Communication

** E-Talk: ** ** Gifted Communication in the 21st Century **  ** By: Stephanie Lee ** **The Bloggosphere:** Welcome to the world of sharing thoughts, discoveries, and questions through the web. For students who like to write and journal, blogging provides a wonderful opportunity for students to see their writing published before their very eyes and start receiving immediate feedback.

**How it Works:** media type="youtube" key="rA4s3wN_vK8" height="315" width="560" align="center"

**Making it Gifted: ** Gifted students need opportunities to express themselves through writing, and the authenticity of writing for the world makes the process even more meaningful (Delisle, 2006). Working with technological communication also helps students develop responsible communication skills as they learn to share and comment on projects from multiple cultures and perspectives.

Gifted students need opportunities to collaborate and share their learning in a meaningful way. By expressing themselves through blogs, students share learning experiences through a personal medium that becomes personal. They also receive opportunities to discuss the ideas expressed in their blog with people from around the world (Thompson, 2010). To start using blogs, get rid of the end of the day journal and ask them to start blogging! Then, as they work on science projects or problem based learning, rather than keeping a log of their progress, use a blog; or when dealing with the social and emotional components of giftedness, teachers can utilize a blog to help their students discuss and work through issues they face every day.

[|World Communication Blog]

**Skype:** Welcome to communication to the masses! Video chat with someone in Germany, host a conference call, instant message with a tutor in a different state, and share class lessons with video conference calls. You will need a computer cameral and microphone for this one. Most recent computer models include both of these built into the computer.

**How To:** [|Skype Basic How-To]

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**Making it Gifted:** Skype naturally flows into any gifted curriculum at almost any time. long gone are the days of pen pals and localized learning. Now with Skype, studetns can discuss their lessons with another student on the other side of the world. Skype allows different classrooms to develop lessons and then share them with another class using video chats. Gifted students can also pare with younger classrooms to act as teachers after finishing an independent research project. Another great application allows students to get a video chat pal with whom they can discuss new ideas, different cultural perspectives, and even work through homework problems. Gifted students do a masterful job looking at the worl thorugh different perspectives (Kingore, 2001), and by allowing them to encounter a global perspective through Skype, teachers provide an opportunity for students to broaden this natural ability.

**Cell Phone Technology: ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The digital age ~ From rooms filled with one computer, to desk top towers, to the palm of your hand. More technological capabilities fit in your pocket than Nasa used to send the first person to the moon. Cell phones provide an integral tool for bringing technology into the classroom, and almost everyone owns one!

**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">HeyTell and HeyWire: ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Text and call the world using wifi connections from your phone. It cannot function using a 3G signal, but if you can access wifi, these two tools allow a person to leave a quick voice message, carry on a 5 minute conversation, or text anywhere in the world for free. You can even send pictures.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**How-To:** media type="youtube" key="BLnx1A6Xhlk" height="315" width="560" align="center"

**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Making it Gifted: ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Working on a collaboration project with someone from another culture? Gifted students tend to become very excited about topics they love, and they will want to work more on it at home (Delisle, 2006). By helping the students establish Heytell and Heywire accounts, they can share their ideas and questions with partners and collaborators from around the world from anywhere with a hot spot, thus encouraging greater depth and complexity. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**[|Poll Everywhere:]** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technological communication is not limited to long distances. The use of cell phone polls can encourage communication within the same room. Poll Everywhere allows audience members to comment and respond to speakers during the lecture. By using this tool,listeners can engage more fully in a presentation rather than passively listening. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** How to: ** media type="youtube" key="zZWM2-4Jf4k" height="315" width="420" align="center"

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** Making it Gifted: ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Lectures without engagement do not serve gifted students well in any way. They can absorb the information quickly, but without an opportunity to discuss, they can become bored or dis-enamored with a topic. Often, after a lecture, gifted students will gather to discuss what they learned and to develop new ideas based on the lecture. By engaging them with poll everywhere during the lecture, the students will feel more engaged, internalize the information more completely, and their conversations will carry more depth and meaning.

See also Collaboration <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">**Collaboration and Social Media:** Collaboration projects and social media sites provide excellent resources for further communication with technology. For more on these resources, please see the collaboration page. Social Media Links: [|Facebook] [|Edmodo] [|Twitter]

**<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Resources: ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">** [|World view and international learning binder] (access key: borderless) ** See the communication section under resources.