Languages, ICT, education

Social Media has given educators the opportunity for self-directed, collaborative and connected learning. Network literacy, according to Eric Hellweg, requires a basic understanding of network technology, intelligence, capabilities and the ability of crafting one’s own network identity.

So, how do you bring the benefits of social media to a conference without making the conference ABOUT social media or technology? How do you share the basics of connecting and learning collaboratively with attendees who are newbies? ...

Engage young readers by showing them the value of composing and sending tweets to authors whose books they've enjoyed during a read-aloud.

Increasingly, educators are acknowledging and welcoming the relative advantages of social media into the teaching and learning process. From creating school Facebook pages to connecting students with

Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting  ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool …

Curation is a valuable skill for today’s learner. In a culture of content overload, members that provide great content to their audience will be recognized leaders in network communities.

Students use critical thinking skills to collect, evaluate and analyze content; they may identify trends from discourse; they develop writing skills in original expression; and they interact, communicate and publish to a global audience. They practice digital citizenship and personal responsibility to lifelong learning.

Here is a compilation of the 36 Rules of Social Media from key social media gurus and marketers from all industries. It was put together by Fast Company and it illustrates some of the best practices to going about your social media strategy and execution. Even though some of these are not meant to be written in stone and you can break a few, we hope you find them as interesting as we did.

The following social media cheat sheet created by Flowtown and Column Five media for social media sites was created for small businesses, but can be useful for teachers just discovering the joys–and pains– of Twitter, Facebook,  YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, and Digg, among others ...

Social media can enhance differentiated instruction if the tools are selected with a careful eye on individual students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles. ...

Is Social Media Relevant? 
The myth about social media in the classroom is that if you use it, kids will be Tweeting, Facebooking and Snapchatting while you're trying to teach. We still have to focus on the task at hand. Don't mistake social media for socializing. They're different -- just as kids talking as they work in groups or talking while hanging out are different.

A curator ingests, analyzes and contextualizes web content. Whether you like it or not, you've curated and will continue to do so as long as you're online.

In today's hypermedia landscape, youth and young adults are increasingly using social media platforms, online aggregators and mobile applications for daily information use. In this context, how students learn to be analytical, inquiring, and critical thinkers encompasses a new set of pedagogical approaches.