Week 30 - APC - Professional Online Social Networks

We are in the second generation of internet web 2.0. This is mainly dominated by social media.

Social media:

As defined by Oxford dictionary "communication with people who share your interests using a website or other service on the Internet."

( Acknowledgement: https://xkcd.com/802/)

Social media could be useful in teaching and learning for:

       Collaboration: slide share, prezi, google doc, survey monkey, Edmodo, padlet, zoho docs

       Networking: Facebook, forums, g+, texting, LinkedIn, instant messaging

       Video-sharing: You tube, blip, vimeo

       Image-sharing: Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Picasso

       Blogging: Blogger, weebly, WordPress, tumbir

       Micro-blogging: twitter

Social media has a lot of benefits in educational setting depending upon the task and type of media used. It provides an excellent tool to socialise online and build communicational skills.  Social media creates personalised learning environment as per the learner’s needs and used in correct way can enhance self-regulated learning (Dabbagh & Kitsantas 2012). Students believe social media being very helpful as they can get instant help with their homework from peers (Mao, 2014).  

Bates (2014) suggests that using social media in classroom might answer most of these questions:

    How do I engage my students?

    How do I communicate with my students?

    Do students need digital literacy?

    How do I utilize new tools?

Potential challenges that I consider teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities

Learners in New Zealand school are from different cultural background hence one size does not fit all. All times there is a great need of differentiation in our classroom depending upon the learning needs of individual students. Social media used effectively can differentiate task, where learner can control their learning in meaningful way. However, the biggest challenge here for educators is to keep learner focused on task, directing learner in their formal learning set up towards the key areas that relevant for the course( especially in high school curriculum).

Possible challenges an educator might come across while introducing social media are:

    Difference in digital competency of digital natives (current students born with technology and digital migrants (staff who has been in teaching for many years) create challenges for many teachers to try new things when they feel bit challenged, especially in front of their students. However, I believe to be open and ready to learn from your students. In fact this helps in making student-teacher relationship stronger.

    Culture of an organisation is absolutely critical when introducing change into any organisation to take people (employees, community, parents, external authorities, etc.) with you to the greatest extent possible. To introducing social media into school one need to win the hearts and minds of school staff, students and parents. The only effective way to do this is to demonstrate its potential for improving the quality of teaching, and its real impact on students’ learning. One has to give clear and concise reasons on why school should adopt social media. The core rational for social media adoption must be to improve school communication with stakeholders, to enhance learning and teaching that leads to improved motivation and increased attainment (Silius, et. al., 2010).

    Social media use require an excellent technical set up. School management must support teachers’ needs to provide good ICT tools and ongoing professional development. Employing corporate ICT staff and maintaining good working relationship to support staff around their everyday ICT issues. Rather than locking and blocking certain net working tools for students, training and awareness around safe use of social media to build a culture of making students responsible digital citizens. 

    To ensure the effective use of  social media use in schools, timely communication with stake holders is vital to inform them about what will be the new change and why? It is important to make sure that everyone in a learning community knows that the school intends to try something new. People are often anxious about change and this anxiety seems to be amplified when the change is occurring because of the adoption of new technologies (Mao, 2014).

    More use of social media has impact on social skills as some students are very comfortable in social networking, however, are less able to communicate effectively in person. Social networking has a negative impact on students’ social interactions, emotional health and work completion (Kitsantas, et. al. 2016).

    In secondary schools the time constraints of course completion and content of external topic limits the choice of differentiation within a curriculum area, thus the social media tools tend to narrow down, where the use is limited to collaboration, and peer support and 24/7 help availability.

Social media platform that I feel best supports my professional development.

Before doing Mindlab course my use of social media was only limited to Facebook. I used to use Facebook to interact with my cultural groups or my tutor group through my Facebook page. However, while covering last two modules I have started incorporating blogging for my year 9 students where they write their fortnightly reflections on what they have learned, what they have most and least enjoyed during this period. Plus student share their blog with at least four other students in the class and interact with them by adding subject specific comments.

For my senior NCEA classes I am planning to set up a Facebook page where student can support each other’s learning. I will ensure that students bear in mind cyber safety issues, while interacting with peers on this page.

For my senior physics students I have suggested them to follow 3tags‏ @3tags_org and Fermilab –@Fermilab. A group of four student will analyse an interesting tweet that they come across and share as a group once a month interesting information that their group has read on twitter. This is mainly to encourage their learning in an informal set up and to keep them informed about new scientific developments. Who knows this information might inspire a student to take up as career in future.

Planning to start a blog for parent community to update them about their child’s classroom.

Social media to enhance my professional development.

    I find Pond NZ as the best place for educators and learners to discover, share and grow. I find the resources shared by teachers very useful for classroom use. I am also part of this group on pond.

FarNet -Online Community

    Virtual Learning network: I have not joined as such this network, however on off I do find some discussion among teachers around Maori and Pasifika learners very useful.

    I am part of physics Facebook groups, this keeps me up to date about new developments in physics globally and at national level.

    G+: enjoy interacting with the November intake G+ community of Mindlab, plus I am also member of growth mindset G+ community. Both platforms provides heaps of strategies to use in classroom. Plus I find this community network very useful due its availability to ask for help 24/7. In lieu of this being too spoiled I have started the following community for professionals in my circle to continue sharing resources and ideas.

Mindlab G+ community once we finish course

    Blog: Creating and sharing blog with my professional community, gives me opportunity to collaborate, receive feedback and a place to record my reflections.

References:

Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and higher education, 15(1), 3-8.

Kitsantas, A., Dabbagh, N., Chirinos, D. S., & Fake, H. (2016). College students’ perceptions of positive and negative effects of social networking. In Social Networking and Education (pp. 225-238). Springer International Publishing.

Mao, J. (2014). Social media for learning: A mixed methods study on high school students’ technology affordances and perspectives. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 213-223.

Ministry of Education (2016) Educational council. https://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-media.

Silius, K., Miilumaki, T., Huhtamaki, J., Tebest, T., Merilainen, J., & Pohjolainen, S. (2010). Students' motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal (KM&EL), 2(1), 51-67.