Professional Learning for Busy Educators

"Let's be honest, we all know that students are spending a lot of their free time on social media so let's look for safe and productions ways to use social media and technology with our students. Social media is a very useful learning tool because of its ability to bring learning experiences closer to the real world. In this post, we are going to give you several ideas for taking advantage of this increase in technology for better learning experiences. "

Technology is changing the world at a rapid pace, and education isn’t exempt from the effects of that. Social media, in particular, is one of the greatest influences of our time — not just on young people, but on culture in general — encouraging social connections and enabling the exchange of thoughts and information on a global scale.

And although it has its drawbacks (peer pressure, bullying, access to questionable content, and its addictive nature, to name a few), there are also tremendous benefits when it comes to social networks — and let’s face it, they’re not going anywhere.

Social media enables collaboration, which for adult learning is the key to success for most adults. The best form of collaboration comes through conversation, which is often enabled by various social media tools. The key to accepting social media as a tool for learning comes in the term “Social”. This requires involving other people in order to have a conversation. This requirement precludes the use of social media being a passive endeavor. It takes time to learn the tools, time to learn the culture, and time to learn the strategies to effectively learn through social media. All of this discourages people from even attempting to change what has made them comfortable in their profession. It requires effort, time, and work.

More and more people are turning to social media to learn their Indigenous languages, and two Ojibway speakers are using different techniques to connect with language learners across the country on Facebook.

Every Thursday at 9:30 p.m. CT, James Vukelich turns his phone's camera toward himself, and hits "go live" on Facebook. He starts off with a traditional Ojibway language — or Anishinaabemowin — greeting and delivers the "word of the day," connecting with and teaching the language to his online friends.

"For me, putting stuff on social media is a way to get language materials to [people] for free that they can use at a touch of their fingertips," said Vukelich.

Vukelich is from the Turtle Mountain Indian Reserve in Minnesota. He said his mother, grandmother, grandfather and uncles all went to boarding schools in the United States — like Canada's residential schools — and the language was lost for two generations in his family.

"I didn't hear the language until I was 24 years old," said Vukelich.

"I was recently tagged in a post called, “Ten Reasons Middle Schoolers Don’t Need Social Media” based on a post in Psychology Today and asked about my thoughts. The post was written in a Parenting forum. My response requires more that 280 words, so here are my responses in blue:"

Think nothing good can come from encouraging students to use social media? Consider what these former students from Minarets and Design Science high schools in Central California are doing. I asked these students how they use social media as an academic tool and how that shaped both their high school and post-secondary success. Here’s what I learned.

The Internet is not just about consuming – it’s also about connecting. Forums and other forms of online social networking provide opportunities for educators to come together and commiserate, encourage, and share information.

Online social networking encompasses different online communities of people who share common interests. It allows members of that community to interact in a variety of ways. They can conduct live chats, or they can leave comments in blogs or discussion groups.

These communities are shaped by different profiles of individuals who link to each other. Each member of the community creates a personal profile that can include pictures, personal information, audio, and video files. Others can access this profile and can connect to it by requesting a friendship with the other member. Almost all of these social networks have security settings, so each member can accept or deny access to their information and profile.