I attended as many meetings/conferences as possible keen to make connections with other educators and garner teaching ideas when I began teaching in 2002. This was one of the few ways to connect with others that time.
It became much easier recently to connect and share ideas both locally and internationally with other educators through social online networks making previously impossible worldwide connections possible.
I will reflect on how social media is being used in my professional development using Jay and Johnson’s reflective model.
I use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Ning community and Yahoo Group for professional networking.
Facebook and Yahoo Groups are mainly for my subject area. I subscribe/follow a range of pages related to my subject fields on Facebook providing me with information and videos to use in my classes.
I belong to a closed Yahoo Group for Japanese educators in New Zealand. Yahoo Groups is an online discussion board which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded internet forum. It has become increasingly important for us to keep current with ideas and information.
In 2010 I joined a Ning community for ICT learning and teaching. Ning is an online community building platform. All community members can read and write blogs,exchange ideas and share resources and most members are interested in implementing digital technology in their classes.
Pinterest helps with collecting ideas/resources useful for all aspects of teaching.
Twitter helps connect educators from different backgrounds around the world. I get inspiration from fellow educators who tweet in German and Japanese as well as in English.
Watching Youtube/Vimeo Videos enhance my teaching practice (eg. TED talks ). We share documents and slides using Google Apps with colleagues and educators at Google schools.
The "Social Media Tools" survey results do not surprise me.
Many of us use Social personal networks/forums, Blogs, Social Streams,Videos and Content/Documents sharing.
“The value of networking with educators beyond their own environment was considered a vital condition for experiencing divergent thinking and the importance of an external voice was borne out in more general studies on effective professional development”(Berry, Byrd, & Norton, 2007; Dwyer et al., 2009; Ministry of Education, 2008: Timperley et al., 2007).
It is important for educators to connect and observe what is happening around the world.
However, “the social network site became self-sustaining, many members, over time, were seen to move from the periphery to the heart of the network” (Dwyer et al.,2009).
The New Zealand Association of Japanese Language Teachers, for example, has a website where we can inform/share information and resources. However, it has remained dormant for the last couple of years. We now use our Yahoo Group online discussion board rather than our website. My Ning community is also getting quieter.
We seem to be changing our channels of communication.
“Whatever the reason for belonging to a social network site, motivation was a strong indicator of engagement, and the motivation was often directed towards the creation of items or learning of personal worth” (Minocha, 2009a)
Melhuish (2013) states there are two outcomes from the use of social media for professional development; Intended and Unintended (p. 38).
- Intended outcomes: resource development, enhanced knowledge, development, professional reflection and application of learning in face-to-face educational contexts.
- Unintended outcomes: growth of professional identity and leadership, enhanced technical skills, shifts in tutors’ pedagogical understanding, enhanced digital literacy and connections made.
However, the unintended outcomes are limited if you don’t contribute regularly. I have not been able to contribute to my online social networks as much as I want. The main hindrance is as a non-native English speaker, I worry about making mistakes and possibly offending others.
I will challenge myself to regularly participate and contribute to my networks, and this will help me with developing my professional vocabulary.
Reference:
Melhuish, K. (2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning, 1994, 219. Retrieved from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
Comments
Post a Comment