Using Social Media in teaching

What is the place of social media in teaching?

I am a regular user of social media in my personal life.  I connect with friends and whanau through Facebook, with people that interest me through Twitter, with professional contacts through LinkedIn, watch video on YouTube, and collect inspiration through Pinterest.

In the last two years I have started using social media on my professional life also. I have connected with groups internationally that provide online learning via webinar, local groups that post and discuss current issues in our educational climate, connected with school leaders for professional dialogue, accessed webinars through VLN (virtual learning network) and more recently set up groups for our school - one for parents and another for teachers, to encourage dialogue and sharing that builds each community.

 As I have become more familiar with the various privacy settings available on each of the platforms, I am increasingly comfortable with the idea of teachers and students making use of SM to extend the parameters of their learning spaces. While there is potential for risk in online environments, there is also in the real world.  It is our job as adults in their lives to minimise the risks while allowing our students to experience the vast range of opportunities in the world to engage them in learning.  I see no difference between this and learning in the online world.  There are some great resources available for schools and teachers using online platforms in their professional work, and more recently excellent guidelines provided by the Education Council for teachers using social media personally and professionally.

At our school, we have for a number of years used the Netsafe resource Hectors World to teach cybersafety in our classrooms. This programme takes children through a series of short videos to teach them the safety steps they need to take to protect themselves and their personal information while in online spaces.
                         
We are in the process of reviewing our digital literacy and cybersafety policies and procedures, as we move in to using more devices in our rooms.  We want our students to be producers of online resource not just consumers, and so we are developing the use of class and student blogs as a first step.  I am excited to see how this will work, and how we can extend that to social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to connect with classes within and beyond our school.  Recently our cluster became a Community of Learning, and so now we have a fabulous opportunity to develop a virtual COL  among the 12 providers involved in our cluster - ranging from ECE to Secondary , and including our local special school. Our own Virtual Learning Network (VLN)

In my own leadership practice, I have been looking at ways to connect with the two main groups of learners I work with - parents and teachers.  Initially I approached a Board member ad another tech savvy parent to help me set up a WR Parents group on Facebook.  As Facebook is a commonly used and user-friendly site we decided to set up a closed group page, meaning users needed to request permission to belong to the group.  We have made clear that the page is only for parents/caregivers of CURRENT students, staff and Board members of our school, and that the member ship is checked and permissions reviewed annually.  We also set out clear guidelines for the purpose of the page and ensure that is pinned so it is visible to all constantly.  It is used for sharing photos and videos of events so that families that cant attend can still see what we are doing, is is a space for reminders of upcoming events and tasks, we have used it for quick surveys, and for sharing information and notices. Because FB sends notifications of postings, parents and families are more likely to see this than find a newsletter in their child's bag.

Because of the success of this page, I have recently set up another closed group for the teachers, seeing it as way to engage with professional articles, videos etc that challenge our thinking about how and what we teach. We will be using it as a library of professional resources.  This concept replaces the folder of professional Readings that nobody ever enjoys collating or reading.  Facebook makes it very easy for the user to copy and paste links or articles directly into the page, giving opportunity for teachers to share something provocative or exciting with their colleagues. And no paper!

I hope this initiative will encourage teachers to share and discuss their ideas and to look for research and thinking both locally and internationally that they can use in their own practice. My hope is that this will be teacher-driven and encourage discussion and debate about best practice in our school. We need to be reflective and open to new learning in order to provide the best for our students. Change is a constant in education, and if you are not open to changing then you are not open to improvement.

As Karen Melhuish said in her masters thesis (pg4) 'the importance of reflecting on one's own needs in relation to one's learners needs is front and centre' and in my view, central to improving practice.


                                                     
                                           

References

Education Council of NZ - Teachers and Social Media   -   https://educationcouncil.org.nz/ 

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.  

Ministry of Education and NetSafe, Digital Technology: Safe and responsible use in schools; (Feb 2015)  

Virtual Learning Network - http://www.vln.school.nz/