Interview: Miss Wilburn's experience with the use of cell phones in her classroom

For this cell phone project interview, I contacted various people and did not hear back from anyone. As of last night, I decided to post my assignment on Facebook, and to my surprise, a few of my "education" friends got back to me right away. I chuckled and thought to myself, "Ah, the speed and wonders of social networking." :)

I decided to conduct a conversation with one of my friends, Christina, who actually took this class in the past for her Master's Degree. Since then, she has stepped out and tried using cell phones in her classroom...it gave me some hope:) We started talking via Facebook, and then I just decided to email her my questions and then later call her to discuss her answers once she got back to me.

Christina teaches at Hempfield High School, and she is one of the technology leaders in her building. To begin our conversation, I wanted to make sure I covered all of the areas that we needed as well as a few other questions that I had. As of now, I am not one that supports the use of cell phones in education based on the fact that I teach 6th grade, but I am finding that the more I talk to people about it, and the more great ideas I hear about it, the better I begin to feel.

Here are the questions that I asked Christina, along with her responses...

1.What types of cell phone projects do you use in your classroom? She mentioned that she uses something called the "Poll Everywhere" system which is a question and answer forum. She also said that she used something called "Rained Out" which provides classroom updates. She mentioned that she has used "Rained Out" to help deliver cancellations to her team since she coaches. I coach as well so I thought this would be a great thing to use when sending messages to my team since most of the girls have their phones attached to their hip.

2. What made you first decide to venture into this area? Christina responded by saying, "I’m a technology leader in our school and all of the leaders have monthly meetings. 'Poll Everywhere' was presented to us by our technology coach. She frequently provides us with new tools and websites to use in the classroom. I thought this sounded like fun so I decided to give it a try. I heard about Rained Out at a technology conference and decided to give it a try."

3. Does your school have a policy or procedure on what teachers need to do if they want to start using a new technology in their classroom? Christina's response was, "Honestly, there is no specific policy in place. We have a lot of freedom to incorporate whatever we want, as long as we feel that it is beneficial to the students' learning. If there is anything that we find that we may be unsure of, we have technology coaches that we can ask to see if it is appropriate to use."

*I could relate to this situation because our district does not a problem with us trying new technologies...in fact, they want us to try new things that will engage the students, and they are more than willing to help us when we make those attempts.

4. Did you ask for permission first? I wasn't surprised with Christina's answer for this question (she said no) since the things she is using in her classrooms with cell phones was presented to her at a technology conference that she attended. Most teachers take those things shown to us and use them as often as possible knowing that they are already approved and safe.

5. What is/was the feedback from your students? Christina said, "Many of the students LOVED it! They thought it was so cool that they could take out their cell phones in class which is normally forbidden. 'Poll Everywhere' is very easy to use as well, which is nice because you are not running around like crazy answering tons of questions. Students also enjoy the classroom reminders that are sent via 'Rained Out.'"

6. Did you have to involve the parents of your students at all, and if so, what is/was their typical feedback? In this case, Christina said she did not involve the parents of her students. She mentioned that she felt that this was acceptable to use without permission since there was not any personal information being shared. The only thing she wanted to check into before doing the project was what students had texting plans. Most of her high school students knew the answer to this, but she said if someone did not have one, then she would encourage them to talk to their parents or she would then call their parents.

*I could see this as being an issue in my room since I teach 6th grade, as well as the fact that our policy does not permit cell phones. Our policy would need to be changed in order for me to use this type of technology. I feel as though most of my kids have phones, which also have texting, but I would probably first send home a letter describing what I was planning to do as well as talk to parents about the texting. The last thing I would want to do is make their bill go higher!

7. What do you do if not all students have cell phones? Based on the fact that Christina teaches high school, she said she typically reminds them at least 2-3 days prior to the activity about making sure they bring their cell phone to class. If they do not bring in a cell phone, she then pairs them up with one another. They are allowed to interact with one another, discuss what they think the answer is to the question, and then text it in.

8. What challenges did you face? Christina mentioned that "Poll Everywhere" is so easy to use so she really has not had many problems with this site. The only challenge she faced was not having all students bring in a cell phone, which is expected since high school students have a tendency to forget, or they may not own a phone. She said there are always ways around it though.

9. Do you have any advice you have for fellow teachers who want to do this...meaning using the two sites she used? Christina answered this question by saying, "Don’t be afraid! Take some time to learn the site, set up questions, and you’re practically good to go! It makes for a very fun and exciting class period!"


*I want to thank Christina for taking the time to answer my distress call on Facebook, and for taking the time to answer my questions. I felt that we had a great conversation and I was able to learn a lot about the simple things that you can do with cell phones in your classroom. I still have my opinions, but after talking to her, I felt more at ease and felt a little more confident in knowing that you at least have to give it a try to see how it works. I am curious to see what would come from me asking if I could try this with 6th graders, with the understanding that I would need to contact parents first. Christina and I discussed the questions that I mentioned above as well as a few other variations based on the different grade levels that we teach.

*I definitely would like to try to use the "Rained Out" site for coaching since it would alleviate trying to contact all the girls in case practice is canceled or changed, but I am still brainstorming ideas for the cell phones in the classroom. Like I mentioned before, I'm still hesitant about using cell phones, but talking to Christina definitely made me feel a little more at ease:)

"JAM Session" on Bullying

Here we are! Enjoy...still working on getting the adds out. Our poll didn't work either:(

"JAM Session" on Bullying

Update...due to technical difficulties the JAM session will take place at 8.


Sorry for any confusion.

"JAM Session" on Bullying

Jess, Megan, and I will be hosting our own round table discussion on bullying in the elementary school at 7:15 EST on Thursday June 9, 2011. Please feel free to join us.

Stay tuned for details and links to our broadcast:)

Using Social Networking in the Classroom: Social Studies

*Sorry, I had a hard time getting this picture to work from the Edmodo site.


I decided to integrate social networking into one of my Social Studies lessons that I teach. I decided to use Edmodo since it is a social networking site, very much like Facebook, but designed for educational use. It is a safe social networking site for students and teachers, which in my opinion, is crucial when using these tools in the classroom. I have heard of many success stories about using Edmodo in the classroom, so I thought I would give it a go. I started an Edmodo site and have been posting a few things to get started with the lesson, but I am still trying to find out how to change the name of the post to be a historical figure like they did in the examples, as well as adding a video. I added a Discovery Ed video to one of my posts by using a link.

Here is the link to the Edmodo site that I will plan to use for my Chapter 17 Lesson 4 social networking activity: http://www.edmodo.com/profile/1936045

This lesson is designed to be used with Chapter 17 in my Social Studies curriculum which is Africa South of the Sahara...specifically with Lesson 4 which is called "The Road to Independence". This lesson discusses South Africa's battle to gain it's independence from the United Kingdom, as well as the freedom from apartheid. It is assumed that all of the other three lessons in this chapter would have been taught already and the students will have a bit of background on the geography, economy, government, and culture of Africa South of the Sahara.

Chapter 17 Lesson 4 (using Social Networking):

Anticipatory Set:
The teacher will ask students to discuss why we celebrate the 4th of July in our country, and what types of things they do on this day? (The discussion should ultimately lead to the fact that we celebrate this day because it was the anniversary of our independence) The teacher will discuss that South Africa has a day of celebration from when they were granted their independence from the United Kingdom. The teacher will then break the news to students that the only people who can go to recess that day are those with green eyes. The teacher will see their reaction and begin a conversation about why this isn't fair. The teacher will bring up the fact that the color of someone's eyes shouldn't determine their rights...just like someone's skin color or race shouldn't determine their ability to vote or take away their right to equal rights. The teacher will ask the students to journal how this exercise made them feel, and how they would feel is this were really the case in our country...people having certain race based on color, etc.

Vocabulary:
The teacher will discuss this lesson's vocabulary with the students using a word splash activity that includes all of the chapter's vocabulary words...this will be done before reading any of the four lessons in the chapter. Students will have previously circled all of the words on the word splash in either red, green, or yellow...red being the words they don't know, yellow being words they have heard of before, and green being words they know. Students will specifically focus on the words racism, diversity, and apartheid during this lesson.

Essential Question & Objectives:
The teacher will pose the EQ to the students so that they recognize the objective of the lesson since the EQ is what they should be able to answer at the end of the lesson. Students will be able to answer the EQ, understand the meaning of apartheid and its' effects on South Africa based on the government and the non white population, and they will be able to use social networking to discuss topics related to apartheid.

EQ: 1. What factors strengthened the movement among Africans for independence?
2. How did opportunities for South African citizens to participate and
influence the political process change in the 1990's?

Guided Practice:
The teacher and students will read the lesson using a jigsaw...students will randomly be split into base groups and then they will decide who is reading each section of the lesson. Each student will read his or her category alone while the teacher circulates, and then the teacher will then move them into expert groups where they will discuss their particular section with others who read their section as well. Again, the teacher will be circulating and guiding them as they talk about what they read. Students will then report back to their base group to share the information they learned from the section they read.

Independent Practice:
Students will complete a follow up graphic organizer that involves cause and effect as well as a vocabulary study guide that helps to review the vocabulary terms for this lesson as well as the main concepts.

Social Networking:
Once we are done reading this lesson, students will be actively engaged in using the social networking site, Edmodo. They will be reading my posts on Edmodo based on the lesson we just studied, and they will be viewing a video from Discovery Education as an extension of our book. They will have assignments to complete in the form of a discussion, when they see that Nelson Mandela joined our group. Mr. Mandela will be posing a few questions about apartheid and students will need to leave their answers, as well as communicate with their peers using social networking. Their answer may require a little bit of research. A white police officer from South Africa will also be paying us a visit on Edmodo, and will clearly be showing his support of apartheid. Students will be asked to create a response for his questions as well. Students will be graded based on their fulfillment of the assignments on Edmodo, as well as their participation and interaction within our group on Edmodo.

Evaluation:
There will be a Lesson 4 Quiz and social networking evaluation based on student responses and comments to the posted question. Students must show that they have completed the assignments via Edmodo, and they will be graded based on their work as well as interaction with other students in our group. There will also be a Chapter 17 test that includes information on all four lessons. A study guide will be provided, and the review game "I Have, Who Has" will be played.

When the Chapter is finished and test is complete, students will watch the movie "The Color of Friendship" because it deals with apartheid. During the movie, students will keep a list of the things they see and hear in the movie that they recognized from studying about apartheid in our books.

Response from the Web 2.0 Tool that I emailed

I emailed the Web 2.0 tool, Wordle because I use it in my classroom when teaching character traits, as well as historical figures, and I even create these clouds as little gifts for my students and players (since I coach) when they have had a success:)

I contacted Jonathan Feinberg, who is the creator of Wordle, and I asked him if there was a way to get from the cloud creator page, back to the area where you enter your words before creating. Currently, once you create your cloud, and if you find any type of an error, there is no way to go back to the page where you typed in your words...they are gone. To avoid this issue, I have been telling my kids to copy all of their words into a word document before creating the cloud just in case they make a mistake. I think it would be wise for Wordle to somehow create something that saves the entries on the first page so kids don't have to worry about copying them into another document before creating their cloud.

After emailing this question, and explaining how I use Wordle, I received an email back from Jonathan within the hour, and this was his response:

"Sadly, no. It had never occurred to me that Wordle would be used in the way you describe; I'd assumed that people would copy some existing text and paste it into the Wordle box. I don't have much time to work on Wordle these days, so I'd have to say no. On the other hand, you could have the kids work in a text editor or word processor, then copy and paste the text from the primary document into Wordle when they're ready to visualize it. If you don't have anything like that installed, you could always use Editpad ."


After reading his response, I guess I was on the right track by having my kids copy their work into a separate word document. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a solution to my question since he doesn't have much time to work on Wordle these days, and he didn't anticipate someone using Wordle the way I had described.

Overall, I'm glad I took the time to email, and I am pleased with the speedy response from him. Even though it's not the answer I had hoped for, it was considerate of him to answer my question honestly, and it will not stop me from using Wordle in the future.

Evaluating Web 2.0 Tools For School Use

The three sites that I decided to explore were Wordle, Voicethread, and Glogster Edu. I chose these sites because there has been a big push for the use of resources in our district this year. I have taken on the task of using Wordle very often in class when teaching things like character traits, and historical figures in history. I even plan to use Wordles as part of an activity in the computer lab that is incorporated into our Life Skills curriculum. I am still brainstorming ways to use the other two in my classroom for next year.

Voice Thread: Voice Thread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos. It allows people to move through slides and leave comments in five different ways...all of which do not require any software installation. After viewing Voice Thread, I thought it was age appropriate because it is a secure network that is only open to students in K-12 grades. When using Voice Thread, there needs to be permission granted by the parent or guardian for kids under 13, and beings I teach 6th grade and don't have 13 year olds yet, I feel permission could be obtained with the use of a permission slip once notice is sent home as to what you are using it for. The cost was a bit of a downfall in my opinion because you have to pay for a license. I originally thought I would have more access to it since our local Intermediate Unit pays for a license; however, I found this to be false...unless I was interpreting the information incorrectly. If you do have the license, I found that collaboration and viewing final products is easy and worthwhile for users. The site appeared to be very user friendly, and it was very easy for me to sign up and play around with creating a video, but it would have been a little more in depth if I were to create an account for each student. Like I mentioned before, other than the cost, I could see myself using this in class with certain discussions and projects.

Wordle: I really enjoy using Wordle in my classroom because it allows you to create word clouds from text that you provide. When you type a certain word numerous times, the cloud makes that word appear larger, and you can adjust your cloud creations with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you want, and it allows you to print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. It is user friendly, free, and age appropriate. I use this when teaching character traits, historical figures in our Social Studies books, as well as book reports. I also incorporate Wordle into an activity in our Life Skills curriculum. There is one downfall I found to Wordle and that is that when you type in your words and create the cloud, but realize you made an error, you can't go back into the words you already typed. There is no way of saving the information already entered, so I have my kids copy what they typed before creating the cloud so that they can always go back and simply paste their work in again. Wordle allows you to save your cloud creations in their online gallery, but there really isn't a way to share or collaborate with others, which is why I gave it a 2 in this category. I found the FAQ section very interesting and unique because the creator takes questions that people have and answers them honestly. Some of which were even humorous.

Glogster: Glogster allows you to create interactive posters and collaborate on class projects. It allows the teacher to manage the students and classes created, which automatically provides a safe and private student environment. What student wouldn't have fun creating an interactive poster? Glogster allows teachers to create classrooms online where all students can access each others' final projects. After playing with Glogster and creating a few of my own projects, I found it to be fairly easy to use, but it did take some time to figure out how to work some of the available tools. This would be a great tool for collaboration because students could access it at home to finish their work or share their thoughts and ideas with peers. The home page seems a little busy, but it's all education centered and there are many reputable education sources at the bottom that are affiliated with Glogster.

Emailing a Web 2.0 Tool: It's not a huge issue with Wordle, but I chose to email them because of the issue I mentioned above. I would like them to think about creating a way to go back and edit the words that you typed in to create your cloud, after you create it. By doing this, kids would be able to go back and make changes to things such as spelling in case there is an error even after the cloud is created. I have been playing with Wordle for a while now, and can't seem to figure out a way to go back to make any changes to my input information once I've created the cloud. I will keep you posted as to what I find.

Human Filters: There are three human filters in my district that I look to for advice and support. One is Dr. Joyce Good who is our elementary technology coordinator. The second human filter is Doreen Packer, who is the Head of Technology for our district, and finally, Deb Gochnauer, who is our computer lab assistant. Each of these filters provides teachers with a variety of valuable tools and resources that they themselves have used or reviewed. I have found that when I have a question about a particular tool or site, I can email or chat with any of these people and they will give me their honest feedback, along with any glitches they have encountered, or even alternative ideas for my original plans. The people I mentioned are extremely knowledgeable about the latest tools that technology has to offer, and they are all willing to help. If I had to pick a few things that I have learned from each of them, it is that we (teachers) should be attempting to use as much technology in the classroom as possible because our kids are growing up in a digital world. They have also mentioned that we should focus on one thing at a time, and be sure that the things we are using are educationally worthwhile. They have also encouraged us to branch out from our comfort zone and try new things, knowing there may be some issues at first, but not letting that deter us from continuing. They all stress the importance of us playing with the technology resources that we plan to use in the classroom before showing our students, so that issues can be handled smoothly. Overall, they are a wealth of knowledge and are ready and willing to help us whenever they need. In watching and working with these people, I have grown to admire their ability to share their knowledge with us, as well as learn with us as we go. I have tried to show my students the things I am doing in my grad classes to show that I am a student just like them:)