Using social online networks in teaching or professional development
Social media in teaching
Within my class we use a variety of different social media platforms on a regular basis. All students have their own personal blogs where they share their learning and they use their blogs to network with other students through out New Zealand and the world. As a class we also have a class blog we we share our collaborative activities and celebrate our successes. Each week we participate in the Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu programme where involved students are encouraged to comment on each others blogs in a positive, thoughtful and helpful way. This is a nationwide initiative set up through the Manakalani Outreach project. This has been instrumental for a lot of my reluctant learners as they love to get feedback from their peers and these comments often spark online discussions around each others learning. Extremely powerful collaboration.
We are currently - and have been for the past 18 months involved in an on-line networking via Twitter and Facebook called Chapter Chat. Chapter Chat is a Literacy Programme developed by a New Zealand teacher which promotes reading and developing literacy skills through fun and engaging activities culminated by a twitter session every Friday morning where thousands of students who are reading the same book get together on line at the same time and discuss preset questions and share their weeks learning. A truly motivating tool. "The growing interest in blended ways of learning, in online courses and communities networked electronically, invites us to consider the extent to which technologies might mediate the typical models of professional learning in ways that enhance teacher control over the process".
The main challenges I have through the use of social media have not been from the students within my class, as we have done a great deal of work around cyber safety and appropriate use of social networking, however through the use of twitter we are occasionally exposed to things that are not particularly appropriate. Whether this be a harmless, but potentially risque advertisement which has attached itself to a post or a comment that has been posted from another participant who is not practising good cyber smart skills. As a class we discuss these and the impact that they could potentially have. We discuss that our class account is set up in my name and any comments made reflect on me a a teacher and a professional and all students take ownership for their posts by including their first name with them. Those posts that are not seen by us to be cyber smart often don't reflect these cyber smart skills. Some of the students in my class have replied to comments and encouraged appropriate on line usage.
There will always be challenges around the use of social platforms, but as long as we address them and not push them aside with our students they are always manageable. The students in my class know good cyber practice. They are extremely good at teaching the new students who join us the 'how to' of on-line networking. As a professional it is important to ensure that we understand the platforms which we are using and know how they operate before we introduce them to our students. Our students will often find different ways around sites that we have not discovered. We need to try to be one step ahead of them!
Within my class we use a variety of different social media platforms on a regular basis. All students have their own personal blogs where they share their learning and they use their blogs to network with other students through out New Zealand and the world. As a class we also have a class blog we we share our collaborative activities and celebrate our successes. Each week we participate in the Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu programme where involved students are encouraged to comment on each others blogs in a positive, thoughtful and helpful way. This is a nationwide initiative set up through the Manakalani Outreach project. This has been instrumental for a lot of my reluctant learners as they love to get feedback from their peers and these comments often spark online discussions around each others learning. Extremely powerful collaboration.
We are currently - and have been for the past 18 months involved in an on-line networking via Twitter and Facebook called Chapter Chat. Chapter Chat is a Literacy Programme developed by a New Zealand teacher which promotes reading and developing literacy skills through fun and engaging activities culminated by a twitter session every Friday morning where thousands of students who are reading the same book get together on line at the same time and discuss preset questions and share their weeks learning. A truly motivating tool. "The growing interest in blended ways of learning, in online courses and communities networked electronically, invites us to consider the extent to which technologies might mediate the typical models of professional learning in ways that enhance teacher control over the process".
The main challenges I have through the use of social media have not been from the students within my class, as we have done a great deal of work around cyber safety and appropriate use of social networking, however through the use of twitter we are occasionally exposed to things that are not particularly appropriate. Whether this be a harmless, but potentially risque advertisement which has attached itself to a post or a comment that has been posted from another participant who is not practising good cyber smart skills. As a class we discuss these and the impact that they could potentially have. We discuss that our class account is set up in my name and any comments made reflect on me a a teacher and a professional and all students take ownership for their posts by including their first name with them. Those posts that are not seen by us to be cyber smart often don't reflect these cyber smart skills. Some of the students in my class have replied to comments and encouraged appropriate on line usage.
There will always be challenges around the use of social platforms, but as long as we address them and not push them aside with our students they are always manageable. The students in my class know good cyber practice. They are extremely good at teaching the new students who join us the 'how to' of on-line networking. As a professional it is important to ensure that we understand the platforms which we are using and know how they operate before we introduce them to our students. Our students will often find different ways around sites that we have not discovered. We need to try to be one step ahead of them!
Social media in professional development
I am a regular user of social networking in my professional development and am a member of many on-line forums. I have found these forums to be invaluable. They provide many resources, discussions and problems solving solutions to questions that many of use have in our profession. Although I don't have many challenges with this particular professional development. I do find it frustrating on occasion with people often posting the same questions rather than using searching functions. This is more of a personal frustration and the benefits of the forums certainly outweigh any pitfalls. On-line professional development is the way of the future - this has been shown through this Mindlab journey also with our use of the G+ community and blogging our professional journey. Using of the G+ community is still something that I am coming to grips with as I personally find it confronting sharing my professional thoughts and views in this way.
I am a regular user of social networking in my professional development and am a member of many on-line forums. I have found these forums to be invaluable. They provide many resources, discussions and problems solving solutions to questions that many of use have in our profession. Although I don't have many challenges with this particular professional development. I do find it frustrating on occasion with people often posting the same questions rather than using searching functions. This is more of a personal frustration and the benefits of the forums certainly outweigh any pitfalls. On-line professional development is the way of the future - this has been shown through this Mindlab journey also with our use of the G+ community and blogging our professional journey. Using of the G+ community is still something that I am coming to grips with as I personally find it confronting sharing my professional thoughts and views in this way.
References:
Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...
Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...
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