Monday, September 27, 2010

Social Networking and Me!

Even though its been around since college, I feel Social Networking is new to me. I've been on Facebook for a few years, and more recently twitter. Each of these "new" creations have a profound effect on how I do work, and how I learn.

Personally, the social networking tools that I use, mainly Facebook and Twitter have changed the way I communicate with my friends. They have allowed me to stay in contact with friends from high school, college and old jobs. With Twitter, I can follow friends, celebrities and athletes and see their updates and get a glimpse into their lives. As exciting (and unnecessary) as this is, the benefits of Social Networking from a work standpoint are even larger.

Twitter and Facebook have allowed me to become better at my job. The opportunity to learn more, and being able to share that information with my students helps everyone gain more knowledge. I originally created my Twitter account as a quick way to contact my students parents and to let them know what the homework assignments were. In a perfect world, all of my students, and parents would be on Twitter, and they'd be following my tweets. Unfortunately, my old district had Twitter blocked, and few families had internet connections. In my new position, more families have internet access, and Twitter is unblocked. Because of this, I envision a point where Twitter will become a very important tool that I can use in my classroom.

Facebook also plays a role in my professional life by allowing me to network with other education professionals. The opportunity to stay in contact with teachers that I have met at conferences around the United States is amazing. Many times I have met teachers at conferences and we've had some great educational collaborative discussions. Though Facebook, and groups, we've been able to continue those discussions. Although I've been reluctant to reach out to students through Facebook, it has been an important tool for me with co-workers.

As for my students and peers, I feel my students are much more immersed in Social Networking, compared to my peers. Many younger teachers have adopted these technologies, but not at the rate that students have. As younger teachers enter the field of teaching, I think we will see the number of educators utilizing these tools increase.

1 comment:

  1. I'd love to hear more about how you are using Twitter for communication with parents and students. I think it is an awesome idea that has a lot of potential. I look forward to hearing about how that is going.
    As for Facebook, I am also reluctant to accept students as friends. When dealing with 7th grade students, I don't feel comfortable being "friends" with them. So, the big thing is I will be friends with them once they complete 7th grade. That has seemed to work well.

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