Social Media – te(a)ch french

Social Media Isn’t a New ‘Problem’

December 17, 2017 Lissa Layman

An AISQ8 student approached us to contribute articles for his teenage handbook. It wasn’t until later that I put 2 & 2 together to realize that he was an MYP 5 student and this handbook was part of his MYP Personal Project. I love it when their projects are unique an relevant.

At first I wasn’t sure what to write and waited until the last minute to start writing. His questions helped guide me and I ended up enjoying reflecting and writing.

Please answer the following questions:

What are your personal experiences with bullying during your upbringing/coming of age?
Do you find technology a “great escape” to relieve yourself from anxiety and stress?
How can information technology cause teenage issues?
How can information technology alleviate teenage issues?
What is the impact of integrating information technology in school subjects?
Should technology be used as a source of education despite its harms?

I was in 7th grade when AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was released. Social media was basically invented during my teenage years. But no one quite understood its power or how it might affect our well-being. It hadn’t been around long enough for teachers or parents to know that it added a new dynamic to our already complicated teenage lives. Creating fake accounts was easy. Bullying a former friend anonymously wasn’t difficult. And, while I think we knew it was wrong, cyber-bullying wasn’t a topic that was discussed yet. I was not always a nice teenager. And sometimes technology gave me an anonymous alter-ego who struggled to be principled and caring.

I’m not sure the scenario has changed much in the last 20 years. Maybe now people are less concerned with being anonymous and their alter-egos have been replaced by their egos. We have to acknowledge that technology has an important role in our lives. And, it’s not going away anytime soon. We are all on a learning journey to harness the power of technology to make principled contributions to our global society. In order to do this, we need to be able to learn and live with technology. Technology has the potential to enhance teaching and learning and inspire open-mindedness and collaboration. However, this must be taught and practiced and re-enforced. Everything can be harmful if you have too much of it, even water. We must be purposefully balanced with technology in order to support our well-being. Parents and educators are the key to supporting children and teenagers in learning how to be balanced, principled and caring. If we don’t talk about and use technology at home or at school, how will the adults of the future (you!) be able to make principled contributions to our global society?

Technology helps us connect to other people around the world, both local and global. Technology does not tell us how to act; it simply gives us the platform to act. We, the users, are the problem. Not technology. Technology causes issues when we choose to use it to inflict harm on others. Technology alleviates issues when we choose to use it to find like-minded people to support us during our life journey. When we choose to use technology to disconnect from our lives and numb our feelings, it can actually increase our anxiety and stress. When we choose to use technology to support our productivity, enhance our learning, communicate and collaborate with others, and stay in touch with family and friends, it can help us experience life deeper.

Technology is powerful. What type of power it has in our lives is up to us. What choices will you make to positively impact the world? How might your IB education support you when learning and living with technology? What choices will you make to bring others up, instead of taking them down?

Kuwait, Professional Development, Social Media

#AISQ8chat – an #IBOLP series

October 25, 2015November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

Sometimes I’m really dedicated to blogging. Sometimes I’m not. If I’m absent for an extended period of time it’s because I’m just too dang busy living life to sit and write about it. But there are some pretty great posts floating around in my head (and even written down somewhere!). 😉 In order to prompt me to actually sit down and blog, I need to be so excited about something that I just can’t help myself. After 5 months, today is the day!

Thanks to the efforts and excitement of a lot of my colleagues, #AISQ8 has grown from 4 or 5 people to over 30 in the last year! If that isn’t something to get excited about, I don’t know what is. Besides sharing the great things happening in our school (we were inspired by #sisrocks), I have enjoyed engaging in discussion on a weekly basis ever since Christina and I started #AISQ8chat in February. Browse our 2014-15 topics, 2015-16 topics and all the archives.

Since its beginnings, I’ve wanted to do a multi-week series. Part of my motivation was that Christina and I never seemed to have enough topics to chat about and many times we were still coming up with questions on Monday evenings. But most of it was that I wanted to go further with my colleagues about how (and why) we actually live and teach the IB Learner Profile. Thanks to Heidi and Christina, today this became a reality! [Insert giddy squeal here]

Here are the details & vocab you need to know to participate in the #AISQ8chat Learner Profile series:

Everyone is welcome!
Starts Tuesday, 10/27, and will continue for the next 14 Tuesdays (except December 22 & 29).
View the IB Learner Profile
We made up some new hashtags:
- #IBOLP = International Baccalaureate Organization Learner Profile
- #IBOLPT = IBO Learner Profile Traits
IBOLPT Continuum: ⌧ checking the box <——————————————–> way of life
We will be releasing the questions each Sunday (although they will be the same each week, just with a different #IBOLPT).
In week 1 we will explore why and how we, as stakeholders in the school community, live the #IBOLPT.
We will spend 1 week on each of the IBOLPT starting with Risk-Takers next week.
After exploring 6 traits, the week before (12/15) and after (1/5) winter break we will take time to reflect and make some conclusions.
Our last chat (2/9) will focus on hiring staff who live (professionally & personally) the IBOLP.

Here are a few tips & tricks I shared with #AISQ8:

During our Tuesday slow chats we usually release Q1 by 8am, Q2 at 11am and Q3 by 2pm (just in time for our faculty meetings!). However you are welcome to reply to any question at any point throughout the day.
When you have time on Sunday and Monday, start formulating your As to the weekly Qs. Then use Hootsuite to schedule them for Tuesday so that you don’t have to take time away from teaching. [Don’t worry, you can still edit pending Tweets if you change your mind.]
When you do have a couple free minutes on Tuesday, browse #AISQ8chat and engage in the conversation. Ask the community clarifying or probing questions. Twitter is your Personal Learning Community – you will get out what you put in 🙂
Christina will be Storifying #AISQ8chat every Wednesday morning. Didn’t have a chance to engage in the conversation on Tuesday? We still want to hear from you! Feel free to answer any of the previous week’s Qs from Wednesday to Monday. Please just remember to include #AISQ8chat. You can also add #AISQ8unchat if you’d like.

Social Media

Taking on the #GlobalEd #TwitteratiChallenge

May 27, 2015November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

A couple days ago I was mentioned by Ryan and wasn’t really sure what was going on. Upon reading his blog post, I was quite flattered. It’s not every day that your peers, especially those you haven’t met, make you feel valued. Thanks for the shout out Ryan!

Like Ryan, I’m opting out of the video part of this challenge. I enjoyed Ryan’s theme of “stranger friends.” I have a long list of those! Building off that, I’m highlighting “stranger friends” who I’ve now met in real life. These are in no particular order and the list could go on. This is a fun challenge but I also completely understand if those I’ve nominated don’t keep it going…busy time of year! 😉

Scott Mcleod & Jayson Richardson: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – attending NESA in Bangkok in 2013 was a game changer for me. Scott and Jayson introduced me to the School Tech Leadership program at the University of Kentucky…and the rest is history. No but seriously – I graduated earlier this month with my M.Ed. and would have never found out about the program had I not attended their 4-hour workshop in 2013. Throughout the course of the program I also got to work closer (online) with Scott and Jayson which was a privilege.

Everyone else I met at Learning 2.014 Africa…guess it was a pretty powerful experience!

Doug Johnson: I missed Doug’s sessions at NESA 2013 and was pretty bummed. However in September in Ethiopia, I made up for it. Not only was I able to attend his sessions, I was able to enjoy some drinks and a taxi ride to the airport with him. Every conversation with Doug is a quality one and I quite enjoyed finally meeting him after years of reading & commenting on the Blue Skunk blog.

Kim Cofino & Jeff Utecht: By the time I made it to Learning 2 I was a COETAIL grad so I was quite familiar with Kim & Jeff’s work. Jeff was most definitely a “stranger friend” turned friend as we greeted each other with a hug. It was then that I learned how to pronounce Utecht. Watching Kim & Jeff work during the course of Learning 2 was inspiring. The vibe they are able to create is pretty awesome. I would go to every Learning 2 every year if I could 😉

Marcello Mongardi: When I met Marcello at Learning 2 (and learned how to pronounce his name) I had seen his face on many a COETAILCast. But it was the Oman GAFE Summit where I really got to know him. He’s got great ideas, is laid back and a ton of fun. He was also a very accommodating chauffeur 🙂 When Jeff and I returned to Oman at the end of April for my 30th birthday celebration, we bonded further with Marcello and Sam over Indian food and red wine. I love it when “stranger friends” become real friends!

Cheers!

Twitterati Challenge

Here are @teachertoolkit’s rules…

In the spirit of social media educator friendships, this summer it is time to recognise your most supportive colleagues in a simple blogpost shout-out. Whatever your reason, these 5 educators should be your 5 go-to people in times of challenge and critique, or for verification and support.

Rules:

There are only 3 rules.

1.You cannot knowingly include someone you work with in real life.

2.You cannot list somebody that has already been named if you are already made aware of them being listed on #TwitteratiChallenge

3.You will need to copy and paste the title of this blogpost and the Rules and What To Do information into your own blog post.

What To Do?

There are 5 to-dos if you would like to nominate your own list of colleagues.

1.Within 7 days of being nominated by somebody else, identify colleagues you regularly go to for support and challenge. They have now been challenged and should act as participants in the #TwitteratiChallenge.

2.If you’ve been nominated, you should write your own #TwitteratiChallenge blogpost within 7 days. If you do not have your own blog, try @staffrm

3.The educator nominated should record a video of themselves (using Periscope?) in continuous footage and announce their acceptance of the challenge, followed by a pouring of your (chosen) drink over a glass of ice.

4.Then the drink is to be lifted with a ‘cheers’ before the participant nominates their five other educators to participate in the challenge.

5.The educator that is now (newly) nominated, has 7 days to compose their own #TwitteratiChallenge blogpost and identify who their top 5 go-to educators are.

Kuwait, Professional Development, Social Media

ISTE, #AISQ8chat, #AfricaEd & Digital Citizenship

April 14, 2015November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

As my MEd with UKSTL winds down, I’m disappointed in my lack of reflecting on this blog. At it’s core, my blog is a place for me to reflect on my learning and practice. Unfortunately I’ve realized that a full-time job and Masters at the same time leaves little time for writing. Or I haven’t made the time. My goal is to start putting things on ‘paper’ that have been swimming around in my head for the last year. Starting today!

This week’s #AISQ8 slow chat is all about Digital Citizenship. When Ryan asked if we could do a joint #AfricaEd & #AISQ8chat this week, we were on board. Today we’re reaching more people than we’ve been able to in the past. The power of a hashtag! As we started discussing what digital citizenship is and its role in our connected world, I got to thinking about the ISTE Standards. Each of them (Students, Teachers, Coaches, Admin, Computer Science Educators) mention digital citizenship. But I wanted to compare them. So I quickly threw together this spreadsheet in order to visualize all 5 at the same time. Would love any feedback 🙂

Collaboration, Kuwait, Professional Development, Social Media

Virtually presenting at #MACUL15 from #NESASEC – success!

March 20, 2015November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

Our #MACUL15 session just ended and I wanted to blog about it while I was still giddy from the experience. Minutes after the session had ended several attendees had already started reaching out to other educators around the world to connect their classrooms. That’s powerful. When we can inspire educators to think outside their norm, realize the power of globally connecting their classroom and take immediate action…I get butterflies inside just thinking about it!

John and Mary were in room 140D at MACUL in Detroit, MI. Jeff was in our apartment in Kuwait. I was in my hotel room at NESA Spring Educators Conference in Istanbul. We used a Google Hangout to connect 3 continents to present to educators about globally connecting their classroom. To be expected, we had some technical difficulties at first. But as we got rolling, the technology cooperated nicely. This was a first for all of us but John did a great job coordinating the 4 of us. Thanks to all that came and watched 🙂

Our main points:

Connecting your classroom has a positive effect on student learning.
It’s simple – you don’t need a lot of advanced techy gadgets.
Plan with the other teacher in advance. Prepare your students for different cultural norms & to ask quality questions.
There are lots of places to start connecting.

Below is our slide deck. We provide links to help educators start immediately (where to start). Check out the Google Form and responses from educators around the world – we’re trying to make it as easy as possible to help classrooms around the world become connected.

PLEASE contact us with any questions or if you’d like us to help you and your classroom get connected. Eager to hear from you and positively impact student learning together 🙂

Kuwait, Professional Development, Social Media

#AISQ8 is starting a slow chat: #AISQ8chat

February 9, 2015November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

Last week Christina emailed six staff at our school to share information about the first ever #nesachat. Then we got thinking about how many staff at our school are actually on Twitter. We were pretty surprised (and excited) that there are 15 of us! For our school, this is kind of a big deal. The dominoes started falling from there: I created a list of all our Tweeting peeps, we settled on a new hashtag (now #AISQ8, formerly #AISK), and started tweeting about our MS/HS Edcamp (#edcampq8).

This week we’re taking it a step further with a slow chat (#AISQ8chat). We’re hoping to expand on what people already know about Twitter and help some of our staff become more comfortable using it as a professional development tool. This week it will be a 3-day slow chat centered around a Twitter K-W-L. Details are below (created by Christina). Please help initiate our staff to the power of Twitter by participating with us 🙂 Looking forward to it!

Collaboration, Kuwait, Professional Development, Social Media

PEAK 2013 pt. 2 – Making the Web Work for You

December 10, 2013November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

After my first two sessions at PEAK last weekend, I gave a brand new workshop. As excited as I was about my Google Apps presentations, I might have been even more excited for “Making the Web Work for You.” I focused on becoming a connected educator and specifically on Twitter (I purposely left both of those terms out of the title because I didn’t want to scare anyone away). I’m realizing that besides meaningful technology integration, GAFE and being a connected educator are my passions. I love working with anyone, anywhere on these and don’t need anything in return.

I started by appealing to their feelings (educators never have enough time) and highlighting what they thought Twitter was. I then talked about what it actually is and gave them testimonials from the survey I created and other connected educators. I was heavily influenced by Steve Anderson‘s Twitter series but did have significant time constraints. I highlighted searching, hashtags and a few other must-knows. Then I gave them time to create accounts, explore some hashtags, find people to follow. A genius idea from Jeff – make sure everyone in the class follows everyone else before the session is over. I ended with ideas for organizing all this new info and next steps.

It was a great plan. And then I realized 20 minutes before the start of the session that Twitter was blocked at the school (!!!). Oh my goodness. I tried several different things but unfortunately I had forgotten my wireless router at home and we were in the basement (so my phone wasn’t working as a hot spot). But..it was okay. I let someone borrow my iPad and we just went with the flow. The workshop didn’t go exactly how I planned it but I still got great responses and people were excited about the possibilities of becoming connected. It was another example of how becoming a teacher has changed me – I’m flexible and don’t get easily rattled! 🙂

Collaboration, Kuwait, Social Media

International Mindedness & Twitter

May 2, 2013November 30, 2016 Lissa Layman

Thank you to everyone who helped me last week by answering my questions about Technology Coaches. My PLN is awesome!

Our school is starting voluntary focus groups based on where we feel we need to improve in our Middle Years Program practice. Because of my passion for culture, I chose to participate in the ‘International Mindedness‘ group.

Our initial meeting was just me and Deb, our MYP coordinator. We skimmed some literature from the IBO and then discussed what international mindedness might look like in our school. Our short-term goal is to help teachers incorporate/recognize the three dimensions of global consciousness (global sensitivity, global understanding and global self) in their unit plans.

As we were brainstorming, we discussed that maybe it was easier than one might think. In Earth science, instead of just teaching about sand and water (because that’s what we have in Kuwait) teachers should also be teaching about soil, ice, etc. The technology coach in me couldn’t help but connect international mindedness to global collaboration through the use of technology. Social media baby! Students are no longer confined to studying what they can see in their environment or what a book tells them.

Kuwait is rife with pollution and we tend to focus on how bad it is here. During a unit of study, students could create a hashtag and share pictures of pollution in Kuwait on Twitter. With careful hashtag selection, these tweets could be seen by other students around the world. The goal would be to get students from all over to share pictures of pollution in their countries. I could see this idea getting changed around (for the better) by students. I’d love to see what could come of something like this across different content areas in our school when students took ownership of it. Students are on their phones constantly…let’s allow them to be open-minded communicators!