I am so excited about my blog post this week! This week I really dove in deeper to several different social media accounts that I have and focused on using them as a PLN. Let me just start by saying that I am in LOVE with these social media accounts and what they can do for me as an educator! It’s a personal opinion, but I get more value from these three tools (individually) than I do from Twitter. I will be talking briefly about the two main social media tools I use as my own little professional development and how they help me become a better teacher.
The first social media platform I’d like to talk about is Instagram. I have been using Instagram a lot to follow other teachers and educators around the world. It all started several years ago when my teenage sister got Instagram and kept insisting that I get an account too. I did, but many of my friends did not have accounts, as I grew up in more of the Facebook generation. What I did find was that nearly all of the teacher bloggers that I follow had Instagram accounts, and they were more active on those than on their blogs! I follow over 70 Instagram accounts, and about 95% of those accounts are other educators. Instagram is a great way for me to see what others are doing in their classroom without having to click on individual blogs and read through a bunch of text. I am a very visual person, so having a feed of images from people I follow is really the best way for me to stay interested and get the most information.
**The pictures above are screenshots of posts I’ve “liked” on Instagram, so you can see a variety of examples of what I see on Instagram** I tend to get frustrated or tire out quickly when I have to read through a bunch of text to even decide whether or not that information is worth it to me. With Instagram, I can scroll through pictures and if I decide I want more information, I can click read the caption or click on the link in the profile. If you are an elementary teacher, check out my Instagram by clicking the picture below. Once you are on Instagram, search for me (@jesslynne222) and then click on “following” at the top of my profile. This will allow you to see who I am following so you can get a good start of who to follow!
The next social media tool I’d like to talk about is Pinterest. I’ve been using Pinterest for teacher ideas since I was in college. It is actually the primary reason I joined Pinterest, and discovered they had home decor and recipes AFTER joining to look for teacher stuff! Similarly, I really enjoy Pinterest because it is very visual. Again, I don’t have to read through a bunch of information to decide if it is relevant to me or not. If it is something I would like to learn more about, I just click on the image to be redirected to a site where I can get more details. I think it’s important not to have too many “boards” (which are like folders) - don’t get too specific. At first I had really general boards (upper elementary and lower elementary) but then rearranged everything into a little more specific (3rd Grade-Reading, 3rd Grade-Math, 3rd Grade-ELA, etc.). Also, something I didn’t do at first and wish I would have was change the description under the pin! Often when I wanted to pin something I just clicked “pin” and put it in my board - I left the original description! But, sometimes this will make it hard to search for pins you know you have saved because the keywords might have been missing from the description. So, my advice, change the description and pin it to the correct board! View my Pinterest account (and boards) by clicking the picture below!
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteRe: “I am a very visual person, so having a feed of images from people I follow is really the best way for me to stay interested and get the most information.”
I, too, am a very visual person. I really can identify with the qualities you like about Instagram and Pinterest because of this. I often burn out when having to read and sort through so much reading that I’m sure I’ve overlooked some great resources. Both of these social networking sites would eliminate this happening. I know just by looking at something if it’s what I had in mind when I began searching or if it’s something I’m interested in. I also love how easy it is to pin things and come back to it at a later time. I also agree with you that you should make your boards somewhat specific. I have created boards by the topics I teach (ie. reading, guided reading, writing, etc.). It will make searching and locating resources later much easier.
Instagram is a whole new animal to me! Several of my friends have an account, and I’m pretty sure all of my students do as well. I’ve never seen any reason to join, but after reading your blog, I’m very curious and interested in exploring it. So, thank you for the valuable information. I absolutely love how technology makes building a PLN so easy! Another reason I should investigate Instagram more is because of my students. Knowing that most of them have an account and use this social networking site, I think it’s important for me to understand and know this tool as well. As we have learned from this course, to be effective educators in this digital era we need to be comfortable with the same tools our students use. I can see how it can give me some valuable insight on how to connect with them and their way of thinking just by understanding and participating in this format.
I have never tried Instagram, much less thought about the usefulness of it as a teacher. I was under the impression that Instagram was similar to Snapchat. I really haven't seen much done with it that seemed worthwhile, granted I spend all day with teenagers who are always doing silly things! I like that the Instagram has an easy layout that you can quickly see if that information may or may not be useful. I love to get resources from other, but hate spending an hour sifting through information. This seems like a great time saver!
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about the fact that some people are just more active on some social networks than others. I find that when I look at my Feedly accounts I'm following and compare them to Twitter, the people I'm following are way more active on Twitter. So you may have given me some motivation to join Instagram. I didn't really see the application for using Instagram for myself as far as having students to use it. But after reading your post, I've been thinking about the power that it could have for visual learners, and why it might be worth checking out.
I like that Pinterest allows you to sort your stuff by age group. I don't get the benefit of that, but I think it's a very cool perk for the elementary teachers!
The closest I can get is to try to get it to separate between high school activities/labs and lower levels. I can sometimes pull lower level stuff for my lower learners, so I do like that application of Pinterest.
RE: “So, my advice, change the description and pin it to the correct board! “
ReplyDeleteThis is very good advice for both Pinterest and other bookmarking sites. I find that not all websites do a good job of providing meta data which is where the information that is pulled into the description comes from. Some don’t even include a title in the meta data! Starting with a very organized plan and making it easy to bookmark or pin resources really goes a long way toward creating a usable resource collection. I have created a tag for each course I teach and have the Diigo bookmarklet installed on my browser bar. It makes it so simple to find the resources when I am updating my courses. I require myself to fill in the missing meta data and make any notes at the SAME time I bookmark. I used to just quickly bookmark if I was lacking time. I told myself that I would go back later and appropriately tag and make notes later when I had time. Guess what? Surprise! It never happened. It really only takes a second to do it right the first time. Lesson learned.
Happy learning!
Dr. Dell