Use Social Networking in Your Class

Three ways to use social networking in class? Here are some ideas:

1. Facebook: I would like to ask my students to create a facebook

page featuring their favorite character; then, they will sign in Facebook to

create a new identity and try to fill in their page with pictures, audio

clips, videos, and any links related to this character. They need to

comment on their classmates’ pages as well.

    

2. Twitter: Group students according to their interests and have them

decide a topic they want to research on in their interested area. Then,

follow a famous figure in this field on Twitter. Last, present what they

have learned from this person’s tweets in front of class.

3. Twitter: Ask students to report a piece of news related to social

justice in their life every day to learn how journalists report news in

concise words.  

"Real" Education for Financial Literacy

Using current information associated with content area is very important in providing education that is perceived real by our students. I would like to use the information of 2008 financial crisis and the high cost of college education in the US in my financial literacy class. My students will come to realize that if they do not put money into work at very young age, their range of choices are going to be very limited in the future. My students are not going to sit there being lectured about the importance of being financial literate; rather, I would engage them with simulations and video games related to financial knowledge. For example, I would group my students first, and then ask them to go to The Stock Market Game. This website offers educational information about how to invest in stock market and let students have a chance to compete with each other by giving them a hypothetical $100, 000. Students can share their knowledge on their blogs with classmates, such as how to identify potential companies or how to buy and sell at the right moment. This is what real education is like. Prensky (2010) points out the characteristics of real education:

Real, on the other hand, means much more and goes much further. Real means that there is a perceived connection by the students, at every moment (or at least as often as possible), between what they are learning and their ability to use that learning to do something useful in the world. (p. 72)

Through playing the stock game, students constantly put their financial knowledge into use and learn invaluable lesions from mistakes and others. This way, when they grow up, they are better equipped to invest in “real” stock market wisely with the money they make from their part-time job and accumulate sufficient capital to pay off their college tuition.

References
Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real learning. London: Sage Publishers.

Glogster

Good news for auditory and visual learners. Glogster now offers students an opportunity to create interactive posters, Glogs, with multimedia objects embedded. Creativity is a quality we would like to see from our students, and it needs time and corresponding activities to cultivate. Glogster is a good place for students to demonstrate their creativity and learn how to condense their thoughts into a poster. Like most digital tools, Glogster allows children to share their Glogs with others on the Net, which helps them gain a sense of achievement and authorship. You can assign your students to work on a poster together, and they can contribute to this project according to their talents. Some are responsible for text, others take care of the image part, and still others deal with audio and video. Glogster helps children learn to express themselves through multiples modes, broadening their communication skills.

Taiwan (Prezi/Simplified Version)

Prezi is appealing to students due to its sound, visual, and spatial effects, which PowerPoint lacks. In addition, Prezi allows collaborative efforts among participants; they can work on the same Prezi on the Net in any place without meeting in person, which is the power of Prezi: co-creating beyond the constraint of time and space. Another advantage of Prezi is that you can share your works with others and grant permission to them to build on your project. Therefore, through sharing, new ideas will continue to emerge; students are motivated and trained to present their concepts through multiple modes to catch audience’s attention.

Prezi is very user-friendly, though it looks very fancy; it does not require advanced computer skills and knowledge from you. All you need to do is to watch a tutorial video first and then mess with your Prezi: copy, move, paste, type, retrieve links, etc. Play for longer time, and you will come to know how to make your Prezi distinctive and professional. However, beware of the dizziness your audience may feel if your Prezi involves too many visual impacts and does not afford their eyes any break at all.