Learning

Communicate 1 – Communication Definitions

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba Georgia Online Professional Learning , , , , , , , , ,

 

5 Units in GA Online Professional LearningThis post is focused on effects of innovation in technology on communication.  It is one in a series of posts for Georgia Online Professional Learning Course.  You can find similar posts searching under the category Communicate or Searching for hashtag #eteachertool.  

 

Communication is: 

  1. A process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. 
  2. Means of connection between people or places, in particular.
  3. The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings.

      

Communication: Yesterday & Today

How have My individual communication skills changed with the innovations in technology?

I have talked about impact of digital technology on me professionally and personally in the way I communicate across the board in this blog post written for Reflective Writing Club.  In nutshell, innovation in technology has allowed me global connections and continue learning.  The Geographical distance is no longer a barrier against staying connected with family, friends and colleagues. e.g., Because of the social media apps, I am able to talk to and see my parents even when they traveled to India.  I am earning my online teaching certificate, participating in MOOCs, helping texters as volunteer Crisis Counselor and mentoring students from as far as Australia from comforts of my living room couch. 

Innovation in technology is a double edged sword.  While allowing greater global reach, it also robs us of deeper personal connections, encroaches on our time and may be robbing us of our privacy. -Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba

On the other hand, now I receive friend requests from not only a colleague or a family member but from random strangers as well as someone I have seen once in my life 30 years ago. Do I want to connect to them?  Do I need to?  Once connected, everyone including me wishes to share some nugget of information they found.  Do I have time to go through all these public sharing?   These superficial communications takes time and effort away from deeper connections that we thrive on.  With net neutrality and deluge of new apps on market, I  have to guard my privacy and time zealously as well.

While innovation in technology has allowed me to rebuild connections which were lost in snail mail era, I have also lost some personal connection because of the instant access.  Rather than meeting in person or picking up phones, now we communicate via texts, emails or online.   Though we have one television in family, at times, everyone is absorbed in their electronic device instead of communicating with one another.    

How have advancements in technology altered classroom communication? Will these change further?

Advancement in technology has radically changed the classroom communications among all stackholders.  e.g., United School District of Marshfield is prides itself on at online integrated education.  Besides, open house at the beginning of the school year, twice yearly parent-teacher meetings, quarterly newsletters and 9 week progress reports via mail,  most other communications  including student registration, paying fees and making appointments for Parent-teacher meetings takes place online.   The school system has provided an iPad as a personal learning devices for each K-12 students and instructors.  Teachers are using Canvas as Learning management system (LMS) and Skyward as student management system (SMS).  Google Classroom and online resources are rapidly replacing paper textbooks and the push is toward going paperless.   Both canvas and Google Classroom, when used efficiently, lets students communicate with their peers via sharing their work with one another, commenting on them and collaborating on projects.

The best measure of effective communication between a teacher and their students is the level of engagement and learning in their classroom. -Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba

Communication among students and with Instructor is the key to learning and thriving.  Sharing of the knowledge, assessment of content mastery and assisting students requires open communications in classroom community.  Innovation in technology and diverse needs of student population has forced instructors to change lecture and learn style of communication to hands on learning aimed at differentiating instruction based on student needs.  Today, learning is a fluid experience, the technology is ever changing and we, the educational community, must be ready to match our steps to these changes. Unfortunately, due to time and budgetary constraints, the educator is not always abreast of the changes and the communications- learning- suffers.

Advances in digital technology allows educators from far and wide to collaborate and communicate;  to use peer’s product for our classroom rather than reinventing the proverbial wheel.  Here are some examples of how savvy educators are using technology in classroom to enrich their students’ learning and sharing the resources which others utilize in their on classrooms.

  • Some students find science boring.  Glenn Wolkenfeld, a science teacher is here to help them and peers.  In the YouTube video below, he uses rap to teach mitosis followed by interactive quizzes to solidify the learning.  Teachers can use his Karaoke version to use in their classroom and engage their students. I bet my bottom dollar that students will enjoy learning about cell division using this fun song than just rote memorization.  

 

  •  Any McNabb  uses Graph Art Project  to differentiated student assessment for basic functions.
  • Jim Sadowska’s Global studies students learn at their own pace about Europe via Amazing Race, an interactive online learning experience.
  • Santha Walters, @Santhawalters uses drones in classroom to teach her 8th grade English students about communication.  Fun and learning does not stop here.  She visited Vicky Davis and shared her knowledge  at Cool Cat Teacher

Communications between Instructor(s) and  Parent / guardian 

  • Educators are sharing syllabus, projects and the feedback / grades on assignments with parents using SMS and/or LMS.  Parents can choose parameters for how and when they will monitor student progress. 
  • Teachers and parents contact each other via emails, phone calls and mobile apps  as well as Canvas notifications or Skyward calendar to stay on the same page for their student.  
  • With Skyward and Canvas, parents can see real time results of student attendance & fees management. 

Communications among Instructor – Administrative staff – colleagues 

  • Better transparency in communication as well as timely intervention aimed at student progress is achieved with use of SMS and LMS  
  • By using electronic communications, the administrative staff can save their time and resources which can be better utilized to serve the students. 

Communications between Instructors & community

  • Due to security concerns and providing students maximum learning time, many school campus are choosing to be closed campus. The instructor communicates with stackholders via blogs, social media and webinars.   Without using identifying information, the instructor can share examples of excellent student work with the community and invite feedback.

 

 

Adding More voices to the discourse: 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Mistakes

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba Connected Learning MOOC, Reflective Writing Club , , , ,

 

Do not be ashamed to admit mistakes. Let us learn from them & refrain from repeating them, Beautiful mistakes helps us grow as a person. Reflect on them but don't spend life & dwell on them.

 

A Beautiful Mistake.

We often do not hear mistake and beautiful in the same sentence.  Michelle Pancansky-Brock, thank you for the making me dig deeepperr and make me go on memory lane to talk about a beautiful mistake in professional setting that was painful at the time that resulted in my growth and development.

Is being a student profession?  Yes & no.  Being a student gives us foundation from which we build our professional lives on.  The mistake I am talking about was from my early days when I was young, inexperienced girl who had a lot to learn from life.  Though it was a learning experience, I do not know this mistake will be considered  beautiful or not.  By sharing my mistake, I am opening myself -warts and all.  The aim of this post is to engage in a healthy, respectful dialogue with my peers.

Long time back,  while I was a new immigrant, the college’s International Student Association was a bridge to students from different cultures and countries.  Encouraged by the enthusiastic and caring adviser, we will meet, mingle, learn about one another’s culture, share our experiences and try to navigate the new country.  For many of us, this student organization gave us sense of community where we belong rather than being adrift in our new environment.  

Standing United

One day, Elsa (not real name) told me, she liked a dress so much but it was out of her budget; being a jew-sharp and frugal- she was going to use her resources smartly.  So she went to Goodwill and bought something else equally good at a fraction of the price of that beautiful dress.  I asked her why she is calling herself a little jew while she was not one?  She explained that “being a jew” means that one is hard working, has a better moneysense and it is a complement.

Couple of days later, I was talking to another classmate, Chaya (not real name) about our families.  I said that my sister is a little jew, she saves all her money.  Though I was complimenting my sister, it was not so.  Chaya took offense at my word choice, “Jew”.  She was very upset & I can’t understand why.  Didn’t my other friend used same word for herself a week earlier?  Why she can describe herself as a sharp & frugal jew even though she is not a jew but I can’t use the same word to describe my sharp, moneywise sister?

Chaya was hopping mad at me & I can’t understand what had I done.  With blazing eyes and loud voice, she told me that “Being a Jew” is a stereotype and an reason for jews being discriminated through the years. To her, I was wrong and needed to make amends by apologizing as well as understanding why the phrase was derogatory.  My being ignorant of the sad history was not enough excuse & though highly agitated, she decided to educate me on history of prejudice against Jewish people.  That day, I lost a potential friend while learning a good lesson about cultural awareness and history.

 

Being ignorant of cultural nuances is not an excuse. -Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba

 

I am older and wiser now.  I look at individuals and do not lump any race with an attribute.  My interaction with Chaya was painful and humiliating.  It also taught me about being culturally aware and a better person.  I bring this knowledge to my everyday interactions in home, school and community. 

 

 

I am writing this post as a response to  Reflective Writing Club Week 4 prompt.

#CCCWrite

#CLMOOC

 

Additional Reading: 

 Jews and money: The stereotype, the history, the reality

The Importance of Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness

 

 

 

Digital Bookmarking: Breezy or hazy?

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba Georgia Online Professional Learning , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

We, the educators & parents expect that our students, our children will grasp the content quickly & will have a deep knowledge of the subject. some of our students lag, despite following curriculum guidelines, providing differentiated education & personalized learning.  We try to accommodate & reflect: What do I need to do? Am I teaching too fast?  Is the material too hard? What can I do so all of my students will love the subject & not think of it as a bore? Have you ever thought what if the shoe was on the other foot? Would you grasp the knowledge as fast as my students? Being a non-native digital citizen, would I flourish or flounder?  Let me share slice of my search for tagging & annotating bookmarks for a class I am taking for GA Virtual Professional Learning.

Bookmarks

A simple device that enhances our reading pleasure.  Who among us have not used it?  Are you reading a book & need to stop?  Bookmark the page.  Don’t have a bookmark available? Please do not fold the page.  Yes, you may use a receipt, piece of thread, a hairpin or even scrap paper for a bookmark.

In a physical book, a bookmark is used as a place holder.  But we, as a society no longer use physical books as our reading source.  Now a day, we read on Kindle, hop on web for search and stay connected through social media.  Is the bookmark still relevant? Yes, it is.  Now more than ever before, we use digital bookmarks for place holder in our meandering on the web.  With a click of a button, we find our information and from there we hop around to gather more knowledge as our fancy takes us.  What if we need to come back to a page we liked?  What if we want to avoid searching for that page repeatedly?  Well, to aid us in our search for pages we have liked, we use bookmark tool.  For

Using bookmark tool is relatively easy.  In most browser, when we like a page we are reading & want to bookmark it, all we should do is click on the star in search bar & Voila! We bookmarked the page.  Depending on the browser and extensions, we can put this bookmarks in folders, tag them or annotate them.  Easy, right?  Not so much for this Digital non-native.

Creating the bookmark was piece of cake for me; tagging & annotating, not so much. I found that google bookmark manger does not allow me to share it publicly. I also failed in my search how to annotate or tag a Google Bookmark after spending a considerable amount of time. So I headed to Firefox Bookmark manager. direction, I was able to import & tag my bookmarks from Chrome.  Annotation?  I am still scratching my head.

That brings me to Symbaloo.  An excellent social bookmarking site.  I created a Symbaloo Webmix. I found out that if I add bookmark extension, I give Symbaloo permission to add or change data. So again, no annotation on Symbaloo for me.  My goal was to bookmark with tag & annotations. I can tag but need more research on how to annotate a bookmark. It will have to wait for another day.

 

Reflection

 

So what did I learn? I learned that my students may be confused, need more time or just zoom through when presented with new information.  I need to give them time & truly personalized the learning. I also learned that at times forging ahead is the only choice & web makes it easy.  Finally, I realized that hard learned lesson will bring joy to all learners, including me.

 

 

 

 

 

Creating This Blog

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba Georgia Online Professional Learning , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello,

Welcome to my blog.

Though I have often think of creating a blog, it had remained just a wishful thinking and ideal thought till today. I am creating this blog as a requirement for Georgia Virtual Learning Open Online Teacher Training. I chose to create my blog on edublogs as it was easy to navigate and manage. I will write this blog from perspective of an educator, a learner & Mom of my Awesome, Amazing kiddos.

As a mom, I want my kids to do their very best regardless of if they choose to be a bricklayer or a neurosurgeon. As a teacher, I want each one of students – the whiz kids and the struggling learners- to experience little successes so they can build on them. Being a student not only keeps my brain sharp, it allows me to keep things in perspective. When I am sitting on other side of the desk, as a student I experience the anxiety and uncertainty of waiting for the grade after submitting an assignment. As a learner, I experience joy of the light bulb moment and euphoria of acknowledgement from my mentor. Being a student allows me to empathize with my struggling student. My struggling to learn a front stroke in swimming is not any different than a kid leaning to master fraction, Na?

Therefore, once again I am a student, a learner, a seeker of new knowledge. I want to do well, get good grades and learn just like all the students in our classes. I want to add in my knowledge toolbox. There are some assignments I will sail through, while for several I will have hard time comprehending and will need assistance. At times, I will agree enthusiastically, while other I will ask what purpose this assignment serves? I will ask for guidance, look for collaboration, dance with joy upon succeeding and shake my head in frustration when struggling.

You, my reader, are an important voice in my journey. We can engage in positive dialogue with respect and without any negativity. Feel free to give a feedback and come back often.

Best wishes.

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba