Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

As educators we are preparing our students for the 21^st Century and I am on a steep learning curve. When I started teaching way back in 1989 I wrote out notices and activities and ran them through the bander machine, the smell of methylated spirits was always lingering. Some notices may have been typed on my portable typewriter.  Now I can email a notice to parents or upload a post on Facebook and the notice goes global instantly.  

I am embracing social media cautiously in my classroom and Mindlab has given me a huge boost in knowledge and confidence.  I spend far too many hours looking through Pinterest, reading others blogs and on the Facebook professional development sights being inspired by other educators.  A question which once would have meant me researching for hours on end can be answered by a wide variety of people within hours, I have social media to thank for this. Being connected through technology now allows for global collaboration. The collaboration and sharing between professionals should make our job easier, but I would have to admit with the huge amount of resources, aps, sites etc. available to look at I spend just as much time working now as I did back in the 1990’s, possibly even more as my laptop or phone is always close by.

An aspect of social media that has impacted on the home school connection being accessible to students and families in Facebook and google classroom.  Students are able to access their work from home and the ‘book’ is never left at home as their work is online. This increases parents being able to be involved and students seeking feedback from me and their peers from home.  Posts on Facebook of students’ success and work throughout the day are posted and straight away reach whanau. Using NZ Read Aloud this year was a first for my class and they loved collaborating and reading comments from other Year 7 and 8 students around New Zealand. As staff too we shared the load of planning the novel study, each teacher setting activities for just two chapters.

Having the skills to be 21^st Century learner and keeping safe on line is also important to visit in class. Students are quick to report when someone has made an inappropriate comment and our school values are re visited.

A personal goal of mine at the beginning of the year was to use more digital tools and I am on track. Having introduced a blog, google classroom and been part of NZ Read Aloud, my next step is to use Twitter and Storybird.com. I found watching Kathy Cassidy’s clip on ‘Using Social Media in the Classroom’ inspiring and my students too are very knowledgeable about digital knowledge and can often teach me.  My learning journey continues.

References                 

lindseyinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/social_media_services.png

Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8

Tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno