Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

Week 30:  Practice - Activity 6
 
Using social online networks in teaching or professional development  

 I have used social media in my teaching practise in a variety of ways. At my school, we have used social media (Facebook) for sharing with our community and whanau. We use Facebook for  notices, up and coming events, class and school wide celebrations. This has been very successful in our school as nearly all parents have Facebook and we can get more information out to them. It has been a successful way to share what the students have been learning. We have been very lucky with our community and  whanau using this respectfully. All our students have signed an agreement and if the child is not allowed to be published on Facebook, we respect parents’ wishes. 

 "Dwyer et al. (2009) has argued that teachers will only embrace social networks sites if there is evidence that they are effective”. I find this to be true for myself as a busy professional I don't have time to waste on social media sites that are not going to help me in my professional teaching. I am using N4L, Facebook "Teaching resource exchange" ,NZ teachers(primary)","NZ teachers- New Entrants", "Teaching Writing” “The Writing book"" Google plus” and “Twitter" . I use all of these on line sites to gain resources and  ideas for my teaching .

Steve Hargadon founder of Classroom 2.0 asks, "Where are the core values of how teachers learn? How learners learn, how teachers learn and how much do they learn from each other ?  

Elana Leoni also states "it's the most impact thing you can do in your career as an 

educator, is to be connected !" 

Yes being connected is what the 21st century teacher needs to do. I have to admit that I may be connected and using the information that I'm learning,  but I am not letting the children in my classroom connect. Yes, I use websites with my class and Google classrooms etc but not social media. In the Ed-Puzzle video, children can have instant access to other children and can have a wider view and appreciation of the world. Innovative Pedagogy report (Sharples  et al. 2016) states  there are many sites that have educational worth. : "Social media makes it possible to involve and draw on the experiences of people 

around the world". 

This would be an area that I will have to move to but not until I have taught safeguards for my students and I really thought carefully how am I going to use it and why am I using it? 

  How much have you utilised the social media in your teaching practice? In what way

References: 

Education Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520

 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/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=ypg 36-44 in Chapter 3 

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

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