Social media get students scholarships

University of California is turning to social media to help send more students to school. Alum, students and even celebrities are getting on board and donating. Every dollar donated goes straight to aid. This will be scholarship money, not grants. The University of California already gives over 2 billion dollars in grants and scholarship money so why are they asking for more? Is all 2 billion really going to students? People like Jamie Foxx has offered to perform if $20,000 is raised in his names. Who is really going to get all this extra money and will people actually donate?

On www.promiseforeducation.org people make promises  then donors pick which campaign to donate too. This is a six week experiment and about $860,000 has already been raised. Yes, the idea seems fun but what happens when people do not hold up their end of the promise? That will mean people will stop donating. Why isn’t the government doing more for students if there isn’t enough aid?

Will this encourage the government to stop giving out money? It’s possible. If they notice more people are going to this then they will get more stingy with giving out money. That isn’t fair to me. If www.promiseforeducation.org fails then what? The government expects everyone to have higher education yet they cant help pay for everyone.

According to www.promiseforeducation.org the state has cut funding by about $900 million. What happened to all this money? The website should focus more on who was affected and their stories. The promise idea is fun but not effective. Many problems could arise if people don’t keep up their promise. I also think there is other way to raise money. All college students would like some extra scholarship money. So what students will benefit from this and how will the students still struggling get aid?

I’m not convinced that crowdsourcing is the best way to help students. I think this should be an issue between the government and the university. Higher education is mandatory and we shouldn’t be relying on the community to send students to school. The government needs to step and and help.

Related articles

• UC Turns To Social Media To Raise Student Aid (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
• UC goes social to raise scholarship funds (universityofcalifornia.edu)

Monitoring social media

A California school district has recently hired a team to monitor their students social media.  This stated last year due to conflicts with social media. The company claims to only look at public posts of students. If a monitor sees something that violates the school code of conduct then school officials are notified. I think this crosses the line. I think it violates privacy but I could see why schools are concerned. 

This is taking place in middle and high schools and it is expected to spread across 3000 school so in the next year. I don’t understand why middle school is a part of this. I feel like the main problem is in high schools. The school says this is because of suciedes. From experiences, I know more cyber bullying occurs in high school. Middle and high school is a time for students to find out who they are. They shouldn’t have someone watch their every move. It’s their time to learn. 

Going off that, I think students will be less willing to be themselves knowing someone is watching. They might be too scared to post something creative. This is limiting students. Also they might be scared to post their opinion especially if they dont agree with the majority. 

As a school official, I could see why this sounds like a good idea. With more teachers using social media more students will have communicate with each other. That does leave more room for conflicts. 

I think there is a better way to go about this. There should be a monitoring system only if a student reports a problem. Mainly I think this is a parents decision. A parent should decide wether or not to watch what their chips is posting. I think this will cause too much non needed law enforcement activity. Children this young shouldn’t feel pressured to always be perfect. If a problem arises then there are other ways to handle it. 

Automatic Grading

Going to a school with 33,000 students, I understand grading could become stressful. Most teachers that teach general education classes are students themselves. Last year, I was introduced to an online website called SAGrader. This website allows students to type essays online then have it automatically graded. It grades off key words and phrases that the professor types in. I found using SAGrader a struggle because it wouldn’t recognize my language, the grading system could be slow and there was a lack of communication and understanding. 

SAGrader only recognizes what the professor types in. It was hard not to type in directly what the book said. My professor only put the book definitions in as the right answer. Every time I would submit my assignment it said I got it wrong, but I put in my own definition. I found it hard to learn the material because I was just reading directly from the book. SAGrader does not grade accurately and it took me multiple tries to get the answer right. I would have to keep changing the word. 

Another problem with SAGrader is that the system is very slow. Students shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do assignments but it would take up to 10 minutes to have my essay graded. It took too much time in between and waiting for it too grade wasn’t worth it.  I had no motivation because the program wouldn’t grade right and it took too long to grade. 

Also, There was no way to communicate other ideas with students. My teacher never read or responded to what I was writing. I would get my grade and move on. The topics were never even discussed in class. I feel like those should have been important topics for the class to talk about. SAGrader doesn’t give students a chance to interact or let them work as a team. 

SAGrader makes grading easier for teachers but does nothing for students. The only advantage is getting direct feedback and being able to submit an assignment as many times as needed (if your professor allows.) I don’t think this is a good way to go about online learning. I felt like I was typing directly from the textbook. To check out SAGrader for yourself go too https://www.sagrader.com/

What is a MOOC?

Massive Open Online Classes or MOOC is making a huge impact in the world of education. These classes are 100% distant learning with everything a student needs online. With tuition free, this makes higher education more achievable to more students. This will increase college enrollment, keep students out of debt but also make the job market more competitive.

Schools like Harvard, Stanford and Yale recently started making courses free and online. Some schools even offer them on iTunes. This means, anyone can go online and learn for free. The only downside is that most are noncredit courses. This would mean students wouldn’t be receiving a degree. Some do offer credit with tuition as low as $7,000. 

Without a degree, how will this change the job market? Someone can have more education but not a degree. Who gets the job? How important is the diploma? I think people are starting to change their mind about college. Yes, a degree is important but more people believe in “It’s who you know not what you know.” MOOC needs some type of enrollment system so employers know students have completed a type of course. Learning is learning and people should get credit for it. 

More downfalls to these are the lack of group projects and lack of communication. There is no possible way to connect and respond to every single student in the class. Being able to work in a group and bounce ideas back and forth is a component of being qualified for a job. Students won’t have that chance and be forced to be own their own. 

With enrollment more than 100,000 students per class, I think this isn’t for me. It would be very easy to fall behind. I would have no relationship with a professor and I wouldn’t have a place to ask questions. The learning style is the same with lectures, power points and presentations but I could fall behind and no one would notice. Personally, I wouldn’t work hard in this type of class because employers don’t know about this to understand its the same as a traditional university. 

Twitter Lectures

Recently in Sweden, a group came together and put their lectures into tweets. With only 140 characters, is it possible to effectively teach this way? I think it would be convenient to have my classes on twitter but I feel like I would get too distracted. I could see how this could be helpful for some professors and students. It gives a way for more students to connect, a way to constantly check out new information and make classes more accessible. 

Students from all over can use this twitter to understand course material. Tweets can be read and students can interact and respond to other students without feeling like they are interrupting. Having class online could also help students who are shy to reach out and ask questions. Teachers can also individually answer question and could encourage discussion through questions students ask. 

Students would also be bale to check up on class whenever they had free time. If the professor keeps it updated out of class time. It is a good way to share current events, ideas or discussion questions and responses. It would also provide a way for more students to participate in class. Students may have to distance learn because of a job or personal reasons. Teaching lectures online would help all students stay focused and they can work on class assignments hen they have time. 

The downside to this is, will 140 characters be enough to explain class content? I don’t think it would be possible to teach that way, unless a link to an article is used in each tweet. But that isn’t teaching, thats just sharing information with one another. For these reasons I think twitter should be a tool but not a way to teach a class. Students will have too many questions, professors won’t have time to reply and students will get aggravated because they cant understand the information. 

I’m still not convinced that we are ready to go 100% online. As a student, I learn best in the classroom with handwritten notes. I’ve taken online classes but I am not as motivated and I feel weird asking questions. I never saw my professor so I felt like I couldn’t ask questions or voice my concerns. Do you think Twitter could be used for lectures? If you are still unsure then check out http://bit.ly/18zy34x 

Digital media and social media improves students writing

Around 4,200 teachers were surveyed and results conclude that students writing improves because of social media usage. They survey was done by AP and National Writing Project teachers. Teachers claim students are more creative and put more effort into their work when it gets posted online. On the other hand, students tend to be sloppy and less formal when writing online. I think students need to learn equally how to write online and how to write by hand. How does social media change the way we write? What are the best ways to teach this to students? I agree with this study. I think online revising workshops, mixing informal and formal writing and making sure a big audience will read their work is the best way to transition into more online writing.

Students get more excited about writing when they know their peers and a wide audience will read their work. Making students keep a blog or publish piece to their online portfolio will encourage them to try harder. If a student hand writes their work then only the teacher will read it. Making students publish things online will also help them with networking and possible jobs. Having a blog or portfolio will also make applying for scholarships and colleges easier for students. They would already have a place to show off things they read, their opinions on things or papers and stories they have written.

Our generation grew up with using technology so it shouldn’t be ignored. Yes, we tend to be less informal online but that’s who we are. We don’t need to change who we are just so we look perfect online. There’s a time and place for everything. Discussions, personal posts, blogs and maybe even portfolios can be informal. I think being informal shows personality which is just as important in the working world. Things like emails and online applications should still be formal. Bottom line: There is nothing wrong with being informal online. It’s just knowing when to use it. Students should be able to have an informal blog but still have to formally answer questions online. Then they know they when and how they should communicate.

Personally, I find online workshops very helpful. I think uploading papers to google docs and letting my peers read it online is very helpful. Replying to discussion questions and adding their opinions to blogs is another great way to help students learn how to communicate online. The only part of they study I didn’t understand was teachers graded their students work as being “good” not “very good” or “excellent.” The study contradicts itself that way. Teaching students to help each other with their mistakes and let them have their own opinion should mean their writing is better. I would strive to keep grading students better and better.

I think its time to embrace online writing. That is the direction things are moving especially with newspapers and magazines going online and not print. It’s important to still have hand writing skills but the focus needs to shift to online. Email, chats and social media sites are the way we communicate the quickest and many people feel more comfortable behind a computer screen. To find out statistics on students writing online check out http://bit.ly/12tYLIp