Activity 5 - Week 29: Social Media Use in my Teaching
Jay and Johnson’s (2002) reflective model is used to reflect on this week’s topic.
DESCRIPTIVE
My Digital Technology students couldn’t really get by without100% rely on social media tools such as Q and A, location sharing, wiki, social curation, videos, content/documents, music/podcasts, livecasting, pictures etc. Conversely, social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) is avoided at all costs in my teaching practice. Social networking raises ethical concerns, as defined by Finlay’s (2018, p. 11) argument about online reflective practices, "... confidentiality, rights to privacy, informed consent and professional relationships... can have a profound emotional impact on the person ... potential to be harmful... Given such dangers, the extent to which students or trainees are obliged to engage in reflection is raising concern."
If students are caught using social networks during class they breach their computer contracts. Monitoring students to remain on task, and for online safety is laborious for teachers (as discussed in week 28). However, where would we be without the range of tools initially described whereby there is a big difference between them and social networking especially when using it with teenage students. Alternately, I haven't completely ruled it out - the school uses social networking for sports, cultural, and extracurricular activities only.
COMPARATIVELY
How other people describe this?
In response to Cassidy’s (2013, tvoparents) successes with social media tools in the classroom, it truly is an asset in the Primary/Intermediate school setting. I am skeptical to her response, “asking children to power down their devices would not be in touch with their real lives.” The homes or real lives observed in my teenaged student’s worlds, playing Halo or Fortnite immediately after school till the wee hours of the morning, is not a real-life experience I want translated into my classroom. Through experience as an ex-Primary/Intermediate school teacher (now a secondary school teacher), students were less distracted by social networking - another topic worthy of further discussion. In support, Rithika and Selvaraj (2013) claim that older students spend more time engaging in unrelated discussions than younger students do, and that social media negatively affects the amount of time spent preparing or studying for tests.
How others are using it
Based on our class 2018 MindLab survey ‘Social Media Tools’, the top sourced social media tool was videos, followed by content/documents, and surprisingly social networks were the third highest tool used by teachers on this course for their teaching practice.
Implications
In response to the survey (figure 1), these findings would be more valid and reliable if we were able to see specific differences across Primary/Intermediate/Secondary teachers and their preference of tools. In addition, more specific questions on what they use for teaching or professional development.
Although I take a converse stance on social networking in the classroom, I absolutely LOVE IT for Personal/Professional Learning Networks (PLN). As the only Digital Technology teacher in my school PLN connects me to the larger communities in New Zealand, in my Auckland cluster, and internationally through NZACDITT, Google +, Facebook pages and many more. Blanchard (n.d., in Whitaker, Zoul & Casas, 2015) highlights teacher need for personal and professional connection, however his ‘investing with a purpose’ is what makes the sharing of knowledge, resources, tools so powerful and personally satisfying knowing you can help others as they do to you. If using PLN’s makes me feel this way, my aim is to turn that around and model to students the positive and rewarding effects social networking can have for them by leading them to professional development communication that enhances their learning too.
In response to the survey (figure 1), these findings would be more valid and reliable if we were able to see specific differences across Primary/Intermediate/Secondary teachers and their preference of tools. In addition, more specific questions on what they use for teaching or professional development.
Although I take a converse stance on social networking in the classroom, I absolutely LOVE IT for Personal/Professional Learning Networks (PLN). As the only Digital Technology teacher in my school PLN connects me to the larger communities in New Zealand, in my Auckland cluster, and internationally through NZACDITT, Google +, Facebook pages and many more. Blanchard (n.d., in Whitaker, Zoul & Casas, 2015) highlights teacher need for personal and professional connection, however his ‘investing with a purpose’ is what makes the sharing of knowledge, resources, tools so powerful and personally satisfying knowing you can help others as they do to you. If using PLN’s makes me feel this way, my aim is to turn that around and model to students the positive and rewarding effects social networking can have for them by leading them to professional development communication that enhances their learning too.
This is a very clear view of the challenges of social networking. I too work in an environment where our College has a Facebook page, but we are instructed to not communicate directly with students using such sites.
ReplyDeleteThe balance of the professional space in a digital forum seems to be continually changing. I am able to study through Mindlab using # and blogposts, and Facebook, but if I were to do this currently as a teacher, it would be considered too intimate, too private, not sufficiently regulated. I recognise too that I must heavily regulate my own avatar form, in case a student stumbles across my digital self and sees something unbecoming of a government employee, and one who leads the young.
Right now, I feel two things. One, digital spaces are a wonderful learning space, but should be ones that are not students' private spaces. It seems safer to divorce their friendship worlds from their learning worlds. I wouldn't want a student messaging me for homework advance, or tagging me in their latest escapades, so I assume that is true for them too. Two: creating a digital network that is for your school community, whether that be a classroom, or a focus group, is a great way to support real life learning and connection that allows for the power of technology to move our walls further out onto the horizon.
Truthfully, technology isn't going away. Social networks aren't going away. I'm afraid what we don't use, eventually, uses us.
Hi unknown, thanks so much for your wise feedback. I couldn't agree with your comment more, "It seems safer to divorce their friendship worlds from their learning worlds. I wouldn't want a student messaging me for homework advance, or tagging me in their latest escapades, so I assume that is true for them too. " They are two worlds that should never mix or be encouraged to be mixed. Teens have a different world to younger students, where I have caught students on Facebook proudly showing off their weekend escapades under the influence at a party.... these things slip out when they are off task. Let's not encourage it further I say.
ReplyDeleteI do think there is a time and a place to teach students to use social media responsibly, as it may have consequences for the rest of their life. However, there are a variety of studies indicating the psychological and physical damage social media can cause. As a professional standing in trust with their parents, I have to balance their needs and their wants. They need to be engaged, but their need to be safe, healthy and happy far outweigh that when there are other methods to engage them.
ReplyDeleteThere are studies showing the
benefits, but the inconsistency of outcomes between studies (some mixed, some no effect, some positive, some negative) really makes me think either there's some serious researcher bias going on, or we just don't know enough yet about its effects. Anecdotally, I see a lot of sleepless nights, instant gratitude needed, anxiety from the 24/7 nature of it etc.
Sources for the dangers of social media:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/03/28/peds.2011-0054.short (free online)
Jelenchick, Lauren A., Jens C. Eickhoff, and Megan A. Moreno. "“Facebook depression?” Social networking site use and depression in older adolescents." Journal of Adolescent Health 52.1 (2013): 128-130. (in the unitec library)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4432862/ (free online)