I use social media on a daily basis in my personal life. It is usually one of the first things and last things I check before I go to bed.
The majority of my social online experiences are done via my cell phone. It is very easy and convenient. I always have my phone on me and the ability to click a picture, video or update a status just takes minutes. I enjoy reading the comments and ongoing interactions from others in my friends list on networks.
Facebook is probably the easiest way to connect to the different whānau at our kura. We have had whānau hui and we surveyed our whānau. The majority of our whānau thought it would be easier to notify them about upcoming events via Facebook. So, I created a whānau Facebook page just for our school whānau. I made myself, some of the kaiako and 2 senior managers administrators for the Facebook page.
The purpose of this page is for kaiako to communicate information to the whānau within our team. We only invited our team whānau to join the page. Whānau were able to recommend other whānau to join and whānau could also request to join. Only we are allowed to approve people joining this community. We have had students, aunties, uncles and grandparents ask to join the group, but we have declined their request.
We have used this page to inform our whānau about different haerenga, hui, Cultural Festival and upcoming events. I have used the page to share documents and photos of our students. Whānau were able to download, view and share docs and information.
In my class I teach collaboratively with another teacher. Our students have google accounts. Each student has set up a personal learning blog. These blogs are used to reflect, discuss and share thoughts and opinions. These blogs are shared with whānau and friends. Whānau and friends are encouraged to comment on these blogs. Our students are learning to write and upload video blogs to their blogs.
It has been a great way for students to keep a record of their learning.
A further benefit to having social media as part of our learning is the accessibility that others around the world will have to contribute to discussion or issues. Or vice versa, our tamariki having the access to others around the world.
Social media has already influenced my professional development. Firstly by taking part in this mindlab course, my online interaction with professional learning discussions have been more frequent and about topics and issues that relate directly to learning. I will continue being part of the mindlab community. I read the different posts that discuss areas of my interest (eg. Māori learners, Mātauranga Māori etc).
Tena koe Grant
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about the value of Facebook and Googl accounts in your learning environment.
This semester I've been working with rangatahi that have struggled in mainstream schools. Some of the youth have been referred from mental health services. The vlaue of our closed - group Facebook page is that we can maintain privacy, whilst learners learn skills of social engagement and interaction.
I love that Facebook and Google + are great tools for record of learning: activities are documented chronologically and subsequent interaction (comments and feedback) are documented.
Thanks again for the korero.
Cherie :)
It is good to see such a defined criteria for the usage of social media within an educational environment. Far too often I have seen social media seen as a “we must get on the bandwagon – let’s use Facebook etc” with no direction or meaning for its usage. Recently a previous board of a school I was involved with made the decision to start a facebook page without consulting anyone else – needless to say it didn’t last long as the teachers were not able to be involved and the parents were not getting any immediate information.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder though with such restrictive policies of who is involved with your social media program that you may risk alienating some whanau who would like to be involved but are too distant from the immediate group. Would this cause any issue with already included whanau who would want them involved but are not able to?
Thanks for sharing your views on Social Media in your practice Grant. I am similar to you in the way I use Social Media in my personal life, however, I decided against using Facebook to contact Family and students. This was primarily a personal decision because I did not want them to be able to access my personal information.
ReplyDeleteI have found Google Classroom a much more suitable platform to share information with students and whanau.
One thing that MindLab has done for me is introduced me to other teaching professionals on Social Media that I can follow and learn from in a bid to improve my teaching practice.
Kia ora rā
ReplyDeleteWe also have set up a Facebook page for our whānau and school community. Like you, we too have set up a couple of the kaiako as administrators, who approve members and or posts. This has been very beneficial to us as we can reach out to whānau members who don't regularly come into the school and are otherwise absent.