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ACP -PROFESSIONAL ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS - Week 6 (week 30)



Using Social Media in the Classroom and Professional Life.
Week 30 Applied Practice in Context

I remember with real clarity the excitement and awe, a PLD session being taught (on a large desktop computer) how to search on the www and to connect by email, the possibilities at that time amazing, I was hooked. 25 years or so later I still embrace the concepts and platforms, after all social media is, due to its asynchronous nature, a powerful tool useful for opening the door to a multitude of learning opportunities for teachers and students alike, not bound by time nor location.
There are a myriad of social media platforms developed and redeveloped, that are able to help teachers provide learning that is needs based and flexible with both time and location. “Volcanics “, and VLN being key access tools I believe in, safe sites where students and staff alike can seek information, share ideas and contribute to further knowledge.
However the potentiality of social media enlightening and enriching educators and students alike unfortunately has a darker element especially when using social media, hence monitoring and precautions have to be accounted for such as educating students about becoming digi-safe and digi-aware citizens when using the online world, and ensuring parents understand this world their children live in. My personal stance is one who is precautious towards this potential exposure.


In my practice I have set up a class blog, it had the core messages for the day that could be referred back to, and the learning for the day, workshops on offer and links to other activities in google classroom. For those who were connected learners there were real benefits. Family were given a link to the Blog, and embedded in the blog were the students own blogs that learning was published into. It was not totally successful and we had to take a step back and formalize the process more due to students being distracted to go site surfing.
When working in a community where devices are not in every home, with the exception of cell phones, with a very diverse in range of capabilities, and wireless access in few homes too, school is the one place students can communicate socially on line so it overrides the learning opportunities on more occasions than is appropriate.
Whilst social media can and does offer students reliable and interesting content to support learning, as well as opportunities to access expert advice, as a teacher I need first to explore the accuracy of the content and the level of engagement of facilitators, if any. I find that for many students at Junior High level (Years 7 - 9) if it's on the net it’s true. So some filtering in advance can be necessary.
At one school I worked within a computer room, the VLN site was used very successfully with students for Virtual Field trips and access to subjects or extension in a subject for GATE students that neither the myself or school staff could provide. The school had strong filters prohibiting “surfing” and although very controlled, for time and place it was successful with year 6 - 8 students. Their learning and access to specialists was enhanced, lessons were engaging and developed strongly around a need identified with individual students.

. I acknowledge and try to embrace  learning opportunities available online  enabling students to learn and use Web 2.0 tools whilst enhancing literacy and communicative skills and especially, their personal voice however the challenges are huge.
An initiative to drive the purchase, by lease if required, into all homes has seen the budget for purchase of devices into the school cut. One can encourage and recommend families to participate however if it is not in their capability or vision of education need for their child, it does not happen. As our initially purchased devices pass their use by date and stop charging, or have chargers which cease to work but are unable to be replaced as the model is now redundant, we are in the position of not even being able to put one device between two students in some areas of learning. Hence the capability to support learning using social media tools is compromised. Providing personalized need based learning is virtually impossible.

The learning tools used mainly in my current practice are the Google platform, and we are very lucky to have access to a google educator specialist to support our individual and class learning. YouTube, Google slides, Flip-grid, google forms, Blogs and google classroom are the key access and platforms used in daily teaching.


Social media to support my engagement with professional development is developed using support with the Google+ community, LinkedIn, Twitter and the Google platform in it’s many forms.Until The Mind Lab, I believe I was mainly a lurker and seeker of resources, I still think that is my use, however as I respond and get responses, I am feeling more confident to voice an opinion but still find that method of interaction awkward , so it is something I have to deliberately force myself to grow and commit to.
For me it is still a cautious work in progress even though I value many beneficial aspects that have enhanced my personal learning and teaching from real engagement and “lurking”.
References:







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

Social Media For Kids. (2014, Aug 15). Social Media For Kids® The Social Media Education Experts.[video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rOekhi20E

Tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno

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