Transcript of PCETSocialMedia

As the Todays Meet Page will close I decided to use the transcript facility so that the content is preserved.

What do you think of social media in education? 1:32pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Mandy

A double ended sword. + helpful to gain access to everyone if need to be for online discussions or help 1:33pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Bethany Elias

It can be a fantastic tool to engage learners who struggle with the more traditional methods of delivery. 1:33pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Deb

It can be a great tool for keeping in touch with students outside schools and feeding them information not covered in the lesson. 1:33pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Aled

A engaging tool + a distraction 1:33pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Dave-wyn

- Slander and moaning can impact people's learning greatly, and in turn affect their employability. 1:34pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Bethany Elias

I think it can be very helpful for helping to communicate with students. But with the ease of access, you have to be careful what you post. 1:34pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Sophie

I think it can be an efficient tool for students to interact regarding upcoming lessons, assignments etc. 1:34pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Mike Rutherford

I think social media can be great for keeping in contact, but it can be used in a negative way. 1:35pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Rebecca

It can be excellent if used correctly. I think it can be used to enhance the overall learning experience. 1:35pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Nick

sounds good, 1:35pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Lionel powell

Social media can be a great tool within education, for students to talk and discuss topics or homework etc 1:36pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by James Jones

it all depends on your point of view, it can be a crutch, or it can be a very useful resource (spelling probably wrong!) 1:36pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Adam Edward Croucher

it is a good tool to be used, the younger generations use all social media to communicate. 1:36pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by sarah

It can also be a bad idea as social media is seen as a more informal way of communication so professionalism may be compromised... 1:37pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by louise

Good idea but with reservations 1:37pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Mike S

In this modern world technolodgy is always going to move forward, and so using it in teaching we must move forward with the times. 1:37pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Taran

Fantastic tool, when used in the right context. 1:37pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by cathy

It has great potential 1:38pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Tom

Not everyone finds social media easy to use and this must be taken into consideration in the learning environment 1:39pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Carrie Griffiths

sounding better all the time 1:39pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Lionel powell

Another learning opportunity for them though 1:39pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Mike S

IT'S THE FUTURE 1:39pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Mike Rutherford

can be an amazing tool if used correctly. It is a fast form of communication 1:40pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by ANNMARIE

great form of communication with minnie 1:42pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Mickey mouse

It can be very useful if you master it 1:42pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by christelle

I agree with Mickey 1:47pm, Weds, Sep 17, 2014 by Minnie Mouse

PCET Nativity shared!

Social Networking & Learning

After a busy with my fabulous new group of PCET students I began to reflect on the day’s activities. The course I am teaching is a 7 day intensive ICT module for teaching and learning. The students are very eager, interesting and interested and so a pleasure to engage with. Their ICT skills range as you would expect from any new group of people, but what they do share is their understanding that ICT is a valuable teaching and learning tool. We learned such a lot together yesterday.

The main aspect of the day was to discuss the place of social networking in education, in particular to aid reflective practice. My challenge, however, is to teach the students about applications that they can use in their teaching and learning, without keeping them too long on the computers, as the course is all day! Ideally the discussions would have taken place on the forum setup on Moodle our university VLE. So, to avoid over use of the technology, they used felt pens and sheets of A3, with pleasure I might add. The downfall was that there was no record after they fed back their group responses as there would have been on the forum. The forum would also have allowed for follow-up contributions and reflections, but it was a necessary sacrifice for my group’s well-being.

We had lots of issues setting up blogs using Blogger. The main issue, which I suppose is really intended to be an asset, was that fact Blogger constantly encourages sharing with Google+. I wanted to keep things simple and separate but these days it is getting harder to do. The bonus with all the instant linking is that you are sharing your information with your ‘circles’ as they are called in Google+ and they can easily be linked to your Facebook and Twitter friends and followers. You just need to be aware of this and to be sure that it is what you really want. My advice is that you don’t rush setting up these new accounts and that you read all the pop-ups so that you don’t accidentally share!