Social Network Learning

What are you initial reactions about joining these social networks for use in this course?

My initial reactions for joining these social networks for use in this course is excitement. I am glad that we will be utilizing social networks throughout the learning process. I always find that I learn better by doing so by using these social networks to complete assignments I know I will retain a lot. I am pretty familiar with Facebook as I have been a member since 2006, but they have added a lot of features since then that I haven’t used or looked into. I joined twitter in 2012, but have only used it on and off.

What is your experience in using social media for your own professional development?

The only social network I have used for professional development is twitter. Between March and April of this year I was getting really into twitter and posting everyday about educational technology. However, I found it became very difficult to keep up with and haven’t done much with it since.  It was getting difficult to find things to post about that were contributing to the conversation rather than recycling others posts.  It’s unbelievable the amount of resources posted daily on twitter.  I currently use facebook only for personal use but I rarely post on it. I don’t really enjoy facebook, and I only have one because it feels like something you need to have in the 21st century.

What is your experience in using social media as an instructional strategy in your learning environment?

I have no experience using social media as an instructional strategy. This is something I hope to learn this semester. I’d love to create an online learning environment for my students and parents. I feel like using social media in the classroom would really benefit my music program.

What are your expectations for this course?

From this course I am hoping to learn how integrate social media into the classroom. I’d like to learn how to connect with people on twitter and write posts that are contributing to the conversation. I’d like to learn how to manage feeds so it’s not so overwhelming. I’m also interested in learning about how other social media, like facebook and more, can be used for professional development. I believe social media is an extremely powerful educational tool, and I want to be able to use it effectively to help me grow as an educator and to meet the needs of 21st century learners.