Technology may scare some, but Brock educators are being taught to enter this face paced, constantly changing digital world and embrace it. Social networking resources such as Facebook, Skype, and Twitter have been viewed as a way to keep in touch and stay updated, but is that all it can be used for?
Not for @ballantynedj who has created a fan page on facebook, where he hosts discussions, homework, links, assignments, and events for his class to see and be an active part of. It is a brilliant idea - connecting to his students by using a resource that is readily available and used by most students.
If you think this is already over your head, this teacher takes it further. He connected with @zbpipe, a teacher for Brock University's Education Program who gathered myself, @yomsdunn, @daley1s and @darthclaudiaa to meet together and comment and give feedback on a group project that @ballantynedj has his students working on via Facebook, Google Docs, and TodaysMeet.
We met online at a predetermined time, and logged in to Facebook and met on Mr. Ballantyne's fan page. We discussed what the project entailed (for more information on the project, visit @yomsDunn's blog, here: http://msdunnonline.net/tech-edu/) and then created a google doc to post the project. Google Documents uses real-time collaboration which allows multiple people to be entereing information into a document at the same time. We (Brock Pre-Service students) were encouraged to comment and give feedback on the project.
After a week of feedback and changes to the project, we met again. We used TodaysMeet to talk in real-time, and the grade 11 students gave us feedback on our feedback.
This collaboration between the BCI and Brock Pre-service students has been a rewarding experience, and has shown me yet another way to integrate technology in the classroom to keep students engaged.
