Using social online networks in teaching or professional development:Week 29
Professional
Online Social Networks
Applied
Practice Two, Activity Four
The
discussion below looks at the use of Social Media in classroom practice.
I will be using Jay and Johnson’s (2002) reflective model guide this discussion.
- Descriptive
I use the following social media tools in my teaching practice as
follows:
- Facebook - parent announcements, sharing
of student photos/work/awards, requesting resources, requesting parent
help, celebrating success, responding to parent and community questions-high
parent/community engagement
- Videos - Youtube tutorials,
Netflix-Novel study/Documentaries e.g Before the Flood as part of
Environmental Inquiry
- Linc-ed SMS - Uploading student digital
work e.g writing, photos and student made screencasts summerising their term’s
work for parent/caregivers to view remotely
- Content/Documents - Google suite
utilising Google Classroom to share tasks with class and manage assessment
of tasks, Google docs for collaborate group and class work, Padlet for
class researching, reading, summerising and commenting
- Music - I-tunes for music
lessons/performances
- Events - Facebook events to communicate
events to our community
- Social curation - Pinterest - students
use this site to research ideas
- Wiki - Student researching
2.
Comparative
The two
most popular choices my peers have made in the survey are videos (16.4%) and
Content/Documents (13.2%). I too have chosen these as tools I have used in the
classroom. The next most popular responses are Social Networks and Blogs, both
at 7.6%. I do utilise Facebook a lot as a communication tool to my class and
wider school whanau. While I have a Blogger account to support my Professional
Learning Network (PLN) activity, I do not utilise a Blog as part of my teaching
practice in the classroom.
Utilising
a Blog as a connection tool for my teaching practice is something that I could
do differently. Cathy Cassidy (2013) believes using digital technologies in the
classroom reflects and connects students to their out of school life where
digital technologies are used extensively. By setting up my students with their
own Blog to record, track, evidence and celebrate their own learning, their
engagement in their own work would increase. The additional benefit would be
the sharing of their Blogs not only with whanau but also with their peers to
enable them to develop their own PLN.
3.
Critical
Reflection
The main implication of using social
media in teaching and professional development is one of connectedness. Social
Media connects us to an unlimited resource of people and their ideas, support,
discussion and debate. Through social media, we are able to communicate with
others who have a similar interest, in very short time frames (real time) and
from anywhere in the world. This allows to gather information and develop our
own ideas to a higher degree of sophistication than was possible without social
media. Our horizons are widened!
Magette (2014) does however warn that
in the classroom context, social media does need to be monitored and understood
by educators and parents. Educators and parents have a role in teaching
students the safe use of social media in order for it to used for positive ends
only.
I have found this reflective process
useful as it stepped me through thinking about what I’m doing now, what my
peers are doing and the benefit of those efforts and what I would like to
change with my own practice.
References:
Jay, J.K. and
Johnson, K.L. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice
for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.
Magette, K. (2014). Embracing social media : a practical guide to
manage risk and leverage opportunity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Hi Kristine, I really enjoyed reading your blog I really like all the different sorts of social media platforms you have included in your discussion.
ReplyDeleteI think using social networking tools in education fits nicely into the social media revolution. The very obvious forms off social networking tools that are at the top off the chain are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Myspace, Skype etc. These tools are all used extensively for the prime purpose of communication. I feel one of the most important advantages of the use of social netwroking tools in education is the online sharing of knowledge and information among the different groups of people. This online sharing of information also helps promote the increase in the communication skills amongst learners, teachers, family and the community. My school has a facebook page on which we share a huge amount of pictures and information with students, parents and the community. Online tools and technology has not only mediated communication in countless ways, but is also impacting the way we communicate and even the way we talk and think about communication are changing as a result. Social media has the potential to basically change the personality of our social lives, both on an educational, personal and a community level.
Thanks, Malvina
I think students communicating by social media requires students to collaborate by actively reflecting on others ideas and work. Not only is this engaging for students but also a 21st learning skill. In the real world when they are in the work force an important skill will be to collaborate and critique each others work. This requires students to think critically. They are practicing the literacy skills required to structure a comment and they have to think at the same time. This is surely a better literacy skill than writing an essay about content. Of course it requires careful teaching of how to reflect and respond effectively.
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