Using Social Networking and Social Media as Teaching and Learning Strategies

While I was conducting my research, I learned a significant amount about using social media in my subject area of corporate learning and development. It was hard to find a lot of content about success stories about businesses that included social media and/or social networking in their employee development programs. This is most-likely because this trend has just taken off in the past few years. Although the quantity of articles was not abundant, the quantity of great ideas was. I learned how large companies, such as Adidas and Intel, used social media as a very large portion of their training programs. For example the Adidas Group Learning Campus replaced classroom-only training programs with social and interactive online-learning offerings, which are open to everybody and accessible 24/7. Another example of a successful social media learning platform is Blue Corona, an inbound marketing, analytics and optimization company. They use several social media tools to channel training, both formally and informally. Its Facebook Page is used to post interesting, informational articles that employees come across. Moreover, the company has a wall of short YouTube videos that provide great information for new employees. The learning platform ideas I learned about ranged from Facebook groups to Twitter hashtags and content curation websites. This all tied together with what we had learned in previous modules of EDTECH 543.

This applies directly to my job as a training specialist. I am responsible for the product training that our (mostly remote) sales representatives receive. This new way of training via social media not only convenient, but it's effective. It is also fun. It allows employees to learn with each other and also to learn from each other. As a first step toward applying what I learned, I have already begun to develop a LinkedIn group, a community of practice, for our training and sales teams at my company. Here, the team can ask questions, discuss ideas and share relevant info. I will moderate the page and to make sure the procedural answers are correct and share useful training resources. I am also thinking about creating a YouTube page with video tutorials that can be accessed and discussed.

All of these success stories and social media programs I learned about can be found on my Bundlr content curation page.

PLE Diagram and Reflection

Reflection Part 1: Self-Reflection

I built diagram, using the Collecting-Reflecting-Connecting-Publishing Model. When looking at my own PLE, I realized that I am connected to others in many ways. I honestly did not give much thought to how many different networks I was a part of. Something that I learned was it that I do not use these networks to educate myself as much as I should. I also learned that I need to contribute and add value to these networks as a contributor. The main thing I learned from creating this diagram was, by categorizing the communities, I can more clearly see how they can be used for learning.

As for the design of the diagram itself, I put the computer in the center because my PLE is an online environment. I used arrows to show the direction in which content moved between me and my connections. I grouped the communities by their function, based on the C-R-C-P model. There was some overlap with communities. For example, Blogger is a community for both publishing and reflecting. YouTube can be a community for collecting as well as connecting with others via comments. I wanted to keep my diagram neat and clean and so I used small icons and spread the four different categories across the map.

Reflection Part 2: Comparative Analysis

After I posted my own diagram, I took the time to compare my own PLE diagram a handful of my classmates' PLE diagrams (Mary C, Jasmine Q, Terry S, and my two PLN group members, Linda M, and Kristen T).

Differences:
The main difference that I noticed was that different models for the creation/organization of a PLE were used. I used the Collecting-Reflecting-Connecting-Publishing model. Others used an input and output model or Communicating, Creating, Collecting, and Connecting model.  In looking at others' PLE's, I did not think to add email to my diagram. I guess that means that I take email for granted in terms of it's usefulness as a learning tool. Other networks that people had in their PLE's that I did not include Flipboard for magazine articles, VoiceThread and Slideshare for publishing slideshows and Pinterest for sharing all kinds of ideas.

Similarities:
Although the models varied, there was a lot of overlap among all of us in terms of the social networks that we use to connect and share within our PLE's. For example, everyone had Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Most people included an RSS feed for collecting, although there was a variety of RSS aggregation tools used. Other common tools were blogs, YouTube and Skype.

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence:

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence:

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence: