Katie Bedke

This weeks assignment was to conduct some research into successful ways teachers have implemented social media into their classrooms, and in my case specifically in science classes.  Initially, I thought I would find a lot of teacher examples of how they employed the use of social media, but I actually didn’t find as many in the k-12 realm as I thought.  Which I guess does make sense in a way. Many districts and schools do not allow the use of social media in schools, often blocking these open networks or limiting students use of personal devices.  In the three different schools that I have taught (both Idaho and Colorado), this was most certainly the case. There may be a lot of fears, but why not face those fears and use technology and social media to our benefit. We all know teachers and students are using social media outside of the classroom, so why not bring it in and leverage it to our advantage in helping students critically think, engage in thoughtful discourse, collaborat

Like most people, I strive to grow in a positive manner both personally and professionally.  I thought of a tree, which encompasses life, growth, change, and at times adaptations.  I displayed all the platforms and tools I utilize regularly on different branches, but also in a fashion that showed they blended together and they support one another by transferring knowledge or ideas to each other.   Something I realized about myself is that I rely heavily on Google applications in all sectors of my professional and personal life.  Now looking back at my diagram, I probably should have had my Google applications represented in the tree trunk given that they are my main learning support.  Also, I realized that social networking sites are mainly used for personal reasons, but I am realizing the benefits of leveraging these in a professional manner.  Our assignment to join and actually participate in online communities this week was a great challenge for me.  I would say I am more of a

“A curator is an information chemist. He or she mixes atoms together in a way to build an info-molecule. Then adds value to that molecule.” - Robert Scoble Image by Wikimedia Creative Commons  This week we were tasked with researching the art of curation for educational purposes and then develop a tool to assess the quality and value of an education-related curated topic. Prior to this assignment, I didn’t really think about educators being curators or how I could develop a curation project for students. Robert Scoble’s above analogy of curation and chemistry describes a curator as an information chemist, where an individual takes data or pieces of information and creates a new “molecule” or something that has its own characteristics or message. This really resonated with me as a science teacher, taking different pieces of data that each has their own characteristics (similar to individual elements having their unique physical and chemical properties) and putting them