#Google #Community #Hashtag

The final words of Jeff have been ringing in my ears. After being on technology overload for the past two days, the one thing that I cannot stop thinking about has nothing to do with technology. It has everything to do with being a human being.

The best thing we can do as educators is love our students from the moment they walk into our classrooms and never stop.

No matter how much we practice with technology or study all of the benefits that it brings to the classroom, we cannot change the fact that we are human beings and that we have needs that transcend technology. 

We all have a need to be seen.

To be loved.

To belong.

The beautiful part about technology is that it can be utilized in the classroom to create and foster a sense of belonging and community.

Take Google maps for example. Google mymaps can be used to show how our students are connected with each other and how our students are connected around the world. We can utilize Google mymaps to map out the location of everyone's houses. Doing this gives a visual representation to how close or how far everyone is living from each other. It can also provide a spark or connection for that new student who is looking for a way to connect with their classmates. Google mymaps can be utilized to plot points of the places everyone visited over the summer or maybe spark an interest in students of where they might want to visit one day. When students can visually see these connection points, it provides them with the opportunity to build community based on place and interest.

Take Wikipedia for example. A Wikipedia article is basically a community of individuals looking to provide the world with accurate and unbiased information on a topic that they find interesting. Think about all of the great projects that can come from this concept.  Students can be linked together through common interests and then sent off to provide the rest of the world with the best Wikipedia article they can produce through collaboration. As students are working together, they might "meet" other people from around the world that become part of their "Wikommunity." 

Take the hashtag for example. Creating a classroom hashtag lets educators engage their students on social media in a way that was never possible before. Creating a classroom hashtag allows educators to create communities that can travel together. Creating a classroom hashtag builds a community with an online portfolio for all time. The possibilities are endless!

For all of technology's short falls, it can still be utilized to meet that basic human need of...

#community

#belonging

#love