Social Learning by Teens: Increased motivation, dopamine release, social media, and informal learning spaces.

Author David Price, @DavidPriceOBE in Six Powerful Motivations Driving Social Learning by Teens, writes because of the social media space, there has been a profound shift in how knowledge travels. Students' personal learning networks of friends, forum users, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers allows for a "lateral spread" (vs. traditional vertical, trickle down) of knowledge and learning socially.

The social space has removed entry barriers and democratized learning, making learning more about "taking action" than "knowing about" (Price, 2015). Tweets and videos that go viral have a scientific reason and the reward of dopamine release which helps increase motivation and "stamp in" memories (Lilian Kantz).

"Do it yourself, do it now, do it with friends, do it for fun, do unto others and do it for the world to see" dominates the social space style of learning according to futurist David Price.

In her article How to Integrate Live Tweets into Your Presentation author Pamela DeLoatch (@pameladel) references  social media research from the Pew Research Center report:

• 95% of teens aged 12-17 are online
• 78% of teens have a cell phone and nearly half of those are smart phones
• 74% of teens access the Internet through a phone or tablet
• 81% of teens use social media (facebook or Instagram)
• 24% of teens have a Twitter account. 

Social Media in the classroom: 

Instagram

If 81% of teens are using social media; Instagram and Facebook (Pew Research Center), a picture is worth a thousand words for educators to tap into a student-centered resource.


Niclole Long @MRSLongFCPS in her blog writes of The Benefits of Instagram for Teachers

Share Pictures of Notes and Work: post a homework board, reminders and assignments. Students can favorite (to save). This is a fast way to get homework out to students with the added attraction of "photos".

Post Photos of Student Work and Accolades: taking photos of student work, activities and projects is a great way to give acknowledgement of student achievement and creating a student-centered Social media sphere in your classroom.

Make Connections and Stay in Touch With Educational Figures: By following other educators and posting "real time" photos of school events like baseball games, this is a great time to slip in reminders of projects or homework.

Twitter

Research reports that 24% of teens have a Twitter account (Pew Research Center) and this student familarity with technology and social media outside of class makes it easier to integrate and use as a tool in the classroom.

The reward of "dopamine release" that is created in response to social media requests and activity, increases motivation and help "stamp in" memories in the social media learning style ( Lilian Kantz).

In her article How to Integrate Live Tweets into Your Presentation author Pamela DeLoatch, @pameladel recommends creating a general class Twitter account and has put together a guide , The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook for Teachers for the basics of getting started on Twitter.

DeLoatch recommends Tweeting your students before the presentation and let them know of expectations and how to participate.

• To test for understanding during the lecture, students can send out direct messages with questions and the teacher can set up a simple yes or not Twitter poll. 
• By encouraging a real-time backchannel using Twitter encourages student to collaborate with their questions and thoughts. 
• By Tweeting it forward, students share with the whole Twitterspheare and establish a journal of the presentation for future reference. 

Other uses of Twitter in the classroom include:

• Tweet upcoming due dates and use Twitter as a virtual bulletin board. 
•  Carroll ISD teacher, Judy Leddy @questdragons at Walnut Grove Elementary uses Twitter to engage with the community and Tweet live projects. 
• Network with other educators and connect with other classrooms.
• Ask questions and post supplementary materials. 
• Provide your class with a live news feed and post videos. 

Related Posts: 

9 Awesome Gamification Examples In The Classroom

Inspiring Q&A with Technology 

Alternate Book Reports for 21st Century Learning

How to Become a Connected Educator

It's the day before the start of Connected Educator Month (CEM) and more than 500 events and activities have been added to the calendar, with many more still on the way.

What is Connected Educator Month?

Connected Educator Month: All month, all free, all around the world – A celebration of community, with educators at all levels, from all disciplines, moving towards a fully connected and collaborative profession.

October is "Connected Educator Month" and the U.S. Department of Education encourages teachers to share ideas, resources and instruction about how to use technology.

Why should I connect?

Do you want to be more proficient with social media to improve your teaching practices? Would you like to connect and grow your personal learning network online and build stronger relationships with other professionals?

According to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall, authors of the Connected Learner  “Teachers must learn to model connectedness and enable students to develop personal learning networks, made up of people and resources from both their physical and virtual worlds---but first, teachers must become connected collaborators themselves.”

What are the traits of a connected educator?

• Connected educators are "do-it-yourself learners." They don't wait for someone to deliver professional development to them. They seek out professional development and learning that meets their individual needs.

• Connected educators have a "network of collective wisdom" to turn to when information and knowledge is needed. Educators who are connected have fostered and developed, over time, a network of other professionals to turn to for professional knowledge needs.

• Connected educators are "collaborative learners." They rely on others to help provide learning and they contribute to the learning of those in their personal learning network.

• Connected educators have moved away from the "paradigm of isolation and closed doors" to sharing a strong commitment with other educators to learn and understand more and more about teaching and learning. The educator who is connected no longer closes their classroom door and carries on teaching. They actively enlist the help of others and offer their help in return.

• Connected educators have leveraged online networks to solve their instructional problems through crowdsourcing and relying on the wisdom of the crowd for resources on teaching and learning. The educator who is connected does not hesitate to engage others in the face of the issues and problems of teaching. They use the crowd to learn more about the craft of teaching.

Here's the CEM signup link--http://bit.ly/cem_newsletter_signup

To follow connected educators via Twitter check out #CEM14.

View the following video to learn how to search and sign up for free professional development sessions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. 

Kidblog

Kidblog is an easy to use, completely ad free blogging platform created specifically for K-12 teachers and students. Basic service is free, but you can upgrade at a monthly or yearly fee for more features. Research shows that blogging can help improve students’ critical thinking skills. In addition, blogging allows students the opportunity to interact in a digital community and practice good digital citizenship. So, where do you begin?

Getting Started
Simply click “Create a Class” from the Kidblog website to create a free account. Once you have an account, you can enter the Teacher Dashboard to add classes, students, etc. Students can be added individually or through bulk upload. They can also register themselves through the “secret code” attached to your account. No student e-mail is required.

Privacy
Blogs are set as private by default. Privacy settings can be adjusted by the teacher to make the blog viewable by all visitors or restricted to only users in the class. Parents can be set up as guests in order to view and comment on posts. Even though the site is moderated by the teacher, it's a good idea to talk with students about expectations for sharing and communicating online. Blogging can be a wonderful opportunity for lessons on digital citizenship and online safety.

Posting & Commenting
Both the teacher and students can post blog entries through the web or iPad app. Posts can also be customized by adding photos or anything with an embed code (Animoto, Vimeo, Voki, Glogster, etc.). Posts can appear on the blog immediately, or they can go to the “pending” approval area of the teacher dashboard. If the approval box is checked, the teacher will get an e-mail notification that posts are awaiting approval. Just like posting, blog comments can be sent for approval before becoming viewable. Commenting can be open to all site visitors, limited to class members only, visible only to the student who created the post, or disabled completely.

A Few Ideas for Use
- Student reader response journals
- Writing journals
- Student collaboration & projects
- Book reviews
- Discussions (any subject)
- Evaluate peer writings
- E-Portfolios

Blogging can be a great tool in any subject area for all levels of students. Click here for a great website with ideas for using Kidblog as an assessment device, tutorials for setup, and other resources.

Finding Quality Educational Blogs

Anyone seeking current, reliable, and relevant online information regarding educational best practices, effective teaching strategies, technology integration, classroom management, Web 2.0 and more can quickly find themselves bogged down in numerous good, bad, and downright ugly "educational" blogs and websites. How does one find valuable resources without losing valuable time (or getting sidetracked in Pinterest)?

Teach.com searches the Web for the most relevant educational blogs, evaluates them, then assigns each a Teach100 score based on their social network activity, the frequency of the blog's updates, overall authority, and presentation of content.  Anyone can submit a blog for consideration for the Teach100 list.

The organization of this site makes it extremely easy for an educator to quickly determine whether or not a blog will likely meet his/her needs. The blogs are listed according to their Teach100 daily ranking and each site's movement within the ranking is indicated as the site moves up, down or remains the same. Clicking a blog's link provides a brief description of the blog, links to the 5 latest blog entries and the link to the actual blog.

There's even a widget for embedding Teach100 in your own blog or website as I have done here. You have instant access to the top 10 entries of the day. The actual site will list the top 100+ educational blogs.



Learn more about Teach100.  If you know someone who would like to become a teacher, direct them to the parent website Teach.com.