Insta-Classroom

Social networking is at it's height in the World Wide Web. Facebook, blog sites, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube. They are all sites that individuals use to connect with others under the same interests all over the world. Thanks to advances in technology, that connection is easier to make on a daily basis. Many educators in the field are doing what they can to use some of this technology to their advantage, especially in the blogging sphere. One can find out many inside tricks to the trade by searching for their perspective grades, including stories from the front about how students react to lessons. To enhance these posts, many use another networking site that is becoming a forefront for both young and old alike to use. 

Image Credit taken from http://sjsdblogs.com/coughlin/files/2013/07/Screen-shot-2013-07-31-at-10.20.11-AM-1shenpo.png

Instagram is a public hosting website for uploaded phone photos that can be instantly edited with filters to change color, size, and clarity. Users are able to find pictures by searching for hashtags of specific topics - like #dogsofinstagram or #intheclassroom. With it's popularity, as well as my students' innate ability of finding my personal Instagram (which has pictures of gifts they have given, and too many Disney shots to count), I couldn't help but wonder how I could use this tool to enhance education for my students?  

A very brief Google search led me to a great article by Hannah Hudson (found here) that gave 10 excellent ideas of how to use Instagram in the classroom. I thought the neatest one that I would certainly enjoy participating in was #5 - a character in fiction's use of Instagram (Hudson, 2013). Hudson gives the suggestion to have students and the teacher both find/create pictures that famous fictional characters - like Harry Potter - would post on their own Instagram. This idea and others has given me a base of where I could start if I were to implement Instagram posts as a supplemental, fun way to enhance reading instruction.

In another, shorter article, Ian Jukes (2013) gives ways to use Instagram to enhance instructional time. One that really intrigued me was having students take pictures of parallel lines for a part of a math unit. His article can be found here.  

As with many other social networking sites, teachers need to follow serious netiquette when interacting with their students and posting things on their profiles. It is, after all, a public hosting site. As a teacher, certain presence needs to be upheld, and students need to do the same with their accounts as well. 

My brief search around the inter-webs led to some valuable information that I feel I could use if/when I decide to incorporate this technology with my current 5th graders. However, for those who have already found me, I believe my first post will be from the viewpoint of the current hero we are reading about - Bradley Chalkers from There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. 

References

Hudson, H. (2013, July 22). 10 Ways to Use Instagram in the Classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog/blog-wat/2013/07/22/10-ways-to-use-instagram-in-the-classroom

Jukes, I. (2013, November 5). How to use instagram in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://fluency21.com/blog/2013/11/05/how-to-use-instagram-in-the-classroom/.