Week 29 - Using social online networks in teaching or professional development.

Week 29 Activity 5

I am using Jay and Johnson’s (2002) reflective model to reflect on my use of social online
networks and Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) in my professional development.

Step 1

Various social media like and many other social networking sites complement many facets
of our lives. The Personal Learning Networks I use are Blogger and Google+ Community  
and The Personal Learning Environments I use are: Khan Academy, Pinterest, TED Ed,
TED Talks, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix. These platforms give me the opportunity to
share and interact with online information and to connect with like-minded people. They
also allow me to to engage in discussions with other educators and to gather teaching ideas.
Using online tools is also a good way to gain professional development. Thanks to the Mindlab
journey that I have been on, I am now more aware of the various social media tools that I can
use in my professional development. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of the social
media tools I actually use after filling in the social media tool survey.

Step 2

After having had a look at the responses on the google form, I could see that I had much in
common with others. Many of my colleagues also use Facebook, Facebook Groups and
Google+. I noticed that my use of social media had “gaps” too. The one in particular being,
Twitter. I have used Twitter during my Mindlab Journey but it’s one I have not given a “good go”
of. People in my CoP group say that Twitter is a valuable professional learning network (PLN).  
Many years ago I made a decision that I no longer wanted to have a personal social media
account because I struggled with keeping social media accounts out of my personal life. This
in turn led to my not being able to access information on online forums like Facebook. Since
joining the Mindlab course, I have joined a professional Facebook page to interact with
like-minded people. I have begun to reflect more as these online platforms has afforded me
the time and space. I still feel that I need to make a concerted effort to participate online for
not only my own professional development but also to be part of an online community whose
main target is to raise student achievement as suggested by Professional Learning
Communities (2018)

Step 3

Whilst this reflection has reaffirmed my feelings that online and social media forums for
professional development sometimes prove to be more valuable than face-to-face sessions,
I do think that there is still a place for person to person interaction. Whitaker et al (2015)
mention that when you join a group of people with the same passion, and if we all share a
common goal, then we feel motivated to succeed whatever the activity might be. The same
applies to when you join a learning network of educators who are committed to making a
difference for all kids and who aspire to be excellent. In saying this, I have come to the
realisation that online professional development will afford me more time to put into practice
everything I have learned online, thereby making better use of my time in class. I plan on
using Whitaker’s et al (2015)  four step process to on ask a question, share a resource,
respond to a comment, tweet something out to manage time and focus on issues of importance.
Simultaneously with this I could use the “Follow 5, Find 5 and Take 5 method to increase my
connectedness as an online educator.

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

Jay, J., & Johnson, K. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher
education. Teaching And Teacher Education, 18(1), 73-85.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(01)00051-8

Professional learning communities. (2018). Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/
Professional-learning/Professional-learning-communities