I am increasingly glad that I am using all forms of social media both personally and professionally but twitter has been growing in popularity and usefulness as far as I am concerned. Initially when I joined twitter about a year ago I couldn't really see the benefits or how useful it would be. I had a bit of a lacklustre approach and posted infrequently. I followed a few people and had a few people follow me, although I wasn't really sure why. I didn't really think about using it as a professional networking tool or as a way to support learning.
It wasn't until I had been using it for about 6 months that I started to use it more frequently and effectively. I started to explore ways I could use it professionally to support learning for my students. I started to link with other education professionals, particularly those interested in using technology and social media to support learning. Many of these are from a school, rather than Higher Education background, but the ideas they generate and the innovative ways in which they use these tools are both inspirational and innovative. Most of them could be transferred to a Higher Education context. It has made me think very clearly about ways in which I could develop my teaching, involving the students to a much greater extent.
What started me thinking about this subject this morning was an article which I received in a tweet from @NMHS_Principal on twitter.
Social media in Education: The Power of Facebook
This demonstrates 2 ways in which one school is using Facebook to very good effect. Now I have used facebook to support my students by the way of groups where students can support each other, which is moderated by myself. This article has inspired me to think about other ways in which I could use facebook to much greater effect. If anyone has any other ideas please comment. I would welcome all suggestions.
I hope that after reading this you will yourself be inspired to try something new. If my students are reading this, then I would welcome your comments in 2 ways:
1. How would you like to see social media used to support your learning?
2. Which particular social media tool would you prefer to use for the purposes of learning and why?
My final thoughts, I think that technology has great value and power when applied to learning. I am enjoying the journey of exploring this and hope you do too.
This is very interesting Wendy. Have you looked at social media tools linked to learning styles?
ReplyDeleteThanks Maresah. That sounds like an interesting route to follow. I will certainly think about that. Will keep you posted as to what comes out of it
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