I've had a twitter profile for a few years, but I've not had the urge to tweet - until now. After starting my Scoop.it collection and linking it to my Twitter account, I'm hooked. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to investigate too much at the moment. I've been following a few Twitter accounts and the more I follow, the more great suggestions pop up. I am beginning to see the real value in this site. I have LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, yet I really don't explore them much and use the last three to keep in touch with friends and family. I use LinkedIn for professional purposes, and have found some wonderful resources, articles and slide-shares along the way. LinkedIn is a great networking tool and I have made some fabulous contacts all over the world. To my surprise, some really cool Scoop.it peeps have started re-scooping from my collection and posting it on their Twitter pages - I'm starting to build a whole new world of contacts. Now the collaborative aspect comes into play. I can see who they follow and can start accessing other resources and opinions. Participants can share their knowledge and access a worlds's worth of information. People can view my connections and interests too - thus a global community is activated and expanded. Most students already have their own personal learning network via the plethora of social media apps available. What we need to make sure, in an education context, is that they are accessing the appropriate material, connecting with and listening to helpful people who will enhance their learning. We want students to collaborate too - not merely compete with each other. Viewing Facebook posts about the wonderful trips and activities that their friends are participating in can lead to feelings of inadequacy. Teachers need to ensure that students learn how to work WITH each other not just compete in an online group environment. The types of activities we ask them to undertake must be considered and authentic, with direct learning goals, creating outcomes which involve high order thinking processes. Social media posts are not only about airy-fairy topics, but finding meaningful information may be more difficult until our connections present it on their pages. We then start to explore other avenues and learn new things. The danger is being lead down the wrong path towards information that may not be reliable. As an adult, I have a broad range of networks - professional and personal. I am discriminatory in whose posts I read. I am able to make these decisions because I remain informed. That's where we can help our students, by guiding them down the correct paths, teaching them how to analyse and evaluate information, preparing them as productive global citizens. As a museum curator, I can deliver a different perspective on education. Museums are social learning environments where people from all ages visit. Observing how young children, teenagers and adults engage with exhibitions has encouraged me to take a more learner-centred approach. People choose to spend varying amounts of time at each exhibition according to their interest in the topic. Some visitors love to read, some prefer to watch videos, whilst others enjoy a tactile experience . The hands-on learning activities presented are examples of authentic learning tasks that I can take with me into the classroom. If I can share some of my thought processes with other teachers, maybe they can help me with the finer points of theory and content?
Invariably, I will learn more from a collective of wise people than from individual investigation. "Many hands make light work", some would say. I've already started developing my personal learning networks, the challenge will be to engage with them in an authentic manner. Providing insight to others is as valuable as receiving it.
2 Comments
Jeannette
7/5/2017 19:16:19
Hi Amanda,
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Amanda
7/5/2017 19:45:41
Jeanette,
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AuthorAmanda is a museum curator and pre-service teacher, learning how to integrate technology with education to design creative learning tools for secondary school students. Archives
May 2017
Topic 6: Growing your pedagogy
Embedded Task 3 Embedded Task 2 Reflections 4.1-4.3 Embedded Task 1 Reflections 3.1-3.3 Reflections 2.1-2.2 Refelections 1.1-1.3 Categories |