Social Networks:
1. What does social networks mean to me?
Well I have personally used facebook and it had a lot of benefits. For the past two years (not this year), I have used this space to communicate with students, share photos and videos of work and generate interest in vocational subject areas. Students were reminded through facebook of activities or homework tasks. It worked well as students use facebook daily. On the negative side, I was aware that when I logged in, I could see a lot of their personal life being written all over their page (on the news feed). One of my students, an e-ambassador, carried out a session on 'safety and security on facebook' which was an eye opener for students and some of them changed settings (but some didn't)!
I decided this year to try a class blog instead for the reasons stated above. My blog has worked well for students to gain information but they are reluctant to write comments on here (whereas on facebook, students did this freely). I therefore am not getting as much from them in terms of 'interaction through social network''. However, as a Professional, I prefer not seeing all their personal information as I feel at times, this can be too explicit and I find it difficult maintaining boundaries (all becomes too personal). Through the blog, I have not got this issue. To try and get more engagement, I will often put 'tasks in class' on the blog or vital information they want on there (i.e winter wonderland trip!)... they certainly looked then!
I can't quite get my head around twitter (I am on there but am not drawn to it). I'm not sure if that's because I haven't quite grasped how to use it yet properly or just have other preferences.
I do feel confused at times at all the different social network sites. For example, I have a gmail and google mail account. I joined youtube with one but blogger and google with a different one (at the time not realising they linked). As a result, I cannot connect the two together, hence links put everywhere to my youtube account).
I have asked students what they prefer to use with me and initially they all wanted facebook. However, I encouraged them to try the blog (something different) and we had a session to explore all the information I would get if we were on facebook (depending on security settings). They understood and gave the blog a go. It is working well but I would prefer more two way interaction (they tend to look at the blog then email me). I did decide to offer them the choice of using facebook too recently but only two in my group have added me, whereas other years, I've had the whole class. Whether that is because of the 'group dynamics' or because my warnings over social media and facebook, I'm not sure. (sorry rambling now)
I have used this space as a 'reflective log' of my opinions but I will put something together to sum up my key thoughts through an online system I've not used yet during our e-learning tasks. 'Watch this space'
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