Making Connections

This year I returned to formal study after eight years and have been stunned by the immense changes that have occurred over that time. Facebook and other social networks were in their infancy when I was last spending late nights puzzling over an essay question or pondering the definition of a new term or buzz word. The ability to engage and collaborate with other teachers has transformed the professional learning experience for me, adding a whole new layer of feedback, support and instantly accessible knowledge that simply didn’t exist in 2008. My online interactions with other course members and members of the wider educational community have given me the opportunity to construct knowledge, consolidate my understanding of difficult concepts and connect with the expertise and experiences of others in ways that previously weren’t possible “A social network site can afford members the opportunity to create, share and curate the knowledge in a shared space, and members’ thinking is mediated and developed by the thinking of others” (Melhuish, 2013).

While I primarily use Mindlab’s ‘Google Plus’ community I have also started to become more active on Twitter and Facebook and am endless amazed at the speed at which I am able to engage with others around the world. When researching the iPad app ‘Book Creator’ I took to Facebook to discover how other junior teachers were using it in their classroom and within minutes received examples of work, links to apps to use alongside Book Creator and solutions to common issues, e.g. only having a small number of devices. This information would have taken me a long time to locate if I had been researching myself and the fact that it was being provided by fellow teachers who were actively using the app in their own classrooms meant that, to me, it was far more authentic and useful then reading a research article or instruction manual.

While there are many critics of social media and definite privacy and professional issues that can arise through its use I feel that its benefits greatly outweigh any costs. I believe that treating online interactions in the same way that one would treat conversations at a meeting or conference, and quickly removing oneself from networks that do not operate in this fashion is an effective safeguard against most issues.

Despite being a prolific user of social networks for my own learning and development I feel that I am yet to fully master their potential for transforming learning in my classroom.
This year I have had some success using the online brainstorm tool ‘Padlet’. I use ‘Padlet’ to provide my students with a forum where they can anonymously post questions about our topic for the term either at school or at home. To post a question the students need only to double click/tap and write. We log in every day to see where the students thoughts are taking our learning and their questions drive our learning for the following week. The students love being able to answer the questions they have asked and often access Padlet at home with their parents. In the future I would like to expand this further through connecting and collaborating with other students worldwide by posting our Padlet questions on Twitter or other social forums.

Another area I am working on developing is the use of social media for sharing learning with whanau. Parental engagement is a crucial factor in both the academic and personal success of students (Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2011) and the immediate nature of social media makes it the ideal tool for sharing learning with parents. The ease with which it can be updated and accessed offers parents a unique and timely insight into their child’s learning. As Ward (2014) states “Social media with its possibility of constant small updates and opportunities for response represents the "pulse of a school".

A challenge I am currently facing is finding a social media tool to use that requires only minimal teacher assistance. Because of the young age of my students and the fact that most of them possess only basic literacy skills this has been somewhat difficult. For social media to truly have a transformative effect on my students I know I need to take a step back, and let them take ownership. Ironically it has been social media that has lead me to a possible solution; after discussing my challenges with others on Google Plus and Facebook I am currently experimenting with using the iPad app ‘Seesaw’ in my class and am excited by the potential this offers, not only as means of recording the students work and progress but also through inviting parents into our classroom through the screens of their laptops and smartphones. It’s ease of use means that even the youngest students have been able to operate it with relative ease and I look forward to exploring this further in the future.

When used responsibly social media has the potential to bring teachers, parents and students closer together, while at the same time giving students the opportunity to engage with, and share their learning with countless others around the world. I am excited about the potential it has to expand my students' learning experience and hope to continue to develop my expertise in using it to transform their learning.

References:
Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2011). Cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners: Tātaiako.
Melhuish, K. (2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’professional learning, 1994, 219. Retrieved from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
Ward, L. (2014). Talking to parents in 140 characters: how are schools using social media? | Teacher Network | The Guardian. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/jul/16/talking-to-parents-how-schools-using-social-media