Virtual History 360
So this week during the voice thread we were tasked to use some more tools that are in the Web 2.0 framework. I got really excited when I saw Instagram and Youtube. These two I probably waste more time on than any other social media platform. I am totally a lurker when it comes to these two tools. However, I want to use these tools in my profession as an educator this year.
My good friend Andy Wade is a US History teacher at a Middle school in Osceola County, FL. He has been a teacher for around 10 years like myself and was a great guy to work with. He came up with a fun little way to get more students involved in learning US History.
Before we go on you have to know two things. First, Andy is a huge history buff, and he loves to travel to historic Civil War Battlefields. Trust me, he has a map in the back of his class and has a pin in all of the fields he has been to. He has gone to most of them. Second, he loves phone goggles. These are the things that you can attach your phone to and you can see a 360 view of the area you take a picture of.
Continued, so he had this idea. He created an Instagram account in which he posts from various battlefields and museums that he visits. He only puts up the title of the area with an image. From there he links his Youtube account where he has a video from the actual battlefield. INSTANT FIELD TRIP!!!!! I thought this was such a brilliant idea for a History teacher to do. He provides lessons for the kids to watch if they missed out on something in class. It is pretty great. Now the school we worked in had a very large, low socioeconomic population. He could not require students to participate in the videos but he always offered them as extra credit and always had his trusty phone goggles if the student wanted to "take the trip" while in class.
I really want to use his idea as a model for my students this year. I want to produce some content that my students can access from their favorite social media platforms and try and reach as many of them as possible. If you want to check out his page on Instagram it is called virtualhistory360. I contacted him and told him I was going to use him as an example in one of my posts and he told me for everyone to give him a follow.
If any other educators are out there, I have some questions:
Has anyone used these tools in combination before?
Do you do anything similar for your students?
Do you think this is possible for and English teacher like myself?
Thanks, hope you guys have a great rest of the week!
My good friend Andy Wade is a US History teacher at a Middle school in Osceola County, FL. He has been a teacher for around 10 years like myself and was a great guy to work with. He came up with a fun little way to get more students involved in learning US History.
Before we go on you have to know two things. First, Andy is a huge history buff, and he loves to travel to historic Civil War Battlefields. Trust me, he has a map in the back of his class and has a pin in all of the fields he has been to. He has gone to most of them. Second, he loves phone goggles. These are the things that you can attach your phone to and you can see a 360 view of the area you take a picture of.
Continued, so he had this idea. He created an Instagram account in which he posts from various battlefields and museums that he visits. He only puts up the title of the area with an image. From there he links his Youtube account where he has a video from the actual battlefield. INSTANT FIELD TRIP!!!!! I thought this was such a brilliant idea for a History teacher to do. He provides lessons for the kids to watch if they missed out on something in class. It is pretty great. Now the school we worked in had a very large, low socioeconomic population. He could not require students to participate in the videos but he always offered them as extra credit and always had his trusty phone goggles if the student wanted to "take the trip" while in class.
I really want to use his idea as a model for my students this year. I want to produce some content that my students can access from their favorite social media platforms and try and reach as many of them as possible. If you want to check out his page on Instagram it is called virtualhistory360. I contacted him and told him I was going to use him as an example in one of my posts and he told me for everyone to give him a follow.
If any other educators are out there, I have some questions:
Has anyone used these tools in combination before?
Do you do anything similar for your students?
Do you think this is possible for and English teacher like myself?
Thanks, hope you guys have a great rest of the week!
Chris, excellent post! Yes, for sure, digital awareness and social media understanding are much needed to assist students connect with others, in and outside their classrooms. Not only can students ask each other as well as the instructor, they can also shoot queries in global communities with a large, knowledgeable audience to answer & guide them. This helps students access necessary solutions, encourages them to learn & share ideas, participate in discussions using hashtags and communicate through blogs. I think that lesson plans involving social media require safeguarding both student privacy and productivity. In addition, educators must accept that using poor judgment on a public social network — even on a personal account — can have professional consequences. Many teachers use private networks like Edmodo, where postings are not visible to the general public. Other teachers use Facebook or Twitter to connect their students to peers and experts outside the classroom. Applications like Twijector can project Twitter streams (organized by hashtag) onto classroom walls. Students can create a live, interactive stream by Tweeting questions, clarifications, or responses about a topic. Hashtag searches on Facebook or Twitter can link classroom discussions to broader social conversations, helping students see how their learning relates to real-world applications. Here are some useful tips: 1) For teachers, it is a good idea to use separate personal and professional social media accounts. Putting a boundary between school and personal life is good for your career and less stress on you. 2) Have strict privacy settings and review those settings frequently. 3) Not to say anything on your social media profile that you wouldn’t say in class. 4) Not to get too chatty with students on your professional profile. This may confuse students into thinking you’re available 24/7 for this, that and the other. Be available, but keep it professional. 5) Not to share too much. Personal pictures from your weekend soiree have no business being on your professional profile. I teach web designing and development to grad students in communication. As part of my course, I require them to create their professional social media profiles and help the build it up to date. This not only makes them more familiar with how to use different social media tools, but also make them job-ready when they graduate. I focus on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook primarily, but I also encourage them to maintain and update their Instagram and Snapchat profiles to showcase their creative portfolio. Plus, they are required to maintain a blog as part of their syllabus. I am very excited to learn about your ideas of implementing social media in your classroom. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteHey Chris, a few years ago one of my son's teachers (also, History go figure) did the same thing with Twitter. It was a great concept. I wish you luck with that. I still follow his Instagram posts because he is also really into hiking and posts from many places. I'm not sure why he stopped the assignments for the kids it's a great concept.
ReplyDeleteChris, great post. I ended up going to your buddy's Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyzYE0LR-7HrbsqueGbFZA
ReplyDeleteso that I can get the full experience. On this road trip, we have been trying to find information constantly to make meaning of historical markers or random buildings and street names that catch our attention. I wish I had had him as a guide in spots on this trip, which I suppose is the whole notion of curating resources. Sometimes it makes sense for us as educators (I'm a fellow English teacher) to create new resources, and sometimes it is more efficient to collect. I always search first to see if someone hasn't already done a better job of bringing to life an element of a novel that we are reading. Also, I push it back on the kids to create new material. Andy has it wired, and it is clear that he enjoys the creative process.