TECHNOLOGY MINI-GRANT PROPOSAL

Name of Applicant __Nadia Williams_______________________________________

Administrators Name ______Leetonia Young_______________________________________
District/School _______Cobb County School District/East Cobb Middle School___________
District/School Address ___514 Glover Street Marietta, Georgia 30060________
Applicants E-mail ___Nadia.Williams@Cobbk12.org________________________
Date ____July 5th, 2015______ Total Cost of Project: ___$500.00_____
$500.00)

(up to

Title of Project: ___Student Learning Showcase through Social Media_______________

Student Learning Showcase through Social Media

I.

Why is this project important (describe the need)? Both ISTE and Georgia
Department of Education standards outline goals and guidelines for each student to learn,
acquire, and practice appropriate digital citizenship. As is stated in the research of Lev
Vygotsky, children learn best when working on a new skill that is presented in a fun, and
game-like environment. Furthermore, children are also more engaged in learning a new skill
when working with a more knowledgeable other, or another colleague or role-model who can
model how to appropriately execute the new skill (McLeod, 2007). Thus, in adopting the use
of social media, more specifically Twitter, in an educational format, teachers and
administrators as well as community leaders can model the effective use of this medium.
From personal observation, fewer secondary students at East Cobb actively use Twitter in
their spare time. More adults, on the other hand, actively use Twitter. With this in mind,
educators can create a space within the medium of Twitter that is active use of social media
that does not encroach upon the tools secondary students are using more actively (Finley,
2011). This gives respect to students conversations and interactions online in their spare
time, while encouraging them to continue educationally-oriented conversations on Twitter in
a manner that offers instantaneous feedback and perpetual engagement.

II.

What would you like to accomplish (describe the unit or lesson and list
instructional objectives)? At East Cobb Middle School, we would like to have at least
50% of our teachers participate in broadcasting that which their students have learned
through Twitter. In the first year of implementing this initiative, we aim to have teachers
have as much professional autonomy as possible in order to encourage more of them to adopt
this technology as part of their classroom tools. Research published within the Harvard

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Business Review (2014), Forbes Magazine (2011), and Psych Central (2011) identify a
strong scientific link between employee autonomy and productivity, even if it is only an
appearance of autonomy that is given to employees. In fact, the research suggests that
employees within an organization are more apt to jump aboard with the use of a new tool or
implementation of a new initiative if they feel as though they have been offered some amount
of flexibility and control of their working environment. We would also like to see students
reaching out to authors, business leaders, political figures, charitable organizations, and other
reputable persons in order to explore the content they are learning in a real-world setting.
These interactions will enable students to practice professional communication, a skill which
will prove useful into their adult years.
III.

How will you complete the work?

A. Describe how the instructional objectives will be met. Throughout the
implementation of this initiative, the students will be a part of the process, brainstorming
ways Twitter can be used for educational purposes alongside all other stakeholders. That
said, through contests, and encouraging teachers to offer items like extra credit, or even
hosting Twitter chats with their students, the teachers will pull students into having contentbased discussions online. This first year of implementation will focus heavily upon the use
of Twitter as an extension of the classroom with the goal of subsequent years to be to
acquire more specific data on the impact upon instruction. That said, teachers will take part
in regular discussions facilitated by the Social Media team about the process and ways in
which they can use social media to deepen student learning. Furthermore, as outlined
below, the teachers will be encouraged to conduct one lesson or unit as per their normal
teaching procedures and record pre- and post- assessment data. Then, they will be asked to
do the same using Twitter as some extension of their classroom (the method by which will
be determined by the teachers on an individual basis). Using the pre- and post- assessment
data gained from this lesson experience aligned with Twitter, the data gained will be used in
the professional learning discussions to analyze how and in what ways students are more
engaged in learning as a result of part of it taking place on Twitter as well.
B. Describe the time involved (project length including amount of time each
day/week).
This initiative will be one that is ongoing throughout the school year. The school will set
up a Social Media team who will monitor the implementation and usage of Social Media
for educational purposes as well as the school hashtag (to be determined by the faculty at
the start of the school year).

C. Describe the people involved (grade level/subject & # of students,

teachers and/or
staff). As mentioned above, the school will organize a Social Media
team who will monitor the progress and evolution of this initiative. This team will comprise at
least one administrator, at least one Academic Coach, and at least two teachers who are
technologically-savvy. This team will run the contests, poll students for their suggestions
periodically, and provide updates and observations about the program to the faculty and
administration. Students will also play an important role in this program as well as the whole
focus will be to keep them engaged. The specific role of students will be
determined by those

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chosen for the Student Social Media Team who will be made up of students from each grade
level (one per grade level team) and these students will
brainstorm ways to keep excitement,
interest, and engagement in the program among the
student body. They will serve as student
technology leaders.
D. Describe the materials needed for the project.
Given the community nature of this project, each student will need to have access to his or
her own personal device. Each teacher and faculty member at East Cobb Middle School has
already been provided with an iPad for classroom use which can serve as their devices.
As mentioned above, each participant/stakeholder will be encouraged to use a central hashtag in
order to organize the conversation around the school community using Twitter. To continue to
promote the use of this medium to converse about the positive educational goings on at school,
the school plans to display posts using this hashtag on Twitter (and Instagram where appropriate)
through the use of a hashtag aggregation service. TweetWall and TweetBeam were the
initially-desired platforms, however, even for use with educational institutions, their services run
roughly $3,000 and $5,000 for a school year (measured as 10 months). As a result, other options
have been researched for use such as TwitterFall, Activity Walls, TwitterFontana, and the free
version of TweetBeam. The best program would be one that allows for some amount of
moderation to ensure that whatever makes it onto the official activity stream using the schools
designated hashtag is of an appropriate representation of the school. For this reason, the open
source Twitter Fontana appears to be the best choice. Being that it is free, its programmable
design would allow for a skilled coder to make it have moderation functions. The funds
requested from this grant would serve as a stipend for such a volunteer to assist in this process.
IV. What is the timeline for assessing accomplishments and objectives (describe
program evaluation procedure)? The initial communication for the implementation of this
student learning goal through a variety of means. First, a letter would be sent home after parents are
made aware of the initiatives at Sneak-A-Peek. Then, the principal will publish a video message on
the schools website explaining the move, citing examples of how this has worked (and helped
students learn and remain more engaged), and reinforcing the Districts position and expectations for
school and student usage of social media. Most importantly, the principal will be sure to identify the
schools overall goals in this plan. Next, the principal, administration, and teachers will continue the
dialogue with parents to engender their support. With this, community leaders, specifically in
corporate environments, will be invited into the online dialogue taking place within and around East
Cobb Middle School.
With regards to assessment of the accomplishments and objectives, all stakeholders will be engaged
in an ongoing online dialogue about the uses of and for Twitter as an extension of the classroom.
More specifically, the Social Media Team will collect and analyze usage analytics and pair that with
student, teacher, parent, and community survey data that would be collected at least once per
semester but no more than once quarterly. This, paired with discussions during Professional
Learning sessions or through open Chalk Talks where faculty and staff can anonymously write
their thoughts onto chart paper so that the administration and Social Media Team can evaluate the
feedback at a slightly later time. Teachers would also be encouraged to conduct at least one lesson
or unit within the first semester as they normally would, but they must be sure to collect and analyze

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pre- and post-assessment data to measure student results. Qualitative data such as in-class student
survey responses can also be used to substantiate this data. Then, teachers would be encouraged to
conduct a separate lesson or unit within the first semester where they use Twitter at least once to
extend classroom learning. Using a pre- and post- assessment along with their own reflections and
in-class student survey responses, teachers will be asked to look at the data between this and their
previous lesson or unit not using Twitter to see if there was any impact and in what ways the use of
Twitter changed or enhanced the dynamic of student learning for that unit or lesson.
V. How will the students be assessed (Include how student progress will be
assessed and reported to students, parents, teachers, and others)? The students
would be assessed through usage statistics through Google Analytics or TwitterFall (in this instance,
used for statistics aggregation only). Furthermore, the students would be encouraged to be a part of
the initiative to share what they are learning, how using Twitter has helped bring the content they are
learning into a real-world application, and by having off-campus discussions about the content with
thought leaders and community leaders. Periodic contests will be conducted to encourage usage
among classes and grade levels and this will be tallied digitally through the means identified above
as well as through more analog means as necessary.
VI. What is the proposed budget? Include information on the following:
A. Materials/supplies: Given that all of the resources that are needed in order to make this
initiative a viable one are free, no funds are needed for the materials or supplies.
B. Equipment: As stated above, students would either be using their own devices or ones
provided to them by a teacher as part of class. Parents, administrators, and teachers would
also be using their own devices for this project and thus, no funds are needed to purchase
equipment.
C. Total Cost of Proposed Project: $500. These funds would be used as a stipend to pay
for someone with coding experience to set up and maintain the moderation feature on the rewritten version of TwitterFontana for use at East Cobb Middle School. This budget would
allow for roughly $50 per month to be paid to such a person.
D. Additional Funding Sources: For this approach in using the open source Twitter
Fontana, no further funding is needed. However, if TwitterFontana is somehow found to not
be viable for use at East Cobb Middle School, our back up plan would be to use the
enterprise versions of TweetBeam or TweetWall. Additional funding could be attained via
our school foundation which raises money annually to support our general fund.
Furthermore, the $20,000 grand just obtained by East Cobb Middle School as part of Project
Lead the Way might have some funds that could be reallocated into this initiative as it would
be showcasing that which the students would be learning in Project Lead the Way.
Sources:
100InspiringWaystoUseSocialMediaIntheClassroomOnlineUniversities.com.(2010,May4).
RetrievedJuly10,2015.
Finley,T.(2011,April7).SiphoningtheFumesofTeenCulture:HowtoCooptStudents'Favorite
SocialMediaTools.RetrievedJuly10,2015.

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GrantHolverson,H.(2011,September15).HowToGiveEmployeesASenseofAutonomy(WhenYou
AreReallyCallingTheShots).RetrievedJuly10,2015.
Hoskins,D.(2014,January16).EmployeesPerformBetterWhenTheyCanControlTheirSpace.
RetrievedJuly10,2015.
McLeod,S.(2007).Vygotsky|SimplyPsychology.RetrievedJuly10,2015.
Nauert,PhD,R.(n.d.).WorkerAutonomyCanLeadtoGreaterProductivity,Satisfaction.Retrieved
July10,2015.

TECHNOLOGY MINI-GRANT
EVALUATION FORM/Scoring Rubric
Total Points: __________
1. Impacts a variety of skill levels and/or learning styles or impacts an
important target population.
Possible number of points: 40 __________
2. Clearly identifies standards and learning objectives being addressed.
Possible number of points: 40 __________
3. Pedagogically sound, based on research and/or best practices.
Possible number of points: 40 __________
4. Clear plan for assessment of project and goals with examples of
implementation methods.
Possible number of points: 40 __________
5. Impacts large number of students and/or can be recycled/reused.
Possible number of points: 40 __________
General Comments:

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Adapted from: The Education Foundation of Oconee County, Inc.

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