Social Media in teaching and professional development

The use ofd social media has been an uplifting and supportive network for me professionally for over a year. I have experienced a range of discussions through this forum that always leaves me energised and inspired to challenge my own practices and thinking. Based on these experiences, social media has become embedded into my practices as a key tool for my ongoing professional development. My intention for this blog is to elaborate on how social helps me to become the best teacher I can be. In Aotearoa (New Zealand), teachers are required to practice and evidence a set of teaching criteria over a set period of time. These criteria are called practicing teacher criteria or PTC’s.

In my opinion social media supports teachers in meeting our PTC’s through many varying ways. For the sake of brevity I will only focus on two.

The attributes I see as being linked to social media are Connectivity and Collaboration. I have used a Facebook page for sharing professional readings between TKAS staff over the last year. The purpose of this page was for staff to have a forum for reading, sharing and storing researched articles relating to education, to connect with each other online in a professional capacity and to generate a pool of resources that could be used for learning in our MYSY community. The most rewarding moments occurred while team teaching when we were able to refer back to these readings and potential applications within our day to day practices. What I have learnt is that through sharing our professional readings we as a team keep focused on a shared vision.

• PTC# 1. Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga 
•  PTC#4. Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice 

 Over the last 12 months Twitter has become a key tool for my own professional development. What I have experienced through Twitter (#edchatnz in particular,) is continued exposure to a wide range of current practices and professional opinions. These aspects have helped me to keep track of relevant discussions regarding current practices and professional readings. The discussions that occurred here were less directly related towards specific day to day practices (which facebook was helping with,) but instead more towards modern pedagogical concepts and general applications. In a way I feel that Twitter is providing me with a sounding board for my own growth that I would otherwise not have. 

• PTC# 1. Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga 
•  PTC# 5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning 
• PTC#12. use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice 

What has become apparent is while I’ve have used both these forms of social media in similar ways there are some key differences in the audience. Through Twitter I was able to connect with colleagues that were from a wider audience. While on Facebook the connection was mainly focused on staff/colleagues. In both instances I feel that critical thinking of my own practices and researched informed practices have increased because of the connections and collaboration achieved through social media.