3.7 Communication & Collaboration
Candidates utilize digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community. (PSC 3.7/ISTE 3g)
Artifact: Class Website, Class Blog, Portfolio Blog, Twitter, and Celly
Reflection:
Throughout this program, I was tasked with using the Weebly Blog feature (aflinn.weebly.com/blog) to blog about my experiences in each of the ITEC classes I completed and how they helped me grow as a technology facilitator and leader. I also posted to the blog extensively throughout ITEC 7430 about various topics such as Web 2.0, blogging, Wikis, social bookmarking, Creative Commons, web tool evaluation, podcasting and YouTube, Google Docs and social networking, screencasting, Internet safety, diversity, and equity. I commented on my classmates’ posts on the same topics and responded to any replies my classmates left on my blog about these topics. Additionally, I communicate locally and globally by maintaining a class website (msflinnmusic.com) and a professional Twitter account (@msflinnmusic), and using a communication service called Celly (https://cel.ly/).
My class website and blog demonstrate my ability to utilize digital communication tools to communicate locally with students, as I often use my classroom website and blog to communicate information with my students and to ask for their input in return. For example, anytime we have a grade level performance I post our performance music for my students to go online and practice. I also posted a series of “mystery melodies” on my blog and asked students to use their music reading skills to identify the melody in the comments section of the blog post. My class website and Celly use also demonstrate my ability to use digital communication tools to communicate locally with parents, as I often use these tools in conjunction with email to communicate announcements to my parents. For example, I post call times and other pertinent information on the class website pages for school performances so parents can have access that information. I use Celly to communicate with a small group of parents (i.e., Chorus parents) to alert them of any last-minute details or changes. I used my Weebly portfolio for this program to communicate locally with my peers in the program by posting leaving comments on their blog posts and engaging in conversation with those who left comments on my own blog posts. My Twitter account also demonstrates my ability to use digital tools to communicate and collaborate locally with my peers by engaging in conversation with colleagues around the school district about music class, technology, and education in general and by collaborating with these colleagues online to bounce ideas off one another and improve instructional strategies. In much of the same way, I also use Twitter to communicate and collaborate globally with the larger community by interacting with professionals from all over the country and the world. For example, I participate in Twitter chats such as #elmused to work with like-minded professionals around the world about elementary music education. In fact, with the exception of Celly, all of the tools mentioned above also enable me to communicate globally with the larger community because all of the communication content is accessible on the Internet by anyone in the world.
Since first creating my class website and blog several years ago, I have learned much more about effective use of digital tools to communicate locally and globally. Since then, I have learned several more ways to communicate using digital tools, each one serving a different purpose. I have learned how to utilize my classroom blog to engage students in learning even outside of my classroom. I learned how to engage in respectful conversation online with my peers through the required comments on my own and others’ blogs in ITEC 7445. I have learned how to utilize Celly to communicate directly with a specific audience. In the future, I plan to be much more diligent about posting to my classroom blog. I used to be quite timely by posting at least three times per month, but I somehow slowed down my posting frequency. I also may look into using Celly for more than just my Chorus group, as it has many possibilities for instructional use.
If shared with colleagues, my Weebly portfolio blog posts from ITEC 7445 could have a positive impact on faculty development. I could share these blog posts to help my colleagues learn more about these various topics. Their understanding of these topics could then be assessed by asking them to engage in conversation about what they learned using comments feature on the blog itself. Likewise, my classroom blog has the potential to have impact on student learning in much the same way. I could similarly assess their learning by asking them to respond to questions embedded in blog posts using the comments feature on the blog.
Throughout this program, I was tasked with using the Weebly Blog feature (aflinn.weebly.com/blog) to blog about my experiences in each of the ITEC classes I completed and how they helped me grow as a technology facilitator and leader. I also posted to the blog extensively throughout ITEC 7430 about various topics such as Web 2.0, blogging, Wikis, social bookmarking, Creative Commons, web tool evaluation, podcasting and YouTube, Google Docs and social networking, screencasting, Internet safety, diversity, and equity. I commented on my classmates’ posts on the same topics and responded to any replies my classmates left on my blog about these topics. Additionally, I communicate locally and globally by maintaining a class website (msflinnmusic.com) and a professional Twitter account (@msflinnmusic), and using a communication service called Celly (https://cel.ly/).
My class website and blog demonstrate my ability to utilize digital communication tools to communicate locally with students, as I often use my classroom website and blog to communicate information with my students and to ask for their input in return. For example, anytime we have a grade level performance I post our performance music for my students to go online and practice. I also posted a series of “mystery melodies” on my blog and asked students to use their music reading skills to identify the melody in the comments section of the blog post. My class website and Celly use also demonstrate my ability to use digital communication tools to communicate locally with parents, as I often use these tools in conjunction with email to communicate announcements to my parents. For example, I post call times and other pertinent information on the class website pages for school performances so parents can have access that information. I use Celly to communicate with a small group of parents (i.e., Chorus parents) to alert them of any last-minute details or changes. I used my Weebly portfolio for this program to communicate locally with my peers in the program by posting leaving comments on their blog posts and engaging in conversation with those who left comments on my own blog posts. My Twitter account also demonstrates my ability to use digital tools to communicate and collaborate locally with my peers by engaging in conversation with colleagues around the school district about music class, technology, and education in general and by collaborating with these colleagues online to bounce ideas off one another and improve instructional strategies. In much of the same way, I also use Twitter to communicate and collaborate globally with the larger community by interacting with professionals from all over the country and the world. For example, I participate in Twitter chats such as #elmused to work with like-minded professionals around the world about elementary music education. In fact, with the exception of Celly, all of the tools mentioned above also enable me to communicate globally with the larger community because all of the communication content is accessible on the Internet by anyone in the world.
Since first creating my class website and blog several years ago, I have learned much more about effective use of digital tools to communicate locally and globally. Since then, I have learned several more ways to communicate using digital tools, each one serving a different purpose. I have learned how to utilize my classroom blog to engage students in learning even outside of my classroom. I learned how to engage in respectful conversation online with my peers through the required comments on my own and others’ blogs in ITEC 7445. I have learned how to utilize Celly to communicate directly with a specific audience. In the future, I plan to be much more diligent about posting to my classroom blog. I used to be quite timely by posting at least three times per month, but I somehow slowed down my posting frequency. I also may look into using Celly for more than just my Chorus group, as it has many possibilities for instructional use.
If shared with colleagues, my Weebly portfolio blog posts from ITEC 7445 could have a positive impact on faculty development. I could share these blog posts to help my colleagues learn more about these various topics. Their understanding of these topics could then be assessed by asking them to engage in conversation about what they learned using comments feature on the blog itself. Likewise, my classroom blog has the potential to have impact on student learning in much the same way. I could similarly assess their learning by asking them to respond to questions embedded in blog posts using the comments feature on the blog.