Group items tagged

The SMILE acronym stands for Social Media in Learning and Education. I really like that the project was designed as a learning laboratory that looked at 6 communities of practice. They included: Social Media - What is it, Social media- school policies, Social media- PD, Social media, internet safety and responsible use and Social media- challenges to adoption.

This resource ties social media and communities of practice together, discussing how social media can create a "more dynamic" type of community. We need to focus on the context of the community to find the best tools for the community to use to develop knowledge and skills together. Social media can create a better flow of discussion and engages more of the members with the ease of access and ability to share resources quickly and easily.

This article explains the positive impact and value that social media adds to communities of practice. And it explained the many factors to consider when using social media as part of a community of practice.

This infographic has stats about social media, benefits of social media tools, and teaching suggestions for social media in the classroom.

Discusses the cost effectiveness of using social media in the classroom and the value of providing real world experiences for students. Emphasizes how collaboration skills are utilized and developed by students. An intersting point that is made is educating students on how to use social media as a tool, not a distraction.

An article providing a premise for using social media on using social media in low skilled adult classes to gain more skills. The article also points out the lack of research into social media in adult education.

This paper discusses how Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) integrate formal and informal learning and help students self-regulate learning in "higher education contexts" through social media. Connectivism has given rise to the idea that "the community is the curriculum", so institutions should foster the creation of communities among their students to allow them a more personalized education. PLEs are the tools, services and communities that learners choose to use as they pursue knowledge. PLEs are an attempt to deliberately unify formal and informal learning, especially in e-learning situations. PLEs specifically address social media use and the creation of a cultivated online identity to enhance learning in the learner's chosen arena. In order to fully leverage PLEs via social media, students must use personal knowledge management (PKM) skills. S involves "creating, organizing and sharing digital content and information" and balancing contexts, among other skills. Students cano sumo mine their PLEs, but this requires knowledge management and self-regulation.

I like how this article views PLNs from the angle as if the user already has a social networking account. Most of the article I've come across have a list of steps that a person has to follow and sites that they need to sign up for, but this article assumes the reader has these log ins (because they probably do). It shows how to take what you are probably already using and turn it into a PLE to foster and grow knowledge.

In this article, the authors explore how PLEs, social media, and self regulated connect. Also introduces a pedagogical framework to for social media to support self-regulated learning

This article discusses how the use of formal and informal education can mesh. It talks about the importance of self-regulation in terms of connection to social media and how it can impact learning. It gives examples of how different media can be used in learning and enhance the PLN.

This paper is most useful for the discussion of how social media can help students develop self regulated learning skills in a PLE. A useful table is near the end of the article showing how teaches can use social media at 3 different levels of complexity for knowledge management.

Not only does this resource provide a solid description of what a PLN is, it also answers the important "why do I need one" question. It was particularly helpful to get an idea of how social media is essential to a strong PLN.

A great article that offers many valid and important reasons that an instructor should join PLNs.

This article supports why we all need to join PLN! Great read!

Article discusses the relevancy and power of social media, breaks down myths, offers concrete examples, and points out its connection to standards.

12 ways teachers are using social media in the classroom

An overview, including a quiz, about the relevance of social media in the classroom. Also delves into the myths of social media and links to resources about how to integrate social media into classroom activities.

The study in the paper was interesting as it looked at K-12 educators and their use of Twitter to research, relate and form PLNs. Twitter and other social medias have allowed teachers to form networks that are specific to their needs and wants in terms of their own professional growth. In the "End of Isolation" the researchers findings touched on the fact that "over 82% of the time, the educators in this study chose to follow other educators or content experts related to their field of teaching so they were able to create a personal learning network meaningful to their professional needs." Now I just need to work with teachers at my school site to help them realize the individualized professional potential!

This study underscored the benefits of Twitter for the educational community. The article shared the advantages to new teachers in particular, where one participant stated it changed her vision and practice in the classroom. Very powerful!

Of all the resources I have read thus far on PLNs, this particular article forced me to think deeper and reconsider my interpretation of this concept. First of all, I found that the article provided a picture of the quality of interaction that can occur within Twitter. The data collected by researchers provides an in depth look at Twitter as a PLN - a feat that few other resources I have read have accomplished. By detailing the amount, quality, and type of interactions and connections, a tangible conception of a PLN emerges, even for someone who has little to no experience with Twitter. Of the 10 surveyed, a majority of their connections and tweets were professionally related. According to Nussbaum-Beach (video I posted), the difference between a PLN and a CoP is the familiarity of the people and the connection to an idea or problem. However, this study provides a different perception of a PLN that is largely professionally based with strong two-way connections. These conclusions made me wonder if it is possible for facets of a PLN on Twitter to transform into a CoP. Further, at what point can one argue that a PLN has successfully transform into a virtual CoP? Thanks for sharing. This was an excellent read!

Project based social media using social media to predict foreign exchange markets, with a 77% success rate.

I thought that this personal learning network resource was a great fit for our class. This article discusses how schools are using social media to engage students and real-world relevance, for professional development, and school, district, and teacher collaboration. They used Twitter to document and share a paper tower challenge with schools and teachers from all over the world. Twitter was used to connect with experts and students got to see that not all scientists agree on certain topics. They also connected with the community.

I like that this article looks at how Twitter can be used for students and for educators. The idea of Twitter for educators as professional development fits very well with the ideas of COP's and PLN's. While I haven't been a true part yet of a structured Twitter session for PD, I have lurked in many formal PD discussions with hashtags for our public school system and benefitted from what I gleaned.

What an awesome video. It makes me excited to go back in August and really challenge myself to use Twitter or Facebook to showcase my students. Our school district uses a hashtag #bsdpride for teachers to showcase things going on around the district and it's starting to take off. It's awesome that teachers are encouraging each other to use Twitter and begin challenges that involve students. You can tell from this video how important these students feel when their work or projects re used on social media, and are getting attention from other schools.

This article, although stating a case for social media, gives many examples of uses for social media. It also gives examples of teachers that have used these social media in successful ways and gives statistics to back up their claims.

E.Delmatoff of Portland Oregon uses social media to help meet the schools "adequate yearly progress goal" for the first time ever.

Social media environments change rapidly, presenting challenges to researchers and academics. "Social media practices" refer to those persistent characteristics of social media which can be used to define new theories explaining learning in such environments. Authors present some specific persistent characteristics of social media (or social media practices) and discuss various factors related to persistent data.

This post talks about a project where graduate students at John Carroll University were asked to use social media while learning about gender in modern Africa. The students created a public awareness campaign around an activism project. They were then charged with using social media to get the word out about their campaign.