Social Media in Education

Social Media in the classroom

Social media is not going away, however we do need to implement some strategies to deal with cyber safety within our school and for our community.

The NZ Teachers Council describes social media as something that embraces web-based and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication between organisations, communities and individuals. http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-media

A few years ago I tried to introduce FB as a platform for sharing in my whanau class and YR12DVC class, however, due to my lack of knowledge and understanding it was not a successful exercise with very little buy in from my students. On reflection I can now see why it was not successful, a lack of posts on my part and no discussion or sharing. Maybe it was too soon for my students, they weren’t ready for using social media as a tool in the classroom, or maybe it was the wrong platform.

Edmodo has been implemented this year as part of my LDC2 assignment with some success, although it still needs work. The students engaged with the easy to use platform, they could see the similarities with FB, however they felt it was just another site to visit. We initially set up the site to share exemplars and resources, post updates and due dates, useful links and to encourage participation in online critiques. The students initially struggled with this idea of critiquing each other work, yet a culture of sharing was soon established between classmates.

Edmodo participation has waned in the recent months, due to a lack of posting and no need for collaboration as students are working on individual folios. I do believe however that having used Edmodo my students have realised that sharing ideas and resources is an effective way of working which has enhanced the culture within the classroom. Gone are the days of secrete Pinterest boards with the fear of copying ideas. Students are much more receptive of feedback back form one another and staff.

Social Media in my teaching and professional development

Prior to my Mindlab journey I was a lurker on Twitter, I used Facebook for personal reasons only, and I was an avid participant on Pinterest for both home and school purposes. My understanding of social media has evolved over the past year, as I have witnessed and realised the power and potential of social media as a tool.

I can now see the educational benefit of being an active participant on twitter, the resources, links and up-to-date news on conferences, PD opportunities, subject specific info and current pedagogical practices from international and local individuals, business, groups and corporations.

I am still active on Pinterest, and for subject specific resources and inspiration in the field of design and technology there is nothing better. We no longer purchase books for our department, preferring to spend our money on the latest technologies, materials and equipment. A key benefit of Pinterest is having the ability to collaborate on shared boards, enabling teachers and students to access shared exemplars and resources, anytime, anywhere. Pinning ideas to individual students and the sharing between students is also something to be utilised, celebrated and encouraged. Pinterest has enabled our department to access contemporary practice without leaving the classroom. We now have access to the most current artist models and teachers from around the world, sharing new media and techniques.

In the past few months I have become increasing concerned by the lack of discussion and cross curricular action within our school. Staff are so busy and rarely gather or make time for sharing or discussion. The silos have been built up in our traditional setting, and having been made aware of what we could be doing, and the many barriers put in place, I believe that a social media platform could potentially solve or breakdown these walls. I thought about using one of the above platforms, however, with a number of new initiatives being implemented in the past year, I thought if I introduced another there would be an uproar. I then realised that most of our staff were Facebook users, so why not create a WGHS – Collaboration Page.  The idea behind the group was to create a place were good ideas, up-to-date resources, exemplars, student work and best practice could be shared. Within 5 days, almost half of the staff were on-board, and they had started commenting and sharing best practice.

Edmodo fulfills both the 21st Century skill of collaboration and the Key Competency of Participating and Contributing. Theories such as Constructivism, Connectivism, Connected Learning and Online Communities are all relevant and should be present in good teaching practice. As Peterson states, Communication and shared activities can promote collaboration and thus community and learning both in a traditional face‐to‐face classroom as well as in a computer centered environment. Collaboration and interaction among students and teachers within the classroom creates a face‐to‐face community of learners (Peterson et al., 2009)

In the future I see there is a place for social media within the class and it will be up to me to up skill and become confident implementing it as a tool for learning. Since students are already using social media outside of the classroom, incorporating it into the classroom will help students learn best practices for social media and hopefully offer increased opportunities for discussion and collaboration.

I would like to explore the use of Instagram in the classroom to showcase student work for 2017 and this will be something I will be researching and trialing later this term.

References

Peterson, S. A., Divitini, M., & Chabert, G. (2009). Sense of community among mobile language learners: Can blogs support this? International Journal of Web Based Communities, 5(3),428‐445.

Retrieved from:http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1726&context=doctoral

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han.

Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1). Retrieved on 7th May,2015 from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p.