How+could+the+districts+most+effectively+provide+professional+development+to+teachers+about+incorporating+social+media+tools+into+their+teaching?

Jim is Blue Mandy is Red

=**__ WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD TO HELPING TEACHERS BECOME COMFORTABLE USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM? __**=
 * I think school districts would be wise to have training sessions in smaller groups rather than large groups. For example, maybe have no more than 2 departments at a time go for training in each session. I think assignments should be required for each member in the group. These assignments would be much like the ones we have completed in this class. Maybe, have the first session with a live presenter. Then have subsequent sessions be conducted through online videos and prompts. I believe the key is starting slow and simple and building toward a more complex understanding of social media and all its offerings. By starting small we will start to sell the idea of moving into the future with the use of technology. I think this method will help sell the advancement of technology to veteran teachers who sometimes poo-poo the idea of getting away from traditional teaching methods. By taking baby steps, in a way, we are showing stubborn educators that these new ways of approaching education are not that bad and are also not that difficult to execute or facilitate. At the same time, this method will show teachers how useful and easy it has become to use social media to their advantage and to the advantage of students. Then maybe we can move away from the old idea of education and into the future.



I think that sometimes the resistance is not based in the teachers assessment in "value" but in our own fear to take chances and try new things. The fact of the matter is that students are using these tools whether or not we deem them useful or safe and, as we saw in the "Did You Know" video, their future jobs will require them to use these things (as will ours). Since kids seem to be so internet savvy already, why do we not market on that as a method for teaching. many teachers already do in class when things aren't working properly. Just as we do, kids can learn from teaching too, so...let them do it. Middle Schools and High Schools could do a teacher-swap day where students could act as teachers and teachers as students for the day. many schools already partake in similar activities, but this time we could give it true purpose...the kids could teach US about the social media they are already using on a day-to-day basis. For this teacher-swap day, the students could sign up to teach classes on their favorite technologies and we could attend the ones we would like to learn mopre about. They could model their facebook pages, websites, youtube videos, podcasts, flikr pages and the like and then walk us through building our own.

As much as I hate to say it, with my already busy schedule (and I know you are all thinking this too), but...I think we need to be forced to use it before we will truly understand and appreciate it's value, so upon completion of our "swap" day, an in-service day in which we would be required to use our knowlege of these technologies to build our own wikispace or blog, using these technologies to create something we can use in our classes. While it does make more work for us, the requirement would push us to do the needed legwork, and the in-service day would give us the needed time to accomplish the biggest portion of the work.

I think that once people try it they will love it! I know I did and I now use mine all of the time.

Here is a link to an article I found very relevant regarding the use of social media in education: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/2009/07/22/putting-social-media-education-into-focus-a-community-proposal/

The following video explains some practical uses of social media and networking in the classroom and could be an eye opening revelation for teachers who don't understand the validity of using social media in the classroom.

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Do not forget to check out the "Shift Happens" wikispace created by the designers of the original "Did You Know" video, Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. and add in your thoughts to the discussion. Social Networking is FUN! Weighing in with opinions on this controversial issue proved just that!

And...enjoy this video exploring what today's students need and want from their educational mentors..."we teach students, not subjects"! media type="youtube" key="k-KAb5fomKY" height="385" width="480" **