Week 29

Activity 5: Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

I never really considered myself a big user of social media for work until I completed the survey.  I
have the usual instagram, snapchat and facebook accounts for personal use. Now on reflection I
see that I use social media more in my work that I had thought about.  I use Google communities,
Blogs, Wikipedia, VLN, Pinterest, TedEx, Vimeo, Netflix, Collaborative Google Docs, YouTube,
Facebook Teachers Groups, Teachers Pay Teachers …. and the list continues.

In comparing my social media use with others it appears I am very similar to others.  I admit that
sometimes I just use some of these platforms as a ‘lurker’ rather than a contributor.  The type of
social media that I don’t use that a lot of others appear to use is Twitter.

In regards to what I will use differently in the future I can see the need for me to be more involved in
platforms.  Commenting on other people’s posts. Using Google communities and facebook groups
to share ideas and to request ideas when I am stuck.  In reality I am very old school and stubborn
and have the ‘I can do it myself’ attitude. This attitude makes my work life harder and by using the
shared knowledge and ideas of others I can streamline my work and allow more time for quality
teaching and feedback.

I agree with the need for students to be taught how to use social media properly. One of the key
teachings we do around blogs is how to comment on other people's blogs. We use the following
graphic as a reminder for students about quality blog comments.

One thing that I still have difficulty with is the ethical considerations of using some social media
platforms in the classroom.  Many platforms have age limits however the students that I teach are
younger than this so where do I stand legally in using it in class?