"Twitter-Style" Chat in Canvas and How to Make Modules More 😊

In our last edition, we saw how Discussions can be used to help students develop as Knowledge Constructors. This week highlights how one teacher is helping her students develop as Creative Communicators and Digital Citizens through Canvas Discussions.

Canvas Twitter-Style Chat

1. Melissa Osmun, reading teacher at Central Middle School, and her students have been participating in a "Twitter-Style" Chat using Canvas Discussions. (If you are unfamiliar with Twitter Chats, check out this comprehensive guide to Twitter created by a personal Twitter Favorite of mine- @cybraryman1)

Click on Image to see Larger- See Tweet here

2. Melissa's method: Melissa creates a Discussion for her class and then creates three replies to the Discussion. Each reply is a question. Students are then instructed to reply to two questions, giving students choice.

3. Benefits for the Students: While there are many benefits, adding online discussions to your tool kit provides an opportunity for  students to have time to process their ideas, makes their thinking visible to other students, and requires all students to be involved in the discussion. The online discussion feature is always a great way to give a voice to a student who may be more reserved in the whole class setting.

4. Benefits for the Teacher: Melissa can make sure that all students are involved in the Discussion and can provide specific feedback within the Discussion or through Speedgrader. Students responses are grouped together in Speedgrader which makes reviewing a snap for teachers.

And Now...just because it is fun and because I got the idea from Twitter,

5. Add Emoticons to your Module Titles to provide an element for visual discrimination and  🎉 fun 🎉. You can copy emojis from a ton of places including emojipedia.org and then place the graphic into your Module title. Destiny Beck, high school English teacher, added graphics to modules in her 9th grade English class.

Click On Image to See Larger

Canvas As A Medium for Art

Knowledge Constructors in Advanced Art

Art and canvas makes sense, but what about art and Canvas? One of the  ISTE Standards for Students is for students to be Knowledge Constructors. Very simply put, this means students utilize various digital tools to develop their own understanding about ideas, events, or issues. They can use this knowledge to inform others, make connections, and draw conclusions. 

This week's Friday Five features Sarah Moos' use of Canvas to help her students become Knowledge Constructors. 

CG: Could you briefly describe the assignment?

SM: Students were examining the work of Edouard Manet. They were asked to critique two of his paintings and discuss how his style is considered impressionistic.  

CG: What was your learning goal for your students?

SM: My goal was to have students become more familiar with the work of Edouard Manet and look at his work in terms of how he influenced and help develop the impressionism style.  My goal was to have students look closely at the subject, style, color palette, brush strokes and mood of his work in order to create an evaluation.

CG: How did utilizing Canvas help your students reach that goal and how did it help you evaluate their learning?

Click on Image to Enlarge

SM: Students were able to quickly access the National Gallery of Art, where they were able to read background information about Manet and the particular painting they were studying. They also had the  ability to zoom into the painting. From there they were able to use Canvas to record their thoughts in an organized manner, including the painting they were critiquing. With ease, I was able to see the painting they were referring to and evaluate their critique. The assignment also allowed students to gather thoughts prior to a class discussion.


CG: Do you plan on doing this kind of assignment in the future? Would you change anything?

SM: I used the Assignment feature in Canvas for this assignment. I would like to begin to have students do similar assignments using the Discussion feature. This will allow students to see each other's work which will broaden the learning experience for all. 

Image Source: Manet, Woman with Cat