Week 30 Reflective Post: Professional Online Social Networks
Social media is a big part of the modern society and whilst I am in two minds over using the more traditional sites in class with students (Facebook, Twitter etc), I enjoy using our class blog and Seesaw. Many sites have a minimum age and whilst the children might not be directly using it, I feel that it kind of breaks the rules that we teach and expect the class to follow in our Cyber Safety lessons! I think that it is important to teach the safety, but not necessarily how to use it in class, especially when there are options such as Seesaw specifically designed for education.
My school uses Blogger for our class blogs and when our students reach Year 5 they are entrusted with an individual learning blog. In the junior school we use Seesaw to communicate and share work with parents and class mates, as well as posting on our class blog as a team of Year 1/2s.
I, however, use social media a lot to benefit my own professional learning. I mainly use Facebook as it links into my own daily life and so I find it easier to keep a track of. I don't want to confine myself to the couple of hours I can find to sit down and 'learn'. However, if it comes up in my newsfeed as I'm connecting/enjoying my personal life with friends and scrolling through, I can save it, read it, comment on it and learn indirectly!
I have 'liked' a variety of different pages where I might find a tidbit of information that I can store away in my brain, save to go back to later, refer to a colleague or try out in my own class to help that kid I've been struggling to find a solution to an issue. I see videos of cool experiments or games that I can use in my classroom, or adapt something I've seen to become an art project in my class. It gives me ideas, information and inspiration for my own teaching without my having to sit down at my computer and force myself to go out looking.
I'm a part of the NZ Primary Teacher page where there is always a wealth of information and people in a similar situation to yourself. We're seeking out others' ideas and get a perspective from all over the place and can often be a fresh eye to a problem or front up with a new idea because of the various experience we've all had. Melhuish (2013) has written about this approach and its merits; it's something that we seek out and benefit from, and something that is an ongoing process.
Melhuish (2013) does also mention that the information we garner might not be proven or well thought out, however I think that with an objective audience, we can all see what would work or what we like without proof. Teaching is full of different ideas - one thing that you do in 2017 might never work again, because of the fluidity that we see in children, but that doesn't mean that it might not be outside the box and work in someone else's classroom.
I also believe that as teachers we find out/invent/try out new things constantly in our classes, but our school culture and how our class is defined can often be barriers to new inspiration. When training at university, it was commonly accepted that we learnt the most whilst on placements, and we got the most out of these when the environments were vastly different. I've now worked in three different schools in the past four years and have experienced working with different leadership styles, systems and priorities in teaching. If you're a teacher in the same school for the last several years, you might not have the opportunity to go out and see different schools and how they approach issues that happen in all schools. Social media allows a platform to share experiences and solutions to a common problem that you might not otherwise have found.
My school uses Blogger for our class blogs and when our students reach Year 5 they are entrusted with an individual learning blog. In the junior school we use Seesaw to communicate and share work with parents and class mates, as well as posting on our class blog as a team of Year 1/2s.
I, however, use social media a lot to benefit my own professional learning. I mainly use Facebook as it links into my own daily life and so I find it easier to keep a track of. I don't want to confine myself to the couple of hours I can find to sit down and 'learn'. However, if it comes up in my newsfeed as I'm connecting/enjoying my personal life with friends and scrolling through, I can save it, read it, comment on it and learn indirectly!
I have 'liked' a variety of different pages where I might find a tidbit of information that I can store away in my brain, save to go back to later, refer to a colleague or try out in my own class to help that kid I've been struggling to find a solution to an issue. I see videos of cool experiments or games that I can use in my classroom, or adapt something I've seen to become an art project in my class. It gives me ideas, information and inspiration for my own teaching without my having to sit down at my computer and force myself to go out looking.
I'm a part of the NZ Primary Teacher page where there is always a wealth of information and people in a similar situation to yourself. We're seeking out others' ideas and get a perspective from all over the place and can often be a fresh eye to a problem or front up with a new idea because of the various experience we've all had. Melhuish (2013) has written about this approach and its merits; it's something that we seek out and benefit from, and something that is an ongoing process.
Melhuish (2013) does also mention that the information we garner might not be proven or well thought out, however I think that with an objective audience, we can all see what would work or what we like without proof. Teaching is full of different ideas - one thing that you do in 2017 might never work again, because of the fluidity that we see in children, but that doesn't mean that it might not be outside the box and work in someone else's classroom.
I also believe that as teachers we find out/invent/try out new things constantly in our classes, but our school culture and how our class is defined can often be barriers to new inspiration. When training at university, it was commonly accepted that we learnt the most whilst on placements, and we got the most out of these when the environments were vastly different. I've now worked in three different schools in the past four years and have experienced working with different leadership styles, systems and priorities in teaching. If you're a teacher in the same school for the last several years, you might not have the opportunity to go out and see different schools and how they approach issues that happen in all schools. Social media allows a platform to share experiences and solutions to a common problem that you might not otherwise have found.
But, it is down to you knowing your own class and your principles to decide whether it is an approach you would like to adopt.
Comments
Post a Comment