Social Media

I will admit it. I am a social media addict. I have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and they all sit in an app organiser under "social media" and I probably check it at least five times a day. However before starting this course I really thought teaching/education and social media was a no-no. We are told in our time as Beginning Teachers - make sure everything is private, don't put photos of your students anywhere, no last names on blogs etc etc etc. It seems that from our perspective as schools social media is not our friend. Through this understanding when my nephew started a new school I was horrified that they had a Facebook page, but then I spoke to some people about it and their ideas were that if that was the way that a school could get parents interested in what was happening - why not? If parents were on Facebook and were reminded their child needed something tomorrow at school great! It then got me thinking well why not social media and how could it be used effectively by education establishments?

We have always been restricted in education by how much knowledge is around us. I remember when I was at school we could use the library to find information, an Encarta CD perhaps if you were lucky and your desktop computer could take CDs, and a field trip to somewhere which may or may not be all that helpful. Now the whole world is at our fingertips not only does a platform like google connect you to anywhere or anything you need to find you can use so much more to enhance the learning process. Video conferencing can connect you instantaneously to that expert on Hectors Dolphins in the South Island or a WW1 specialist in London. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter connect through to some amazing people that at the click of your enter button sees a whole world of information come back. A common saying is that life is all about connections, well now connections can be anywhere around the world and accessible at any time of the day! What and exciting time to be a learner/educator.

As previously mentioned it is important that we think about privacy. I have had two recent ethical conversations about the risks of social media and how people feel about their children having access to and being placed on these forums. The first was my friend (a dance teacher) who wanted to take a photo of her class at the end for her company's Facebook page. She checked with the parents that this was okay and one said that she didn't want her child on this page. My friend was a bit shocked by this but was respectful and did not post the photo. My thoughts were I suppose that that is fair enough, it is a parents call but I wonder if it was going on a dance website if this would be the same reaction? The other was on school camp we wanted to connect with our parents and put photos up online somehow that our students could use. Mine and a couple of others was why not Instagram? It is a perfect place for photos that was quick to use. However with questions on privacy we decided to go with a blog. I guess my question through both of these is what is the difference? Is there one between public websites/blogs and that of a social media forum such as Facebook and Instagram?

Another challenge is that of social responsibility and cyber safety. It is important to teach our students that not everyone online is honest and reliable. Talking to our students seems to be the best way to explain this and I think that at all times open and honest conversations about this need to be had frequently.

I have found some really useful places for professional development in all kinds of forums. Some of these are Facebook groups, Google Plus communities, the Virtual Learning Network, teacher blogs. For me their importance has been in the convenience and the fact that like with my students learning they have opened up a world of learning. I can be checking my Facebook page at night and a group has posted a video of some amazing lesson or resource they have used and I will try it the next day.

I believe social media can be a powerful learning tool however while it is still relatively new we are still in a teething period and only once through this will we really know the full extent of its capabilities.