In an age of collaboration, how will educators who are not connected get on? Are they missing out, or are they wiser than the rest?
I joined Twitter for the first time in 2009, sent out one tweet...then decided it wasn't for me. I had heard how it could be great to connect, to seek new ideas and knowledge...but the reality left me a bit cold, the connection asn't there. In 2014 a group from school went to uLearn, and as a part of that I completed the Connected Educator month through Core Ed. A lot of the skills weren't new to me, but the application really opened my eyes. This blog was started, and I reactivated my twitter account...and started to connect with the people i was meeting and seeing at uLearn. Suddenly the tool had a purpose, and I was away.
The purpose was important...I wanted exposure to new ideas, to thought leadership, and to influential people...to move beyond the knowledge in my school, in my town. Towards the end of that month I blogged about being 'connected', and how the 'knowledge was in the room', and that Twitter just made my room so much larger. Through twitter a connection to Russell Street school was formed, which has led to a sports exchange. That same connection has led to the beginnings of an educamp being run in the Wairarapa later this year. I've asked questions of experts, had my thoughts shared, and collectively built knowledge with others. The Twitter feed on the side of my blog shows show of this connecting (and I also do a fair amount of lurking and viewing!). being able to bring outside ideas to your practice, to see innovative people and what they are doing, to be able to ask questions to those with the answers, and to be exposed to differing methods, approaches, and thinking is the benefit of using such a tool.
Melhuish (2013) says that these social media allow teachers to "engage in an informal kind of professional learning" that meets their needs, and is 'just in time' for them. This is fantastic, and also the biggest challenge to overcome. For this to be the case, to be successful, teachers need an inquiring mindset, they have to want to learn. Otherwise the tool fails. If its purpose is to bring and share knowledge, and this isn't what is wanted, the tool will be seen as an extra, the PL opportunities seen as a waste of time, and the idea swiftly falls over. I see this as the case in many of the postings on the NZ Teacher Facebook page...where instead of a great place for sharing and collaborating, it (at times) becomes a place to offload, to complain, to try avoid doing the hard thinking/work required to be a learner. Lots of the posts are fantastic, but sadly the group doesn't appeal to me...the PLN I have through twitter provides much more, in a much more positive way. The Netsafe video (linked here) sums this up nicely.
Ultimately I think that if you are a learner, if you are a seeker of new ideas, then using a digital tool to access these is a must. It won't replace people (hearing first-hand from excellent practitioners is awesome), it won't replace reading (this has its place for sure), but it does supplement these, and make them more powerful. Watching someones practice from another country...not easy without social media, asking questions of the author of a study you want to know more about...so much faster through twitter.
As with any tool, the user will make what they want to make of it...and use of the tool alone will never be enough.
References
Education Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
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/han...
Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8
No comments:
Post a Comment