Activity Six: Applied Practice in Context assessment 2

Activity Six

Applied Practice in Context assessment 2

The use of social media is gaining rapid momentum. It has surged globally in recent years and its use; to connect formal and informal learning and allow students to connect in new and meaningful ways is becoming more evident (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007; 2009).

Over the last eight years I have taken groups of senior students on six week social justice trips across India. We blogged our way around the country and students each had a turn to voice their experiences of our journey, giving their account of events throughout the time spent there. Adding also their choice of photos to add value to the blog.

Blogging enabled us to embrace the school values and share our experiences of how we addressed issues around social justice and share personal and valuable insights from recalled events.

Students utilized language and writing skills to capture key ideas and their ability to portray vivid imagery of the places we went and the events we experienced were generally of a high standard, and certainly well received.

There were some basic guidelines that students had to follow; these included, no put downs, no negative news that might alarm family and friends back home and cause anxiety, and clear narratives that enabled an insight of our travels.

Students were empowered to share their experiences because they were able to express their thoughts freely in a non-threatening space without any pressure from myself or other teachers and parent helpers. The fact that they could do this without the pressure of having to verbalise in front of their peers, which sometimes caused embarrassment or they may have refrained from honestly airing their views meant the blogs were more personable and meaningful. This was anytime, anywhere learning and sharing.

I discovered some of our Maori and Pasifika students who were normally shy, provided some very discerning blog entries. Clearly, because it was non-threatening I have found the use of blogging with student input has been an authentic method of communicating with whanau and friends back home, and they engaged with positivity. This platform has been successful and we will continue to blog in the future.

I agree with Bryer and Zavatarro (2011, p. 327): “Social media are technologies that facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration, and enable deliberation across stakeholders. This surely has been the case in our experience.

The use of social media, whether it is blogging, Facebook, wikis (audio, photo, video, text) sharing tools or other networking platforms is forging to the forefront of communicating and from my observation superseding communication methods beyond traditional methods.

Social media should therefore be encouraged. The rapid growth of the use of social media should prompt us as classroom practitioners to promote its integration in our learning environments sooner than later. We should be looking at how these technologies can be used to connect formal and informal learning to allow our students to connect in new and meaningful ways.

Social media technologies that allow students to connect to educational contexts in new and meaningful ways beyond the traditional classroom environment have the potential to blur the line between formal and informal learning, Banks, (2007).

Social connections and networks are changing the ways we think about knowledge and learning and the ways we organize work and ideas, therefore, I believe we need to look at how we are going to address this change and find the best ways to achieve it.

References:

Bryer, T. A. & Zavattaro, S. (2011). Social media and public administration: Theoretical dimensions and introduction to symposium. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 33(3).

Banks, J., Au, K., Ball, A., Bell, P., Gordon, E., Gutierrez, K., Heath, S., et al. (2007). Learning in and out of school in diverse environments (Consensus Report). Learning in Informal and Formal Environment (LIFE) Center. Retrieved from http://www.life-slc.org/knowledge-base/report-learning-in-and-out-of-school-in-diverse-environments

Mazer, Joseph P., Murphy, Richard E., & Simonds, Cheri J. (2009). The effects of teacher self-disclosure via Facebook on teacher credibility. Learning, Media & Technology, 34(2), 175-183.