Professional Online Social Networks

As an educator, I find that social media provides a fantastic platform for sharing and learning and enhances my professional development.  I began using Twitter after being at a uLearn conference a few years ago.  It really is one of the best free tools for professional development that I have come across.  I'm an avid consumer of information but not so big on the producing, with only dabbling in a bit of tweeting of my own.  Melhuish (2013) would probably say that I am a bit of a 'lurker'. She also points out that for the professional learning to have most impact participants need to be actively engaged and not just reading information, and I know I have some work to do here.

I enjoy being able to follow what interests me and being able to connect with like minded people but I also realise that for it to probably have more impact on my professional development and practice I probably need to step up and become more proactive myself.  Through my blogging with Mindlab I feel that I am developing my confidence to share in an online forum. I have also got a lot out of Google+ and have found being a member of the Mindlab community extremely worthwhile to increase my professional knowledge.  I would like to investigate the Virtual Learning Network (VLN) as several of my colleagues engage with this network and say it is worthwhile.

One of the biggest challenges I find is not having enough time to read through the screeds of information and research available on social media sites.  It can sometimes feel a bit like information overload to me and can take huge amounts of time wading through, searching for the most interesting and useful content. Melhuish (2013) highlights the need to have a clear focus when engaging with information online, it would be easy to get off track if this wasn't present (as I have personally experienced!).

I teach a year 2/3 class.  In my classroom I have a class blog which is a place where we share learning and happenings in our classroom. I also have a blog to share my students responses in reading as many of them are choosing increasingly to present their work digitally.  The children are taking more ownership of what goes on the blog this year, particularly those who I have for a second year. It allows them to share their learning beyond the classroom and provides a link to home and other family and friends.  I would like to see the blog used more effectively by our parent community and have them engaging more and giving the students comments on their work.  

We use YouTube a lot in our room,  for research, supporting our learning and also for music.  As my class are younger, I often make QR codes if there are particular things I want them to see to try and keep them safer online whilst also trying to teach them about cyber safety and being responsible digital citizens.  At this stage I don't use social media with my learners mainly because of their age.  I can see that there could be benefits of collaborating with others beyond our classroom and globally but I see that there could be some challenges with safety and also the possibility of some parental concerns.  Food for thought for the future. 

Reference

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 12 March, 2017 from https://app.themindlab.com/media/32455/view