a. Name and URL: Cool Cat Teacher http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com
The Best 50 schools using social media http://edudemic.com/2010/05/the-best-scholls-using-social-media
b. author and bio: Vicki Davis is a teacher and IT director in Camilla GA. She has created award winning international wikis, has done work in China, and won the 2008 award for the best Edublog. She was featured in Thomas Freidmans book the The World is Flat. She is a fulltime teacher, wife and mother of three.
c. why blog was selected: Social media is usually blocked from classrooms in high schools. I feel if this is the means of communications almost all of our students are using and they have that much interest in it, we should find a way as educators to be able to use it in our classrooms to spark student interest. It is also important to teach our business kids the power of social media in business for profit and nonprofit organizations.
d. posting selected- I choose her post about the social media in the classroom
e. summary and my reaction- I find it very interesting the ideas these schools used to embrace social media in their classrooms and schools as a whole. The article lists 50 schools using social media such as facebook and twitter and some of the ways they use them are incredible. While most of these schools are colleges and universities it provides great ideas how high schools can use social media in lessons and to build a community with their students. One of the schools tweets their menu for the day in their cafeteria, while another used twitter for a trivia challenge. Some simply sent out inspirational quotes for the day. Again i find this very interesting and really engaging for the students.
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The idea of schools building a community for and with their students through social media is excellent. One can argue that a community is already established through the school website, school calendars, and other paper documents that list school activities and happenings, but utilizing social media might get students more involved. Twitter and facebook are much “cooler” means of communication than school newsletters and posters. The use of social media would also allow students to voice their opinions about the ski trip, the bullying assembly, PSSA/4-Sight/SAT testing, and other current school events. This feedback from the students can then be looked at by administration, faculty, and staff and adjustments can be made to improve the school services offered to the students.
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