School Media in Schools

Presentation on Social Media in Schools

Many people have asked for information following the "Social Media in Schools" session that Marialice Curran and I lead for an educational event, EdCampCT.

Given, I used the Periscope app to livestream the session and archived the stream, I'm able to share out the video and texted in comments.

Beside face-to-face attendees, about 125 people watched and interacted virtually. We projected the live broadcast (using Apple TV) for in-person attendees who didn't have a chance to download the Periscope app.


Session Questions

Prior to the session, we tweeted discussion questions:

Replay of Periscope "Social Media in Schools"

To find the replay of the Periscope on Katch.em, click on image.

Here are two screen captures from the broadcast showing a few text comments. 

Additional Resources About Periscope

For the session, I shared in Google Document prior blog posts I wrote abut the app.

1)  “Around the World in 24 Hours with Periscope” on Integrating Technology and Literacy Blog :http://buff.ly/1EqoF2F

2) “New Spin on Mystery Location Game with Periscope” on Integrating Technology & Literacy Blog  http://buff.ly/1Poj0R6

“New Spin on Mystery Location Game with Periscope” on Technology & Learning Blog http://buff.ly/1UGoj1r

3)  “Blabbing About Periscope: Community Building and More” on Integrating Technology & Literacy Blog  http://buff.ly/1J7xyDI

“Blabbing about Periscope with Colleagues” on Technology for Learning: Blog

http://buff.ly/1EqjeAW

4)  “Move Over Twitter: Periscope Chats Have Arrived” on Integrating & Technology Blog http://buff.ly/1Pb8UCr

“How Periscope is Adding a New Twist to Twitter Chats” on Technology for Learning Blog http://buff.ly/1L9YaU9

For more information, contact me on Twitter at @JudyArzt, and try the Twitter hashtags #PeriscopeEDU and #PeriscopeTeachers. 

Follow-up Discussion 

We had a lively discussion of educational applications of the Periscope app and came up with these ideas.

• Virtual field trips
• Mystery Locations (comparable to Mystery Skypes or Mystery Google Hangouts)
• Bringing experts into the classroom such as National Park Rangers, NASA astronauts, weather reporters, and authors 
• Immediate access to breaking news stories 
• Cultural tours from places around the world
• Class cultural and geography exchanges
• Access to hearing world languages and reading comments texted in the languages
• Watching an artist or scientist at work
• Attending professional events (as we modeled by Periscoping our session)
• Doing Periscope Chats instead of Twitter chats (as some educators have already done)

With app being new (released in late March 2015 with updates since), educators will continue to seek ways to use it. For use in K-12 classrooms, we suggested broadcasters set the stream so only specified viewers can join. 

Other Thoughts

What are your views on the use of social media in schools?
What social media do you find effective for school use?
Would you use an app like Periscope in school, and if so, how?

How Periscope is Adding a New Twist to Twitter Chats

Several innovative educators, Angie Olson and  Ashley Schroeder, have taken the idea of Twitter chats and transformed them into Periscope chats. The benefit of this method is that you see and hear the moderator while texting comments.  Luckily, the moderators use Katch.me, a site for archiving Periscope video streams and comments.

Click on image for a recap of one of the recent Periscope chats, which attracted 127 live viewers and 1675 chat comments.

Check Angie's blog post, "Periscope Chat and TPT Cha"t to learn more about the concept, by clicking on image below.

What is your take on the idea of Periscope live streamed chats with video and the ability to text comments?  How can this social media platform elevate the way educators share ideas for professional development and forging a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?

This post is cross posted on my other blog Integrating Technology and Literacy.

New Spin on Mystery Location Game with Periscope

The Basic Concept

The conventional Mystery Hangout or Mystery Skype has two classes simultaneously using the platform of choice, Google Hangout or Skype, to guess the location of the other school using yes/no questions. Many are familiar with the concept and plenty of information can be found online for running these class activities. Now Periscope offers a new spin on the idea.

Screen shot from the Twitter feed of the app

Two colleagues in advance who both have the Periscope app on their devices (iPhone, Android, iPad, etc.) make arrangements in advance. One colleague at Location 1 is in a place that does not obviously give away the location but has some hints available to show as the game progresses. In the classroom where students will be trying to guess the location, the teacher, library-media specialist, or IT coach has the selected device hooked up for projection and joins the Periscope just as the colleague starts the broadcast.

Some Tips

1) In advance of the Mystery Periscope (aka Mystery Scope), the "scoper" could put on a website or blog some pictures that won't give away the location but offer some enticement to generate student interest. This step can also be skipped.

2) The "scoper" is on site at the location. The beauty of using the app as opposed to the standard Mystery Hangout or Mystery Skype is the "scoper" can easily move around, be on location out-of-doors, and make adjustments of what to show on the camera as the guessers text in questions.

3) The "scoper" could be prepared as the guessers come close to identifying the location to show a famous landmark at the site of the scope. Once the location is guessed, the "scoper" can tell about the landmark and more about the location. At this point, the students can continue to prepare questions or responses for the person showing the broadcast, who can text in to the "scoper" the students' suggestions to keep the momentum going.

4) ** Important** The "scoper" needs to turn off Location setting in Periscoper before starting the broadcast.

See the first icon (up arrow) in the below image. The "scoper" would click and toggle until "precise location is turned off " before the broadcast is started.

The second icon can be tapped if the "scoper" wants the broadcast private and wants to select who can see it from the list of followers, with the list popping up of followers once the icon is tapped. The third icon allows the user to determine who can chat (text in comments): anyone or just those selected by the "scoper."

5) Time zones, which are often a hangup in organizing Mystery Location events with Skype or Google Hangout are less of an issue when using Periscope. The person doing the broadcast can go live any time that is convenient. Granted, this is just one class or perhaps more joining in to guess the location, but the person doing the broadcast is not in a school setting and nor should the person be at home. A setting convenient for the "scoper" that will be of interest to the students should be used. For instance, if I were doing the scope for young students in elementary school, I might be at Monterey Aquarium or the Bronx Zoo. For older students in a social studies class, I might be on the mall at Washington DC ready to show and speak about the Lincoln Memorial after the students figured out the location from me just standing on the mall but not showing any of the monuments until the location were identified.

How I Can Help

I am willing and able to go to landmarks, places of interest, and places that will generate discussion for the students viewing the scope. For instance, I could be on site at one of the landmarks in my own state or a neighboring state and because I travel often, I could arrange the scope per where I will be and input from the person who will be showing the scope to the specified audience.

Guess the Location

I am throwing in some screen captures from recent Periscopes I have done. Most of my broadcasts start with my location, but I would change  the format for a Mystery Location and not use that as a opening.

So here are some images from places I recently scoped with Periscope. See if you can figure out where I was.

Not quite enough information to figure out the location, at least in most cases, but images like these can be put on a blog in advance to pique student interest before the Mystery Location Scope. They can also be captured afterwards in a blog post to continue the discussion and add more information based on student interest and comments during the scope.

For more ideas about using Periscope, see my blog post, "Around the World in 24 Hours." That post suggests ways to use the app for cultural experiences, studying famous places, and learning about natural wonders of the world.

For now, I simply offer the idea of a new spin on the conventional Mystery Skypes and Google Hangouts by using Periscope, which gives the person on the other end the freedom to move around and decide where to go based the comments texted in during the scope. The use of Periscope's hearts can also figure in, with the person who is showing the broadcast tapping on the screen to send hearts based on how well the students are guessing the location.

So have you used Perisocpe yet? What are your thoughts and ideas for using this app? Do you think the app could put a new spin on Mystery Location games? 

Here are two examples of a Periscope I created and uploaded to YouTube, while in DC. Now the Katch.me app also offers a way to save both the scope and comments, but at the time that I created these two, Katch.me was not yet launched. I offer these two example to point out how a scoper working with a class on a Mystery Location game can offer insights into historical places and monuments. 

 

This post is crossed posted on one of my other blogs.

Is Being a Connected Educator Addictive?

This post is cross posted in my other blog Integrating Technology and Literacy

Now that I'm using an increasing variety of tools to stay connected as an educator, I am wondering if the allure is addictive. Do I need to check each of these daily, or even more than once a day, and oh, sometimes hourly or admittedly even more often? Here are just s few I check throughout the day, and sometimes into the wee hours of the night, way beyond midnight.

• Twitter
• Voxer chat groups
• Periscope
• Instagram

With ease of access to all of these on my iPhone, I am wondering what is overkill, and I have named just a few of the apps I use daily. Each leads me somewhere else via posted links or live streamlining videos. A Twitter chat alone can be not just the hourlong, but far longer if I check all the links to resources shared or decide to do an archive of the chat with Storify such as this ones I do of a #Read4Fun Twitter chat, one I follow weekly on Sundays, 7-7:30 pm, or the #teacheredchat, for which I am an organizer.

Watching a Periscope and texting in comments is another half hour or hour shot.


Look all those hearts coming in from a recent Periscope I watched and did some screen captures from, tweeting out to the broadcaster my appreciation in this example.

In the short time I have had the Periscope app on my phone, I have watched live stream broadcasts of the National Parks in Utah, taken a tour of Rome and Milan, checked several live-streams of Paris, and watched streams of a class using GetKahoot in Hawaii and an AP Lit class in Queens, New York writing and research with school-issued laptops.

We say we want to be connected educators and it helps us grow professionally and connects us with educators and resources globally. We tout that we become better educators because we are connected and learn from many others and the resources shared that are at our fingertips.

But do we go through withdrawal symptoms when we need to disconnect?

Last week, I dropped my iPhone in a park when taking photos. The phone was lost for a few hours. I had used iCloud to lock the phone and put out a text message alert on the phone to call a number if found. At first, I was somewhat relieved to know my phone might be gone for a day or two while I waited to decide if I wanted to buy another one and upgrade to an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6+. I almost felt a sense of relief to be without the phone, though I would still have my laptop and iPad to connect, but the phone really functioned as my quick 24/7 access, anytime, any place. 

Well, my dilemma ended when about two hours later I got the anticipated call my phone was found. Did I rush to get it? You bet. After all of this debating, I decided if I had to have one addiction (other than coffee in the morning) being a connected educator was the one.

Now another commitment I need to make is to do more blogging. But every time I look at one of my blogs, I am reminded they need a makeover. Look at all those Blogger messy "Labels" hanging out on the side (Index) and likewise all the accompanying, dated "Gadgets" that just need to go. But instead of spending time cleaning up my blogs, I am off to another online place to stay connected.

I thank my PLN (personal learning network) for getting me to this point increasingly over the time of being a connected educator 24/7, or at least almost 24/7. So is it a complete addiction when the first thing I reach for in the morning before the cup of coffee is the phone to check notifications!

Oh and I do promise to clean up all "Labels" and "Gadgets" on the sidebar if I can just break myself away from checking Voxer messages, tweeting on Twitter, checking Instagram posts, and tuning into Periscope broadcasts. Oh, and I did I mention Flickr, where I need to get to now to find a Creative Commons images to add to this post.

flickr photo shared by giulia.forsythe under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license

So how do others feel about being a connected educator? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Do you take a tech sabbatical sometimes and disconnect?

Blog a Month

So it is Blog a Month time. Glad to participate, and above is the prompt. Because I have been teaching Educational Research this year, and not my regular educational technology courses, I have not been posting to this blog with my frequent regularity. Thus, it is good to see a challenge presented and to set aside time to do another post.

Yes, this quotation does resonate with me, especially the first two sentences. Each day, I do focus on purpose, especially when I'm teaching. Even when not in the classroom, am thinking of ideas for the classroom, which is one reason why I turn to Twitter, with a steady stream of tweets for gathering and prompting new ideas. I like to be creative, and sometimes just any tweet will spark an idea. So many wonderful educators share ideas and links to blogs, websites, and tech tools on Twitter. Twitter chats keep me even more focused. Just last night, I happened upon the #Read4Fun chat, a new chat, which garnered over 1200 tweets. How do I know that number? Well, after the chat, I went to Storify to gather them. I collected all of them, but the free version of Storify only allows for 1,000 entries in creating a Storify. Later, I joined the California Educators chat, #CAedchat. The topic was on "pimping your lesson plans," with links to Google Docs to submit a plan for feedback and suggestions.

Tonight, I will be on #teacheredchat, one of the Twitter chats for which I am an organizer. Being an organizer means I am always in search of good guest moderators. All of this reminds me how critical it is to be a connected educator. Why am I a connected educator? I guess it is because I stay focused every day on my purpose as an educator.

Would love to know how the above quotation resonates with others. Hoping you'll leave a comment, and if you are one of the participants in the Blog a Month challenge, leave a link to one of your posts.

I have several blogs and will cross post this one on one of those.

Looking forward to making connections and learning about how others stay focused.