Social Media in Education

Activity 7: Social Media in Learning and Teaching

I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘C’… Connections!

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A misconception or misunderstanding is that teachers simply use technology to keep up with the trend. However this is not the case. Educators recognise the value of prior knowledge and how connections are vital in creating new knowledge and learning. To ignore and separate technology from education means to disconnect learning with their real world. Technology enables us to make wider connections through social networking platforms. It’s not the use of technology that makes a 21^st century classroom; it’s using technology as a vehicle to drive student learning through wider connections.

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As a teacher, I use social media to enhance my professional development outside the classroom. For example, I am part of two different groups on Facebook, NZ Teachers (Primary) and BEd Primary Class of 2013, where I communicate and share ideas with teachers around New Zealand and with my fellow graduate teachers. Content ranges from activity ideas to current educational issues and trends that shape our profession. This connection allows me to connect with teachers in different contexts and therefore make new knowledge and build existing ones to strengthen my practice. Another social platform I often use is Pinterest where I find and connect with amazing creative ideas other teachers have to share. Youtube is another significant social media platform that enhances my professional practice through watching videos both in my own time and during educational gatherings, such as meetings, courses, lectures and more. There are many more social platforms I could share with you that enhance my professional practice, but the point is I use social media to connect with other educators to exchange ideas that shape my teaching in some positive way.

Some key features of social media that I identify as being beneficial to teaching and learning are the ability to share ideas and connect with others through communication. Among the many social media platforms that I use in my teaching and learning classroom, the two most beneficial ones are Youtube and blogging. Youtube is a bank of inspirational videos that are perfect for introducing topics, teaching new concepts and virtually has the potential to teach anything you want. Blogging allows students to share their learning with parents at home, friends and other students across the world. Not only can they share, it allows students to get inspired and communicate with other students to make connections with their lives and their world.

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However, everything has its challenges and ipads in classrooms can sound too good to be true. Along with all the benefits of technology come the challenges and obstacles as well. Technology in the classroom requires teachers to be aware of potential challenges when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities. Although schools do their best to put in place security systems to filter content that may not be appropriate to our learners, there are limitations to keep students safe online. To best equip students for the challenges they may come across, I spend the first term of the year inquiring into Digital Citizenship so that students are aware of the responsibilities, expectations, dangers and consequences of what they do online. But there are still the inevitable challenges that exist, such as easily getting side-tracked by irrelevant content that pop up on the sideline or the nasty comments they could possibly receive from thoughtless strangers. Then there are the technical challenges such as Internet connection, missing devices, inability to login etc., which one teacher cannot physically handle. Fortunately, we have a school technician on site who can help students with technical issues. Overall, I do believe that the benefits of using social platforms outweigh the challenges and therefore there are greater advantages from using social networking platforms in teaching and learning than to stop it all together. It comes down to training the students to be safe and responsible online, as they would offline.

Personally I feel that Youtube best supports engagement with my professional development as it allows me to use this tool for whatever purpose I need at any time (for both learning and teaching) unlike other platforms that have limited routines and purposes. It keeps me engaged as I am a visual learner and the same idea can be explained by different people differently to fit different learning styles.