Activity 7: Social Media in Learning and Teaching and Professional Development

Create a blog post where you discuss your views on social media use in learning and teaching and in professional development.

Social media can be defined by Google (2015) as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.”

Figure 1: There are so many different of websites and apps that can be used for social media purposes.

While I enjoy using social media for keeping in contact with friends and family, I am a little bit hesitant to use it for teaching and learning. How do you integrate it into the classroom?

Q - How do/would I use social media to enhance my professional development?

• Reading other people’s blogs such as: Teaching the Teacher, Shake up Learning, Free Technology for Teachers allows for me to research and develop my understanding of concepts or new trends that are of interest to me and my professional practice. For me, I feel that this blog may have been more useful had I started it at the beginning of my MindLab experience, so that I could have a digital record of my own learning journey.
• Social media apps such as pinterest and networking (via Google+ and Linkedin) allows for me to access new and creative ideas.

• Facebook groups allow me to know that others education professionals are dealing with similar challenges and offer different solutions to deal with them. They offer a variety of problem solving strategies and recommendations for where to go for further help. These groups also allow for me to keep up to date with education issues within New Zealand.

• Twitter would be another option that I am currently considering to engage in discussions with other educators, particularly around New Zealand.

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

• Global connectedness – sharing of ideas across the globe is a huge benefit! I am able to easily connect with teachers who I have taught with previously overseas, but also access other educators blogs from around the world. There is huge potential here for students to connect with other students and have an authentic audience for their individual blogs too.
• Collaboration - working with other educators makes it easier to draw upon people’s knowledge, skills and expertise. This also benefits students as they can contact experts, or work with other students who have similar interests on projects, regardless of where they are located.
• Networking - Google+ has allowed for me to keep in touch with professionals, as well as being updated with what is happening in other corners of the globe, without using my personal accounts. This is beneficial for teaching and learning as it provides an opportunity to access amazing online resources and ideas such as those at Teach Tech Play.
• Creation - social media offers a prime platform for easily creating and sharing learning with others through videos posted to youtube, vimeo or blogger. As social media becomes more visually orientated, opportunities for students to respond to images could take place. Visual images (via instagram) could also be used to inspire, engage and motivate students.
• Learning Progress - using blogs as a digital portfolio to record students learning journeys is a great way of showcasing individuals best work and demonstrating the progress that students make, not just over a year, but over their entire school life!

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

As with anything “new”, there are always going to challenges! Social networking platforms are not the exception!

• Cybersafety - this is a must for all teachers to be aware of. Before any social media begins, I believe that this needs to be addressed before the platform is introduced. Some social media sites (such as facebook) have minimum ages for signing up in order to protect individuals. Students need to be educated in how to be cybersafe and socially responsible digital citizens. Teachers are not superheroes - we cannot constantly keep tabs on what students are doing online 24/7. Part of this responsibility needs to fall to parents, therefore they need to be educated too.
• Management - teachers need to be able to see and access what students are posting on social media. Teachers and schools must ensure that systems and procedures are in place in order to keep their students safe online.
• Accessibility - some social media sites at my school are blocked, for staff and students. Discussions need to take place with the senior management and ICT teams to determine what the benefits of using the site are and why they should be unblocked at school.
• Modelling - teachers need to be using the social media so that they can model to students how to use it appropriately and safely. If teachers cannot use it themselves, they are unlikely to use it in their classrooms. Similarly, teachers need to be shown how to use social media, as they are not digital natives like their students.
• Boundaries - I believe that there are personal and professional boundaries that teachers need to be aware of when it comes to social media. Teachers and schools need to ensure that there are clear guidelines about what is appropriate in terms of these boundaries.

After writing this blog post, I’ve realised that I actually utilise social media quite a lot! This is definitely an area that I would like to explore more within my classroom, however I do need to read more around this topic and discuss it with other educators to see how they make it work for them - perhaps even via social media!

References:

Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2015). Teacher and Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/