Social Media Use in Teaching and Professional Development


Social media embraces web-based and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication between organisations, communities and individuals  (Education Council, n.d).

How have I used social media tools in  teaching/ professional development.
This year teachers at my school have access to facebook and twitter . Our school policies do not allow students to use facebook or twitter.  We do have a school facebook page which is managed by the school leaders.Students and teachers have lots of restrictions for using online media at my school. My students are also very young to use facebook or any other kind of social media as they are at the beginning stages of developing literacy skills. I would like my class to have the ability to communicate with a class of similar age in another part of New Zealand or even elsewhere in the world as this would potentially create many authentic learning opportunities related to communicating and sharing.  The teachers in my team use google docs for sharing resources and planning. Google docs saves printing, allows us to work on the same document, at the same time collaboratively and we learn from each others work. I came to know about google + through mindlab and I found it very beneficial as it kept in touch and to have conversations with other mindlab students and staff. Whenever I needed help with my assignments, I used google + to connect to other students for their feedback. I found social media very helpful in my mindlab journey.

What are the implications for using social media in teaching and/or professional development?

As far as I understand, social media are online networking platforms such as twitter , blog, google doc, wikipedia, pinterest, you-tube and facebook that are accessible from a range of devices and locations (Education Council, n.d). In the article Innovative Pedagogy report of Open University , (Sharples et al, ,2016)  explains that social media can support creativity, collaboration, communication and sharing of resources. It can support exploration of the past and outer space in real time, engaging learners in new ways. Social media can give learners reliable and interesting content, as well as opportunities to access expert advice, to encounter challenges, to defend their views and to amend their ideas in the face of criticism. On the other hand sites may present learners with inaccurate information, biased comments and hostile responses (Sharples et al, ,2016) .

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

 I am not using social networking in my classroom at the moment but there are possibilities that I will be using it in the future as technology has become part of the education system in New Zealand . Education Council (2012) explains that the challenges should not stop teachers from using social network as long as you explain to the school, parents, families and whanau why you are using social media in your classroom. If I ever use social media I have to give my students lessons about digital citizenship so that challenges are minimised.


References

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

NZ Education Council. (n.d.). What is social media . Retrieved June 16, 2017 from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-me...


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.

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