Day 135 - Snapchat 101: A Guide For Educators - BHS Help Desk

This post first appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

The Burlington High School Help Desk is thrilled to be teaming up with Marialice Curran, and the rest of the digital citizenship moderation team, and is sponsoring the new challenge-based digital citizenship Twitter chats. Rather than the typical monthly chat, we have decided to “go rogue.” We are going to stop simply talking about digital citizenship and start doing digital citizenship! For the month of April, we are challenging teachers and school leaders to explore and experiment with the insanely popular photo, video, text, and gif sharing application called Snapchat. We are seeking creative exemplars that can motivate other educators and school districts to give Snapchat a try.

We’re sure you’ve heard of Snapchat (see a brief history here if you are interested in its origins) , especially if you’re a high school educator or have a teenager of your own at home, but you may not realize its potential for use in an educational setting. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Snapchat, but want to be a part of the early adoption group of the app that’s beloved by teens everywhere, the BHS Help Desk students (all of whom are Snapchat experts) are here to help! My students have started creating “Snapchat 101: A Guide for Educators.” This will be a series of video tutorials (this first one is embedded below and features BHS Help Desk student Jhymon Moodie) designed to acclimate new users to Snapchat. My students will also be curating and sharing a list of ideas on how to integrate Snapchat in ways that will engage students.

And if you think learning about another messaging app is a waste of time, and it’s only relevant for teens, think again! Snapchat is now being used by more and more businesses and well-known brands, including Forbes, in innovative ways that ultimately create stronger customer relationships. Obviously, this is a technology that warrants further exploration and we are hoping that progressive thinking educators and school leaders will seriously investigate if there is in fact a place for Snapchat in the classroom. The most exciting part of this exploration and investigation is that educators will need to rely heavily on their students; not only to learn the technology, but to brainstorm ideas on how to most effectively use the technology. This digital citizenship challenge truly empowers students and will give them the opportunity to serve as digital citizenship leaders within their school. It brings the phrase “learning together” to a whole new level!

So why are we doing all this and why Snapchat? We know that Snapchat is a technology our students are already using and feel comfortable with, so why not meet them in their digital space and help guide them towards positive and appropriate use? And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that once you start using it, Snapchat can be quite a bit of fun! So please, join us for the April #digcit challenge and share with us via Twitter a link to a blog post or a video explaining how you will be using Snapchat and the impact you hope it will have on your school community. You can reach us on Twitter at the following accounts:

@BHShelpdesk
@jlscheffer
@mbfxc

You can also share your Snapchat success story directly in the comments section below this post. Please provide a link to what you wish to share! We will be reaching out to those of you who share your stories to coordinate a live Google Hangout On Air at the end of April.  We will feature up to 10 educators (and hopefully their students) in the live Hangout and this will be taking the place of our traditional Twitter chats. We feel this format of sharing positive digital citizenship success stories will have a greater impact and ultimately serve as REAL inspiration and motivation for other schools that are considering the integration of Snapchat. In May and June we plan to rollout additional digital citizenship challenges so stay tuned!

Day 144 - So, You Want to Know What Hosting Help Desk Live is Like? - Jhymon Moodie - BHS Junior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

Editor’s Note: this post originally appeared on the blog of BHS Help Desk junior Jhymon Moodie. To learn more about VloggedIn, and how it can help your students create a positive digital footprint, visit their site at vloggedin.com 

Yesterday, I co-hosted episode 24 of Help Desk Live. It was a fun process and it was even better actually sitting down and broadcasting to a live audience. Mrs. Scheffer coached me a good amount in preparation for my first time co-hosting. She was very patient when it came to me remembering Cassie’s name (or was it Kelly? Hmm). She asked me to come up with questions, and as I presented what I had come up with to her, she told me why some questions were awesome, and why some didn’t work. Along with that, she helped me with the wording of certain questions to get a better answer based on what I asked. When it comes to my actual physical appearance, she recommended I look nice (of course) and to just try and stay calm; watch what you are doing while the camera is on you, and speak slowly and clearly. Personally, now that I have gone through the whole process , I can say without a doubt that her coaching was a great because I was so nervous and I didn’t know how to react when she told me on Monday morning that I was going to host a whole Help Desk Live episode. I didn’t think I could do it, but with Scheffer’s help, it was a breeze! At this point, with the coaching I’ve gotten, I feel confident enough to potentially do it on my own!

What I took from it most was to just be calm in your posture and facial expression when the camera is on you. Also, as I mentioned earlier, just speak at a relaxed pace and tone, and pay close attention to your guest! That is a given anyway, considering that it is a respect thing, but you truly learn some things while he or she is explaining what they are talking about wether it be a device, a network, a website, whatever it may be. Also, she never mentioned it to me directly, but as we switched camera views from us to the guest, and vice versa, I probably wouldn’t want  to perform a full on click with the ‘click’ noise because it comes up in the video and quite frankly, it annoys me. I would probably just do a tap of the mouse pad, because it does the same thing really and it’s more quiet.

Coming up with questions was hard and easy at the same time. The reason for that is because VloggedIn is new and intuitive and it sparked my interest. I wanted to learn more about it which made it simple to come up with questions. But the network is simple. It may sound like a good thing that the website is this way, but it isn’t, and here’s why. There isn’t much too it. I understand that it is a new site, and features aren’t something most new websites are full with often times, but when there isn’t much content or features, you can’t really come up with many questions

I would definitely host another episode in the future. It’s nice to meet new people and learn about their past and what it is they are being interviewed for. Again, I feel as if the coaching I received from Mrs. Scheffer was beneficial and has made me more equipped and ready to tackle an episode by myself. Give me a couple of run throughs and I will probably be a pro! To list a few skills I used while filming, I was told that it would be alright to have my questions by the computer just in case I forgot what my questions were, I could just look over to the side really quickly and remember again. But going back and looking at the hangout, I would probably make sure I dress better. I will also think about side comments and filler questions as the episodes go on.

It is my hope that something I’ve written will stick with those of you who plan on doing their own live online shows. The coaching I received was exceptional and 100% prepared me on what to expect. It is part of my hope also that you take the coaching that I have received from my instructor that I am passing on to anyone willing to read!