Mindlab - Professional Online Social Networks

Activity 6: Using social online networks in teaching and/or professional development

Evidence for Applied Practice in Context - MindLab

What is Social Media?

The Oxford dictionary defines social media as Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. 

According to Joosten (2012,p.6), "a virtual place is where people can share; everybody and anybody can share anything, anywhere and anytime."

What are some key features of social media that are beneficial for teaching and learning? Why?

Social media is a powerful tool for educators that can be used either for personal or professional means. On a personal front, social networking lets you mix with people from all over the world. It helps maintain relationships easily. Now, instead of having to call someone and force a conversation of a decent length, one can simply comment on others’ photographs and status messages or just drop them a message online. This assists with communication, especially with friends and family who stay in another country or another continent even.

Professionally  social media acts as an informal resume. Potential clients and employers can ‘check you out’ on these networks and browse through your educational qualifications and experience. 

Social media is a handy tool in the classroom, it can be as beneficial outside the classroom. 

Some of the key features include:

Sharing ideas - social media enables educators to share ideas and practice with each other using various professional learning networks (PLN) .  They are able to compare notes on classroom teaching techniques and learning styles can help  enhance the learning experience in the classroom. Educators are able to share their lessons, plans and use social media to celebrate practice.

Connections with Schools - social media allows teachers to connect with teachers in other schools around the world. These partnerships are beneficial as they keep educators abreast of changes in curriculum and content in others regions, states and globally.

Professional development - social media helps educators become aware of  upcoming courses, seminars and conferences either face to face or online.  

The value of contacts - contacts are key to professional development. The world today revolves on who you know. Establishing relationships with others in different schools can help you enhance your career. Getting a job is generally a lot easier if someone knows you and recommends you. 

My Journey with Social Media:

I am an avid user of social media. I use various platforms for my learning in education, personal and business use. I think Social Media is a powerful tool for educators to use as learners and teachers to stay connected. 

Educators can keep connected with professional learning network (PLN) within their practice, nationally and globally.

Social media tools I use to enhance my professional development include these:

I use Facebook to capture my learning via my Learning Page.  I belong to various educational groups on Facebook. Some of these include Primary teachers facebook page, New Zealand principals and senior leaders page, New Zealand Technology Teachers.
Facebook enables me to communicate and  share my learning with others educators.

Alongside the use of Facebook,   VLN  is another platform I use that is a  New Zealand based PLN to share and learn with other educators.  This is supported by Melhuish's (2013) study has suggested that VLN Groups can enable an informal type of professional learning for teachers. Google apps for education, E-Learning,  Beyond the classroom  to name a few  are a some of the groups I follow within this network.

In the last two year's I have become a regular user of Twitter. I am identified by my twitter handle @redgurami. This enables me to follow educators globally and others to follow me. I use twitter as my main professional development source. I am able to tap into resources, readings  and workshops globally and do not need to leave my classroom.  This is an advantage as I no longer have to worry about the budget at school.  I do not have to take time off to be part of some of the professional development available on twitter. 

I have found myself increasingly engaging with twitter during conferences and seminars. The recent GAFE summit and Google Educators in New Zealand workshop

encouraged me to tweet during the sessions and celebrate and discuss learning as it happens.

I began using Google+ within my MindLab network. I have found engaging with other educators on the same postgraduate journey an exciting experience. Through Google+ yet again I am able to connect and collaborate with educators here in New Zealand and abroad. The Google+ community has given me a safe, trusting environment for me share my practices, reflective blogs and discuss assessment tasks.Through this community, I have made friends who I will continue to share and collaborate with outside my community of practice. 

Pinterest is an integral part of my daily practice. I use this tool to organise information and brainstorm ideas for teaching and learning. Pinterest encourages collaboration globally with other educators using Pinterest. Ideas, videos, news articles, images can be shared. This tool is highly effective in the classroom as it provides a structured resource for learners which enables them to collaborate.

Being connected empowers me as an educator, not only to grow myself but to grow my learners alongside me.

References:

Joosten, T. (2012). Social media for educators: Strategies and best practices. John Wiley & Sons.

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning.

Retrieved from http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/assets/downloads/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf#view=FitH,0

Mindlab - Influence of Law and Ethics on Professional Practice

Activity 5: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

Evidence for Applied Practice in Context - MindLab

THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR CERTIFICATED TEACHERS EXISTS TO:

• promote the ethics of the profession
• inspire the quality of behaviour that reflects the honour and dignity of the profession
• encourage and emphasise those positive attributes of professional conduct that
• characterise strong and effective teaching
• enable members of the profession to appraise and reflect on their ethical decisions.

Certified educators in New Zealand are governed by  the four
 fundamental principles : The Code of Ethics

• Autonomy to treat people with rights that are to be honoured and defended
• Justice to share power and prevent the abuse of power
• Responsible care to do good and minimise harm to others
• Truth to be honest with others and self.

As an educator of children, I recognise my commitment to develop and provide the highest quality of educational services to all learners I serve.  I also recognise the responsibility for fulfilling obligations to the organisation that employs me, the profession, and the community.Furthermore, I understand that the way I conduct my professional activities has probable influence on the learners, as well as any other involved individuals, not only on their academic but also on their private lives. 




Ethical dilemmas are a fundamental part of daily life and are unavoidable. The use of social media makes us all exposed and start to feel unsafe. Therefore it is important to me to create safeguards. I must consider what the purpose is of using social networking, as mentioned in a video from the Education Council.  New Zealand Teachers Council (2012) Establishing safeguards video by Sean Lyon, acknowledges that there are challenges for teachers to use social networking in classrooms. He states that these challenges should not stop teachers from using social media.

star

My Current Dilemma

My Dilemma is around social networking as an educator.   

Teacher Ethics Video - Social Media Dilemma HD

This video reflects on how educators need to be very careful about what they post, where they post and who the posts are visible to.  

I use Facebook, Twitter, Google + communities, VLN, blogger and youtube. I use all of these tools for my proffesional learning. I enjoy networking with eduactors here in New Zealand and globally. I am very concious of my privacy settings with my facebook accounts. My personal facebook account is not accessible to learners. I have had a few try and add me as a friend. I have declined and have had conversations with them about safety and privacy. They have been respectful towards my decision not to add them.  

The barrier I have at my current school is that most of these are blocked for eduactors and learner use. I find this frusturating but at the same time I need to respect and value the school's choice.

Hall (2001) explains the ethics and values around social media within a collaborative student, teacher, community built site. The relationships should have a clear understanding of the expected interactions that this should be planned for.  My community of practice I believe would benefit from creating a policy specifically around social media use in the classroom. To date I have not sighted a policy. Learners do sign a Google policy and parents give permission to the school if their children's photos can be used on media.

Hall states that the community of practice within the school would need to set guidelines that takes into consideration for values based on the culture of the school. Hall believes it would promote a universal ideal among the many members and stakeholders by being collaborative. Ethical decisions are often based on personal ideas of what would be deemed right or wrong. Different people will have different ideas and yet again I need to be respectful of this.

How we keep Safe?

In  my classroom, each group of learners attending Technology classes completes a cyber safety session with me so that the learners are very clear about expectations.
One of the videos we watch discusses the 9's of digital citizenship. 

References:

Education Council New Zealand, (2016). About the Code of Ethics.
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/about-code-of-ethics

Digital Citizenshio Week:6 Resources for Educators

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-citizenship-resources-matt-davis

Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers

New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards. Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/49216520

Mindlab - Broader Proffessional Context

Activity 3: 'Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally'

“Trend is a term which refers to the statistically observable change or general orientation of a general movement. In order for an orientation or a tendency to become a trend, it must comprise a certain period of time, repeat itself during this period, be proven statistically, focus on a specific area, be based on data, and have a certain level of consistency. Within the international scope, trends enable enhancing the changes in education and having an international point of view, and also help nations to learn from one another. Trends report only the facts at the time the research is done, and they do not predict the future. Therefore, it is possible to say that trend studies are repeatable (Karataş 2016)”.

Sir Ken Robinson’s talk discusses how Digital Technologies  is changing our future. As modern educators we need to keep up. The way our children learn now is different from when we went we went to school. My professional context is no longer confined within the boundaries of my school. The technology has moved so swiftly in how education is perceived and how it is accessed by all.  We are now increasingly connected across a variety of platforms and in a variety of settings.

Internationally and in New Zealand, 21st century learners are digital device and platform users. Their learning goes beyond passive receipt of knowledge towards actively seeking knowledge and their learning extends beyond the classroom walls to the digital learning environment. These changes in learning behaviour are a global phenomenon and not confined to a specific country or region.

The New Zealand Education Context
A report by the Education Review Office (2012) indicated that New Zealand’s education system needs to pay more attention to three key aspects including :

i) students-centred learning,

ii) responsive and rich curriculum, and

iii) assessment used for students’ learning.

Core Education’s Top 10 Trends 2016

Use of Digital Technologies/Digital Fluency

Digital Fluency can be described as using Technologies learn, to work and to play, and the infusion of Technology in Teaching and learning to improve outcomes for all students.

My goal is to expose and extend the knowledge for my learners to Technologies available and accessible currently.

This term I have taken  a risk and decided to explore the opportunities that ‘coding’ using Scratch. This opens up opportunities for our learners in terms of addressing the key competencies:

• Using Language, Symbols and Text
• Thinking - Creative, Critical, Reflective
• Relating to Others
• Participating and Contributing
• Managing Self

The Horizon report focuses on the importance of deeper learning approaches and teaching complex thinking. They state that "teaching coding in schools is a way to instill this kind of thinking in student as it combines deep Computer Science knowledge with creativity and problem solving” (p.32).

To support their learning in the classroom using Technologies my students went to MindLab for a visit. At MindLab they developed a controller for a flight simulator. They used Scratch and a Makey Makey Kit alongside some conductive tin foil and cardboard.

I believe in providing access to my learners to resources currently available in New Zealand. I want my students to learn using Technology and become fluent with its applications in everyday life and bridging the digital divide gap .

The recent reportOECD (2015)- highlights the importance of bridging the digital divide, not leaving the development of digital fluency to chance.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a process that can support us to shift from improvement and reform approaches towards ways that encourage transformation and a “learning revolution” (Robinson, K, 2010).

Within my curriculum area of teaching - Technology educators have been historically using the design thinking model years. 

Technology education in New Zealand explores how, beginning with a need or opportunity, new products and systems are developed, and how technological developments impact on our world.

The Technology Curriculum enables learners to work together and create new solution. This aligns with the design thinking concepts.  Learners innovate and solve real life problems.  

As stated in Core Education's Top 10 Trends - Design Thinking is a process that can support us to shift from improvement and reform approaches towards ways that encourage transformation and a “learning revolution” (Robinson, K, 2010). 

This  can help educators to  prepare our learners for the demands of  the real work business sector. Design thinking process within education will enable our learners to be 'ready' for the rapidly changing job market as technology replaces many process-driven tasks. It can also help us to empower our learners to be proactive when working with real-world complex problems. 

This is because Design Thinking processes help to build the skills and capabilities needed for learners to navigate multiple perspectives, to find common ground and to create “messy” solutions that haven’t been thought of before.

                                       Design Thinking                           

Within my practice combining elements of Design thinking and the New Zealand Technology curriculum, I see myself engaging with very exciting, innovative learning both for my students and myself.

References:

Core Education Top Ten Trends (2016) Retrieved from

http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2016/digital-fluency

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf

Karataş, S., et al. (2016).  A Trend Analysis of Mobile Learning. In D. Parsons (Ed.) Mobile and Blended Learning Innovations for Improved Learning Outcomes (pp. 248-276). Hershey, PA: IGI Global

Pearson. (2013, April 26). Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZiTQy3g1g

KPMG Australia. (2014, May 22). Future State 2030 - Global Megatrends. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=im5SwtapHl8

OECD.  (2015), Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264239555-en

Robinson, K. (2010). Bring on the learning revolution. TED talks.

The RSA.(2010, Oct 14). RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.

Mindlab - Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness

Activity 4 - Indigenous knowledge & Cultural responsiveness in my practice

“Culture is not merely a question of ethnicity, but also beliefs, spirituality, age, gender, and sexual orientation.(Shaw, White & Deed, 2013, p. 6-7).

Earl et al (2008) states that, “cultural responsiveness is much more than introducing myths or metaphors into class. It means interacting with their families to truly understand their reality; it means understanding the socio-political history and how it impacts on classroom life; it means challenging personal beliefs and actions; and, it means changing practices to engage all students in their learning and make the classroom a positive learning place for all students”. They also state that cultural responsiveness is a way of being and of thinking that requires teachers to confront their own personal beliefs and their relationships with students and with communities, as well as to learn new customs and new languages. 

Vision, Mission & Core Values

Our school represents a wide range of ethnicities.  

A roll of some 450+ students and includes Maori (27%), Samoan (14%) European ( 14%) Indian

 (12%), Tongan (9%), Niue (5%) Filipino (5%),Cook Islander (3%)  Fijian (3%) ,African (1%) Chinese (1%) Other Asian (1%), South  East Asian (1%), Middle Eastern ( 1%) and others Combined(2%).

As our school is growing, we have more  and more  nationalities on our roll. It important to be culturally responsive to those students too, whether they are Māori, Pasifika, Indians, Africans...

Our school acknowledges the different cultures within our community but the question I ask -

Is the school being culturally responsive to all of those students?

In the last three terms, I have been at my school, I have experienced a change within the school to be working towards being culturally responsive. We have new staff who have joined our practice and have embraced roles to lead areas such Pasifika, Kapa Haka and Bollywood groups. 

Our school vision and values state that," we serve a community by preparing our students to be participating and contributing members of the community".

In my thoughts I feel there needs to be a defined focus on how the school promotes cutlural responsiveness.  There is a need to weave this into the Vision and the School Mission statements. 

 

Cultural Responsiveness in my community of Practice - School Wide

Recently we had a school wide focus on Samoan Language Week. This was led by a group of teachers who felt strongly about their own cultures and that of their students. They believe that all languages need to be celebrated. They also wanted community engagement with Whanau.  This, I believe is the beginning of an exciting  journey moving  our school towards becoming more Culturally responsive.

Recent Samoan Language week 2016

Cultural performance by our BRS Pasifika Cultural group

Our school is working towards our school song - Maungarei (Na Anaru raua ko Aperehama.) Our music teacher takes small groups throughout the week and teaches our students to sing in Te reo.

Even though I have lived in New Zealand for 25years, I still believe I have a lot more to learn about the history and the people. Within my personal journey,  I often challenge myself to integrate Maori and Pasifika concepts into my teaching programme. I am always trying to find how I am able to meet the requirements for the Practising Teacher Criteria 3: ‘demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand 
 i. demonstrate respect for the heritages, languages and cultures of both partners to the Treaty of Waitangi’ .

It is important to me that I  get to know learners. It is also key that I share my cultural background with my students. The student-teacher relationship is the foundation for cultural responsiveness (Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh and Teddy (2007). To know our students' culture can only be achieved by knowing our students. Building these strong relationships with my students is the heart of my practice. 


References:
Earl, L. M. with Timperley, H., and Stewart, G. (2008). Learning from QTR&D Programme: Findings of the ExternalEvaluation3 Ibid, page 1

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T., & Teddy, L. (2007). Te Kōtahitanga Phase 3 Whānaungatanga: Establishing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations in mainstream secondary school classrooms. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Shaw, S., White, W. & Deed, B. (2013) (Ed.). Health, wellbeing and environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.South Melbourne, Australia:Oxford University Press.