Adam Schoenbart

Using social media with students allows us to share with our schools, community, and the world with transparency, immediacy, and power.

Grading is hard.

Reason #2 for why I want my students using social media is to connect with the world and crowdsource knowledge.

This school year, I’ve made a purposeful decision to bring social media into my high school classroom as a regular part of our learning.

This year, we started by discussing the value of education, how modern education has changed, and responding to TED Talk excerpts and Kid President.

Students are learning from GAFE at OHS but through a range of different classroom experiences.

We think#TheEduCalfills a gap in the world of connected educators.

I really want to help students find their passions. Instead of asking them what they like, I want to push them to consider what they hate, what drives them nuts, and what or who they want to be.

I love any ideas that empower teachers and allow them to increase their impact, and PledgeCents does this beautifully.

This post is part 2 in my series #GAFE Impact Report, sharing data and analysis about student and teacher perceptions of the impact of Google Apps for Education.

These two powerful texts work together beautifully to help students understand history, about responsibility, and to examine the style and craft of two wonderful creators.

By flipping the delivery of content to outside the classroom with technology, we can maximize instructional time and learning during our class period.

What impact does #GAFE have on teaching and learning?

I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions usually, but I do like the idea of putting my intentions in writing for a public and authentic audience.

While I recognize that coding could be meaningful in my English classroom, it was never a priority for me, and I simply didn’t think I had the time.

Instead of leaving school with 75 essays, papers or project--plus rubrics--I now have a nearly paperless classroom where all of my students’ learning is online.

Teachers tend to celebrate success on blogs and social media--as we should--but sometimes a reminder of our challenges and mistakes is just as valuable.

The plan helps inform a lot of the current trends in education reform and edtech, arguing that transformation in educational technology can directly contribute to closing the achievement gap.

I log on, type in my password, and see the worst possible response: Server tree not found.

The results were clear: students and teachers enjoyed Expeditions and liked learning from and with them, but there is room for improvement.

If I want to be a catalyst for change so badly, why weren’t these the conversations we were having? Why wasn’t I contributing to the bigger picture?

As I returned their recent assignment on Google Classroom this morning, here are the lessons I reflected on:

Not only was the experience engaging and immersive, but had such untapped educational potential.