Social Media and Speedcubing Adventures

This week’s discussion in class was a bit uncomfortable for me.  I am definitely more of a lurker in social media spaces and I don’t have any experience with online social activism.  The only social media I use regularly is Facebook so I decided to check what I have posted in the past 4 years.  The closest thing to activism that I can find is when I posted a link to an article in January of 2020 about the effects of Screen Time use in children.  I found it ironic that I posted that just 2 months before COVID!  

When I look at my social media posts with the question “What does your online presence say about you?” in my mind, I have pieced together the following:

• Mom of 2 kids
• Wife to an avid bbq lover
• Christian
• Librarian
• Teacher

 I managed to find one “political” post.  On October 19, 2015, I posted “I voted today – did you?” Wow!  I feel so rebellious!    

I am generally wary of showing my political, religious or personal views online because of the stories I have heard about teachers losing their jobs or being disciplined because of their online content.  Here are a few links in case you are interested:

Massachusetts Teacher Fired for TikTok videos from Boston

Teacher Discharged for Social Media Posts from Pennsylvania

Teacher guilty of misconduct over anti-COVID social media posts from Ontario

The Merits of Being Antisocial from the Alberta Teachers Foundation

So, with that background in mind, I started to look for some peer reviewed research about teacher social activism.  I used the search “Implications for teachers involved in social activism” in Google Scholar and on the UofR Archer Library page.

Interestingly, most of the research was very positive before 2021.  The articles talk about the importance of introducing social justice to students and getting students to use social media in school. All of these articles were written 10+ years ago. 

I then refined my search to limit the results to “since 2021”. 

As you can see, the results are very different.  I have my own ideas about why the research changed but I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about possible reasons the research has changed so significantly in the past 5 years.  

Going down a different type of rabbit hole this week, I found some really inspiring examples of how social media activism has made a positive impact.  

I found a fascinating book online through JStor called Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism.  I read Chapter 7 called Indigenous Activism Using Twitter.  I chose this chapter because it specifically focuses on the Canadian perspective of MMIWG.  The chapter looks at how MMIWG information was reported (or not) by mainstream media before, during and after the 2019 release of the National Inquiry report.  It also highlights how Indigenous people have been able to come together through shared experiences using hashtags related to Indigenous issues.  A quote that stood out to me in the chapter was this: 

“Social media can help to create a unified space where activists are supported in solidarity by a network of individuals who may be affiliated only through social media but mobilize together toward a common political goal (see Berglund, this volume; Vigil-Hayes et al., 2017)” (p. 119).

Another group of people who have found solidarity and community through social media activism are people with disabilities.  For them, it is “not about performance, it is about access” (1:45).  By sharing their struggles and successes online with a virtual community, they are able to bring awareness to their needs and gather support for their cause.   

So how does this research affect the way I think about social media activism as a teacher?  I have learned this week that activism does not have to be extremist or even political.  Activism should be about bringing awareness to my spheres of influence and ensuring that all voices are heard.  As a teacher, I shouldn’t be afraid of that, I should be encouraging and modeling those things for my students.  

 If you would like to comment, I’d love to hear about how you have encouraged social activism with students and/or why you think the research around teacher activism has changed so significantly in the past 5 years.  

The prompt this week seemed very straightforward, at first glance. “Choose an AI tool that you aren’t familiar with and try it out”.  Then I looked at the list!  Of the 40+ links in the Weekly Schedule, I had heard of exactly 3 – not familiar with, just that I had heard of them.  

I have to be honest, I was completely overwhelmed.  I had to come to terms with my experience using AI, limited as it is.  In general, I tend to be a late adopter.  I don’t jump on new trends, I don’t always need the newest gadgets, I don’t often see first-run movies and I haven’t really used AI.  The most AI I use is my Siri in the car to get directions or play a song from Apple Music.  I like the AI generated results when I do a google search and I appreciate the AI summary of comments from Facebook posts.  That is pretty much the extent of my AI understanding.  

So, I picked a couple of AI tools to check out.  The first one I tried was MagicSchool.  I found the website confusing because I didn’t really understand what the purpose was.  I thought it was a bit like Teachers Pay Teachers or Pinterest where I could search for existing lessons.  With some experimenting, I was able to create a Unit Plan.  I asked for a Unit Plan for my Grade 4 Rocks and Minerals Unit.  As a follow up question, I asked for a worksheet to help students identify minerals.  I was able to copy the AI generated work into a Google Doc.  The Unit Plan is logically sorted into lessons, covers all the required outcomes and provides options for potential assessments and culminating activities.  There is still a lot of work to do as a teacher to flesh out each lesson and find appropriate texts, videos, and experiments but I can definitely see how this tool can be really helpful for teachers who are teaching a new topic for the first time.  The AI generated material is a good starting point for planning and can build confidence that curricular outcomes are being met.  

I also tried using Copilot to search for tourist spots in different European cities.  I know that Copilot is part of the Microsoft suite of tools for Regina Public, but, like many other tools, I had never tried using it.  My son is going to Europe over Spring Break with a group from school and I want him to have some context and history about the cities he will be visiting.  So, I used Copilot to help me narrow down my search and save some time.  I did a few searches and made a Screencastify video of the results (no audio). 

I was impressed that I could ask follow up questions and the program was able to infer that I was continuing the conversation rather than looking for something different (unlike a Google search which doesn’t link your searches to each other). 

I think Copilot is the closest to what I was expecting from an AI tool and I’m not sure how I feel about it in Educational settings.  When I asked my teenage kids and their friends what they thought about using AI, immediately they all said “it’s cheating”.  I found that very interesting!  I really expected them to defend it and tell me about the cool things they are doing with AI.  

I think we still have a long way to go and a LOT to learn about the best ways to use AI in the classroom.  This video helped me to understand some of the implications for AI in Education.

The other tool(s) I tried this week seemed a bit gimmicky but I think kids would enjoy them.  

I started with Animated Drawings.  The first thing that popped up was a disclaimer – interesting!

Animated Drawings were fun for a few minutes – I animated a photo of my daughter and we had a laugh but then we were done with it.  We had to play around with the settings a bit to get it right but it was fairly intuitive. 

From there, clicked on the AI Demos tab and tried Segment Anything 2, Seamless Translation and Audiobox.   These seem like “one off” tools.  I think kids would like trying them but they would get bored with the tool quickly. 

Perhaps Audiobox has more potential as it can be used to record stories with sound effects and music but it would need a lot of pre teaching for students to be able to use it.  I didn’t find it very user friendly.  

All in all, I think AI tools are here to stay.  And, as teachers, we will learn to adapt to the new technology and incorporate what we can into our classrooms so that our students will have the best learning experiences we can give them!

This week, I dove into the world of TedEd.  I have seen many Ted Talks in the past and have heard of TedEd through YouTube videos but until this week, I didn’t realize that it was a user created platform.  I was excited to learn about this platform because, in my experience, Ted Talks are usually very high quality.  

At first glance, the site seems very user friendly.  The home page has a sampling of lessons and includes information for educators, students and parents.  When you click on one of the sample lessons, you are taken to that lesson page where you will find a video, multiple choice or short answer questions, additional links to learn more about the topic and an open discussion board.  I liked the style of lessons and the sequence of activities for students.

I decided to search for a lesson that I could try with my Grade 4 Science class.  Currently, we are studying Sound. I used the search bar at the top of the page to look for lessons about Sound.  There were 283 results.  Unfortunately, at this point in the search, there are no options to narrow the search.  I would have to browse through all of the results and hope to find a lesson that would work for my class.

At this point, I decided it would be best to create a lesson about the  Transmission of Sound by modifying a lesson I currently teach to the Grade 4 that includes a video component.  Creating a lesson on TedEd was very simple and straightforward.  I linked the video URL and then rewrote the questions in multiple choice format.  For the “Dig Deeper” section, I included a link to an article where students can learn more about sound vibrations as well as a link to a simple game that shows sound vibrations.  I decided not to include a “Discuss” component because the comments would show up publicly and, due to the students’ age (8 and 9 year olds) and the fact that I have not talked about digital citizenship beforehand with this class, I decided that for the purpose of this activity, I would leave it out.  The students didn’t even notice – once they finished the questions and found the game, they did not go back to the TedEd page!

Publishing the lesson was also very simple.  There was an option to link directly to Google Classroom which is a platform that my students are familiar with.

On Friday, I explained to the class that I am also a student and that I needed their help with my assignment.  They loved it!  They were very eager to help me and be my guinea pigs 🙂

First, I showed them the link in Google Classroom and then I showed them the different activities to complete.  Most students chose to work on their own and a few chose to work with a partner.

The lesson took students about 15 minutes to complete and then we debriefed so they could give me some feedback.

Overall, the students really enjoyed the freedom of the activity and the fact that it was easy to follow and wasn’t too challenging.

The biggest downfall of this activity for me was the tracking of student data.  I was excited about this part because I have used data tracking many times in Google Forms in the past and it is a great way to see how students are doing and to check their responses.  I thought the tracking would be similar to Google Forms.  The data that was collected was not very streamlined and was somewhat confusing in its presentation.  When I chose to view individual results, I would have to click through each question to check their answers.  Then, in order to get back to the class results, I would have to press the back button multiple times.  This is not very efficient for a class of 28 students.

I then downloaded the results into a .csv file that I could open in Excel but that wasn’t helpful either.  The results are messy and not very user friendly.

Overall, I think the TedEd lessons are good for student practice and providing individual assignments but I would not use it for summative evaluations.  There are hundreds of great videos on the site and I liked being able to create a lesson in one place and then have a single link for Google Classroom but I wouldn’t use this site regularly in my classroom.