Well I think that title sums it up pretty well.
College students appear to have gotten over the creep factor of connecting with their professors on Facebook and would prefer to use the 800-million member social network for formal class assignments and discussions over other platforms, including Twitter.
Those are the preliminary findings of Dr. Rey Junco, a college professor who has been studying social media in the college classroom. Not too long ago, students often bristled at the idea of using Facebook in classes because it meant connecting with their professors. But Junco’s more recent research shows students prefer Facebook because they’re already using it.
“I think [using Facebook] would’ve been easier and a little more comfortable for people because I think pretty much everyone in my class had a Facebook and nobody had either one of these thing,” one student in the study said of a class that gave students the option of using Twitter or Ning, a service that lets people create closed social networks.
» via ReadWriteWeb
Congratulations to all, here are the 2011 winners (and don’t forget the nominees - bookmark this!):
Best school administrator blog
Best hashtag #tlchat
Best tweeter web20classroom
This is an interesting, though outdated, set of findings. In my experience, creative students are favored in the classroom.
One of the most consistent findings in educational studies of creativity has been that teachers dislike personality traits associated with creativity. Research has indicated that teachers prefer traits that seem to run counter to creativity, such as conformity and unquestioning…
An interesting collection of ideas. Here’s the beginning—click through for the rest!
Students of all levels need some scaffolding; they need a plan and some knowledge in order to build a foundation for deeper understanding. There are many ways to approach the task of scaffolding depending upon the age group of the students and the text’s level of difficulty. The following 12 ideas can be modified to meet the needs of any grade or ability level.
Research
Assign a simple research task that requires students to investigate topical information from the text. This may include historical events, cultural beliefs or practices. Students can then become the teachers by presenting the information to the class via Power Point, a poster or Photo Story.
Introduce the Author
Writers often compose stories based on personal experience. Familiarizing students with an author’s background gives insight into the subject of the text, the author’s style of writing, or the main idea. Show students a video biography of the author or set them off to research the author in the library. Ask students to connect the authors’ experiences back to his/ her writing.
Introduce the Characters
Provide students with a character list and lead them through getting to know the characters. Equip students with the characters’ traits before they read. Based on what they know, ask students to draw a picture of the character or create a conversation between two or more characters.
