April 25 & 26, 2014
Green River High School
Green River, WY
Keynotes:
Kathy Schrock,
Ginger Lewman &
Jared Covili
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3rd Annual Wy TECC
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event, the students logged in and posted questions for the scientists with
minimal supervision. The class also
developed a policy that if a computer
froze or someone got kicked out of the
program, they would quietly move to
another seat and work with a neighbor, so as not to disrupt others.
On the other end of the spectrum,
another teacher kept tighter control.
She signed each machine into Hotseat
and had several volunteers monitor
the classroom. The teacher said, “
Before they submitted a question, they
were supposed to raise their hand and
let us know so we could check the
question because we wanted to make
sure it was an appropriate question.”
No matter which route you choose
to take—teacher driven or student
driven—be sure to set clear ground
rules for your classroom’s social
media experience.
Teach students
to be good
cybercitizens.
When you
give middle
school stu-
dents an op-
portunity to so-
cialize online, they
are going to have some fun! In only 45
minutes, the 134 students participat-
ing in zip Trips + Hotseat submitted
871 posts. Students were excited by
the change of classroom pace, inter-
acting with other students through
technology, and the novelty of the ex-
perience. However, there is a huge
temptation for students to make inap-
propriate comments. Some of the stu-
dents had a good time creating posts
such as: “let’s go tanning!” “I like ta-
cos, their yummy,” “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,”
and “yepp.” Although we did receive
some colorful comments, the majority
of the posts were relevant questions
for the scientists: “How many genes
are in the human body?” “When it
comes to fish and mutation is that the
reason for some more rare exotic
fish?” And, “Why do salamanders
hide under rocks?”
Most of the teachers in this program
stressed to their students the impor-
tance of submitting only thoughtful
posts. One teacher said that with
the popularity of social media grow-
ing, it’s good for students to learn
how transparent the internet really
is: “Other people are reading what
they’re saying. It’s not just between
them and the computer.” Before you
allow your students to be social on-
line, a reminder about good manners
and internet etiquette goes a long way.
Follow up to reinforce learning.
After your initial use of social media
in your classroom, take some time to
reflect on the experience with your
students. What did they like about
using the technology? Did they learn
anything new? What did they learn
from interacting with one another
and possibly other schools online?
Most of the zipTrips + Hotseat
students did well following along
with the video presentation and
social media interactions at the
same time. One of the pilot teachers said, “It was fascinating to watch
them keep up with it all and focus.
The students did both things very
well.” A couple of teachers noted that
some learners had a difficult time
multitasking. Examining students’
insights about their social media
experiences will help you find the
most effective way to implement the
technology in your future lessons.
As students continue to use technology outside of the classroom, the need
to engage and motivate students with
technology-rich experiences inside
the classroom is increasing. Social
media is one way to encourage interaction and collaboration and increase
content knowledge. These 10 recommendations present a number of effective strategies for bringing web-based,
interactive technology into the K– 12
classroom.
—Jamie Loizzo is a doctoral candidate in learning
design and technology and an academic adviser in
youth development and agricultural education at
Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. She previously served as a virtual field trip project manager.
—Peggy A. Ertmer is professor of learning design
and technology at Purdue University. Her research
interests relate to technology integration, teacher
beliefs, and helping students become expert instructional designers, specifically through the use
of case- and problem-based learning methods.
