4 Social Media Platforms for Educators
By Grain Valley Schools Director of Technology Kyle Pace
Summer is a great time for many things: family vacation, 4th of July, BBQs, swimming at the pool, and generally recharging. It’s also a time that educators can give adequate time to new learning opportunities. It might mean attending a conference or workshop, working towards a graduate degree, or getting a special certification. Regardless of the reason why we know the time is valuable and can be used to become better for our students.
One thing that I think summer is great for in terms of professional learning is investing the time to better understand how you can use social media as an educator. Social media can be used as a great communication tool for a district, school, or a classroom. It can also become a great go-to resource for getting just in time information or following along with a conference you can’t attend in person. There are lots of options to try and summer is a great time to figure out which one(s) is best for you. Here are some options to think about:
Twitter. I’ve been on Twitter for nearly 9 years and it continues to be my most valuable resource. You’ll find me sharing blog posts, resources, and tech tips there. What’s even better are the brilliant people it can keep you connected to; someone you have seen present at a conference, an author, or a fellow teacher you share a common content area with. Don’t forget about the hashtags! Hashtags are keywords you can search around to find great people to connect with and get resources from. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account you can always go to search.twitter.com and type in any hashtag to see what’s being discussed and shared. If you want to follow along with one of the biggest edtech conferences in the world, be sure to follow the #ISTE17 hashtag over the next month. This is just one example of so many!
You’ll find lots of great chats happening on Twitter as well. These are regularly scheduled discussions that happen on the same day and at the same time usually on a weekly basis. Our district is even having our own chats during the summer using our district PD hashtag — #GVEaglePD.
Twitter is definitely one of those things that follows the rule of “you get out of it what you put into it”. If you create an account, be sure to add a profile image, fill out your bio (we want to know about you!) and spend some time with it and give it a good chance!
📸 Note from the editor: Are you attending #ISTE17? Or do you want to use social media to connect to the event from afar? Share a photo that shows how you empower your school, students, and learning community using the hashtag #EmpowerEDU and your image will be featured at the McGraw-Hill Education ISTE spot (visit us at booth #1800)! Learn more about ISTE here:
Google+ Communities. Maybe you want some online PD that doesn’t limit you to 140 characters and gives you more of the social media experience maybe you’re used to (think Facebook)? I would look at joining some Google+ communities. There are loads of education related topics that have communities. Find the one you like, click Join, and you’re off and running. In each community you’ll see posts labeled with various categories, and there will be comments on various posts along with links, videos, and images. If you want a Google+ community on Google in Education, you’ve got one. If you want to learn more about project based learning, you’ll find it there. A tip: when you set up your profile on Google+ make sure you list your school district, what you teach, etc. because you’ll see more education related communities recommended to you when you click the Communities tab on the left side of the page. You can always, of course, just use the search box at the top of the page too.
Blogs and blogging. Sometimes, the best professional learning is just getting to do some reading and reflecting on your own. Many teachers enjoy following various educational new sites; many of which have regular writers in the form of currently practicing teachers and administrators. These can be organizations like (but certainly not limited to) Edutopia, EdSurge, ASCD, Education Week, and THE Journal or individual bloggers like (again not limited to) Katie Martin, Matt Miller, Shelly Terrell, and Doug Johnson.
As you start finding more and more online blogs and other sources you like to read regularly, I always get the question of how to manage all of them. I love to use Feedly (free version), which lets me aggregate all of my blogs and news sites into one place in an organized, clean interface. You can access it on the web and they have a mobile app as well that comes in handy for me to catch up on reading during my kids’ sports practices. :)
YouTube. Ah the power of video. I always enjoy finding examples of and sharing about the power that video can have in education. We are hard pressed to not being able to find an instructional video on a particular topic. Now I know all of those videos are not instructional in a positive way, however, our students need us to be good models of effective use of YouTube. There’s too much great stuff there not to! There are great channels like (but of course not limited to) FriedTechnology, Tara Martin, Veritasium, Minute Earth, and Crash Course.
We can then of course jump into teachers using summer time to get comfortable with creating their own content for their students too!
Are there more options than the 4 mentioned here? Yep definitely. Please share other suggestions in the comments and add more hashtags, communities, blogs, and channels there too. We’re better together, right? Enjoy your summer!
Kyle Pace, an Instructional Technology Coach, has worked with K-12 teachers to provide instructional technology professional development since 2004 with prior experience teaching in the elementary classroom. Kyle holds a Master of Arts degree in Education with an emphasis in Educational Technology. Kyle champions to support teaching and learning with meaningful technology integration using a multitude of technologies.
Kyle has a strong passion for sharing with teachers, administrators, students, and parents about the impact that educational technology can have on student learning. Find Kyle on Twitter as @kylepace and his blog, “Learning is Leading”, can be found at http://kylepace.com.
*This awesome blog was originally published at: http://kylepace.com/.
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