Week 29 – Professional Online Social Networks
Adopting social media has made more than a significant
impact on my craft of teaching. It started with finding amazing teachers such
as the Daring English Teacher: (https://www.facebook.com/TheDaringEnglishTeacher/)
who introduced me to Teachers Pay Teachers (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/).
Descriptive:
The NZACDITT mobilize forum has been extremely generous with
dragging me into the 21st Century and exposing me to the benefits of
social media. Through this means I
discovered the Hobsonville Point Secondary school teacher’s blogs. Gerard McManus http://oneteachersview.blogspot.co.nz/;
Danielle Myburg http://missdtheteacher.blogspot.co.nz/;
and others.
This school has shaken up the New Zealand Secondary School
traditions and has encouraged me to review my very traditional teaching style.
This exposure has opened my eyes to changing the way I teach my students. By
reviewing what other teachers have been doing, I have been able to experiment
using ideas and resources that have generously shared. This has led me to taking
more notice of student agency and take more risks. If the method doesn’t work, I research again,
modify it and try again.
You Tubers such as ‘The Lettered Classroom, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CogbNg_6uJA),
and ‘Pocketful of Primary’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEuZX9tTG9Y&t=1424s)
made me lift my game in what I present to my students.
I use the morning
message ideas from Smartie Style (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3VG0mBk57w)
with quotes I had seen on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
Comparative:
In my teaching I encourage my students to share their
opinions/ideas, through the use of the collaboration space in Microsoft 365 –
One Note.
You Tube brings in instant videos to students. For example,
I introduced the use of Scrums in the development of software. How cool is it
that Microsoft have videos of an actual Microsoft Developers Scrum meeting, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UUrLxNBK_g). To
bring Scrum boards into reality we have developed our own scrum boards in
Trello. (www.trello.com)
Social media networking platforms need a clear set of
guidelines for school use. A good opportunity for Digital Citizenship discussions,
and reinforcement of our ICT Contract students and parents sign when they
enrol.
Prior to taking part in MindLab I never put up my photo on
Social Media. Now I have the confidence to add the photo, all be it after I
have had a makeover.
Colleagues at my school have closed groups on Facebook. This
is a method I haven’t used now that we have Microsoft teams, which is like a group
on Facebook.
A challenge I have when I introduce a 365 login or a team,
the landscape is overloaded with group emails/chat of unacceptable comments, so
I always use this as an opportunity to reinforce ‘Digital Citizenship’.
Using social media for professional development has meant
that my upskilling races ahead at such a rate sometimes I feel I can’t keep up.
When you access the internet /social media your answers can come back
instantly, and that can foster a thirst to know more, and before you know it
two hours can go by and you haven’t achieved that evening or day what you
planned to do.
Critical Reflection:
Since discovering Twitter and Pinterest, I find that I spend
far too much time on social media upskilling. If I spent as much time in my garden
as I do on social media I would be much fitter, much lighter and have a Festival
garden. In saying that if it wasn’t for social media I wouldn’t be able to be
teaching my students what I do. They would not be exposed to ‘giving something a go’ whether it works or
not. I would not be recommending my students to the courses they leave me to
jump start their careers, if it weren’t for social media.
References:
omeofservice.com/blogs/21/the-characteristics-of-social-media/#.Wr7ipIhuaUk
Source: Education
Council. (2012). Establishing Safeguards. [video file].
Retrieved from: https://app.themindlab.com/media/23162/view
2Revolutions
LLC. The Future of Learning
Retrieved from: https://app.themindlab.com/media/68048/view
Hi Carolyn
ReplyDeleteI too have found that the various blogs and in my case Facebook group pages with fellow teachers as members have been a great help to me, in seeing other ideas. I often read an experience someone has shared using this or that. It prompts me to search further. Gradually my view has changed or been expanded.
It is interesting for me to read about your experiences with Microsoft 365-One Note, Team. My school has gone down the Google path. Even though there are a lot of positives with all the ways one can collaborate. I do find the actual formatting and usage quite time consuming. Good to know that Microsoft also have a format where one can collaborate with others or work as a team.
Like your colleagues, I do not use Facebook with my students, I have them using Google Drive, Docs, Slides and Classroom instead. However over the break I will look into Mirosoft 365.
Hi Yvonne I am becoming more of the mind that schools need to be multi-modal as regards to cloud based software. Even though we are a Microsoft school, I had a group of Year 11 students collaborating with Google docs the other day, and it was so much easier. I have been opened to this during one of our face to face sessions earlier in the year in Mindlab, so I am of the opinion you use the software that works for the task, and the google docs collaboration has a better tick for me than Microsoft 365. Our students are leaving us to a changing workspace and I think it is important that they have the ability to work across all platforms. It is a good tool to have to be flexibie.
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