Social Media

Social media in education has been a hotly contested topic. While there are a variety of opinions on the benefits or risks of using social media in the classroom as an educator, social media can be a great tool. According to research conducted by The Open University (2016) social media encourages creativity, collaboration, communication and the sharing of resources. In the ever changing landscape of education a platform that encourages us to do this is brilliant. While there are benefits to using social media to increase teacher practice Melhuish (2013) warns us that professional knowledge gained from social media may be superficial and shallow. She states due to the lack of quality control on social media sites the information shared and gained may not be theory driven and reputable therefore limiting the ability to gain deep knowledge from these platforms. While this may be true, Melhuish also argues that social media is a powerful tool for busy teachers to gain and share ideas in an any time, anywhere platform to reflect on ideas beyond their own four walls.

In my own practice I use social media in a variety of ways. Due to the age of my students (7-9 years) I don’t really use social media in the classroom. The exception to this is using twitter for Chapter Chat activities which we will be doing later in the year. However, I use social media extensively to gain ideas and information from a wide network of colleagues. I belong to the NZ Teachers (primary) Facebook group which provides a wealth of ideas and resources for all levels of primary school teaching. This group is also a sounding board for various problems and challenges teachers come across in their line of work. I personally find this group invaluable for not only teaching ideas but answers to questions about teaching that more experienced teachers can give. I also use Snapchat to share planning ideas or potential resources with my collaborative teaching partner when we are not a school. Other platforms I use regularly are a variety of blogs and forums found online (usually while browsing Pinterest) that link me to classrooms all over the world. I’m not sure how teachers came up with new ideas before the internet!

My next challenge in my teaching is to develop safe ways students can use social media to communicate with other students around the country/world. I have looked in to Skype in the Classroom which seems to be a great platform to connect with different classrooms around the world. This is still teacher driven and monitored though, I am trying to find safe ways young children can use different platforms to communicate. We are also trialling Seesaw and Facebook groups as a way to connect with parents and share learning. While this is proving successful, I’m not sure if these platforms are improving learning for my students although they are certainly engaging!

References and Links:

p. 36-44 in Chapter 3 of Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators ‘professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1390088457960727/