Today's Students Learn Differently

"No matter how we feel about it, social media has fundamentally changed how we learn."   read more here

                                                                                                                  -Dylan Rodgers

Here at South Side Area School District, we are just entering our second month with the Schoology LMS. We continue to learn more each day about how to use a platform such as Schoology to help us build a collaborative culture for our students, staff and community. More than just a digital workspace, Schoology allows us to share with one another inside and outside of our immediate classroom walls.

Recently, I have begun to explore the interactive media albums feature available in Schoology. This feature can be a powerful way to share with and connect our learners and stakeholders. Below are some obvious as well as some unique ways to incorporate this feature into your classrooms:

image via Pixabay

• Create a virtual field trip for parents and students who were unable to attend the outing by sharing photos and video from the event. Schoology is a password protected environment making it a safe place to share. 
• PE teachers can take advantage of this feature to share photos of correctly modeled exercises and training drills. 
• Instructors can create a virtual art gallery to showcase projects and artwork created in school. 
• This is a easy way for students or teachers to create vocabulary flashcards. 
• Host a virtual Show and Tell for items that are too big or not practical to bring to school. 

Schoology's media albums are a safe and easy way to share. It also allows users to comment and provide feedback for each other making it collaborative as well. Please share your ideas for this tool in the comments section below.

Teaching With Photos

It's no secret that today's tech-savvy kids love to take photos.

Photo via Pixabay

 Many of our learners have easy access to cameras.  As teachers, we have an amazing opportunity to capitalize on this passion by providing classroom opportunities for our students that allow them to document their learning via photos.

"Documenting is more than staying organized or writing down what will be or was taught. Documenting is part of the learning process."

                                                                                       -Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano


Help kids to capture authentic learning experiences by using photos and some of these easy-to-implement ideas for the classroom:

• Use a collage making tool such as Pic Collage  to document steps in a science experiment or math problem. Or have students create a scrapbook of a famous biographical figure with this same tool.
• Photo essays make an enticing alternative to the traditional essay. Thinglink is a fun tool to accomplish this. 
• Employ Blabberize or Chatterpix Kids to encourage your students to create book summaries from the perspective of their favorite character. These tools can make any photo speak!
• Engage your students in your content with a photo scavenger hunt using Google Photos.
• Our students love memes. Urge learners to make their own.  Suggest one of the many meme creation tools available, such as Imgflip for students to create memes about book characters or science lab procedures.
• Instead of having students write vocabulary definitions and sentences, change it up and ask them to represent their vocabulary through photos instead. 

Are you concerned about how to collect and give feedback on these types of assignments?

A platform such as Schoology or Google Classroom make collecting, checking and providing feedback a snap.

Do you have a great idea for using photos in the classroom? Please share your ideas in the comments below.