Activity 7: Social Media in teaching and professional development

What are some key features of social media that you have identified as beneficial for teaching and learning?

Credit

Types of Social Media

• Social Networking has many benefits, including sharing ideas, partnerships with other schools, getting information, professional development, establishing relationships and building contacts.

• Image Sharing is a fabulous way to make learning visible for parents/caregivers/whanau and provides a support for students to talk about their learning with their families. It is a way for teachers to share what they are doing with other teachers.
• Blogging is a way for teachers to learn from our colleagues, and a great way to communicate with a school community. When combined with image sharing, blogging can be a powerful tool for learners with rewindable learning.
• Microblogging has the benefit of briefness in that you are limited in the number of characters you can use. Great if you need to ask a quick question and want a short reply.
• Video Sharing can be used for rewindable learning.
• Collaboration is made so much easier with tools such as Google Drive. Collaboration helps to improve learners achievements and helps to build relationships of teachers within a school.

Features of Social Media that are beneficial for teaching and learning

• Connectedness. Opportunities to be both national and global citizens. Opportunities to connect with parents/caregivers/whanau-especially those that are reticent about coming into school to speak to the teacher. Opportunities for learners to connect with experts to help their learning.
• Ubiquitous - When I want it and when I need it. For learners, it provides opportunities for further learning outside school hours.
• Immediacy -I can gain immediate feedback or an answer if and when I require it.

What social media platform do you feel best supports engagement with your professional development? Why?

Benefits of Twitter as a support for my professional development

• Twitter is like having professional development at my fingertips 24/7, with colleagues in New Zealand and globally ready to discuss or share great ideas that matter to me the most.
• Twitter encourages me to read widely around the topic of education as I read words and ideas that I have never heard of and often need to Google, which then leads me down a specific path of further professional reading. I have a greater appreciation for and understanding of education in the 21st Century globally thanks to Twitter.
• I was a lurker for a long time. I learn like a sponge and absorbed as much as I could daily. I now tweet occasionally but I’m still mostly just a reader. Twitter provides the opportunity for you to just read until you are ready to share.
• Twitter has widened my professional community, to New Zealand wide and overseas.
• Learning never stops on Twitter. There is always more for me to learn, more assumptions to be challenged.
• Twitter is personalised PLD. I can access professional development that interests me or that I need for that time.
• Twitter is visual as well as written words. I am primarily a visual learner so love the infographics shared by educators on Twitter.

What are potential challenges that teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities?

As a teacher, I need to first understand, and then model Cybersmart behaviours for my learners. I need to explicitly teach how and why my learners need to be Cybersmart, and their responsibilities around this. Parents/caregivers/whanau too need to be educated on the importance of teaching our children how to keep themselves safe online. We need to be in partnership with our school community.

Another potential challenge is for a teacher to predetermine boundaries around connectedness - when can the teacher be contacted out of school hours? With device use, learning is ubiquitous. When does the role of ‘teacher’ end for the day?