Together We Are Better : Professional Learning Networks for Teachers

In recent years, many educators have turned to professional learning networks (PLNs) to grow in their craft with peers who are more accessible online because of reduced temporal and spatial constraints. While educators have cultivated PLNs, there is a dearth of research about the effects of PLNs. This manuscript reports the findings of a qualitative study that investigated PLN experiences through the analysis of survey data from 732 P-12 teachers. Data analysis suggests that the anytime, anywhere availability of expansive PLNs, and their capacity to respond to educators\u27 diverse interests and needs, appear to offer possibilities for supporting the professional growth of whole teachers. These findings have implications for defining the present and future of teacher learning in a digital age

"Remixing" Current Events: Navigating the Transmedia Terrain with Fifth Graders

This article discusses two democratic media literacy skills that teachers can model and teach to help students as 21st century citizens

Democratic Twittering: Microblogging for a More Participatory Social Studies

This article uses the example of the Arab Spring to discuss how new media lowers barriers so that more voices may be heard

Platforms, Purpose, and Pedagogy: Reclaiming Context and Resisting Technopoly with Participatory Media

This article examines the work of media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman in the wake of participatory media

Social Media Diaries And Fasts: Educating For Digital Mindfulness With Pre-Service Teachers

With social media access nearly ubiquitous, teachers and students must explore how to mitigate distractions and unhealthy uses. In this mixed methods study, the authors invited 60 pre-service teachers across two universities to cultivate mindfulness around social media beliefs, habits, and behaviors by completing a social media survey, diary, and fast. Participants identified reasons for regular social media use, including unconscious impulses, and made new realizations about what is gained and lost in social media engagements. Participants were optimistic about teaching similar lessons. The authors recommend pedagogical guidelines for social media mindfulness that allow for complexity, variance, and idiosyncrasy

The Enlightenment Meets Twitter: Using Social Media in the Social Studies Classroom

This article explains how social studies educators can, and have, used the microblogging service Twitter

Videoconferencing for Global Citizenship Education: Wise Practices for Social Studies Educators

This article reviews literature on videoconferencing for global citizenship education and analyzes those efforts towards cosmopolitan citizenship

Videoconferencing for Global Citizenship Education: Wise Practices for Social Studies Educators

Videoconferencing activities hold particular promise for social studies educators hoping to mediate humanizing experiences that will help students grow as citizens of the world. In this paper, we review literature on videoconferencing for global citizenship education and analyze those efforts towards cosmopolitan citizenship. Through our analysis of scholarly, popular, and practitioner sources, we present three general, and often overlapping, purposes for videoconferencing -- intercultural experiences, intercultural projects, and learning about cultures -- while providing a variety of examples and options from elementary to higher education. Educators encourage intercultural experiences when the primary purpose for participants’ videoconferencing activities is to learn about the people, communities, and cultures with whom they engage. The primary aim of intercultural projects is for participants to utilize videoconferencing to complete some task together. Educators can help students learn about cultures by bringing in people from different countries or cultures to share their expert knowledge or perspectives. We hope educators can glean insights from the videoconferencing cases provided in the text so as to make decision appropriate to their unique students’ needs. None of these approaches is necessarily superior to the others, but they may require different time and energy commitments. We also share technology requirements and common problems with videoconferencing. Finally, we conclude with implications for educators and researcher

Naming Her World: A Freirean Analysis of a Young Woman with Asperger Syndrome's Post-High-School Experience

This article seeks to better understand to what extent the Individual Education Plan (IEP) adequately prepared one girl for major life transitions following high-school graduation

Participatory Learning Through Social Media: How and Why Social Studies Educators Use Twitter

This article draws on Deweyan conceptions of participatory learning and citizenship aims of the field as lenses through which to consider social media activities