The purpose of this project is to encourage use of the Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) while using Twitter (@gnoozhekaaning - #placeofthepike) as the social media platform. The use of social media is intended to reach out to college students since it seems to be the popular way to communicate amongst each other. Because Twitter is a public microblogging platform, the general public will be able to participate in learning Ojibwe. In addition to the use of Twitter, Goosechase (scavenger hunt app) will be used to further engage students as they compete with each other while learning Anishinaabemowin. As this project develops and evolves, participants will learn basic Ojibwe words and phrases with the hope of participants learning more complex words and phrases.
Bay Mills Community College’s (BMCC) mission statement includes the integration of native culture and language to all of their courses. It is my mission to incorporate native culture and language into each course I teach by using online tools such as Goosechase and Twitter to make learning a new language fun. In addition to reaching out to college students, this project will reach out the community to help keep the Ojibwe language alive.
Currently, Bay Mills Indian Community does not have fluent speakers in the community, and the native language is rarely heard among community members. Even though language classes are available at BMCC, the younger generation, ages 18-30, do not seem interested in learning the language. In my youth, I was one who did not take time to learn Ojibwe; however, now that I am older, I decided it was time for me to learn Ojibwe, which is why I developed this project for EDT650.
Bay Mills Community College’s (BMCC) mission statement includes the integration of native culture and language to all of their courses. It is my mission to incorporate native culture and language into each course I teach by using online tools such as Goosechase and Twitter to make learning a new language fun. In addition to reaching out to college students, this project will reach out the community to help keep the Ojibwe language alive.
Currently, Bay Mills Indian Community does not have fluent speakers in the community, and the native language is rarely heard among community members. Even though language classes are available at BMCC, the younger generation, ages 18-30, do not seem interested in learning the language. In my youth, I was one who did not take time to learn Ojibwe; however, now that I am older, I decided it was time for me to learn Ojibwe, which is why I developed this project for EDT650.
State Standards for Using Technology in Education
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments 3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility 5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership |
How the State Standards were Met
1.The goal of this project is provide a space for collaboration by engaging students to use Web 2.0 tools to promote learning in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Since Twitter is public, the instructor hoped other Ojibwe speakers would reach out to share their knowledge.
Students are required to research Ojibwe terms to learn their meaning before sharing their knowledge on Twitter. In addition to sharing Ojibwe phrases, students were encouraged to converse with each other in Ojibwe. 2.This project meets this objective by incorporating the social media tool, Twitter to facilitate learning through a collaborative effort. Lesson plans were created to encourage students to learn from each other by carrying out conversations in Ojibwe on a public platform. Students were given the opportunity to utilize additional online resources to promote their knowledge and to share the knowledge they acquired.
A hidden objective to this project was to allow students to develop a professional learning network on Twitter, which in turn, can be used in the future as they progress in both their academic and professional careers. 3. For this particular project, a Learning Management System (Moodle) was used to organize the assignments for this particular project. The use of Moodle and Twitter encouraged collaboration between the students and instructor. Students who were not exposed to Twitter before this class, we given several tutorial references to learn how to use Twitter. In addition, I provided synchronous web meetings to discuss the use of Twitter, and to provide a general usage seminar.
4.Before the students were able to communicate on Twitter and in our virtual classroom, they had to understand the impacts of using technology in an unethical way. I provided a workshop about ethical computing through a synchronous online meeting. In addition to our synchronous meeting, BMCC provides training on topics such as copyright infringement, plagiarism, and proper citation of sources, which is a requirement for all students who attend BMCC.
Since this project involved students enrolled at BMCC, they are exposed to various cultural backgrounds in which they engage on daily basis in both the on-campus and in the virtual classrooms. 5. The University of Michigan Flint's Educational Technology has been a major factor in my professional growth and leadership skills. In addition to pursing a degree, I continue to learn how to use technology in classroom by traveling to various professional development workshops throughout Michigan. Moreover, I continue to use and implement new technology in the classes I teach to help keep students engaged in the course content while meeting the learner objectives for each course.
The use of social media in a classroom is an infant concept. Our class uses social media to promote the development of professional learning networks, while communicating in brief, but effective messages. |