I am not sure if these two online tools count as social media, but I have used them quite often in the past few years with a high level of success. It is critical and undoubtedly worth investing the time required to teach the students how to contribute appropriately in online settings prior to using these or other web tools. I usually begin by co-constructing a set of criteria describing ‘good’ contributors with my students and I then model what their participation online could look like. Once I feel that the students have a clear understanding of the expectations placed upon them, we spend some time using the following online tools:

padlet.com– this tool is easy to use and it is free. I often set-up themed ‘rooms’ for the students to visit and place their thoughts using a digital sticky note on the ‘wall.’ The students are expected to post content while staying on the assigned topic and identify themselves using their first names only. This is a closed ‘chat room’ as only people with knowledge of the room URL can access the online discourse area. It would be highly unlikely that someone would stumble upon our class URLs. Examples of ways in which I have used this particular tool are for things like carrying on classroom discussions that not all students had the chance to contribute to. I might have the students share a prediction about what might happen next in our class novel, or share their favourite healthy and unhealthy treat in our healthy living unit. Images and videos can also be posted by the students, but I restrict their use of these two elements until we have established further related criteria.

todaysmeet.com– this tool is similar to padlet.com in that it is an easy tool to use and it also is a free online resource. Chat rooms can be set up and a URL is provided to give students access to the chat area. Again I require students to sign in to the chat room using their first names only. I require them to use their names and not an alternate user name as I review the discourse later on on my own and I need to know who contributed what. I set the topic in each room that I establish by making my own post about what I want the students to talk about. This is a great tool for small group discussions and as it is impossible to get around to all groups and hear all student contributions in the classroom setting, todaysmeet.com allows you to go back into the digital room and read all of the student contributions at a later time. This has been very useful in our lit circle and independent novel study work where students reading the same novel can connect up and talk about what they are reading. One of the things that I really like about this tool is that you can set the duration of time for which you would like the room to stay open. In addition to this, the students don’t need accounts, they just need the unique URL.

I am currently in the process of trying to incorporate two social media elements into my classroom practice. I have received approval to use Edmodo with my students, but first I need to secure a school district email account for all of my students, which has been easier said than done! In the next few days, I should be able to finalize their accounts and begin my next steps. I am drafting a letter to parents asking for permission for the students to be involved in this technology endeavour with me, being sure to explain the rationale and reasoning behind my web tool choices. In parent friendly terms, I will also address the pedagogy behind my decisions. As Edmodo has built in features for parents, they will actually be able to be actively involved in Edmodo too. I think parents will feel reassured by the security features inherent in the tool, as I will have complete control over who can join groups ensuring that our private discourse remains private. One of my professional growth plan goals this year is to increase the communication that I am able to have with both my students and their parents while establishing a classroom learning community with the aid of technology. I am hopeful that Edmodo will be one of the tools that helps me to reach this goal. Once the students have demonstrated that they can use the digital classroom environment appropriately and effectively, I am hoping to incorporate a blogging element into my classroom practice in the third term of the school year. By this point, the students will have had a few months to become comfortable with being active online contributors in the Edmodo environment and I think that blogging will be a natural next step. From the research that I have done thus far, and from comments that have been recently made within our course discussion threads, I am definitely leaning towards using kidblog.org. This is an exciting time for me professionally and I am eager to hear about other resources that I may be able to use with my learners.