This week we have had great discussions and activities associated with Twitter and the different uses it can be put to. I have not used Twitter in my personal life and I have generally associated it with the popularization of social media icons like the Kardashians and other people that use it as leverage in marketing schemes. With that being said, I was aware that it was used for education purposes but had not explored that side of Twitter. It is safe to say that at first I was a little dismissive of Twitter as an education tool, but through the lessons and discussions this week I have began to appreciate how Twitter can be utilized in professional development.

 

This week in our breakout groups we were sent to find relevant hash tags, people and blog posts that we should follow. The purpose of this activity was to create a list that other educators could access which could in turn help us to grow our personal network of professionals.

 

My group chose the following links during this activity:

 

  • Hashtags: #SEL, #EdTech, #TheStudentVoice
    • #SEL-a hashtag that follows social emotional learning for educators. It is becoming a popular and important topic in education.
    • #EdTech- hashtag that follows education technology, generally. We came across this hashtag as it was affiliated with some larger names in the ed tech world.
  • Handle: @mediatedreality, @couros, @tweetsomemoore,@nikkilineham, @fayebrownlie
    • @mediatedreality is Jessie Miller’s handle and he focuses on topics around social media safety education. When he presented in our classroom he brought up many concerns that are going to be contentious issues amongst educators and parents as technology becomes more prevalent in our schools, for instance educating students on how to be responsible digital citizens. (https://www.mediatedreality.com/)

 

 

  • @couros is Alec Couros’ handle. He is a professor, researcher, and speaker specializing in the areas of social media, technology integration, digital citizenship and media literacy. (https://couros.ca/) Mr. Couros also presented in our class and discussed how we can use the internet for academic purposes and also touched on students as digital citizens. I especially appreciated Mr. Couros’ presentation as he specifically discussed digital citizenship education through an Elementary school  lens.
  • Please see the below link to Alec Couros’ talk at TedX LangleyED.

  • @nikkilineham is Nikki Lineham’s handle. She is a math educator that works with SD 61. She completes work similar to Carol Fullerton and specializes in Math literacy. I have personally used Nikki’s techniques in my classroom and she has become an authority on Math literacy in SD 61.
  • http://educatingnow.com/ is filled with great resources and videos that explain her work and independent lessons. I would highly recommend this resource for math education.

 

These are just a few of the great resources that are out there for educators. I was very impressed by the class list of resources that we were able to put together. It made me realize that there are so many people and avenues available to help guide us on our educational journey.

 

I anticipate that these hashtags, people and blogs will allow me to network with the specialists in the area and therefore enhance my personal learning. This course has made me aware that there are highly educated and passionate people available who are willing to network and help you in your learning. I have also learned that Twitter also allows for collaboration in a specific field and facilitates connections between people of like interests. Without hashtags, finding specific topics on Twitter would be like finding a needle in a haystack, but through the use of hashtags, Twitter allows us to easily find the corners and pockets where people are interested in the same things as we are.

 

We also had the opportunity to discuss the final project for our Masters and to see examples of past projects. This discussion answered a lot of the questions that I had and elevated some anxiety I had. It was very intimidating to look at the huge final documents and contemplate the immense amount of work we will have to complete, but it was comforting to understand how the project is broken down into separate chapters. After investigating and chatting about the project in breakout groups it gave me confidence that the project parameters are obtainable as long as you chip away at it.

 

Below is the link for dspace where you can look at the Masters projects:

 

https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/1012

 

Also linked is a link that outlines some of the TieGrad projects:

 

https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/discover?scope=%2F&query=Valerie+Irvine&submit=Go

 

“That was a fast train” by Hembo Pagi is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0