Week 30 Professional Online Networks

This week we are reflecting on the potential that social media has in enriching the learning environment.  I’ve chosen to focus in on these two questions:

1. What are some key features of social media that are beneficial for teaching and learning? Why?
2. How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development? Why?

The students I am working with (across different schools) use a number of different social media platforms to support their learning, each with its own potential benefits. I’ll just highlight a couple that I am enjoying using with my students at the moment:

Google Classroom

As an introduction to social media, I think this platform is fantastic for introducing students to the concept of online interaction.  It is not a public environment so the participants are restricted to your school community - but we find that this then provides us with a safe, closely monitored environment for our students to learn the basics of participating in online discussion and demonstrating safe, appropriate online behaviours.

It’s interesting to see how students behave when they first discover they have an ‘online voice’. Typically the discussion threads contain a lot of ‘wassup’s’, lol’s, and irrelevant ‘stuff’ as they seek to establish their online identity.  This is where the teacher can play a crucial role in determining the success of the online community by initiating the online discussions with thought provoking material and questions and providing opportunity for the students to reflect on their own online participation and how they go about relating to others in an online context. So much higher order thinking can come into play - forming questions, providing constructive feedback, showing empathy, perspective, synthesising, connecting ideas, reflecting … the list goes on. It is also important to develop shared expectations around online etiquette and build confidence to not only respond but initiate online discussion around their learning. This all adheres to the social nature of learning - one of the 7 principles for innovative learning environments as highlighted in the OECD ‘Nature of Learning’ research and supported by Bolstad and Gilbert (2012):

“Learning involves interaction—trying out and testing ideas with others. Some or all of it takes place in the context of relationships with other human beings. Sometimes these are people who know more than the learner, sometimes they know less, and sometimes they are learning together” (Page 12)

Seesaw Learning Journals

This is another platform that can be viewed as an introduction to social media, in a safe, closely monitored environment. Essentially it is a web-based tool that allows students to build an online reflective learning journal that can be shared with parents. Key benefits of this tool are that it can make the learning visible, encouraging students to articulate what they are learning and showcase evidence of learning through multimedia (visual, oral, written).  It also provides the students with an authentic audience for their work, encouraging feedback and feed-forward. With the ability to share to parents, it is also an effective communication tool, providing parents with a window into the classroom.

How do I use social media to enhance my own PD?

Wow… where do you start?  I’m loving the opportunities that I have available to me with the evolution of social media and online networking.  Here are a few the I am making use of at present:

Twitter - I have been building my twitter network for the past 5 years now - with a focus on using it for connecting with and learning from fellow educators.  I love how we are restricted to just a few characters, making it easy to scroll through and identify areas of interest.  If I want to dig deeper I click on the recommended links and browse the articles, blog posts etc.  I have to confess to being a real stalker at the beginning but have gained confidence over time to create my own posts. For this platform to be successful we have a responsibility to create as well as consume. :)

Facebook - Many of my Facebook friends are educators and often post relevant articles and start some really good discussions related to our practice. I find Facebook is a great place to seek advice or put the call-out for recommended resources.

YouTube - If you need to know anything - there is bound to be a YouTube clip about it!  I also use YouTube often to obtain thought provoking material that I can utilise in my classroom.  It has also been fantastic for sourcing Flipped Learning material.

Blogs - I subscribe to several blogs. Not only do I love the inspiration but it also feel it is important to keep up with latest trends, what is working well in other people’s classrooms and it is also an opportunity to share our my own expertise and hopefully help others!

Google + - hadn’t used it much until this course but am fast seeing the benefits.  I have enjoyed the online discussions - but again realise that I have a responsibility to not just ‘stalk’ but also contribute. I have also loved viewing some of the links that people have posted - that has lead me to some fantastic thought-provoking material.

VLN - in particular the iPad User group has been a brilliant source of PD, not only for sourcing recommended apps and lesson ideas - but also for highlighting potential issues and offering invaluable advice around BYOD programmes and app deployment.

That is just a few ways that social media benefits my professional learning.  It’s hard to think what it would be like without it now!