Week 30 - APC - Professional Online Social Networks

The beauty of being connected. My first year teaching was in 2001 at Twizel Area School. I taught all of the science and drama classes and chemistry online through the Cantatech programme to schools in Akaroa, Hurunui etc. The Cantatech programme expanded my horizons and connected me to a network of schools, their teachers, students and lab technicians throughout the Canterbury region giving me access to new ideas and resources and preventing me from feeling isolated. In 2016 I am reflecting on social media and how I engage with it. 

I no longer teach at an area school but find that social media is one of the most impactful things that I can engage with. My interactions on social media allow me to stay ‘connected’. For me this used to mean with teachers in the Canterbury region but now its means across the world.

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

Social media in the classroom. I support the use of digital technology in the classroom. Students are connected at home so why would I expect them to “power down” when they enter the classroom. For me I use blogs as a tool to develop reflective learning and provide feedback. I use a facebook page for my tutor group to communicate daily notices. The collaboration space on OneNote to share ideas and photos of experiments, LEARNZ network for virtual field trips to give students an opportunity to meet scientists and see places they can’t access. Occasionally I link with specific schools for a project using a combination of skyping and blogs. These activities help to build co-operation and provide the students opportunities for feedback on their work and encouragement to produce a work of a higher quality as they are encouraged to share it (.

I find blogs the most challenging, all our students sign a waiver stating whether or not their image can be used online, we use the netsafe guideline to teach them about online safety. This does mean if the students want to post a picture of themselves carrying out an activity you need to work out who is in it and whether it can be posted and constant reminders to check the content and beware of what they post. This also means that I have to take out names, references etc when I post which can be quite time consuming.

I think that it my job to be vigilante and aware of the sites that I suggest the students use. Some sites seem innocuous enough when you start to use them but the advertising, message boards and facilities change as time goes by and what starts as a fairly ‘kid friendly’ environment can change. 

How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development? Why?

TAI cluster

Engaging with social media allows me to stay connected and collaborate with teachers and students in other places. In my Science Teaching Inquiry Cluster we meet in person twice a term but support our professional development with shared resources through a drop box and attending MOOCS. This blend of professional development has allowed us to meet and develop relationships between schools and co-ordinate ‘next steps’ but the learning and research for our inquiry  takes place individually with in our own schools. We attend many of the same MOOCS so that we have shared experiences and develop professional conversations relating ideas we have learnt to our inquiry and collaborate using emails, blogs and a dropbox to share our resources. It has given me another professional community beyond my school but the support of social media has allowed me to strengthen relationships and collaborate to build effective resources to trial with my classes. I am no longer time bound, I can carry on conversation online at 7am on Sunday morning and a colleague can pick it up the thread and participate at 3pm on a Monday.

Morning Tea conversations to worldwide

One of the teachers on Office of Ed Tech said that the traditional “hallways kind of conversation through electronic means has become magnified into this incredible worldwide community”. This is a statement that rung true for me. Many of the conversations that I have at school with colleagues at morning tea or on the way to class still take place but I also have them online.  Online I find these informal conversations often take on another level of clarity. Often these conversation tend to be more concise allowing you to distil your thoughts down to the key idea. Within minutes you have responses from across the world, allowing for a wider range of perspectives. Responses will link to resources, include suggestions and before you know it you are on a journey following links, solving problems, considering different approaches with access to new resources. Suddenly you have support, collaboration and problem solving in a time frame that suits you. Who hasn’t been saved with a late night resource from an educator in northern hemisphere when your colleagues are all asleep? I have also noticed that online I collaborate with a much wider range of educators, different cultures, schools, subject areas, they share their passion and by doing so help me to develop professionally in a more consistent and reflective manner than is provided by traditional conferences where the learning the excitement of learning new ideas often dwindles on the return to school. Yes this type of online professional learning is informal but is also highly participatory, self-driven and relates to my context. It is a relief from the top down, one-size fits all model that stills operates in our schools today (Bull and Gilbert, 2012).

Mindlab

I have been using the google plus community to support my learning on the Postgrad programme. There have been three main advantages to using this community and reading the blogs we have all been writing.

• A sense of shared experience. I am so grateful to read some of the posts when I am battling away in the middle of the night the support offered is so encouraging. Its great to read everyone’s journey and the see how much progress we have all made.

• Ideas and strategies and the opportunity to get a glimpse into other schools and see how they are blend technology and great pedagogy in the classroom.

•  Links to other communities and resources. I had tried MOOCS and sites like edchat prior to this course and am enjoying finding different communities to exchange ideas in.

References

Bull, A. and Gilbert, J. (2012) Swimming out of our depth? Leading learning in 21^st Century Schools. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Retrieved from: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/publications/swimming-out-our-depth-leading-learning-21st-century-schools

Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8