Activity 6: Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

Activity 6: Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

How do I use social media in a professional context?

I consider myself an active user of social media, both personal and professional.  Some professional SM I use are twitter, facebook (teachers, art teachers, cs4ps, maths teachers, PBL) and The Virtual Network.  I connect with others with like minds in order to share thinking and get ideas.  I can pose and answer questions confidently.  I regularly use FB in own teaching, using or sharing news articles or ideas with the class.

In my class, my class has a blog, SMS in which comments can be made, Hapara/drive are used as social media tools.  The children comment on each others work, giving feedback, their parents can also give feedback on work and we’ve found this an extremely effective tool.  I’ve attempted to use Edmodo and twitter in class however with both I’ve had connectivity issues which has made them both very frustrating experiences with no learning outcomes.  We have had fibre installed at work now so I must admit I haven’t tried either since the upgrade.  My children are too young to be on facebook but they regularly send me emails and if they go on holiday, usually email quite regularly, which we share with the class and email back together.  I’ve also heard of kids twitter which I would like to investigate and make the most of.  Our SMS Linc-ed is an interactive tool where the parents can make comments on posts on achievement and progress.  Our next steps are to develop student voice on this tool.  This is not an open social media tool however it could be considered one within the whanau framework.  The children verse others in online gaming environments like sumdog.  They don’t share ideas though.

My children are too young for FB and many are on mindcraft however they don’t contact other people using this site.  I think it’s important to have the purpose in mind.  If there is a purpose then the technology use will be natural.  I would like to connect with another school and this reflection has motivated me to do something about this.  I would be interested in seeing the tweets from those school children in the video, to see what is the value and quality of those tweets.  I’m not sure it says what school they are at.

References

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf

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

Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’ Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1). Retrieved on 7th May,2015 from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p.