Using

Communitiesfor Education

One of the key problems teachers

face today is how to increase

student motivation

According to Chickering & Gamson’s ‘Seven

Principles for Good Practice’ (1987), one of the main

principles of good education is to ‘encourage

contact between students and faculty.’

So how can we encourage increased

teacher–student interaction?

Fact: Social Media has

changed the

way we communicate.

Some facts regarding current social media use patterns*:(at the mid-point of 2014 – taken from the Globe & Mail)

More than 6 BILLION hours of video are watched per month

on:

now has more than

1.28BILLIONactive users

More than 500 million Tweets are sent worldwide each day

The average

mobile phone

user checks

their phone

more than

100 times per

day(14 of those checks are for

facebook)

So how can we

(as educators)

take advantage

of this?

There are numerous social media

options available for teachers,

HOWEVER…

for educational purposes, I believe that

Communities

As with other forms of social media, Google+ Communities allow

you to create public or private groups and control who can engage

in the group.

So you don’t

need to see

this…

And your

students don’t

see this…

(and yes, I understand

that everyone in the MET

program is a hard-

working teacher who

spends their weekends

lesson planning, grading

papers, and volunteering

at soup kitchens – when

not fighting world hunger)

In addition, neither of

you needs to see

this:(Google+ Communities do not use ads)

And YOU choose who sees your

posts, pics, shares, docs and

information.

SYNCHRONOUS

COMMUNICATION

In addition to allowing for asynchronous communication,

Google+ Communities allow for the

integration of synchronous mobile

communication between you

and your students through

Google+ Hangouts

On Google+ Hangouts, up to

10 participants can:

• participate in (or archive)

live lessons

• share screens

• collaborate in class

demonstrations

• create live shows

• converse in real-time

from ANYWHERE with

their mobile phone

COLLABORATIONand

Google+ Communities allow for the sharing of

so that students (and teachers) can

collaborate on projects at any time on their mobile phone

Also, Google+ Communities provide

access to all of the other great

educational features of other social

media options.

ASYNCHRONOUS

COMMUNICATIONTeachers and students

can post status updates,

course information, questions

or problems to the communitywith ease

Optimization

Mobile Google+

Communities are

fully optimized to be

used on iOS and

Android mobile

phones, which fits

into school BYOD

policies.

PUSH

NOTIFICATIONS

Allow for

students and

teachers to

constantly be in-

the-loop

VIDEO

Teachers can employ a flipped or

blended classroom model by

posting class videos to the

community, while students can

post video projects

CONTENT

CURATIONStudents can curate and

rate online content using

the +1 button,

which allows other

students to see what they

find relevant or useful

STUDENT

CREATED

CONTENT

Since Google+

Communities allow for

the posting of videos,

documents, or other

materials produced by

students, this content

can be generative in

nature and be used by

future students of the

same course.

BUT

WAIT A

SECOND!!!

NOBODY actually uses

!!!right???

THERE ARE

POINTS TO

CONSIDER

THIS MAY

ACTUALLY BE A

GOOD THING!By using separate forms of social media for

school and personal purposes, it is easier

for both teachers and students to

distinguish between the two.

It’s really

easy to set

up!(provided you have a Google

account – which is free and easy to

set up as long as you’re over the

age of 13)

So…How does using

Communities

fit into appropriate educational

technology frameworks?

According to the

International Society for

Technology in Education

Standards for Teachers (2000)

“Teachers should meet the following standards and performance indicators:”

(ISTE)

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning & Creativity

2. Design & Develop Digital Age Learning Assessments

3. Model Digital Age Working Tasks

4. Promote & Model Digital Citizenship & Responsibility

5. Engage in Professional Growth & Leadership

#1 Facilitate

and Inspire

Student

Learning &

Creativity

Through Google+

Communities, teachers

can promote student

learning & creativity by

posing open-ended

questions of relevance,

encouraging discussion

to solve problems,

promoting student

reflection and engaging

with learners in

asynchronous & real-time

discussions

#2 Design &

Develop Digital

Age Learning

Assessments

Since Google+ allows

for student-created

content, video &

collaboration on

documents, teachers

can design

assignments that

incorporate formative

assessment

#3 Model Digital

Age Working

Tasks

Through Google+

Communities,

teachers can

model appropriate

social media

usage, increase

their ability to

communicate with

their students, and

help students

improve their

ability to locate

and use relevant

information

#4 Promote &

Model Digital

Citizenship &

Responsibility

Using Google+ allows teachers to model

ethical use of online material, provide

learning material that students can engage

with at their own pace, and promote

responsible social behaviour on

technological platforms

#5 Engage in

Professional

Growth &

Leadership

Teachers can join other professional

development communities that allow them to

improve their pedagogy or usage of technology

in their own educational practices

Using the SECTIONS framework

(Bates & Poole, 2003)

S – Students

E – Ease of Use

C – Cost

T – Teaching & Learning

I – Interactivity

O – Organizational Issues

N - Novelty

S - Speed

Communities

meet the criteria for the SECTIONS model because it can be used

by and provide different levels of support for different groups of

students, it is relatively easy to set up and use, it is free for both

teachers & students, it enables constructivist teaching & learning

materials & assessment, it allows for student-generated content, it

integrates enough of the popular features of social media platforms

to retain its novelty, and it loads relatively quickly.

On the downside, there may be organizational concerns regarding

student privacy.

Finally…using Google+

Communities sits at the

ABC intersection of Koole’s

FRAME model (2009), as

it:

• “provides enhanced

collaboration and

access to information,”

and

• allows teachers to

“provide a deeper

contextualization of

learning:

So why not build a

?

Christopher Chapman

Masters student, MET program

References• Bates A. W., & Poole, G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. In A.W. Bates &

G. Poole, Effective teaching with technology in higher education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4

• Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

• National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teac

hers_2008.htm

• Koole, M. (2009a). Chapter 2: A model for framing mobile learning. In M. Ally (Ed.), Mobile learning: transforming the delivery of education and training (Vol. 1, pp. 25-47). Edmonton, Alberta: AU Press.

ImagesWith the exception of the image on slide 43 (from Deviant Art), the ISTE logo, the UBC logo, and any images which are the property of Google, all of the images on this presentation were retrieved from:

• Flickr

• Pixabay

• Wikimedia Commons

and are either licensed CC or part of the public domain.

If any of these images are found to have violated copyright, they will be removed immediately.