Activity 7: Social media in teaching and professional development

Key features of social media that are beneficial in education for teaching and learning:

Global connectedness empowering education

• Connectedness: In this modern information age, local and global connectedness through social media net-working tools and technology is so crucial for everyone, at all stages of life – while learning, working and living life in general. It plays a key role for everyone in learning and teaching in educational world by enriching learning environment.
• Collaboration has become increasingly important skills in classroom and online learning environment. Local and global collaboration possible through digital technology in education, industry and business, is helping significantly solve many highly complex problems worldwide.
• Access to global resources and learning has become much broader through digital connectedness via social media net-working tools and technology.
• For all aged people, to benefit from varied strength of world economies and trends, learning of global diverse cultures and communities, has become essential, this learning is now much easier through social media net-working tools and technology
• Global connectedness has also improved access to career opportunities worldwide, quite significantly. All children need to learn this, in order to benefit from those opportunities.
• Using social media net-working in the classrooms promotes broader learning of becoming global digital citizens.
• Global connectedness in the classrooms, through digital social media improves student engagement, motivation, creativity and innovative self-regulated learning.
• Through integration of digital, local and global connectedness in the classrooms, learning and teaching is flexible, mobile, personalised, authentic and thus more focused on 21st Century skills

Potential challenges that educators and teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities:

• Equitable access to digital devices and technology, for all the learners must be ensured in entire learning environment, in and outside classrooms.
• Safeguarding and maintaining privacy of all the learners must be a prime concern for educators and caregivers, at all times.
• Keeping safe online: Teaching, promoting and monitoring Cyber safety against (Cyber bullying, online harassment, Facebook depression, sexting, etc.) must be the top priority again all the time.
• Facilitation of greater awareness and learning of Global Digital Citizenship needs to be integrated, encouraged and promoted in all the teaching and learning online.
• The skills for ‘Maintained focus on learning’ need to be taught, to avoid distraction in order to be productive while learning and working online.
• Adequate technical support for learners needs to be available and facilitation of accessing help themselves; should be integrated in teaching and learning programmes.
• Suitable pedagogies and strategies for teaching and learning through social media net-working tools and technology; are crucial for effective learning outcomes.
• Parental awareness of learning through social media net-working tools and technology; parental guidance and/or supervision of children’s learning; are also essential part of schools teaching and learning programmes. This significantly helps children with managing themselves online and also promotes self-regulated learning.
• suitable strategies and systems for assessing and/or measuring effectiveness of student learning need to be in place
• Face to face real-life social-skills of children need to be maintained in all the teaching and learning programmes, as these skills are essential for real life.

The social media platforms that I feel best supports engagement with my professional development and why:

• Facebook is the most common social net-working platform in education, employment, industry and in business. Almost all the educators, professionals, institutions and organisations worldwide use Facebook. It is the most effective social net-working platform to maintain connectedness with educators and professionals locally and globally, and hence to maintain engagement with professional development.
• Twitter is another most commonly used social net-working platform in all the areas for short, quick, and frequent communications using mostly mobile digital devices
• Google Plus Community and Google Hangouts are also common professional social net-working platforms used by educators and professionals locally and globally, and hence they are useful for ongoing learning and professional development.
• Blogs and Wikis have proved almost essential for online learning, teaching as well as professional development, as learner, educator and professional communities worldwide get equal opportunities to learn from others resources and share and contribute to learning resources for others.
• LinkedIn is not as commonly used as the social media platforms as above, however it can also be used to build the network of educators and professionals for development. It is used very much for careers – by job seekers, recruitment and business.
• GAFE suit and YouTube – well! We all know how useful they are – all though they are not social medial platforms! What would we do without them? All the credit for a lot of the learning and professional development of all aged people, goes to these resource mines!
In my professional practice; for teaching, learning and professional development, I am an active user of Google Plus Community, Blogs and Wikis, LinkedIn, GAFE suit and YouTube; and I am gradually growing my Facebook and Tweeter professional networks and contacts.

References:

Claire Amos's Blog: http://www.teachingandelearning.com/
Global Digital Citizenship Foundation: (a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating responsible, ethical, global citizens for a digital world): https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/blog
Social Media For Kids® The Social Media Education Experts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rOekhi20E
Pearson: Social Media for Teaching and Learning
http://www.slideshare.net/tjoosten/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-27456257?ref=http://professorjoosten.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/pearson-social-media-for-teaching-and.html
The Virtual Learning Network (VLN) provided by the Ministry of Education for all New Zealand educators: http://www.vln.school.nz/
Connected Educators: the importance of being "connected" in order to be an effective teachers and leaders
https://app.themindlab.com/media/12726/view
Engaging Prospective Students with Social Media:
http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2016/02/16001/
Pros and Cons of Social Media in the classrooms:
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/01/19/pros-and-cons-of-social-media-in-the-classroom.aspx
Free photo from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=social%20media

Activity 6: Two contemporary issues or trends influencing New Zealand education:

A strategy for learning with digital technologies is critically important for New Zealand's future economic and social prosperity. Our young people need to be digitally competent, so they can participate successfully in a modern economy and society, support their families, and contribute to the wider community. (FutureFocusedLearning30May2014.pdf, page 2)

Two challenges that New Zealand education is facing:

Access to digital devices and technology is crucial

1. Providing equitable access to digital devices and technology, and ensuring Professional Development for educators and support for learners:

To prepare our young people to live and work in 21st Century environment, New Zealand education system needs to plan and implement initiatives and projects providing equitable access to digital devices and technology, for all our learners. Majority of the learners living in urban areas now have adequate level of access to digital devices and technology. The access to ultra-fast broad band Internet is also in progress in most urban areas. However the government needs to ensure that the same level of access to digital devices and technology is also available for all the learners in rural areas, as well.
Equitable access to digital devices and technology alone wouldn’t make a significant difference in learning, for our learners. New Zealand education system also needs to plan and implement quality professional development for all educators; so that all the educators become confident users of new digital devices and technology, and make the best use of those, to access, develop and use digital resources for teaching and learning. Professional development of all educators is also expected to shift the mind set towards future focused thinking, learning and teaching.
Although our young generation is digital natives, technical support and guidance to them, up to an extent is necessary, in order to facilitate effective 21st Century learning for them. Our learners’ whanau and the community around them also require good technical support, so that they too can be involved in their learners’ education, this can make a significant difference in our learners’ success and also helps transform the community thinking to more future focused learning environment.

2. Transforming New Zealand Curriculum, assessment and qualification systems, and adopting new teaching pedagogies:

Future focused New Zealand education

Every country on earth is reforming public education and there are two reasons for it, the first one is economical and the second is cultural. (Sir Ken Robinson's talk on RSA ANIMATE)
To meet the needs of changing world we need provide education which is accessible, affordable, effective, personal and completely scalable. (Global trends, Video Animation)
Contemporary teaching and learning in New Zealand is mainly driven by assessments and qualifications, as well as curriculum that is not entirely future focused, Current pedagogies, strategies and teaching approaches no longer suit 21st century teaching and learning. All these aspects of contemporary education don’t seem to leave much space for authentic learning, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurism in classroom learning. In modern societies, new and emerging technologies power the skills that drive knowledge creation: complex problem-solving, innovation, communication and collaboration. Twenty-first century skills go hand-in-hand with technological advances. (Future focused learning). An increasing number of school dropout young Kiwis becoming successful people in many areas, give evidence that New Zealand education must transform to more future focused education. There is a growing body of evidence that the thoughtful integration of digital technologies with effective teaching practices can significantly improve learning outcomes (Greaves et al., 2010). It is time to implement the ten strategic priorities and the 23 recommendations to the Government (suggested in the report by the 21st Century Learning Reference Group, May 2014) for 21st century skills and digital competencies.

References

Global trends (Video): “The world is changing faster than at any time in human history”
https://app.themindlab.com/media/9251/view
Future 2030 (Video): https://app.themindlab.com/media/6835/view
Sir Ken Robinson's talk on RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
What are 21st century skills?
https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-21st-century-skills
The New Zealand Curriculum Update: file:///C:/Users/dinesh.govind/Downloads/NZC_Update_26_ONLINE.pdf
A report by the 21st Century Learning Reference Group, May 2014
“Future-focused learning in connected communities”
http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Initiatives/FutureFocusedLearning30May2014.pdf
Free photo from Freeimages http://www.freeimages.com/image/science-technology 
from Free photo from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/

Activity 5: My Professional Connections Map

My Professional Connections:
My Professional connections can be divided in to four main areas:
School Community: Teachers, Senior Leadership Team, Akonga and Whahnau,
Local Community: NZAMT, MOE, Face to face Schools
Online Community: NZQA, TKI, Statistics NZ, Stats Learning Centre, Khan Academy
Professional Community: Core Ed, NZ Education Support Services (NZESS),
Evaluating impact of two professional connections on my practice and professional community:
Te Kura is distance education provider school, due to this aspect; our school is very different from all face to face school. In each curriculum area, for example in Mathematics, my connections with all colleague teachers are crucial for my everyday professional practice. We work very closely with each other in all the aspects of teaching and learning, i.e. developing student learning and assessment resources, assessment of student learning and moderation of assessments, as well as our own learning and professional development. We interact with each other individually, through face to face meetings, online meetings, telephone and e-mail communications, as and when needed in our daily routine. There really is sharing and caring culture within Te Kura teaching community. On top of our own professional responsibilities, we individually create and share teaching and learning, as well as assessment resources, on regular bases. Te Kura also has efficient electronic resource storage and sharing system called Electronic Document Resource Management and Storage – EDRMS.
We also, closely work with and benefit from New Zealand Qualifications Authority – NZQA and Te Kete Ipurangi - TKI. This covers all the aspects of curriculum, assessment resources and management of students’ qualifications, for example assessment standards specifications, clarifications, assessment tasks and schedules. We also benefit from the professional development offered in our curriculum area, by NZQA. Thus NZQA and TKI significantly impact our professional practice, learning and professional development, which helps make our practice NZ Curriculum informed. These organisations play crucial part and significantly impact our professional community!
References:
THE LOGIC OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES by SANDRA MATHISON AND MELISSA FREEMAN
http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf
TEDxBYU - David Wiley - An Interdisciplinary Path to Innovation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytjMDongp4

Activity 4: My professional community of practice

Defining my professional community of practice:
I am teaching Mathematics and Statistics at Te Kura - The Correspondence School, Wellington, New Zealand - a distance education providing school. My primary professional community of practice is Te Kura teaching community. The identity of this community is defined by shared focus on:
• Well-being and learning of all ākonga,
• Effective professional relationships with ākonga and whanau,
• Professional learning and development,
• Leadership to effective teaching and learning
• Working effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa NZ
• Responding effectively to the diverse and cultural experiences, and varied strengths, interests, and needs of all ākonga
Te Kura Teaching community, akonga and their Whanau, being the major stake holders of the community, it also includes NZAMT – New Zealand Association of Mathematics Teachers and NZ Education Support Services (NZESS)
1 The current issues and community’s efforts to address those:
The current issues:
Te Kura is implementing Online learning delivery, which impacts:
• Technically supporting akonga and their Whanau with learning on line and digital devices
• Preparation of digital resources (learning and assessment) and uploading these on to Te Kura Online Teaching and Learning Environment – OTLE
• Professional Development of Te Kura teaching community for Te Kura OTLE and Internet tools
Te Kura teaching community’s efforts to address the issues:
Te Kura OTLE team facilitates Professional Development of Te Kura teaching community in the form of:
• Online PD courses in OTLE: OTLEHUB and ONLINEPD
• PD and Training sessions online through Adobe Connect
• Face to face PD and training sessions
• One to one assistance in small teams, in daily routine
For Te Kura learning community:
• Technical assistance with learning is provided through Te Kura OTLEHUB,
• Face to face assistance is also provided through Te Kura advisories running in many locations throughout the country.
• We - teachers also provide one to one assistance over the phone and through e-mail communications.
Te Kura teaching community is developing new, relevant, and interactive digital resources (learning and assessment) at junior secondary level, to be delivered through Te Kura OTLE. The resources for senior levels are prepared by external agencies. However the refinement and fine tuning of these resources will gradually be done by teaching community.
2 The purpose and functions of my practice and the ways I cater for the community of your practice:
The purpose of my practice is to support my professional community with its focus on akonga’s wellbeing and learning, professional relationship with akonga and their whanau, …as described in the first section of this activity. My professional practice involves two major components: pastoral care and leaning of akonga.
For pastoral care of my akonga, I set goals to contact my akonga at least once every week by phoning, e-mailing or by writing letters to them. I also make it a top priority to respond to my akonga in the best timely manner when they contact me in any of the ways above. I focus on developing and maintaining professional relationship with akonga and their whanau.
To cater for the needs of my professional community I utilise my time, knowledge, skills and experiences in supporting my akonga’s learning. I create learning and assessment resources and take pride in sharing with my teaching community. For my community’s ongoing collective tasks, assignments and projects, I willingly work collaboratively with my colleagues and contribute to the best of my ability. I also voluntarily take responsibility to develop learning and assessment resources, for example develop units of learning, internal assessments, end of year examinations.
3 The core values that underpin my profession, and evaluation of my practice with regard to those core values:
At Te Kura (2016) our vision is ‘students achieve their educational and personal goals, enabling them to participate effectively as members of their communities’.
The core values that underpin our profession are:
Put the success of our students at the forefront of everything we do:
Our professional practice (teaching learning) is focused on the success of our students. We develop students’ individual and authentic education plan based on students’ interest and passion, their strength and career goals. My goal is to support my students achieve their goals!
Respect each other, students, their whanau and our partner organisations:
Our practice involves a high level of mutual respect amongst colleagues, and we treat our students, their Whanau, and our partner organisations and agencies respectfully. Pastoral care of our students is a top priority at Te Kura.
See strength in diversity:
Te Kura caters for a huge range of students – from early childhood to adult students from New Zealand and from overseas. Our learning community is very diverse, consisting of many different cultures and ethnicity. We recognise and nurture the strength of our students’ from all different cultural backgrounds.
Celebrate innovation and success:
We encourage, promote and support students’ creativity, innovation and entrepreneurism. We recognise, acknowledge and take pride in celebrating students’ achievements and success.
Communicate openly and honestly:
Te Kura is a distance education provider school, where communication with our akonga, their whanau and local community, is a key factor in students’ education. Our communications around students’ strength, weakness, abilities, learning and progress, are honest and transparent.
References:
Wenger-trayner.com. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice
http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
Team BE. (2011 Dec 28, 2011). Communities versus networks? [ Web blog post].. Retrieved from
http://wenger-trayner.com/resources/communities-versus-networks/
OPENiPhotojournalism. (2009, Sep 15). Etienne Wenger talks about 'walking the landscape of practice'. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjw0YoqpEq8&feature=youtu.be&list=PLb5Ty6fTaPkWE
Te Kura:
http://www.tekura.school.nz/about-us/vision-and-values/
Te Kete Ipurangi – TKI:
http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Practising-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning

Activity 3: Responses to Finlay’s (2008) Article

The points that I can relate to my reflective practice:
“Unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations. Approaching teaching as a reflective practitioner involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional identity” (Larrivee, 2000, p.293).
Schon believed that as professionals become more expert in their practice, they developed the skill of being able to monitor and adapt their practice simultaneously, perhaps even intuitively. In contrast, novice practitioners, lacking knowing-in-action (tacit knowledge), tended to cling to rules and procedures, which they are inclined to apply mechanically. Schon argued that novices needed to step back and, from a distance, take time to think through situations. Whether expert or novice, all professionals should reflect on practice – both in general and with regard to specific situations.
For the first part of my teaching career I have taught at face to face to school, in classrooms for many years and then for more than last ten years I have been teaching at Te Kura - The Correspondence School, Wellington, New Zealand - a distance education providing school.
In both the teaching environment I have witnessed several teaching professionals in action. I can easily relate to the quote above, in (Larrivee, 2000, p.293).
I still remember the first half of my first year of teaching, as a novice, in front of senior secondary classes I used to be a little nervous and unconfident. In those situations I used to hold on to my own beliefs about teaching and learning in my classes, assumption about students, discipline and overall classroom environment, my own expectations of my teaching and I mostly followed the same routine/pattern of teaching rigidly, lesson by lesson. The breakthrough came in my practice in the second half of my first year – all the thanks to an expert teaching facilitator and mentor! I began to lookback and overview most of my lessons; which helped me address my weaknesses – (informally at that time), I began to be a reflective practitioner, this changed and improved my practice!
Reflection-on-action And Reflection-in-action:
One of Schon’s (1983) most important and enduring contributions was to identify two types of reflection: reflection-on-action (after-the-event thinking) and reflection-in-action (thinking while doing).
In 2007 – 2009 I participated in NZ MOE initiated ICT PD three year project. At present I also belong to Te Kura Online Teaching and Learning Environment (OTLE) team. In both these roles I have presented several staff training and professional development sessions.
During the planning and preparation for these presentations, intuitively I seem to go through reflection-in-action process several times, critically evaluating the aim, purpose, objective, content, application, relevance, summary and questions. During the presentation especially when the participants are practicing the activities I get a few moments to quickly review how the session has progressed so far, what and how I have presented, how the group has responded, what is next and how?
At the end of the session it is natural to lookback and think about overall performance (reflection-in-action process), what went and worked well? Did I manage to present the points in simple and meaningful way? Did the participants understand what I was presenting? How did they respond? Were they interested? Did they participate actively? How did I feel – relaxed, stressed, enjoyed it? What could have been better? What do I need to do to improve the presentation in future?
I find it interesting that after several presentations and reflection on those, my common weakness seem to be insufficient sense of humour and entertainment! I need to be more humorous and entertaining the participants. To address this issue I try hard to pick up relevant points from the presentations of educational presenters, however there is always room for improvement.
“Done well and effectively, reflective practice can be an enormously powerful tool to
examine and transform practice. Hobbs (2007) recommends that this self-development
process be encouraged in any field whose members work with people”.
The model of reflection that I tend to use, evaluations of its effectiveness, and room for improvement:
My teaching practice has been reflective around lessons, developing (teaching and assessment) resource, and presenting training and professional development sessions. However this is the first time I studied different reflective models in detail, and I feel, up to some extent, my reflective practice has been similar to Gibb’s Model for Reflection. As I have described in the section above, (under the heading ‘Reflection-on-action and Reflection-in-action’) in this activity 3, my reflective practice has been informal, simpler and shorter than Gibbs model. It also has been mostly with in me, I haven’t shared the practice with my colleagues. This practice has worked for me satisfactorily so far, however I now understand that reflective practice is the most effective when it is shared with other professionals.
After studying different models of reflection and watching reflective practice [video file] by Phillip Dawson, I have developed better understanding of the practice. I found the practice described by Phillip Dawson very realistic and practical. I can see myself using Gibbs model, combined with some practical ideas described by Phillip Dawson.
Both the types of reflection ‘Reflection-on-action and Reflection-in-action’ identified by Schon (1983) are useful in different contexts. I believe ‘Reflection-in-action’ is more suitable for longer tasks like presentations, training, professional development sessions etc. while ‘Reflection-on-action’ is suitable for short or long tasks. To improve my reflective practice I also need to make it structured and shared.
References:
Rolfe Model of reflection: Gary Rolfe and colleagues (2001)
Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’ By: Linda Finlay
http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf
Reflective Practice [video file] by Phillip Dawson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aYWbLj0U8
Schon’s (1983) Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action

Activity 2: Metacognitive reflection on my learning and practice

In a short period of time, innovative technologies and tools have significantly change the way we live and work, and are continuing to do so rapidly. And for some time, this change has been challenging the old and traditional educational systems, teaching, learning and resources. Now all educational institutions have an obligation to prepare their learners to live and work in 21st century.
Much of educational literature I have read implies that at an online school, teaching and learning material/resources should be digital, latest/current, relevant, interesting and interactive. Online Teaching and Learning Environment should form of a virtual school. Except for genuine difficulties, student should be able to complete work and learn on line and their learning should be assessed accordingly.
In the last ten years of my teaching career at Te Kura I have spent significant amount of time on learning and professional development in the area of e-learning, on line learning and Information Communication Technologies. However I always have felt that due to several constraints I have been unable to apply the new learning and skills to teaching practice, at an expected level. I feel we are far away from 21st century teaching.
After getting to know about this Postgraduate Certificate Course in Applied Practice (Digital Collaborative Learning), reading and finding out about exciting learning and professional development opportunity, including the encouragement and financial support in the form of ‘Next Generation of teachers scholarship’ I couldn't resist deciding to enrol in this course. I felt this course is perfect for 21st century learning, professional development and to upgrade teaching practice.
Further development of key competencies and Key changes in my practice:
Thinking:
Although it has been very hard to study while teaching full time I am extremely pleased that I embarked on this learning journey. Now I strongly feel that the best thing about this learning is that it has shifted my mind set to 21st century education, learning and teaching. Progressing through the learning, (in the form of listening to ‘modern learning minded’ lecturers and international speakers, watching innovative videos, reading literature on educational research and finding, working on tasks with other enthusiastic professionals using new technologies), that incorporates New Zealand Curriculum Key Competencies and Practising Teacher Criteria, and provides skills for 21st century teaching, is a privilege! A little example of this feeling is ‘watching the 3D printer in action building solid objects’ – its so fascinating! This is evolving technology and this task may be a part of our learners work routine in future.
As my learning progressed covering interesting topics like Digital Collaborative Learning in Context, Leadership in Digital Collaborative Learning, Research and Community informed Practice and Applied Practice in Context, without much realisation my thinking and approach to learning and teaching has been shifting more and more towards 21st Century world.
In my practice I am a lot more inclined to incorporate suitable digital tools and resources available in the area of Mathematics and Statistics, for example offering tutorials using Adobe Connect software, using iNZight software for teaching and learning Statistics, using NZ Grapher and Geogebra software for Algebra, use of Google Applications, iMovie, windows movie maker, Graphic calculators etc.
Participating and contributing:
At the beginning of this course I was so pleased to see the emphasis on working collaboratively and surprised to find out that group work is acceptable even for the assessments! After working collaboratively for some weeks I realised the importance of participating and contributing in this modern world and in future, even more! In my teaching practice I have been participative and contributive professional as I take pride in sharing my new learning, teaching, learning and assessment resources, volunteering for developing educational resources school wide, etc. This competency is growing stronger, recently Te Kura has bought Google GAFE suit, and I already have informally expressed my interest to be one of the leading teachers facilitating professional development and staff training for GAFE suit.
Using language, symbols, and texts:
Although it has been very challenging to cover all the reading, listening to speakers, watching educational videos, reviewing literature, writing essays, reviews etc, all this has significantly improved my reading and writing skills which directly helps with developing teaching, learning and assessment resources (school wide) which are NZC learning and assessment objective, informed.
References:
Practising Teacher Criteria and e-learning
http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Practising-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning
NZC: Key Competencies
Capabilities for living and lifelong learning
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Key-competencies