Sharing Media is helpful, but not always productive...

    Upon prompt from Dr. Cyrus, I scheduled time to participate in a webinar on Tuesday 9/28 10:00am Guam time regarding use of a Science Fiction series called FutureStates (www.futurestates.tv) for the secondary level high school.  I was going to attempt to post a question I had about motivating students to learn science that I posted a week before on Classroom20.com.  Last week, I posted an inquiry on Classroom2.0 where I did not get a response so I thought maybe I could ask the 26 participants on the webinar.  Instead, I was enthralled by the content of the webinar and the ideas brought up by the presenters.  The panel had both an English and a Science curriculum developer who are developing unit plans based on these short films.  They were sharing science fiction media and lesson plan  ideas on how to use this media to motivate student learning, generate discussion and trigger scientific inquiry.  This was an educational experience.

    I was very impressed by the high quality of the media and presenters’ ideas.  They shared their lesson plan ideas and even promised to have sample lesson plans uploaded for public use on futurestates.tv by next week Monday (first week of Oct.).  I will definitely take a look and consider using this as a future resource for my classroom.  To followup up the usefulness on the content of this webinar, I decided to re-post an inquiry that I had on a particular video on my PLN on Classroom2.0 to generate a discussion on an idea that I had considered for my future classroom.  

    Unfortunately, I’m rather disappointed so far from my Professional Learning Network on Classroom2.0 (www.classroom20.com).  The posted a discussion (http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/science-fiction-film-segue-for?xg_source=activity) did not generate any replies or feedback for the last 72 hours.  In detail, I solicited feedback regarding the appropriateness of the content for use in a High School classroom.  With over 30,000 members, I was hoping to get some feedback as the film content seems very controversial.  Unfortunately, 72 hours later and still no response.

    Next, I decided to try my Personal Network on Facebook.  I don’t have many teachers on my Facebook list but I do have many parents and peers my age.  I was hoping they would also see the link, watch the video and startup a discussion.  Unfortunately, I still did not receive any feedback within the last 48 hours.  Interestingly, I did receive comments within one hour about pictures that I posted recently.  Therefore I know that people can see my posts.  Perhaps they are more interested in interpersonal drama rather than social/political/science issues that face our greater society.

    In conclusion, I am content that although I have many options to share media to my personal and professional network, I am rather disappointed that no too many people have responded to the controversial discussion.  I believe that the video and lesson plan idea that I shared was engaging enough but why my Professional or Personal peers have not replied or commented is still a mystery to me.  I did not receive the comment or feedback that I was hoping for.  Perhaps the drama of the film is too much for the island of Guam or maybe not pertinent to the social/political/scientific issues that we face.  I do not believe so.  I simply believe that my peers’ social life is more important to garner their attention than my grand interest in social/political/scientific global issues.

   
  

Creating a Profesional Learning Network Reflection

    I wanted to get to know what some other professional teachers are doing around the world so I decided to look for an educational social network.  Online Social Networks are akin to a neighborhood where a person lives.  In a physical neighborhood, we are able to make friends, get to know what each other is doing to essentially keep in touch.  The major difference is that instead of being physically limited to making friends with just the 10-20 homes around your neighborhood, you can make friends all over the world.  For example, on my personal Facebook.com page, I have over 200 “friends” of whom I’ve been acquainted with throughout my life.  We broadcast “updates” of what each other is doing and can send personal messages to communicate even though we are thousands of miles apart.  Social Networks are a great way to share each other’s lives while maintaining that “neighborhood” feel.

    As an aspiring teacher I thought I would try different social networks in an attempt to build my personal social network of science teachers.  Perhaps we could begin sharing ideas to help each other keep our classrooms interesting.  First, I tried to use twitter.com.  Although there was an inexhaustible amount of information available, I realized that their is just too much content.  I simply could not get a focused group organized.  Next I thought I’d try using Facebook.com.  Although there were a few groups such as “Educators of Guam” and “Future Educators of Guam”, my Facebook was too much of a personal social network that I didn’t feel comfortable trying to use it for professional development. 

    Then I found Classroom2.0 which was exactly the Professional Social Network that I had been looking for.  I wanted a worldwide network strictly for educators that was full of other like-minded professionals.  When I first registered for classroom2.0 I was surprised that my account was not approved immediately like Facebook or Twitter.  I had to literally write a short description of my intent to use the site and what I hoped to gain from my experience.  Then, my “application” would be reviewed by the administrators to ensure that I wasn’t just another spammer and was an educator with a serious intent to utilize the professional learning network.  I was amazed to see that there were over 45,000 registered members most of which, I assume, are educators with similar interests just like me!  This was perfect.

    As soon as I was able to, I posted a blog to all members to ask about personal stories of which other science teachers were able to motivate their students to learn any particular lesson in their classroom.  I was excited because many posts from other members received many replies and great suggestions for resources and teaching/evaluation techniques.  Unfortunately after about a week, no one had replied to my thread.  I am a little disappointed, but realized that perhaps a week is too soon to “shoot down” the usability of this website.  From what I have seen, the community is very supportive of each other.  For example, the discussions in this thread Classroom 2.0 Math Resources Discussion were full of other educators sharing math resources.  Therefore, even if I didn’t get feedback for my personal question, I could still find an inexhaustible amount of resources from just perusing the blogs.

    I will continue to use Classroom2.0 as my Professional Learning Network.  I recently joined the newbie group and other secondary science teacher groups to mingle a little more.  From there, I hope to contribute my resources and limited knowledge with the network.  Who know, maybe one day I cooperate with other teachers on a global project that involves my students working with another classroom somewhere around the world.  Classroom2.0 would be the best Professional Network to establish this type of Co-op!