Using Social Media to Improve a Teacher's Practice

Artifact: The Inspired Classroom

ISTE Standard 5 focuses on teachers using digital tools to constantly improve their teaching. This includes participating in professional collaboration with other teachers (Standards).

The article I found regarding this standard is “Tech as a Tool for Teacher Collaboration” by Elizabeth Petersen (2010). In the article, Petersen details her use of Twitter and other social media sites to create what she called a personal learning network (PLN), which allows for her to collaborate with teachers from all around the world (2010). The video “Twitter for Teachers” explains the process of building up a PLN, beginning first by finding one respected person in the field of education and then searching out the people they follow, in order to find educators with similar interests (Hill 2010).

Social media and PLN’s have several convenient advantages for teachers’ professional collaboration. Twitter has the advantage of having a long stream of useful ideas from teachers all around the world, and the added advantage of being able to dismiss or ignore ideas that are not interesting with little effort (Hill 2010). Petersen added that another benefit she gained from online collaboration was the ability to put together presentations with teachers and educators she met through the PLN (2010). Through social media, ideas may be effectively shared between teachers, who may then produce collaborative projects of their own.

These features of technological collaboration apparently meet ISTE Standard 5 very well, since the tools take full advantage of technology in meeting teachers through the internet and can effectively produce results, such as Petersen’s presentation, which seem to me to be an indication of successful collaboration. It is possible that some version of Twitter or other social media sites specifically designed just for teachers and educational purposes may have additional benefits that the originals not have, but even without additional benefits, social media as it exists apparently has the opportunity to meet ISTE 5 and offer teaches the chance to find ideas that will improve their practice.

Sources:

Hill, P. (Producer). (2010, August 27). Twitter for Teachers. Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tT6N_8wcn4

Petersen, E. (2010, November 6). Tech as a Tool for Teacher Collaboration. The Inspired Classroom. Retrieved from http://theinspiredclassroom.com/2010/11/tech-as-a-tool-for-teacher-collaboration/

Standards for Teachers. ISTE. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

Checking Sources

The fourth ISTE standard deals with the responsible use of technology in the digital world (Standards). Teachers are expected by this standard to ensure that all students have access to technology when possible and that they know how to use it in a way that does not steal intellectual property, allows for more cultural growth through technological communication with other cultures, and deals with other users in a respectful and safe way (Standards).

 

One particular advantage of using technology is the autonomy it affords students for their learning process. An article for ISTE advises teachers to put the “admin rights” into the hands of the students; by this, the authors mean that students should have the ability to download or update software on their learning devices without needing to ask anyone for permission (Lindsay & Davis 2010, 15). According to the authors, this gives the students the chance to learn in their own way and develop their technical skills while practicing responsible technological use (Lindsay & Davis 2010). However, in order for the autonomous use of technology to be beneficial, students must learn how to use technology safely and effectively.

 

One area in which technology, specifically the internet, can be both helpful and unhelpful for students is the area of research. There is a vast amount of data on the web, and it is almost a certainty that any research will unearth some false or misleading information. One highly important skill for students is to learn how to sort through information in order to be certain of using only the accurate information to inform their research.

 

When I began researching methods of checking for accuracy online, a number of fact-checking websites were the quickest search results. However, I do not believe a fact-checking website is the best way for a student to verify information. First, fact-checkers may be incorrect themselves; secondly, an instant answer from an outside source takes away the chance for a student to critically analyze the data on their own. Instead of using a fact-checker, Edutopia has an article suggesting one method of analyzing sources that teachers could share with their students, called the WWWDOT method (Duke 2016). The acronym stands for a process that advises students to check Who wrote the information, Why it was written, When it was written or updated, Does it meet the student’s needs, how it is Organized, and what To do for future analysis, such as cross-referencing the information with another website or an expert (Duke 2016).

 

I think the order of steps in WWWDOT can be particularly useful; if a student can quickly identify an untrustworthy author, then they can avoid spending a lot of time cross-referencing the information. There are probably more suggestions for flags and indicators a student could look for to test the veracity of a website (I would suggest checking to see who published the website, and not just who wrote it), but the WWWDOT method seems to cover important information, and it also encourages the students to think critically and analyze their sources for useful and accurate information.

 

References:

 

Duke, N. K. (2016) “Evaluating Websites as Information Sources.” Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/evaluating-websites-as-information-sources-nell-k-duke

Lindsay, J. and Davis, V. (2010) “Navigate the Digital Rapids.” Learning and Leading With Technology. Retrieved from https://canvas.spu.edu/courses/16860/files/415845?module_item_id=121326

Standards for Teachers. ISTE. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers