Use
of social media in my teaching and professional development.
Personally I am not really a big user of social media with my teaching or in life in general. Facebook is the one platform that I do use and am semi confident with and this is the one place I use to get ideas and resources from. A big part of Facebook for myself as a teacher is the many groups that provide us with somewhere where teachers from all over New Zealand can share resources, ideas and photos, ask questions, and even a place to vent. I am/have been a part of a few groups including the NZ beginning primary teachers group, primary art ideas group, daily 5/literacy group, and the most commonly used group NZ teachers (primary). It is all so simple to use. If I have a question or in need of a resource I just post in this group and responses come fast and in abundance. Searching for something is also easy. All it takes is a few strikes of the computer keys and colleagues of different experiences, knowledge and skills are all too keen to help. Teaching is best served when collaborating with peers and this platform is an excellent source of collaboration.
For Mindlab I have dabbled with twitter, google plus, blogs and other social media platforms but I have always reverted back to the good old Facebook. I have tried using these in my teaching and to enhance my teaching but being not as social media friendly and digitally proficient I still struggle to make the best use of the available social media platform.
I am doing collaborative teaching this year for the first time and even though we have an open classroom between us it is not always easy to meet. Duties, meetings and personal lives can sometimes mean we do not always have the time to discuss everything we need. Obar and Wildman (2015) states there four key features of a social media platform. These are it must a be web based platform, users are able to generate the content, individuals and groups can create user specific profiles, and online social networks are developed by connecting profiles of individuals or groups. We use google docs which fits Obar and Wildman’s 4 features of a social media. We use it to share everything we do, it makes working collaboratively a lot easier and we are able to share this with our team leader also.
Personally I am not really a big user of social media with my teaching or in life in general. Facebook is the one platform that I do use and am semi confident with and this is the one place I use to get ideas and resources from. A big part of Facebook for myself as a teacher is the many groups that provide us with somewhere where teachers from all over New Zealand can share resources, ideas and photos, ask questions, and even a place to vent. I am/have been a part of a few groups including the NZ beginning primary teachers group, primary art ideas group, daily 5/literacy group, and the most commonly used group NZ teachers (primary). It is all so simple to use. If I have a question or in need of a resource I just post in this group and responses come fast and in abundance. Searching for something is also easy. All it takes is a few strikes of the computer keys and colleagues of different experiences, knowledge and skills are all too keen to help. Teaching is best served when collaborating with peers and this platform is an excellent source of collaboration.
For Mindlab I have dabbled with twitter, google plus, blogs and other social media platforms but I have always reverted back to the good old Facebook. I have tried using these in my teaching and to enhance my teaching but being not as social media friendly and digitally proficient I still struggle to make the best use of the available social media platform.
I am doing collaborative teaching this year for the first time and even though we have an open classroom between us it is not always easy to meet. Duties, meetings and personal lives can sometimes mean we do not always have the time to discuss everything we need. Obar and Wildman (2015) states there four key features of a social media platform. These are it must a be web based platform, users are able to generate the content, individuals and groups can create user specific profiles, and online social networks are developed by connecting profiles of individuals or groups. We use google docs which fits Obar and Wildman’s 4 features of a social media. We use it to share everything we do, it makes working collaboratively a lot easier and we are able to share this with our team leader also.
There will always be safety concerns
when it comes to the internet. There is no guarantee that you can be 100% safe
no matter how much security you have. This goes for both students and teachers.
Today social media is abundant in
everyday life, with teachers and students readily able to go on to platforms
and have discussions at the click of a button (Seaman&Tiniti-Kane,
2013). Social media sites are a good way to stay connected to families
and colleagues outside of work hours, and any possible challenge that may arise
should not hinder ones use of it (Education Council, 2012). If used correctly, the
benefits far out way the negatives. Even for someone like me who is not as
savvy as others, it gives me the ability to connect to people and professionals
all over the world, to have a broader understanding of what teachers and
students go through from different back grounds and it is the way moving
forward with learning.
Education Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
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