I recently started working on getting my Masters in Educational Technology. As a part of one of my classes, I am reading the book Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education.
I just finished the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2. Let me start by saying I am really enjoying this book! It is filled with powerful ideas to help me transform my learning as an educator but also help my students transform their learning in my classroom. The Introduction and Chapter 1 gave me some background on the power that Network Learning has in the education world. The idea is that in today’s society, we can learn in ways we never could before. We already use the Internet to connect socially - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat - but why not use these same tools, and more, to connect with people who share the same interests as us, allowing us to grow in our profession and knowledge?
This really stuck out to me, probably because I consider myself to be part of the generation that grew up with technology. Although we did not have Internet in our home until I was in upper elementary school, technology has always come fairly easy to me and I have always embraced it and the changes that come with it. Teaching is my passion, and for years I have been using blogs, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and more to connect with educators around the world for ideas and collaboration. I learn more and grow more as an educator from these connections than I do from district mandated professional development. When I want to learn something new, I am not limited to just talking with the people in my building or in my community. Like Richardson and Mancabelli (2011) stated, “There is now an easy connection between a person’s passion to learn something and the resources to learn it. It’s called a network, and it needs to be a part of any literate adult or student life” (p. 25).
Chapter 2 had lots of great information about how to get started setting up a personal learning network (PLN). Although I am pretty comfortable with a lot of different online tools for collaboration, I was really excited to read about how to use Twitter as a PLN. I have had a Twitter account for several years, but hadn’t really dug deep into all that Twitter could offer for me as an educator. I loved how this book gave great suggestions and specific examples of how to get started with several different online tools. What I am most looking forward to is what I am hoping is to come in the next chapter - how to get my students connected to their own PLN. It’s difficult as a lower elementary teacher to teach students to be responsible for their own learning, as it is often very different than how their first few years in elementary school were structured. I found several different posts by some teacher-bloggers about how they use Twitter in their elementary classrooms - even as young as 1st graders! This first one is by Catherine, a teacher I have been following for years through her blog, The Brown Bag Teacher. Click the picture below to see her blog post about using Twitter in her 1st grade classroom. She primarily uses her classroom Twitter account to connect with parents and other 1st grade teachers in her district. She has some great ideas!
This next blog post is also by a 1st grade teacher, who uses Twitter to have her students (yes, that would be six and seven year olds!) tweet about what they are doing in class, connect to authors, or ask questions to other 1st grade classrooms around the world! Click on the picture below to read her post.
Even though in this class we haven’t started using Twitter yet, after reading these blogs and a few others, I am so excited to use Twitter with my students next year! After all, if 1st graders can do it, my kids definitely can!
Other Resources
- Twitter in the Classroom Pinterest Board - over 1,000 ideas of how to use Twitter in the classroom
- Edutopia post - “Social Media: Making Connections through Twitter” - a post with lots of ideas on how a school district in Virginia uses Twitter in all grade levels
- Scholastic article - “Twitter for Teachers: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started” - an article that has several great tips for teachers and basic “need to know” things about Twitter
References:
Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteYou are so enthusiastic about all of this! I'm glad I'll be in your building next year part of the time as I will probably need help. I did NOT grow up in the technology generation and am still very new to a lot of this. Although I definitely see and want these changes, it is always scary taking that first step.
Thank you for the links to the 1st grade blogs. I will definitely be looking into those for resources and will save them on my Feedly page.
I can imagine that teaching technology to such young students can be quite challenging, but it is a must. If we want students to be able to understand proper digital citizenship we have to start teaching it them while they are in elementary school. I believe that the student would love to use Twitter to tell other all about what they are learning in school! How great would it be as a parent to be able to login and see the accomplishments of your child and even share a message with them on how great they are doing. Selling the idea to some of the parents may be challenging in the first few years, but the outcome will be awesome. It seems that the parents are getting more and on board with the technology.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome that you have already been using social media for your professional development. I had not really thought of using social media for professional development until beginning the Masters of Educational Technology program. I had come across materials on Facebook and other sites but did not make it a conscious effort. I have had a difficult time keeping up with research in physics, however I have come to realize that it won't be difficult using social media. I love it that elementary teachers are working on using these tools with their students it will just be part of the norm as the go through their schooling.
RE: " I learn more and grow more as an educator from these connections than I do from district mandated professional development."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true and I hear this all the time. I personally have suffered through district-mandated professional development. Here are some of the reasons that past administrators chose those meaningless topics they did:
1. A rival school was doing it and we didn't want to "fall behind."
2. We adopted a new textbook series and the publisher sent "experts" to train us to use their rote, scripted teaching materials.
3. The admin was new to the school and they did it at his/her previous school.
These are all very bad reasons for subjecting teachers to pointless PD. In order for PD to be effective, it must be personal to the teacher. A one-size fits all approach never works. Having your own PLN puts you in charge of your learning. When you are in charge, your learning is naturally related to your passions and interests which means that you will be more engaged with the learning and what you learn will more likely be put into action.
Good luck with your plans to use social media with your young learners. You will find many examples of this online, in addition to those you already found.
Happy learning!
Dr. Dell