NWEA Spark Community

Hi Dave,

You'll be glad to know that IS in the development plan and I agree, a great idea and way to collaborate with peers. What you can do in the interim, is to link from your post to a document housed on URL address by using the link button in the tool bar. Not as seamless, I know... but for today, it is a way to accomplish that.

In the near future, we will also be making it much easier for members to comment on blogs etc.

Thanks for asking and for sharing ideas on how to continue to make this a valuable site for the members!

Jennifer

Could your IT folks add a document attachment feature to this forum?  That way we could post materials for review,  comment, development, etc. 

Dave Thomas

You can do a free college search now and get a lot more information about schools then back in the 90 when you had to flip through huge books to read up on a school and what they offered.

About two weeks ago, I popped into my son's room (he is 15) and found him texting, Facebooking and talking on his cell phone while he was supposed to doing his Geometry homework. His textbook was open to the chapter and he was also logged into the books website. Before I could get angry at him for messing around he showed me what he was doing. One friend was on Facebook with him helping expalin a particular problem and directed him to the link for the textbook to "see" the problem get solved and he was relaying the information to two other friends through texting and a phone conversation. He was actually doing his homework and getting help without getting up from his desk. I was very impressed - and a little scared!

What a great idea and use of Facebook! It is an interesting observation you point out... that the written dialouge seems "more rich and multi-demensional"... And the convenience of  social site is definitely a plus.

Thanks for sharing!

Is anyone using social media with their classes? Or with homework assignments?

Our school is engaged in a district-wide collegial book study on Learning by Doing, DuFour, et.al.  Staff participate in a discussion group for each chapter, but are then given two options to address the reflection questions at  the end of each chapter: they can either attend a face to face collaboration or post their answers in a discussion group on Facebook.  Our curriculum technology partner set up the "secret" group (you must be invited to attend; discussions cannot be viewed by non members) and invited staff members to participate.  Following each chapter lesson, she posts the corresponding questions and staff have a month to respond.  I am the professional development coordinator for our district, so I attend the face to face sessions and monitor the online discussion.  Although it is early in the school year, my initial perception is that the online discussions have been more rich and multi-dimensional.  The Facebook option has also helped include our coaches and advisors who have after school commitments and cannot attend the face to face collaboration at that time.

Our local Portland paper, the Oregonian, had a front page article on Twitter and Facebook as educational tools. Take a look!

http://bit.ly/oaFh6

Loved Jennifer's article on social media. Curious to hear how educators are using this tool. What works? What doesn't? Does it open new doors to learning?

This is a very thought provoking article from September 16, 2009 in THE Journal written by Patricia Deubel on Social Networking in Schools.