Week 30 - PRACTICE - Professional Online Social Networks
Create a reflective entry where you critically discuss the use
of social media in YOUR teaching OR professional development.
A study undertaken by Seaman & Tinti-Kane (2013) questioned
900 pearson customers about the impact digital communication has on their
levels of stress and the number of hours they work. 48 percent of faculty
reported that digital communication has increased their level of stress. Only
13 percent believe that their level of stress has decreased, with the remaining
39 percent reporting no change. In addition, nearly two-thirds of faculty
report that digital communication has increased the number of hours that they
work. An additional 27 percent see “no change” in the number of hours they
work, and only 8 percent say that there has been a decrease in the number of
hours that they work as a result of digital communication (Seaman &
Tinti-Kane, 2013).
I
found these findings compelling as I personally have found that social media
has only decreased both my stress
and work-load. In my teaching practice, social media is used in a
number of different ways. I use it to plan for and share learning with my
students and it is used as a main tool for communication between myself and the
parents/whanau of my students eg. Email and seesaw. This is instant
and takes less time than a phone-call (although there is certainly still a
place for these). For example, just last year I spent a few evenings after
school calling or emailing parents details surrounding the e-portfolios set up
on the school website. This was for a ILE of 54 students. First, I had to find
parents email via etap, print out a list, and then narrow down email addresses
that were not active. I also found it a struggle to get information out to
parents that had no email address (paper either does not make it home or is not
read). Since introducing seesaw, details like this can be easily shared and instant
feedback can be seen. However, I have come to the realisation that not all
educators have the same outlook as I do when it comes to social media. At times
it has been hard to see people still reverting to old or obsolete ways of
teaching and learning instead of embracing these new technologies.
To
counteract this challenge, I believe the use of these tools need to be
consistent and useful and sufficient professional development needs to be put
in place. Staff members who have found that social media has only
enhanced their stress levels and increased their workload may need extra
support around the implementation and use of various social media tools.
Obviously more studies and professional development surrounding innovative
practices via social media would help to rectify these issues; The more we know
about effective uses of technologies for teaching and learning, the faster we
can adopt these new practices, facilitate their proliferation across higher
education, and increase student success (Seaman & Tinti-Kane, 2013). I agree
with Sharples et al.,
(2016) that a dialogue is needed between students, teachers, learning
designers, and learning analytics experts to decide how formative analytics
results and feedback can be most effectively shared with different learners. I’m sure with
time, more and more educators will be utilizing these tools in appropriate ways
to meet our learners needs. I am grateful to be working within this sector at
such an exciting time.
References;
Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H.
(2013). Social
media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf
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