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Week 29. Professional online social networks



Activity 5: Using social online networks in teaching or professional development.


Perceived affordances of social media for PD vs low quality content and information overload:  Finding my place in the information flow. 




Reflection using Jay and Johnson (2002) reflective model.



Step 1 (Descriptive stage): 

Social media platforms I use in my professional development are my Research Gate page
and a collaborative Wiki. Research Gate has been described as  "Linked In" for academic reseachers, in addition to acting as a repository for my academic publications, I also upload abstracts of academic conference presentations, and pdfs of conference posters.  I share printed conference posters by including a QR code, so a conference participant can  to link to the online version via their mobile device.

My Wikispace is called Digipathed, I developed it in collaboration with two other Pathology Teachers, one in Wellington and one in Singapore. I use this as a place to share teaching resources on "How to use....(digital tool in teaching)". This wiki  content is mainly screen recorded explanatory videos, created by our group of 3 teachers. I use this as a resource to 'train the trainer'. 

The social media platform I have used in my teaching is a closed Facebook Group. In 2017 I co-taught a course to medical students at the National University of Samoa, in a blended flipped model. The Facebook group was used as a free and simple LMS, for the weekly upload of links to readings, websites and quizzes. The discussion occurred weekly in real time, via videoconferencing. 

In all three examples, I have used social media tor object exchange, that is, I produced something of value, and shared it with others, this is a 'socio-technical network' as articulated by Dwyer (2009) as quoted by Melhuish 2013 p41). 



Step 2 (Comparative stage): 

In comparison to many social media sites, the communication flow in my 3 examples has been unidirectional, namely from me to the reader. Both Research Gate and Wikispaces have  comments boxes, however , I have received no comments on my Wikispaces page, and the only Comments from Research Gate are administrative (requests for copies of my articles). This may reflect a disinclination  or lack of need for readers to use these social media platforms for discussion. Does this then categorise the users of the content as 'lurkers' as defined by Melhuish 2013 p40? Probably, but this misses the point.  The goal of my social media involvement and that of my audience (open resource sharing) is fulfilled without commentary. The social dialogue occurs in person, or via the digital media of Skype, email or videoconferencing, between myself and known individuals. My PD social networks and communities of practice are not open access, but this does not exclude them from the domain of social media.





Rutherford 2010 and Melhuish  2013 suggest exchange of resources is a low level  activity, and is not necessarily supportive of enhancing practice, however, my experience and observation is different. I have observed  and had feedback from others that training other teachers and  students to use digital teaching tools via the resources on my Wiki has enhanced their practice.
This has occurred without the use of online commentary or discussion.




I have found  resource creation  enhances my own PD, and my own practice. Compared to my peers, no one in my local context of Auckland uses social media for either teaching or PD, I do not know why but I expect this is a combination of low expectancy value, and time constraints leading to lack of interest. 
I perceive one of the biggest challenges of social media is time wasted on reading and replying to low value (biased, inaccurate, ill informed, irrelevant), non theory or research based, personal opinion comments that, cause information overload, and do not enhance my PD or that of the reader. As Sharples (2016 p12) suggests, successful pedagogy requires a social media facilitator, whose role beyond initiation,  includes filtering responses, and engaging people. 



Step 3 (critical reflection): 



For me, the implication of these  low value time wasting challenges of social media for PD is I choose to spend my time on higher value, higher quality activities such as engaging personally with known experts in a particular field, reading, writing or  peer reviewing academic literature, resource creation, and seeking and acting on feedback from teaching encounters . On looking back at my use of social media for PD and teaching, the intentional unidirectional information flow from my Wiki, Research Gate and Facebook LMS is a time management strategy, while still enabling me to create, communicate and share resources online.  This reflection has helped me articulate with supporting research, why I have not found engaging in online commentary on social media sites a high value PD activity to date. 


REFERENCES
Jay, J. K., & Johnson, K. L. (2002). Capturing complexity: A typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and teacher education, 18(1), 73-85.


Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han…
Rutherford, C. (2013). Facebook as a source of informal teacher professional development. in education, 16(1). http://ined.uregina.ca/index.php/ineducation/article/view/76/512

Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf


  • What are the implications for using social media in teaching and/ or professional development?
  • In what ways does this reflective process inform and change your perspective?

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