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 21st Century Learners  



21st Century Learners master content objectives and standards by utilizing various technology based instructional strategies and tools.



 Contents  
 * Flipped Classrooms
 * Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * QR Codes
 * Educational Apps

 Flipped Classrooms  

History

Jon Bergmann is internationally known as the pioneer of flipped classrooms. In 2005, he and his colleague Aaron Sams were teaching chemistry at Woodland Park High School in Colorado (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Their rural school had a number of students who missed class due to far away athletic events or chronic absenteeism. Thus they began to video record their lectures so that students would not miss out on critical skills and be ready to work and ask questions in class. This concept really took off for both Woodland students and teachers and also for students and teachers around the country who began using the online videos for their own tutorials. As Bergmann stated, “We sent kids home with the easy stuff like learning content and helped them with the hard stuff at school” (Bergmann, 2014). Thus, Bergmann “flipped” his classroom by basically turning Bloom’s taxonomy upside down; students went home to acquire knowledge and understanding while schools hours were spent analyzing and creating (Bergmann, 2014). Rough data that first year suggested students were performing better on both teacher made and state assessments (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Data from numerous studies nine years later confirm that not only is the flipped model successful for students, but it is most successful in socioeconomicly depressed areas (Bergmann, 2014).

Classroom Solutions

Although Bergmann taught at a school with high numbers of poverty, he and Sams were able to find solutions to the questions teachers ask most often when presented with flipping. Foremost, at home access to technology is critical to successful flipping. Only twenty-five percent of Bergmann’s students had home internet access (Bergmann, 2014). Instead of offering alternative assignments, the teachers purchased micro-SD cards to convert students’ older phones into ones able to show video (Bergmann, 2014). Videos were loaded onto flash drives for those students with computers but without the internet. For students who had nothing but a TV and DVD player, videos for each unit were burned onto DVDs. Another component of success is students actually watching the videos and coming prepared to work in class. Bergmann and Sams found the simplest solution for holding kids accountable for watching/reading was to check their notes at the beginning of class (Bergmann, 2014). If prep work was complete, then they could receive help or complete a lab. Students who failed to prepare had to watch the video in the classroom. Students could not move onto new material or activities until they completed knowledge acquisition and successfully finished assessments. Bergmann calls this “flexible pacing” rather than self-pacing because the teacher and student rather than the student alone helps set the pace for each student. A final factor in flipping implementation is not to make the video the focal point of the class. It is a key component, but the point is active, engaged learners inside the classroom (Bergmann, 2014).

Benefits

Although flipping one’s classroom requires a huge time commitment and new way of thinking, the benefits far outweigh the negatives. Bergmann claims students become more independent learners, lessons are easily differentiated, achievement gaps are minimized, and all students are required to demonstrate their learning (Bergmann, 2014). Moreover, as the world becomes more personalized – from one’s morning coffee to iPhone apps – education must catch up and personalize each student’s experience (Bergmann, 2014). Teachers have the solution; not simply bringing in technology, but flipping ideas about pedagogy while supplementing lessons with technology.

 Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)  



Why?

Students today have information readily available to them at their fingertips. The number of middle school and high school students that have smartphones, tablets, and laptops with internet access is rapidly increasing. Away from school many students are “logged on and plugged in,” yet in the traditional school setting we ask them to “log off and power down.” With this contradiction, educators should investigate the possible influences this factor could have on decreased student engagement and achievement. Teachers today must be proactive in their classrooms regarding the integration of technology and with effective instructional strategies to ensure students are successful.

Pros and Cons

With the majority of students owning smartphones and tablets, one of the easiest methods to incorporate technology into the classroom is the Bring Your Own Device initiative. Supporters of the Bring Your Own Device movement say students are instantly more attentive and better behaved when they are encouraged to use their own mobile devices in the classroom, but educators face a number of challenges in implementing the Bring Your Own Device initiative in their schools (Devaney, 2012). Allowing students to use their own devices in the classroom can helps to solve scheduling issues in computer labs and media centers within the school. It also diminishes the demand for additional funding for “lap top” or “tablet” carts in schools. However, there are drawbacks with the initiative. When students bring their own devices, cyber-bullying and other problems associated with social media may come with them. Many students, for example, do not understand how much personal information they should share online, and they could end up posting information that could jeopardize their academic, or even professional, futures (Walker, 2012). Additionally, policies often have to be rewritten to support the use of a device as well as procedures if the device is damaged or stolen.

Considerations

To ensure teachers are prepared to embrace the Bring Your Own Device initiative in their classrooms, proper training should be provided by the school or school district. School districts should adopt a policy concerning the use of personal devices to ensure students and parents are aware of rules and regulations. Teachers should also be aware that some students may not have access to a device and provide devices or alternate lessons and assessments for those students. Implementing this initiative into a classroom can have a dramatic effect on student learning if done properly. However, teachers should be aware that there are drawbacks, but if lessons are properly constructed and thoroughly planned the benefits outweigh the negatives.

 From Facebook to Instagram: Social Media in the Classroom  



History

Social media is a part of normal day-to-day life for millions of adults and children. The statistics speak for themselves. Two hundred and forty-one million people actively use Twitter each month with 500 million tweets sent each day (Twitter). This year, 40.5 million users will log onto Instagram each month, which is almost three million more than monthly users of Twitter (Burnham, 2014). The most popular site by far is Facebook with over 1 billion users each month (Facebook). However, Facebook has seen a 16% decrease in usage by its U. S. teen market recently, with many youth turning toward more mobile photo sharing apps such as Instagram and SnapChat (Olsen, 2013). Although adults may be mastering Facebook, the youngsters they teach are moving on to new technology and, thus, educators must become familiar also.

Implementation Ideas for the Classroom

With its skyrocketing popularity, especially with young people, social media seems to be a natural progression in technology implementation for schools. Many administrators are encouraging teachers to use these tools in their classroom, with the students’ own devices, and thereby adding a “new dimension to the curriculum” (Shein, 2014). Here are links to a number of ideas for implementing everything from the "old-fashioned" social media to the newest sites in the classroom.
 * 10 Ways to Use Instagram in the Classroom (Applicable to K-12 and all disciplines)
 * How to Use Instagram in the Classroom (Applicable to K-12 and all disciplines)
 * Can Tweeting Help Your Classrooom? (The NEA offers tips and examples from teachers)
 * 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom (K-12 tips for all subjects)
 * Snapchatting Assignments (Scroll down for one teacher's reflections on using Snapchat for vocab lessons)
 * Snapchat, Yes Snapchat (After using Twitter for some time, a physics teacher tries Snapchat)
 * Using Facebook and Tumblr to Engage Students (Written by college professors about college students but applicable to secondary teachers/students. Good insight on how to capture and keep student interest.)
 * 99 Ways You Should be Using Facebook in Your Classroom (Ideas for K-college)

 Twitter  



Background

With the increasing popularity and various uses of social media in today’s society, teachers have an opportunity to provide students with guidance on specific topics and lessons away from the traditional school house doors. Twitter has become one of the most popular apps that secondary students use daily in their lives away from school. Because of this, teachers are embracing Twitter as a communication and an educational tool to help their students. However, teachers must be cautious of the possible disadvantages, as well as the benefits of using Twitter with students.

In the Classroom

Many teachers suggest that using Twitter has improved their craft by helping them reach beyond the boundaries of their schools to connect with colleagues across the country and around the world (Brown, 2012). One of the greatest advantages of social media such as Twitter can be found in districts where funds for educational resources are limited. Twitter can be an engaging instructional tool to introduce students to the content and material not available in the classroom. Students that have teachers that use Twitter as an educational tool often say, teachers who go out of their way to collaborate online tend to be creative, motivated people with high standards for their own performance (Brown, 2012).

Disadvantages

While there are numerous advantages to using Twitter as an educational tool, there are also some disadvantages. Twitter is a unique type of social media that limits user’s posts to only 140 characters per tweet. It does not seem like enough space to share deep and meaningful thoughts on certain content (Burns, 2014). Students typically are more accustomed to the “Twitter shorthand” or “text typing” than teachers and teachers sometime have difficulty in relaying information in the 140 character limit. Another issue for teachers can be the loss of professionalism while communicating on social media, which can lead to other issues. Just as there are certain rules and procedures within the school, those same guidelines are expected to be maintained in the world of social media.

Considerations

If used responsibly and with some discretion, Twitter can be an engaging learning tool for students and an effective communication tool for students and parents. As a teacher, you should create a professional Twitter account entirely separate from any personal accounts (Pappas, 2013). All teachers should remember they are responsible for their actions away from school. With the increased use of social media tools, teachers today have less privacy than in the past when they choose to use the tool with their students. As a result, they should always exercise caution when using any type of personal or professional social media accounts.

 QR Codes  

What is a QR code?

QR, or quick response codes, can be found just about anywhere. From coffeehouses to stores to realtors' yard signs, QR codes are everywhere. It's time to welcome QR codes into the classroom and embrace their capability for making lessons more engaging and helping create authentic learning experiences.

A single code can contain 7, 089 different characters, allowing a single QR code to hold more information than a traditional bar code. QR codes can be scanned from any angle because of the tiny boxes located in the corners of the code (Crompton, LaFrance and van ‘t Hooft, 20012).

Creating your own QR codes

When creating your own QR codes, they should be printed at least one inch square or larger to enable all users to scan the code without issue. Additionally, some white border should be left surrounding the QR code and it should be displayed only on flat surfaces to make it easier for users to scan.

Things to Consider

1. Not everyone has a smartphone or tablet. There are still people in this world who can’t afford or choose not to purchase such devices. Educators who choose to make use of a tool reliant upon mobile devices with cameras should be prepared to provide a few to be loaned out to those individuals without devices of their own (Mallon, 2011).

2. It’s important to consider the content which will be linked to the QR code as well as the devices which will likely scan the codes. Since most QR code readers are utilized via smartphones and tablets, it may be important that data linked to the QR codes be enabled for zoom and other controls. Tiny print that can’t be enlarged isn’t really accessible on a small screen, so documents and web pages that will be accessed through a QR code should be easy to manipulate for ease of readability (Mallon, 2011)

 Educational Apps  

What is an app?

Apps, short for applications, are downloadable programs available for use on mobile devices (dictionary.com). Apps are available from a variety of sources, including Google Play and iTunes. Some apps are free and some can be downloaded for a minimal charge.

Useful apps in education

The use of apps in the classroom allows teachers to design learning activities for students that are engaging and related to their everyday experiences. Apps can enable students to play engaging games and watch videos and can also act as useful tools for managing the classroom. Apps like Timer + provide students with visual cues which are especially helpful for students who struggle to maintain attention, including students with ADHD, autism and other learning disabilities (Nguyen, H., 2012). Listed below are compilations of useful apps for the classroom.
 * http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/12/my-35-favorite-free-apps-teaching
 * https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios-education/id6017?mt=8
 * http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/the-55-best-best-free-education-apps-for-ipad/
 * http://www.educationalappstore.com/
 * http://www.besteducationalapps.com/
 * http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/best-apps/2013

 References  

Bergmann, J. (Feb. 19, 2014). The Flipped Classroom. Alabama Science Teachers Association SCIENCE Works 2014. Lecture conducted from McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL.

Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day. Washington, D. C.: ISDE.

Brown, Emma. (2012, January 21). Teachers take to Twitter to improve craft and commiserate. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-take-to-twitter-to-improve-craft-and-commiserate/2012/01/19/gIQAGv8UGQ_story.html.

Burnham, K. (2014, March 28). Instagram trumps twitter in mobile users. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/software/social/instagram-trumps-twitter-in-mobile-users/d/d-id/1141579

Burns, Monica. (2014, February 2). Twitter and Teachers: Personal Learning Networks. Retrieved from http://www.channelone.com/twitter-and-teachers-personal-learning-networks.

Crompton, H., LaFrance, J., van 't Hooft, M. (2012). QR codes 101. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39 (8), 22-25.

Devaney, Laura. (2012, October 29). How to make BYOD work for your schools. Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/10/29/how-to-make-byod-work-for-your-schools.

Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/

Facebook. Retrieved April 22, 2014 from http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/

Mallon, M. (2011, November). Info on the go: using QR codes to enhance the research experience. In F. Baudino (editor) Brick and Click Libraries: Proceedings of an Academic Library Symposium. Symposium conducted at the meeting of Brick and Click Libraries, Maryville, Missouri.

Nguyen, H. (2012). General education and special education teachers collaborate to support English language learners with learning disabilities. Issues in Teacher Education, 21 (1) p127-152

Olsen, P. (2013, Nov. 13). Here's where teens are going instead of facebook. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/11/12/heres-where-teens-are-going-instead-of-facebook/

Pappas, Christopher. (2013, August 6). The Twitter Guide for Teachers. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/the-twitter-guide-for-teachers.

Shein, E. (2014, Winter). Social media goes to school. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3758300

Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2014 from Twitter.com: https://about.twitter.com/company

Walker, T. (2012, July 19). Should Schools Embrace “Bring Your Own Device”. Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2012/07/19/should-schools-embrace-bring-your-own-device.