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

Presentation and Creation Apps

With the growth of iPads in the classrooms, I decided to share some of my favorite apps for creation and presentation. Each app has its own distinct features so choose the app that best fits your teaching style. Be sure to investigate all eight apps. They all work great in the classroom.

9Slides (free)
With 9Slides import your Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe PDF presentations from SlideShare, Google-Drive, Dropbox or BOX, record your video delivering the presentation and publish it online for your online audience. Also access 9Slides via its website. The website and app sync together plus you can create on the app.
Features:
☆ Cloud-based solution
☆ View on most browsers
☆ Password protect available with upgrade
☆ Add video and audio commentary directly from iPad
☆ Import from Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe presentations from SlideShare, Dropbox, Google, or Box

Explain Everything ($2.99)
Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Take presentations to the next level with students. Click here for a guide for using Explain Everything.

Features:
☆ Create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer.
☆ Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.
☆ Add new or existing photos and videos.
☆ Import PDF, PPT, DOC, XLS, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and RTF files from Evernote, Dropbox, Box, GDrive, WebDAV, Email, iTunes, and any app that allows you to open these files types using "Open In…"

Educreations (free)
Educreations is a recordable interactive whiteboard that captures your voice and handwriting to produce amazing video lessons that you can share online. Students and colleagues can replay your lessons in any web browser, or from within our app on their iPads.

Features:
☆ Record and replay your voice, handwriting and drawings
☆ Add text to any page
☆ Add photos from the iPad camera, Photo Albums, Dropbox or the Web
☆ Animate images by dragging them around while recording
☆ Pause and resume recording anytime
☆ Create multiple whiteboard pages
☆ Undo and redo your actions
☆ Create a free account on Educreations website and choose who can view your lessons
☆ Share your lessons via email, Facebook and Twitter
☆ Embed your lessons on your blog or website

ShowMe (free)
ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. Turn your iPad into your personal interactive whiteboard! Drop in images onto the whiteboard, make your ShowMe as long or as short as it needs to be, and record as many ShowMe’s as you want.

Features: 
☆ Voice-record
☆ Multiple brush colors
☆ Pause and erase
☆ Import pictures from your photo library, built-in camera, or web image search
☆ Unlimited lesson length
☆ Free to upload and share your recordings with friends
☆ Easy embedding for sharing anywhere

Variety of Uses:
☆ Grade student work with commentary explaining the reasoning behind their performance
☆ Easily explain a range of topics from math to chemistry to music theory to basket weaving.
☆ Use ShowMe as an interactive whiteboard substitute
☆ Diagram offensive and defensive strategies for sports

Appser for Google Docs (free)
With Appser for Google Docs run the full, original, PC version of Google Docs™ app on your iPad. Now, integrated with Presentation Note - the top app for presenting directly from the iPad. Edit documents, presentations and even spreadsheets – a complete office suite to suit your mobile productivity needs.

Features:
☆ Connect the iPad to an external screen for a near PC experience
☆ State-of-the-art accuracy when clicking even on the tiniest icons
☆ Resize and move objects with one finger
☆ Scroll up and down with two fingers
☆ Integrated with Presentation Note, for a great live presentation experience

Nearpod (free)
The Nearpod platform combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution. Teachers use Nearpod to share content with their students and to manage the flow of the lecture. Students use Nearpod on their iOS devices to receive content and to participate in engaging and collaboration activities.

Features:
☆ One single app for both teachers and students. Teachers sign in with their credentials and students using teacher provided PIN for each class.
☆ Teachers log in to Nearpod website to create multimedia presentations with interactive features such as quizzes, videos, polls, drawing tools, and more.
☆ Teachers can see students’ answers in real time on the Nearpod app.
☆ Teachers can log in to Nearpod website to access post-session data and obtain detailed activity reports.

AirSketch ($9.99)
With AirSketch turn your iPad into a wireless whiteboard! Annotate PDF documents and images live. Just fire up Air Sketch on the iPad and open the specified URL from any  browser on the local network. Your photos and drawings show up natively in the browser. There's no additional client software to install, or services to subscribe to.

Features:
☆ Real-time sketching to your browser
☆ Open PDF documents from Mail or other Apps in Air Sketch to wirelessly annotate
☆ 5 drawing tools: Pencil, pen, marker, brush, and highlighter
☆ Fluidly zoom and pan using 2 fingers to edit your sketches
☆ Email your sketches as PDF or images

Doceri (free app - $30 site license)
Combining screencasting, desktop control, and an interactive whiteboard in one app, you’ll never have to turn your back to the class or audience again. Doceri does it all! This definitely is my new favorite app for presenting material. Download the Doceri Desktop for your Mac or PC by clicking here.

Features:
☆ CREATE hand written or hand drawn Doceri projects on your iPad
☆ CONTROL a computer through your iPad.
☆ PRESENT anything from your Mac or PC connected to a projector, using Doceri’s desktop software.
☆ SHARE still image captures, multi-page PDFs or audio/video screencasts via email, iTunes, YouTube or Facebook.

Around the World...in One Class Period

What is a Virtual Field Trip?

Take your students to the TajMahal, the Smithsonian,the Tower of London, even Mars all in one class period! It's easy to create interactive web based experiences that spark student interest and motivate learning with virtual fieldtrips!
A virtual field trip is an interactive online adventure that guides students through an exploration of places, time, themes, and content. Virtual fieldtrips offer students a chance to go to places they would't be able to go to otherwise. You can be their guide or let the students guide themselves.



Advantages of Virtual Exploration

• Virtual field trips are the next best thing to being there and actually have some advantages over the traditional on site field trip.
• Virtual field trips are free and easy to plan. No permission slips. No transportation arrangements needed.
• Virtual field trips offer lots of opportunities to explore with the class using the intearactive white board or students can explore on their own at their own pace.
• The field trip never ends. Students can revisit as much as they want to review or simply explore some more.

Helpful Hints and Tips
Try one for yourself! Click here to take a panoramic interactive tour of the Smithsonian. Think you are ready to create your own? Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Think first, then plan. What is the purpose of your trip and what do you want students to gain from it?
2. Setting up your first virtual field trip takes time, just like a traditional field trip would. So plan ahead. See your instructional technology specialist for assistance.
3. Search the internet for pre-made virtual field trips to get ideas. Maybe even use one you find. Here is a great site with premade virtual trips by topic that you can use tomorrow
4. Check those sites! Make sure you preview your field trip to ensure that the sites are appropriate for your students.
5. Take the trip yourself first to make sure all links and pages are working before you go.
6. Get the students involved! As an assignment, let groups of students create their own virtual field trips to share with the class. Save these trips so you can use them in the future. The students will love it.

Want to learn more? Then sign up now for Oh the Places You'll Go webinar, presented Wednesday, Nov. 9 beginning at 8:00 p.m. You'll learn how to create your own trip and will get tons of resources and 1.5 hours of staff development credit! Click here to register.

Website of the Week:Spicynodes

Spicynodes is a free website which allows you to create interactive mind maps as well as interactive journeys through the web. It's easy, fun, and visually appealing. It is interactive and makes a great alternative to lectures and notes. Students can click their way through the information you chose for them or they can create their own spicynodes to show what they have learned. (This would make a great start for a virtual field trip, too!)

Tip of the Week: Outlook Alerts-Be Careful!

If you are using your laptop (or your desktop) as your presentation station, remember to close Outlook before you start teaching. If you have desktop alerts turned on, then email notifications will appear on your board over your flipchart or presentation for all to see!  To keep this from happening, use your teacher workstation to check email. To turn on or off desktop alerts in Outlook, go to File, Options, MAIL, Message Arrival, then Desktop Alert Settings. Uncheck the box which says "Display Desktop Alert."