Online Social 

 

Networking

Karren O'Carroll 

Taipa Area School

Week 29 Task-Using Social Online Networks in Teaching/ Professional Development

Using the Following model; I will reflect on my use of Digital platforms for engaging the students.

Jay and Johnson's (2002) reflective model

Descriptive Stage

After completing the online survey I realised that I am sing social media tools to engage and support my learners. On line learning activities are useful to provide an engaging real-world relevance for students of all ages (Magette, 2014).

 I use the google sites and created a web-page which we use in our year 7/8 class. Myself and another  teacher are able to collaborate on the web-page and upload tasks that the learners are to work on. Our tasks invited the students to make slide show presentations. As part of the task they could seek information to upload  you-tube clips to present as part of their learning activities. Students were invited to self reflect and assess there own presentations. This further strengthened the learners to build knowledge and take ownership of the learning tasks.. 

This webpage is working for both, the teachers and learners as all the instruction are easy to follow. I feel quite confident in using the google webpage but I am still trying to find out if there is any other social media tool we can use to pass important notices to learners. This can be any app which all the learners can easily access.I have also asked my senior student to set up and use blogging to record their learning. We also communicate regally through facebook chat.

Comparative Stage

Our teachers have access to upload and edit tasks on the google web page which we have set up with learning tasks. We were able to comment on and give feed forward /feedback as required to assist the students. 

I am interested in knowing if there are ways to share with the wider parent community. As our school will soon join the Manialkalani group I am hopeful that the students will be able to visit and view students work, Engaging with our community more is an important goal for the future.I think of parents viewing and commenting on the students work as well as teachers as a positive step to assist with student engagement.

Whitaker, Zoul & Casa (2015) suggest that teachers are changing their teaching habits to get out of their comfort zones to connect and utilize the media tools for learning. We have already taken our step in the right direction through professional development and networking with teachers who share the same passion for change for the betterment of our learners.

Critical Reflection Stage

Social media has been a successful way to enage our whauna in the Taipa Community. Other platforms, such as the Manakalani,  could be a great way to engage parents and learners and gives them all the opportunity to converse with the stakeholders (Magette, 2014). I think what we are using is a really good tool. However, we need to engage with parents more frequently so that they can also comment on the learner's tasks. I am also open to more professional development for our teachers with better tools that creates awareness for learners to perform even better in school. I liked the idea of "follow 5, find 5, take 5" from Whitaker, Zoul & Casa (2015). 

References

Magette, K. (2014). Embracing social media : a practical guide to manage risk and leverage opportunity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.(Available in Unitec library).

Solis, B. (2018). The Conversation Prism. Retrieved from: https://conversationprism.com/

Statista (2018). Number of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in billions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

Whitaker, T., Zoul, J., & Casas, J. (2015). What connected educators do differently. New York, NY: Routledge.