I love RSS feeds. Bloglines is my reader of choice, although I teach the kids how to use Google Reader because it's more accessible and most of them already have an account. My seniors (college comp 101) are encouraged to set up a reader feed. It's very heartening to see them doing their research and checking their feeds before they go off into the jungle that is the web.
edited to add:
Haven't done much with the gadgets on this page, so played around some. Added the Google +1 button and the blog list. Don't forget to check out my book for sale on the CF Duprey site!
:)
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Thing 2
I've been on Twitter for many years, in both my professional lives. Not only am I a teacher, but I'm also an author with over twenty books published. Since the majority of those, however, are pubbed under a pseudonym, my writer social media platforms are separate from those I use as a teacher.
So yes, I have a Facebook account as myself (Cindy Duprey) and I keep in touch with several graduates that way. In years' past I've also allowed current students to friend me, but I've gotten a bit paranoid in recent years. Not all the things posted to my wall are kid-friendly and I don't need a parent yelling at me because someone posted an off-color joke and their kid saw it.
I do not have a FB account as my writer-self, however. The dual logins can get to be a pain in the neck. I have a writer Twitter account that I use on occasion but I've found I didn't use my teacher one very much, so I let it go.
Tweetdeck is my Tweet manager of choice. It allows me to have several "streams" of tweets that are tailored to specific interests. I recommend it if you're overwhelmed by too many updates.
As for other social media platforms, I've been a resident of Second Life since October 2006 and have used it both to teach classes (a series of writing workshops for people all over the world) and as a design course for high school students. Unfortunately, some decisions on the part of Linden Labs, the company that owns Second Life, made it impossible for us to continue to use it at the high school level. :(
CD
So yes, I have a Facebook account as myself (Cindy Duprey) and I keep in touch with several graduates that way. In years' past I've also allowed current students to friend me, but I've gotten a bit paranoid in recent years. Not all the things posted to my wall are kid-friendly and I don't need a parent yelling at me because someone posted an off-color joke and their kid saw it.
I do not have a FB account as my writer-self, however. The dual logins can get to be a pain in the neck. I have a writer Twitter account that I use on occasion but I've found I didn't use my teacher one very much, so I let it go.
Tweetdeck is my Tweet manager of choice. It allows me to have several "streams" of tweets that are tailored to specific interests. I recommend it if you're overwhelmed by too many updates.
As for other social media platforms, I've been a resident of Second Life since October 2006 and have used it both to teach classes (a series of writing workshops for people all over the world) and as a design course for high school students. Unfortunately, some decisions on the part of Linden Labs, the company that owns Second Life, made it impossible for us to continue to use it at the high school level. :(
CD
Thing 1
Three of us at the high school signed up for an online learning class examining the use of social media in the classroom. The first activity is all about creating a blog. Took me a bit to remember my login, but I did and here I am again!
The virtual world course shut down (you can read about it here) and I pretty much stopped blogging at that point. If you look at past entries on this blog, you'll see I actually played around with the concept of a teaching/learning blog for a while. It's a reflective learning piece for me, though, not really a useful tool in my classroom. I prefer wikis for classroom interaction, but I think that's a future lesson?
In any case, I'm finally getting started on the course. Welcome to my world! :)
The virtual world course shut down (you can read about it here) and I pretty much stopped blogging at that point. If you look at past entries on this blog, you'll see I actually played around with the concept of a teaching/learning blog for a while. It's a reflective learning piece for me, though, not really a useful tool in my classroom. I prefer wikis for classroom interaction, but I think that's a future lesson?
In any case, I'm finally getting started on the course. Welcome to my world! :)
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