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Community Building in the Open TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS

Tool: Facebook: Social Media Platform

Ease of Use: 🍎🍎

Pros:

  • most students have experience using the platform
  • informal
  • potential to share variety of media
  • students receive notification when interaction occurs
  • larger audience for posts

Cons:

  • privacy settings
  • dual accounts (personal and professional)
  • requires moderator

Public vs. Private:

  • potential to adjust settings from very private to completely public

Level of Collaboration/Interaction: ⭐⭐⭐

Potential for Course Integration:

  • post link to blog post
  • share content
  • discussion forum
  • curate content and post

Student Reaction:

"I really liked using Facebook because it was familiar to me. I loved seeing former professors and our associate responding to my posts. It was a great way to stay connected after the course ended. I didn't like having to create a professional account. After I graduated I just joined with my personal account and that made things much more authentic and manageable."

Link to Home Site: https://www.facebook.com/

Link to Example:  GSC's Online Community of Practice for Educators

Tool: Twitter

Ease of Use: 🍎🍎🍎🍎

Pros:

  • informal
  • large virtual community
  • up-to-date content
  • searchable course hashtag
  • easy to consume and/or contribute
  • promotes sharing ideas/resources
  • short bursts of information
  • accessible virtual chats
  • character limit

Cons:

  • content can be overwhelming
  • requires time and energy to build effective follower/following base
  • steep learning curve
  • character limit

Public vs. Private:

  • course hashtag is public
  • student handles can be public or private
  • opportunity to privately message

Level of Collaboration/Interaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Potential for Integration:

  • course hashtag (stream can be posted on Moodle sidebar)
  • post link to blog post
  • discussion forum
  • edchat

Student Reaction:

I find Twitter to be a great platform for obtaining information and resources, but I still don’t find it to be a valuable method for me to share my ideas. Having to write something meaningful in such a small bite is just so hard! - Christine D

I have particularly enjoyed using the Twitter app, as a way to communicate, collaborate and learn with and from others. This resource offers a wealth of knowledge on difference perspectives, strategies, and experiences as well as an avenue to additional resources. I was surprised by how much I have been able to learn from the posts, blogs, articles, TED Talks, etc that can be discovered on Twitter. I will definitely continue to use this social media platform throughout my teaching experiences. - Emma

Link to Home Site:

www.twitter.com

Link to Examples:

#GSC612702

#GSC_OCP

Tool: Blogging

Ease of Use: 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

Pros:

  • promotes reflection
  • students are contributors

Cons:

Public vs. Private:

Level of Collaboration/Interaction: ⭐⭐⭐

Potential for Integration:

  • students blog weekly and

Student Reaction:

This blog was not something I thought I was going to really enjoy at first, but once I realized that the content was very much up to my discretion I became much more invested. I enjoy creative writing and feel that it is a strength of mine. Being able to put my ideas, feelings, and frustrations done in a format that I was very comfortable with really, as the kids say, “Buttered my Biscuit”. - Eben G

I really do enjoy blogging. I think it is nice to have something to be able to look back on and note any changes and growth. It is a time where you take each week to reflect, or just discuss what is on your mind. I don’t think we take enough- or any- time to do that. I will continue to blog through my education at GSC and hopefully beyond. I didn’t always find myself having something amazing I wanted to say, but there was always something small that I thought of. - Kerry P

Since I started this blog, (I must admit kicking and screaming and talking about how I didn’t think it was necessary) I must say it really has helped me. It gives me a place to unload, to get all the feelings out and hopefully at some point, to help others. - Brenda D

Link to Home Site:

www.wordpress.com

Link to Example:

https://christinedanen.wordpress.com/

https://middleschoolpara.wordpress.com/

https://trompingthroughelementary.wordpress.com/

https://msbrendateaches.home.blog/

https://dailyblackboard.wordpress.com/

Tool: Google Suite for Education (Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Slides, etc.)

Ease of Use: 🍎🍎🍎🍎

Pros:

  • always have access to the most updated copy
  • synchronous and asynchronous collaboration
  • open up feedback
  • track revisions and updates
  • student work is accessible to all who have the link

Cons:

  • more comfortable with Microsoft Word
  • comments are visible to all
  • sharing settings can be confusing/hard to manage at first

Public vs. Private:

Anyone with the link could view/edit (link provided in course shell)

Level of Collaboration/Interaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Potential for Integration:

  • share/collaborate on documents, slideshows, etc.
  • peer-to-peer edits
  • comment on document (syllabus, article, etc.)
  • interactive "Introductions" forum

Student Reaction:

When I first read this in the instructors notes I panicked! I didn’t want other students seeing my work!! I went through school being told looking at someone else’s work was the same as cheating. “You can’t look at someone else’s paper! Eyes on your own work!” WOW!! How things have changed!! I must say it took me a bit to get used to having my work in a space where others could see it, judge it, comment on it. I wasn’t comfortable with this method……. at FIRST!!! NOW! I WISH I had the opportunity to go back to that method! - Brenda D

Link to Home Site:

drive.google.com

Link to Example:

Open Up Lesson Planning Presentation

Tool: FlipGrid

Ease of Use: 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

Pros:

  • video responses allow some students to dive deeper
  • less formal
  • personal interaction with peers
  • access to former students' responses

Cons:

  • time limit on posts
  • discussion may feel less authentic because it's asynchronous

Public vs. Private:

Semi-public...former students' responses remained on the site. Need link and password to access the grid.

Level of Collaboration/Interaction: ⭐⭐⭐

Potential for Integration:

  • discussion forums
  • formative assessment (describe/explain/justify/etc)
  • introduction forum
  • debate or response to controversial topic

Student Reaction:

Flipgrid was another tool that I didn’t think I was going to like as much as I did. The ability to have generally relaxed conversations with my classmates and their responses was really beneficial. It was a unique and fun way to share thoughts that were similar to our normal forum posts, but added a greater degree of personality that was extremely enjoyable. I felt it let me better understand my classmates, and in an online course that is a great thing. - Eben G

Link to Home Site:

www.flipgrid.com

Link to Example:

https://flipgrid.com/4f6362ba

PW: EMG612702

Tool:  Padlet

Ease of Use: 🍎🍎🍎🍎

Pros:

  • virtual bulletin board

Cons:

  • more challenging to collaborate

Public vs. Private:

Most of our boards are public.

Level of Collaboration/Interaction: ⭐⭐

Potential for Integration:

  • house links/student work that will live beyond the life of the course
  • reflection board - (ex: share your top two takeaways from the course)

Student Reaction:

I felt that Padlet, when compared to the forum tools built into GSC Moodle program, was kind of useless. It does the same exact thing, but in a harder to read/find information way. - Eben G

Link to Home Site:

www.padlet.com

Link to Example:

https://padlet.com/emgannon/OLE

Credits:

Created with images by Joshua Hoehne - "untitled image" • Sara Kurfeß - "untitled image" • Kaitlyn Baker - "untitled image" • Christian Wiediger - "untitled image" • Johan Mouchet - "Sunset selfie"