Social Media, Learning and Sharing

For the longest time, or at least since I started using Social Media, I thought it was just for fun, following celebrities, news, or other entertaining entities. 

Last year, when I started my Master's in Learning Design and Education, and got involved with getting Google Apps for Education going in our school, I discovered that Social Media is much more than just entertainment. 

Social Media, think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, etc., many legitimate and valid educational organization use Social Media to share their educational offerings, links, webinars, etc. Many of these organizations or savvy individuals I have "followed" or "friended" on various Social Media channels and have had "conversations" with. However, just as many valid sources sharing Info on GAFE, Educational Technology and so on, are just merely "venting" channels. A few select individuals do all the sharing, and when followers ask questions, no answer ever is given. Therefore, I have found that one has to be very selective when truly using certain Social Media channels as a truly educational tool. If just a few, same people share opinions or suggestions, and questions from followers or other group members go unanswered, there might be some issues with the validity of the group. 
I realized this too late, after I joined a few dozen Google+ communities on GAFE tools. While I still am part of many of these communities, I have now muted several of their communications, and learned to rely more on groups that do have a more global and credible presence, and are endorsed by other global, credible entities. 

This brings me to my assignment for Educators: from all the groups you belong to, be it on Social Media or Professional Communities, list which ones you belong to, which ones you ask questions on, which ones you get answers on, which ones you give answers on. How many of these groups do you truly feel you "belong" to, why? or why not? 
Then, create a short presentation (video, Slides, Prezi, Powtoons, etc) on how effective you feel Social Media channels are in helping you become a better educator, what works or doesn't work when using Social Media as a professional learning tool. Share what you like so far, share what you find troubling, share how you would like to see it changed and how you can distinguish between the credible and not-so credible sources.

I am just wondering if I'm the only gullible, trusting educator seeking knowledge from the Web and Social Media, or if there are others like me, who need to learn the hard way...   Am I?

My Social Capital

I believe I joined Facebook about 8 years ago. Mostly pressured by relatives from across the world as an easy way to stay in touch and to share news and photos of new family members and to watch them grow up. 

Over the years, I also have evolved to use Facebook as a means to follow organizations, public figures and topics of my interest. 
I often find myself going to Facebook pages of companies' whose products I use and like, or even local radio and TV stations for faster updates on local and global events. I "like" them, and "follow" them, and in case of any local incidents, I can post to their pages so share any events I encounter that could have impact on other people in my community.
I have also "friended" people I have never met in person, but share similar interests or hobbies with, and have formed various networks for personal and professional interests. 

After reading Cultivating Social Resources on Social Network Sites: Facebook Relationship Maintenance Behaviors and Their Role in Social Capital Processes  ^{by Ellison et. al. (2014)}
(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12078/full) I have become more aware of what I am actually doing when I "like", "follow" or "friend" people or companies on Facebook. I am creating networks and gaining virtual capital. 

With recent developments in France, and many other incidents of terrorism, I have changed my profile picture to stand with France, as a virtual hug of support. For me it is personal, I grew up about a four-hour drive away from Paris, went to Paris with my Senior Class, and have fond memories of my visits there. And some of my relatives go to Paris on a regular basis for various professional activities. 

When I was in my Senior year in High School, and my first year in Medical School in Belgium, there were various attacks of colleges and college auditoriums around Brussels and Liege, several explosions, several people were killed, many were injured. This was the work of a Communist Combatant Cell, trying to spread terror and communist ideology near State and Liberal-oriented Colleges. Back then, the only way one would get updates was through public radio and TV stations, newspapers, and old-fashioned rotary phone calls.

I also find it disturbing, that we as Social Media users, now also have come to share sad and terrible things, while, I personally thought that Social Media always had this fun and positive connotation. 

Maybe if we all shared the following on our Facebook pages, we could indeed create a better place.

Think of your fellow man

Lend him a helping hand

Put a little love in your heart

You see it's getting late

Oh, please don't hesitate

Put a little love in your heart

And the world will be a better place

And the world will be a better place

For you and me

You just wait and see

Am I Influenced By Social Media?

About 10 years or so, I joined the concept of Social Media. With close relatives still residing in Europe, and I living across the Globe, Social Media became the first line of communication with Family to share pictures, get updates on what is going on, and to inform each other of sudden changes or family emergencies, etc. I have seen my cousins' and second cousins' kids grow up via Facebook and Twitter, although I never met them in person-which is pretty sad, but a whole different story. 

While I do have the occasional sudden outbursts of happiness or discontent, and these outburst are usually very vocal and explicit, I have slowed down in posting sudden outbursts on Social Media. I still tend to "like", "1+", or "favorite" posts on various sites, I have slowed down in, and re-evaluated what I post and how I post it. The majority of my public sharing of opinions, emotions or updates, are usually very general and not very provoking of public response.
I do use the private messaging options in my various social media means, to approach other people in my networks or to share VERY opinionated thoughts with people in my networks. 

I think I would like to branch out in to the vast net of Social Media, and create an alter ego for Educational Purposes; start using Social Media as a tool to keep my students on their toes regarding assignments, due dates, resources, etc. These channels will need to stay private, as my students are minors. Over the last 2 or 3 years, I have seen an increase of the use of Social Media as an Educational Tool, and have seen apps been created just for Educational purposes. As a Techie, I am always looking for new goodies I could use in my classroom, for educational purposes: sharing resources, sharing info on assignments, etc. Many commonly used Social Media tools have options to create private groups or lists, while others-like Edmodo, Remind, etc.- focus on just classroom/college cohort applications. Other ways Social Media could be used: means for Professional Development Groups to communicate and share resources, discussion boards on pressing developments in education, etc. 

For these Social Media tools to become valuable tools in an Educational Setting, many K-12 school districts will need to revise their internet and social media policies, especially now that Google Apps For Education has become a very Global tool for teachers and their students to collaborate. While I have been "breaking the rules" according to DOE policies regarding Social Media use to communicate with students, especially with GAFE, DOE and BOE rules need to be changed if Social Media will be used for educational purposes....

Not sure how long that will take, but I am not holding my breathe. I just keep breaking the rules until they change them!

Half-Time or 7th-Inning Stretch?

Well, It's actually past Half-Time, and if I would be talking to my 8th-graders, it is now down to crunch time... So what do I feel at this point besides utter exhaustion? Some words that are in my brain: overwhelmed, way behind, confused.

While the majority of my assignments are not necessarily extreme on how to use brain power to complete them, they are extreme at the pace they are presented and when they are due.

Besides the case studies we have to do on the topics we all voted on, we have these side-bar activities that are usually more instantaneously than the bigger projects.  And these make me feel as if I am torn into several directions at the same time. Multi-Tasking is no longer just an idea, it is a power verb. The CVP with the students of Japan is taking the most out of me, as in frustration, the same individual keeps missing out on synchronous meetings, while language issues seem to be the main culprit...I get it, having to express yourself in a language that you feel uncomfortable with, does take a toll on people, but when you are in a college or graduate setting, that should not be a reason on why you shouldn't attend an online meeting. 

The Twitter curation was fun, as it gave me another way to convince myself I'm not as old as I think I am, and that I can still learn new Social Media tricks...and it gets me to connect with people who feel they should follow me, although I do not have the foggiest idea on who they are, or where they are.  Social now means also Global. I like that! 

The TCCfx2015 event was fun to attend, especially since most of the people who presented, are also people who are or have been in my graduate level classes as my peers or as my teaching assistants. I enjoyed the join.me means better than the conferencing tools that were used during the past Spring TCC conference, the only thing I wished I had done, is find way on how to save the presentation and resources people shared in their presentations. 
When I attended the Google Global Summit on Oahu, just days after TCC, all presenters shared links to their resources via Google Drive, and even though it has been over 6 months, I still have access to these resources...TCCfx2015 was just days ago, and I cannot access any of the links I saved or wrote down. And now I have to reflect on this...ARGH...I was too busy chatting in the chat box, which then in turn made me forget to tweet enough times. Ah! That leads me to my big brain-teaser: I tweeted a few times via my desktop TweetDeck...these tweets never showed in my Twitter app on my phone nor in Twitter desktop version; they only show on TweetDeck, and I did use the correct #! I accidentally spelled a # wrong for our periscope assignment-that's creepy that people across the world can view your live video, and then make hearts appear on the screen. I guess dyslexic Devil worshippers sell their soul to Santa on Twitter this way!

My other class I am taking for my Master's is also having a major paper due at the same time that the class I am writing this blog for has several big items due. I sometimes wished professors would check in with each other on their pacing and assignments, but now I am thinking as a Middle School teacher.

I guess, my 2-cents for future Grad students: don't work 2 jobs while taking 2/3-time or full-time graduate classes...pace yourself, keep a written calendar or planner, start working on assignments early, don't hope your team partners will do all the work, initiate group meetings or documents, and BREATHE! 
And then, take a sick day from work to catch up on your assignments...I say that is OK, I just took my first (not-so) sick day ever -I was out sick only 12 days in my whole elementary to high school career, and only was out  2 weeks from my job to work because of my husbands' open-heart surgery so I could be with him-  to work on assignments and read up on articles for assignments. I did have a fever and body-aches, but I don't think it's the flu! 

Hang in there folks! I know it's the last, hard stretch, but it will be worth it, regardless of the frustrations, difficulties, etc. Crack open a bottle of your favorite beverage, work on your assignments, breathe, and make sure you get enough sleep!

Twitter...Can I use it as a Teaching Tool?

So I have had my Twitter account for about 5 or 6 years now, had to start it up for one of my Post Baccalaureate classes by Dr. Grace Lin at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. I never really understood the need for having Twitter, it seemed to me that it is very "in the NOW", as in instant gratification. I did started following several news agencies, chefs and celebrities, just for keeping up with the news, for fun or hobby. In addition, it seemed to me that "every day folks" didn't really use Twitter that much.

Fast forward to today. I have now tweeted just over 500 times, mainly because I linked my Facebook account, and if I post something on Facebook, it automatically get tweeted too. I also have come across the use of Twitter in an educational setting. Several of my Graduate classes have had a Twitter activity or requirement. I believe the focus of these activities is becoming more adept at using Twitter as a tool, and more specifically as a teaching tool. 

I have looked up close at the article by Peter Tiernan: "A study of the use of Twitter by students for lecture engagement and discussion" (2013). Twitter could very well be used as some sort of "formative assessment" tool, a tool to have students engage with other students with regards to any possible aspect of a class' lectures, assignments or other activities. Also Twitter shows potential as an Audience Response System (ARS); look at it as Kahoot! for college, but maybe not as fun. 

In my current classes we use Twitter, Periscope, Line, etc. as direct stream social media source. While we use fairly "closed system"- as in private groups or lists- some of the material or the posts are visible by the general public (the world). That is something that I would like to see changed, or finds ways to prevent this, as I teach 8th-graders, and I need to keep them protected. Tiernan also mentions in his paper that Twitter involvement varies depending on what part of a learning unit the students are on: high in the beginning, dropping once "the NEW wears off", and then back up when new topics/projects/etc are introduced. I experienced the same thing after we were introduced to Periscope or Line. 

In a K-12 setting, my students would have similar problems as some students mentioned in Tiernan's paper: no access to Twitter due to DOE servers blocking Twitter and most other Social Media sites on the student WIFI server. This makes it an unfair tool as only some of my students have access to smartphones with their own data service. While Twitter does show strong potential as a teaching and collaboration tool, at this point, with restrictions form "higher up echelon" would not be a very effective tool in a Hawaii Public School k-12 setting, unless the teacher finds a way to bypass the restrictions on the student server.

I think, for me personally, considering my students and their attention span, I would like to stick to more of a gamification approach, such as Kahoot! for assessment or feedback purposes, and apps like Remind or Chirp to send them updates or links to resources, assignments,etc.

But none the less, keep on Tweeting...we can only get better!

References:
Kahoot! Making Learning Awesome. Retrieves October 21, 2015, from https://getkahoot.com/

Tiernan, P. (2013). A study of the use of Twitter by students for lecture engagement and discussion. Retrieved October 21, 2015, from http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10639-012-9246-4.pdf 

Collaborative Video Project! Huh? What?

At this point I am frustrated, anxious, mad, ... it is like every day is short by about 5 hours. 

My team for our Collaborative Video Project, was the team who has members who were not able to attend the initial online meeting. Communication has been very hard, and only a few people responded back to my attempts to reach out. 

I get it! Life, work, school, it all gets in the way of getting things done. I have those issues every day, rolling out of bed at 5AM, taking care of the farm animals, shower, getting to school to teach 100 8th-graders Earth & Space Science, go to IEP meetings or parent conferences, get back home, tend to the farm and the animals again, cook dinner, do school prep work, do my own school assignments, go to bed, get up at 5AM, and do it all over again. 

I initiated the first contact...sounds like a Star Trek movie...but I digress.... There was an initial response of what time frame worked, but it seemed like every one was waiting for me to go from there to take the next step. And I didn't take that step, I thought that the day we seemed all be in line for doing a Hangout, that no one actually initiated a Hangout when I wasn't able to get through to all of our team members; it was as if I was all alone out in cyber space with no one responding to my calls out. 

This is the first time that I am in a group that doesn't "tag team". As in one person starts something, the next one picks up the next chore, and so on...maybe I have been spoiled rotten by my previous collaboration and study teams and partners. 

At this point I am questioning my own success and sanity in this project, not even contemplating my team members in this. 

But I have to use this obstacle as a learning tool. Maybe there are cultural difference at play? Maybe it is my Belgian upbringing: you do what you said you were going to do....if not Mom/Dad/Aunty/Uncle/Mama/Papa will whack you upside your head, sometimes even all of them...I still fear that, even now at my age, and most of them being gone at this point, but it is all in my soul and consciousness. I think this is also the case in the Hawaiian and Samoan cultures. Maybe I should not be trying to lead the project, maybe I should just stand in the shadows and wait for things to develop? But then what if no one picks up the ball? Can I allow myself to fail if my team members don't live up to their promises? 

My whole point is TRANSPARENCY. Yes! By all means pick up the ball and run with it when you can, but also be fair to your team, admit when you can't get things done in the time allotted, admit when/if you get stuck, admit when you won't be able to make a real-time meeting, but at least acknowledge the communication that is going around, respond, be honest! It takes a super-adult to admit that you can do something... And that is OK... we are all human, we just need to leave the super-humans to Hollywood.

Thanks for letting me "vent".

Social or Not-so-Social in the Classroom!?

For the last 7-some years I have been teaching in a Public School, it has been instructed to us, teachers, to refrain from "friending" any of our current or future students on social media, even if these students are related to us. In addition, the three schools I have taught at since then, all have/had a strict no-technology policy while on campus. 

While many of our schools have adopted Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in the last few years, and Google+ along with Google Classroom have become a solid educational tool, many of our administrators still frown upon the use of social media as a teaching tool.

I personally have rebelled agains Hawaii DOE policy in a major way. While I do not "friend" current students via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or SnapChat, I do have them added through Google+ in a closed school domain setting via GAFE. Some of my students are extended -calabash- family members, and have been in my social media circles for years, and the fact that Hawaii is such a close-knit community -even with us being spread out over several islands- makes it that you know many people in many places, without even considering your work environment. 

I like Google+ as an educational tool, mostly because it as also streamlined with Google Calendar, it allows me to create communities that I can keep private so I can still protect my students from outside observers.

I believe Twitter can be a powerful educational tool as well. The instant notifications, and the option to create very specific and unique #handles makes it a little more personalized. And Twitter, unlike Facebook, is not blocked on student DOE servers. Twitter is powerful, as I can "tell" my students about any new, developing stories about our Solar System, our Universe, etc. 
I can also Tweet to remind my students about any due assignments, things to bring to class, remind them about tests or quizzes, etc.

I have used the Remind app, as a tool to keep my students and their parents up to date regarding due dates, upcoming major events or projects, etc. but found just a very small percentage of buy-in (21%) although 87% of my student and their parents have texting service on their mobile devices. 

From my point of view, and as observed from the Giant Rock I live on, most of our students and parents need to learn first on how to get away from Social Media as an instant gratification or venting tool, and learn how it can become a very powerful personal assistant and teacher... And the first groups of people who really need to change their openness and perspective on how Social Media can help our students in a very powerful way, are our Admin, District and State DOE personnel.  They need to get away from their own personal inhibitions and misinformation on Social Media, jump into the 21st Century, and let the teachers -the folks on the first line of Defense, the folks who really work with the students, know them and teach them- lead the way on bringing learning into this Century...