Week 29: Using social online networks in teaching

Activity 5: Using social online networks in teaching 

Step 1 (Descriptive stage):

In our school this year we are part of the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme, which uses the ‘Learn, Create, Share’ model through personal blogging to improve student achievement. My class of Year 7 & 8 students have been assigned a personal blog and we are also using a class learning site to access learning material. In addition to this we have a class blog.

I have used Blogs, Google+ communities, Wikianswers, Google maps, Wikipedia, and, Google docs in my classroom with learners. To help with my own professional learning and development I have used Facebook, Facebook groups, Google+ communities, Blogger, Wikianswers, Twitter, Google maps, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Vimeo, Pond, TED, Slideshare, Google docs, Prez, Facebook Events, Livestream and Picasa.

Personally, I do not want to spend anymore time on Social Media than I already do, I feel as though adding more sites to what I already use will take me further away from being present at home for my family. I think I probably do not understand how to use some of the social media tools effectively and/or current trends in how to use these tools effectively for my classroom teaching.

Step 2 (Comparative stage):

In relation to my professional colleagues, my use of certain social media sites is similar namely Blogs, Google+ communities, Wikianswers, Google maps, Wikipedia, Wikispace, YouTube and, Google docs in the classroom with learners. Because of the year (7 & 8) I teach I can not use sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter because my students are legally not allowed to have an account under the age of 13 (some do, but are not legally allowed to). However, I do notice that peers are using music or podcasts, Youtube, Wikianswers and Wikispace in their teaching and I wonder if I could use one of these in my classroom?

From the  Teaching and Learning” chapter of the book “Embracing Social Media” (Magette, 2014), the most pertinent item for me was “Putting videos on YouTube and sharing through Twitter and Facebook does huge things for the content that my students create…” This has me thinking that rather than the straightforward blogs of a photo and written piece, I could have learners create and share videos of their learning, which could improve parental interest in the learners blogs. Magette (2014) goes on to write “It puts the pressure on to make better videos, as well, when you know how many people are watching.” I have certainly found this to be the case with blog writing, where learners know they have a larger audience (outside of just the teacher) and therefore have spent greater care on their posts.

Step 3 (critical reflection):

 Given these various perspectives and the implications, use the following questions to guide your thoughts:

The implications for using social media in teaching in my classroom are that I think in mathematics we (my class) has not shared at all what we have been learning with whanau, but I feel as if by using screencasts and YouTube we could do just that. If I create a class YouTube account (and keep it private) and we use this to share some of our learnings on our blogs, it might engage parents more than what we have been doing and perhaps also help teach other children in the school (when sharing strategies that children are using). I think it is time for me to change my practice using the student blogs and ensure the children are being more engaged with their learning using the ‘Create’ and ‘Share’ parts of our model.

* I have used Jay and Johnson’s (2002) reflective model to structure my reflective entry.

References

Magette, K. (2014). Embracing social media : a practical guide to manage risk and leverage opportunity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.(Available in Unitec library).

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf