Welcome to Social Media 4 Schools

What is social media?

My favorite definition is from the Duct Tape Marketing Blog:

the use of technology combined with social interaction to create or co-create value

Why use social media in school?

It is fast becoming the primary way people communicate and participate in a global society and economy
To communicate more effectively with parents and students
To help create a positive, collaborative community within school and with the community

How to use social media in school?

The "Walled Garden" for teachers

Middle Trojan Ning -- The virtual HMS faculty lounge designed to foster the school's Professional Learning Community
Middle Trojan Grou.ps -- This is the new Middle Trojan site
Professional Dialogue Blog -- This is a blog for my Professional Dialogue group to post reflections from books we are reading
Classroom 2.0 -- A huge social network with thousands of educators worldwide
PA Educators -- Similar to Classroom 2.0, but for Pennsylvania teachers

The "Walled Garden" for students

iCitizen -- a learning network for students in my class to explore their civic voice
Coveritlive -- create synchronous live events for students: ex--evening study sessions, backchannel chat during class event

Communicate with parents

Team Andromeda wiki
Twitter -- See the following Twitter feeds: mrtitzel & ClassUpdate
Viva la Historia -- my class blog

Student communication and collaboration

Study Hall wiki >
Voicethread Projects >
Vimeo video sharing -- I primarily use this site to create embeddable videos that I can place in my blogs and wikis
Drop.io -- Great for students to share photos, documents, etc... Students took pictures on a field trip and posted to THIS drop.io drop site
Edmodo

Professional development--develop a Personal Learning Network

American Cultures 2.0
Twitter -- See my PLN Twitter feed: titzel
Check out the "Walled Garden" for teachers sites from above
Delicious and/or Diigo social bookmarking sites