Week 29 Professional online Social Networks

Week 29 Social Networks

I will use Jay and Johnson’s, (2002) reflective model for my thoughts:

Fig.1

Descriptive

I have just participated in the social media survey on the week 29 class notes and I have really surprised myself at how much I use. I think I only missed out three tick boxes and, I admit, I didn’t know what they were! I bet, though, that both of my sons would know and as an oldie in this techno world, they are my “go to” informant’s to give me a heads up on what the new app or media is all about!. It’s the same for our students who are wealthy enough to have smartphones or BYOD. 

Statista states that:

“In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social network users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017. Social network penetration worldwide is ever-increasing. In 2017, 71 percent of internet users were social network users and these figures are expected to grow. Social networking is one of the most popular online activities with high user engagement rates and expanding mobile possibilities.

The technology is exponentially increasing and we are being swept along on ever personalised pathways which digitally identify us with a footprint which is deepening with the weight of information stored about us. As Taylor Kee from Money Morning comments on his blog, “You are a wealth of information…a continuous beacon of data… and it’s all coming together online to paint a scarily accurate picture of you”(2018).  I am not sure what I feel about my personal space being so insidiously invaded. I am spooked by how the adverts on my Facebook feed are tuned to what I have just been Googling, I am unnerved that I can be seen by others as my phone is GPS’d to my location. "Big Brother" is here well and truly and I guess our students know no other life as this is now our world, interconnected and meshed into a the world wide web of digital pathways.

 However all this being said in my personal space, social media use in my professional life is extremely convenient and I feel I have never been so connected or so informed, and it’s all at my fingertips. I can follow the people or institutions I am researching on Twitter and this, for me, has been a Mindlab introduction as before, Twitter was only a way to follow the “Celebs” and I had avoided it like the plague.

 I am using Google Docs, Pinterest and many social media apps in my teaching but more so I’m using them to gain a wider breadth of theoretical, pedagogical and research knowledge and to keep up with the current trends and to be informed and knowledgeable about their world, when I talk with my students.

Comparative

I have learned through Mindlab that Twitter is the place for professional development as the teacher network is so abundant and like-minded professionals are finding really great interconnections across the globe on all platforms of interests and research.  I have been a slow adopter of this and others have seemed to gain so much that it is a trend I must take up more avidly next year in my continuing study.  My smartphone has to have more use too to become more connected, as Jacqui Murray says “the purpose of a social media-based PLN is to extend your reach beyond the narrow confines of the bubble you live in.” For people like me she has some great tips on how to “clean up the clutter, smooth out the wrinkles, and put you back in the driver's seat of your online life.”(2016). While I will never have my phone as an extension of my hand, I think I could put it to better use for these mobile social network apps. 

“Creating a personal learning network is a collective effort, but unless each of us is willing to give of ourselves, the likelihood of that investment paying off any amount of positive dividends is dubious.” (Whitaker et al 2015, p2).

Critical Reflection

What are the implications for using social media in professional development?

The “bubble” is a very plausible restriction in both personal and professional life if we are not careful, as we could find our own ideas and beliefs never being challenged or new perspectives being shown to us if we have a parochial viewpoint. By opening up to a platform where others of like-mind or professional similarity can discuss, in open forums, the challenges and issues of the moment, we are investing in a much greater awareness of local and global trends which can offer collective solutions or at least discuss each other’s problems and celebrate success. By becoming more connected I can develop my technical abilities, become more global and connect with other teachers in different countries and learn so much more than I would have by keeping local. Deepening my understanding will only improve my practice and reflecting in a way to frame the thinking in an ordered manner so it is more organised, helps to retrieve it later. I have, in writing this blog, given myself the goal of creating a multi-dimensional bubble!

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85

Kee T. (2018). The shocking truth behind social media mass surveillance. Retrieved from; https://www.moneymorning.co.nz/feed-items/the-shocking-truth-behind-social-media-mass-surveillance/

Murray J. (2016) Using social media for professional development. Retrieved from; http://www.teachhub.com/using-social-media-professional-development

Statista (2018). Number of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in billions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of- worldwide-social-network-users/

Whitaker, T., Zoul, J., & Casas, J. (2015). What connected educators do differently. New York, NY: Routledge.