Let's Tweet

Originally, as I began brainstorming for this blog, my first idea was about social media safety for students and teaching them to think before they post anything.  This idea finally came to a close when I could not find a good example of a social interaction in education dealing with this problem and I realized that there are posts all over the place about social media safety, such as 12 Things Students Should Never do on Social Media and Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground.  So I'm going to take another approach and talk about live chats and how they could encourage participation in the classroom. This is an example of a conversation during a live chat among educators:

This interaction happened during a live chat for #edchatMENA, which is the educational hashtag for educators in the Middle East to share ideas and comment on topics.  This is similar to the #engchat that Hicks discusses in the text on pages 143-144.  In this particular instance, the #edchatMENA live chat begins with the topic of Next Generation Science Standards (#NGSS) and how they have begun showing a phenomenon in the classroom and instead of just telling students how this phenomenon occurs, they allow the students to dig, think, and find out for themselves.  What is so amazing about this opening tweet is how short and concise it is while saying so much.  Let's break down the MAPS heuristic and see how this interaction holds up.

Mode- The genre for this Tweet would be education.  Teachers are getting ideas out there in the form of digital media to encourage others to incorporate the ideas in their classrooms.

Media- Obviously this is a digital text in the form of a tweet with 140 characters or less.  

Audience- Teachers in the MENA region would be the most common audience for this tweet and for all the tweets in this live chat.  The posts are targeted for these teachers in order to share ideas with each other but since Twitter is public, anyone could view and/or participate in these chats.

Purpose- The author of the first tweet began the #edchatMENA conversation for the day.  Just as Hicks stated that the #engchat happens on Mondays at 7, the #edchatMENA has a certain meeting time as well, so the author had time to think about a topic to propose during this chat before actually posting it.

Situation- The Common Core Next Generation Science Standards are probably a big topic of discussion at the time and this situation called for ideas of how to implement these standards in the classroom and these teachers are doing just that.

Now that we've gone through that, I think interactions like this should be shared by teachers with their students so that they can see how live chats work, how to appropriately comment, and how adults use social media in a professional manner.  This could start a conversation in the classroom and then continue in a live chat with a classroom hashtag.  

Hicks states on page 140, "If we simply have students sign up with a social media service and then use it in the same way we use other web-based tools- distribute assignments, have students randomly reply to each other in discussion posts- we are not inviting them to think deeply and creatively about how to craft social media texts."  This was a profound statement that really jumped out at me.  Submitting assignments and posting once or twice on social media to meet a requirement is not fulfilling the potential of the social media in the classroom.  Using a live chat to continue a classroom discussion could be a fantastic way to get every student to participate, especially those who would rather write than speak out loud in class.  

Why is it so hard to incorporate social media in a way that students will benefit from and not use it in the same way we would use any other web-based tool?  Thinking outside the box is something teachers will have to do to incorporate social media in a way that is helpful to students and encourages them to participate.  Submitting boring assignments via social media does not get students excited.  Another reason I think it is so hard to incorporate social media in the classroom is that teachers are scared, myself included.  Since the outburst of social media within education, I have been hesitant and afraid that students would get out of hand on a class page or encouraging social media could lead to cyber-bullying but the more I read, the more I am inclined to use social media when I have my own classroom.  After reading these chapters, I am starting to think using social media in the proper manner and teaching students how to be effective digital citizens could actually improve their social media skills and decrease cyber-bullying since they would be given expectations about what is appropriate.  

When to Use What?

“Even with all these possibilities, the most difficult part of crafting a video/multimedia text—as with crafting a print-based text—is knowing not only what to put in but what to leave out.” 

–Troy Hicks (Crafting Digital Writing, p 110)

     When we speak, we can use as many words, phrases, hand motions we need to get our point across.  In writing, it is not as simple since there is often a word limit or just the fact that most people these days do not want to read an excessive amount.  The information we put in and the way we put it can make or break a text.  Same goes for videos.  If the speaker rambles, if too many visual effects are used, or if the video is overwhelming, it can lose its purpose.  “You can put in transitions, sound effects, and captions, for instance, but are these the best media elements to help tell your story?” (Hicks, 110). 

     I think having the resource to include all these elements can make students want to use every single one.  Even as I was recreating my video, I had a difficult time trying to decide what effects to use or leave out.  Since I was learning how to use the media, I wanted to show my skills and put all of them into my video in some way.  Obviously I knew, from reading the chapter that using all of the editing tools would not necessarily create the best video.  I withheld and tried to choose media that would complement the video footage I was using. The MAPS heuristic helped me think about who my audience was and what purpose it had. You can view my video below: 

     When I write, I constantly think about how my sentences are worded and how others might read the text if they could not hear my tone of voice.  I never realized this, but  “The various visual and audio effects serve in much the same way as word choice, sentence structure, or punctuation do in print texts: each has a different rhetorical purpose and effect.”  (Hicks, 110).   I have never attempted to create a video presentation before, so this was new to me.  As I dug into the effects, I could see how very true this statement is.  Just as you might not use a semicolon, a text block, and/or a quote in every single piece of writing, you probably will not use every single visual/audio effect in your video. 

    The critical part of making a video is deciding what to use and what to leave out.  The students should look at their videos in a strategic manner, determining what would be the most appropriate effect (if any) for a particular shot.  The list on page 111 of the text gives a list of effects that could be used and questions to ask to find out if each would be beneficial to use to create a certain feel.  Some effects do not even have to be edited in; framing, lighting, and audio are great tools to use as well.  These days, so many people have smart phones with a camera readily available.  Students can use their smart phones to create awesome videos.  Here is a link to help students learn how to frame shots and use appropriate techniques when filming.  

Sources:

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.