Social media can be a great way for teachers to connect professionally to share ideas and resources. I enjoy being part of several Teachers' Facebook pages, finding the discussions and materials shared there incredibly valuable. As Melhuish put it, these teachers' Facebook pages are shared "funds of knowledge". And that is certainly one of the reasons I joined up to them, to connect with other teachers of the same subjects, to find out what and how they are teaching those subjects, and of course for that exchange of resources! I do tend to be one the 'lurkers' Melhuish writes about, reading much, posting seldom, though I have been commenting more often in the last year. And there have been some fantastic discussions on these pages around the philosophy of what we are teaching, so it isn't just about physical resources.
I don't really participate in other forms of social media for professional development though. I constantly get messages from Linkedin, asking if I 'know these people', so I must have signed up to Linkedin at some stage, probably to get access to some slideshare resources, but I have never used it and am not sure what use it could be. Nor do I blog, except for Mindlab, but I have often read other Teacher blogs from around the world, again, trying to gather ideas for the classroom. And Twitter? Well, I know what it is, but I've never had any desire to tweet, though I did note some interesting tweets on the Mindlab page. Perhaps it is something to look into to connect with other teachers?
At school, we are being encouraged to create blogs for our tutor classes, though that is about relationship building rather than specific learning goals. Last year, though, I was involved in a Future-Focused class in which a blog was one of our main forms of communication with the students, but it was used as a way to post tasks and resources, rather than as an exchange of ideas or place for academic discussion. However, I could see the potential of a blog when listening to Kathy Cassidy tell the story of her kindergarten class in the US connecting with a kindergarten class in New Zealand via each other's blogs, and her kids being opened up to the vastly different experiences of the kids down here - volcanoes! sharks on the beach! Perhaps there is potential here for Social Studies classes??
I can certainly see some value in using Twitter in the classroom after reading about @RealTimeWWII and PepysDiary.com (Sharples et al). These Twitter accounts have real application in the History and Classics classroom, bringing the past to life for students. I can already see the possibilities for teaching Homer's Odyssey, getting Odysseus to tweet about his journey! In that vein, I did try a brief experiment in the use of Instagram in History last year, getting students to set up accounts as personalities involved in the French Revolution, and instagramming as those people. It provided a bit of fun and could, I believe, enhance student learning as students try to get inside the skin of historical figures, building that empathy that history teachers are always trying to nuture in their students. The creation of memes by students too, to show their understanding of topics in History and Classics is another social media tool I am keen to use in class; if you can joke about it, cleverly, you probably get it!
As the Netsafe clip pointed out though, it is important to ensure that we have fully thought through the process of using social media for teaching, before implementing it. That means thinking about the purpose and the plan and entering into discussions with parents and the school, so they understand too. Next steps then? As Kathy Cassidy suggests, perhaps I will pick out just one small thing that seems doable and plan to put that into action, so I can "harness the power [of social networks] in authentic learning contexts" for myself and my students.
References:
Kathy Cassidy on engaging young students with technology, retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1p0TuwfdS8
Education Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...
Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf
I don't really participate in other forms of social media for professional development though. I constantly get messages from Linkedin, asking if I 'know these people', so I must have signed up to Linkedin at some stage, probably to get access to some slideshare resources, but I have never used it and am not sure what use it could be. Nor do I blog, except for Mindlab, but I have often read other Teacher blogs from around the world, again, trying to gather ideas for the classroom. And Twitter? Well, I know what it is, but I've never had any desire to tweet, though I did note some interesting tweets on the Mindlab page. Perhaps it is something to look into to connect with other teachers?
At school, we are being encouraged to create blogs for our tutor classes, though that is about relationship building rather than specific learning goals. Last year, though, I was involved in a Future-Focused class in which a blog was one of our main forms of communication with the students, but it was used as a way to post tasks and resources, rather than as an exchange of ideas or place for academic discussion. However, I could see the potential of a blog when listening to Kathy Cassidy tell the story of her kindergarten class in the US connecting with a kindergarten class in New Zealand via each other's blogs, and her kids being opened up to the vastly different experiences of the kids down here - volcanoes! sharks on the beach! Perhaps there is potential here for Social Studies classes??
I can certainly see some value in using Twitter in the classroom after reading about @RealTimeWWII and PepysDiary.com (Sharples et al). These Twitter accounts have real application in the History and Classics classroom, bringing the past to life for students. I can already see the possibilities for teaching Homer's Odyssey, getting Odysseus to tweet about his journey! In that vein, I did try a brief experiment in the use of Instagram in History last year, getting students to set up accounts as personalities involved in the French Revolution, and instagramming as those people. It provided a bit of fun and could, I believe, enhance student learning as students try to get inside the skin of historical figures, building that empathy that history teachers are always trying to nuture in their students. The creation of memes by students too, to show their understanding of topics in History and Classics is another social media tool I am keen to use in class; if you can joke about it, cleverly, you probably get it! As the Netsafe clip pointed out though, it is important to ensure that we have fully thought through the process of using social media for teaching, before implementing it. That means thinking about the purpose and the plan and entering into discussions with parents and the school, so they understand too. Next steps then? As Kathy Cassidy suggests, perhaps I will pick out just one small thing that seems doable and plan to put that into action, so I can "harness the power [of social networks] in authentic learning contexts" for myself and my students.
References:
Kathy Cassidy on engaging young students with technology, retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1p0TuwfdS8
Education Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...
Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf
Hi Jo-Anne, I also agree with you about creating and using a class blog. Like you my blog is more about sharing work and building relationships rather than being a place for academic discussion. I like the idea of using it for this though and it would be great to support inquiry learning! Thanks for a great read!
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