THIS WEEK’S ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY
Boyd and Ellison (2007) define social media as a web-based medium where a user can have a public or semi public profile where they share a connection with other users in which they can see how other people are connected. This community can be a range from familial to professional.
There was a cognitive shift from when I used facebook to when my parents adopted it. I now use facebook as an event planner and group discussion as opposed to receiving events via email or text and receiving group text messages. I’ve tried it to a more fuller extent but I don’t feel the need to extend my social profile, nor do I feel the need to share my feelings and findings to everyone.
Contrary to the above description, I do use social media in the classroom, though it is heavily limited to classroom based activities: Google classroom. It has a newsfeed of updates where students can comment, post items and discuss parts of the class. If our school didn’t have Google classroom, I’d experiment with more. I’m sure certain people resound to certain mediums and that’s great. What’s important is that we’ve tried these mediums, whether it be personally or professionally so we can assess whether it has a use in the class. Though I think we should try lots of new things, I tend to be risk averse when it comes to that work-life balances which stretches out to professional and public digital profiles. It’s encouraging to see the Teacher Council Video (2012) pointing out the need of safety and using social media for a purpose. At the end of the day, my time is important and I make sure I am available during school time. I don’t want to be any more available than I already am and now there seems to be further expectation about my availability after-hours. As Elon Musk quotes: “I really do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously”
The things I like about social media used in the classroom:
- Notices
- Information sharing
- Ability to discuss
- Inclusivity - people who miss class or do not understand something can catch up at their own pace
- Feedback about content and classroom environment.
- Not limited to space or time
Melhuish (2013) defines this as affordance: what you can use to achieve your goals on a social media platform. All of these reasons are accentuated due to notifications students get. I can imagine that facebook would guarantee students read notifications even more.
From a lazy/efficient perspective I’d encourage you to consider:
- What’s the best way to relay and receive information?
- How can communication channels be open for all students to use?
- What are the tradeoffs for platforms which require upkeep and content management? What mediums require the least extra effort for maximum gains (sounds like a lazy person's inquiry about exercise)?
If you find another means which is not social media, I’d be keen to hear about it.
REFERENCE LIST
Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
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...
New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
I was really interested in your blog. I did not consider that Google classroom was a social media. I would like to redo my own blog now as I do use Google Classroom all the time both for my classes as well as for football. I wrote mine saying that I did not sue social media!
ReplyDeleteI find Google Classroom “safer” than Facebook and it is limited to only members within the school community. Outsiders cannot gain access unless we specify. I did not consider that it was a social media, maybe because it was not used as an example and when I think of social media, I think of FaceBook, Twitter, etc, of which I do not use at school. Thanks for opening my eyes a bit more wider!!!!