed them, I displayed the responses on the projection screen and led a class discussion.

Although my structured use of the question feature was due to my student audience and the situation of having several low-level readers, I could use this question feature in a more engaging manner by making the student responses viewable by other students and by allowing responses to each other. This interaction would better engage the students, and therefore, they would be more likely to master the skill, which is the primary purpose of the activity and interaction, an emphasis in the MAPS heuristic of Hicks (2013). In addition to the technological improvements, I could also improve my wording of the question, which I believe would prevent some of the wording errors in the responses.

Regardless of the delivery choices for a question in Google Classroom, it is an ideal example of how social media can be more engaging with the interactions. Nonetheless, it is also an example of how social media can be used within a few minutes to assess student mastery when traditional pencil and paper assignments can take much more time for students to submit and for teachers to evaluate. This efficiency ultimately leads to better effectiveness.

The following link includes many resources concerning Google Classroom: http://alicekeeler.com/google-classroom/

References

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Mourlam, D. (2013). Social media and education: Perceptions and need for support. Journal on School Educational Technology, 9(3), 23-28.

Crafting and Revising a Video Text

With my course introduction video, I felt very deficient in my demonstration of crafting video texts as I reviewed the relevant criteria for creating such a text from Hicks (2013). While he outlines many characteristics and their effects on a video text, I felt as if I was barely skimming the surface even as I addressed some critical elements in my video.

Before addressing specific elements, I addressed the MAPS heuristic of Hicks (2013) and identified my mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation. I determined the mode for my course introduction video as being a biographical and informational text with a purpose of introducing myself to my classmates in the course. Although I did not put much thought into the format of my original video, I reconsidered my choices in relation to the craft of the video with these parameters in mind. 

Retrieved from https://hickstro.wikispaces.com/WISD+Workshop

I decided on enhancing the presentation and flow of my video through the WeVideo application. In addition to recapturing my video, I added captions and text to enhance my message as suggested by Hicks (2013). By adding a title and captions, I made my purpose more evident to the audience and provided a smooth flow to the overall video. My final quote at the end also emphasizes a meaningful theme and message from my video. Additionally, I added transitions that give a smooth fade-in at the beginning and a fade-out at the end with transitions of vertical flips between each topic in my video. These transitions also make the video more appealing and provide better flow so that the audience is not overwhelmed by a monotonous video with no variety or road signs for the video text.

As I indicate in my video, I want to apply my new knowledge of technology resources and strategies to my classroom in order to make my curriculum more relevant to my students. In English Language Arts, I can definitely see how the intentionality of creating and analyzing video texts clearly relates to multiple standards. Being a teacher of high-need students of poverty, I recognize the conclusion of Friesem (2014) that video production provides a way for these students to share their ideas through a medium and collaborative process that is not possible through traditional texts and assignments.

The following video displays many of the video text elements as outlined by Hicks (2013):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ml331sbWtE

References

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Friesem, E. (2014). A story of conflict and collaboration: Media literacy, video production, and disadvantaged youth. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 6(1), 44-55.