Social Learning

http://www.flickr.com/photos/birgerking/4731898939/

Back in June I spotted a tweet from Nick Jackson mentioning some Social Learning workshops that he was giving in the UK with Abhay Adhikari.  At the workshops attendees would examine essential digital communications and look at developing an online digital toolkit.  I really liked the look of the workshops and somewhere in the conversation that followed between Nick and I, the idea was mooted of bringing the workshops to Ireland.  There was a slight complication in the shape of Nick’s impending relocation to Australia but why let something like that get in the way!!  When we looked at possible dates the only viable date was Saturday 22nd September.  I knew from the start that having the workshops in September was not ideal.  The start of the new school year is a very busy time for teachers but I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip past.

To backtrack a little I first came in contact with Nick around this time last year though Liam Dunphy.  We were all involved at the early stages of the connected classrooms (#ccGlobal) project.  Through the project we had a  few Google+ hangouts to discuss how best to proceed.  This was followed up by Nick Skyping in to our CESI Meet before the ICT in Education conference in May.  Through these various interactions with Nick I knew that the workshops would be worthwhile.  Fast forward to 8 o’clock last Saturday morning and I found myself in Thurles getting ready to welcome Nick, Abhay and the attendees to the workshops.   Meeting Nick for the first time in person was like meeting an old friend.  This is one of the things that I love about social media – the ability to make real friendships with people in the virtual space.

Abhay facilitated the first workshop.  He started by giving us an introduction to social media. This broad banner covers social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, social media sites such as YouTube and Flickr, social bookmarking sites such as Pinterest and geosocial networking sites such as Foursquare and so much more as you can see from the infographic above.   The main thrust of the  workshop was around how to start a conversation.   In groups we looked at ideas we wanted to share or activities we wanted to promote.   To give the workshop a definite focus we zoned in on four ideas from the attendees

The surprising thing about this part of the workshop was that there was very little mention of social media.  The focus was on defining the outcome and identifying who could help you to achieve it.  Finding people who share your values is really the key to starting the conversation.  This is when the penny started to drop that this was where social media came in.

The next question is where to start the conversation and this very much depends on what you want to do: network, share resources etc., how much time you have to devote to social media (it is after all a time consuming process – believe me I know ) and the type of content you are creating.

The final part of the workshop zoned in on your profile on social media and what you want it to say about you.  This was something I was very concious of when I started my Twitter account and this blog.  The intention was to have them both for professional purposes only but I’ve found over the last year that the line between professional and personal has blurred.  Pam the lecturer is not a different person from Pam the wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.

We also looked at peoples profile pictures and what they say about you.  This is something I’ve grappled with as my profile picture is the poppies above.  I didn’t feel comfortable putting up a photo when I set up my Twitter account so I picked poppies – there’s nothing significant about the poppies, they are just a flower I happen to like.  I’ve had a few conversations about whether to come out from behind the poppies, most recently this week when Sharon Flynn wrote a blog post about coming out of hiding

I’ve come to the realisation that I like my poppies and I’m happy to hide behind them.  Truth be told, I’m more of an introvert than an extrovert, although that is changing through my use of social media, and I’m OK with not having a photo of me as my profile picture.  That may change in the future but for now poppies it is!

The session after lunch was facilitated by Nick and was a hands on workshop focussed around creating an online digital tool kit.  We looked at Google+, the practicalities of getting started with it and how it could be used for education.   We also looked at Facebook Groups for Schools and how useful this might be to connect with students when it is made available.   One of the most interesting areas for discussion in this session were the barriers to social media use in education.  In my haste to tweet I incorrectly referred to the barriers to using tech rather that the barriers to using social media.  It was that kind of a day

This led us into a conversation about digital literacy …

As you can see from the length of this post, the workshops have given me plenty of food for thought.  Thank you to Nick and Abhay for leading us through such a thought provoking day.

I’ve selected some of the tweets from the day above but you can check out the full archive at http://chirpstory.com/li/24595.

Social Media Day 2012

I found out about Social Media Day from Mike Cox.  There was a tenuous plan to have some kind of event in LIT which would link to the event planned in CIT.  Mike asked me to have a think about Twitter with a view to answering the following questions:

1. What is it?
2. How do I use it?
3. How does it work with other social media I use?
4. What next?

As it turned out the plan for the event in LIT did not come to fruition but you can find my Prezi with my thoughts on Twitter here.

On Social Media Day I followed the event in CIT through Twitter initially and then got sucked in to watch the live stream.  Hearing the panel in the after lunch session, discussing how social media has helped them deal with either their own health issues, or those of their children, gave me a very different perspective on social media.  Hearing Alex talking about how her blog helped her as she fought cancer, hearing Eoin speak about how his family used Twitter, Facebook and blogs in different ways as they dealt with the reality of their daughter having a serious heart condition and hearing Lisa talk about creating the Grace app that would give her autistic daughter a way to communicate, really stopped me in my tracks.

Later in the day I saw a link to a live Google Hangout that had been organised as part of the Cork Social Media Day event.  Jane Boyd and April Ennis in Canada , Greg McQueen in Denmark, Marti Konstant in the US and Paul O’Mahony, Bernie Goldbach and Mike Cox in Ireland were involved at various times during the hangout.  The first hour of the hangout involved a multiway chat between all of the above which demonstrated the power of Google+ hangouts to connect people around the world.  For me the chat really got interesting when it was reduced to just Jane and Greg after an hour.  As they discussed social media and what it means to them it was like they were discussing my own experiences of social media.  How getting involved in social media is like learning a foreign language, how it can be a lonely experience at the start and yet how it is worth persevering because of the generosity of people on social media.

As Greg and Jane discussed beginning to engage with people and having people engage with you, building relationships through Twitter backed up with hangouts and before you know it you’re in it, it really resonated with me as this has been my exact experience.  Signing up for Twitter and not doing much for a while, then retweeting other people’s tweets which started the engagement, obsessing over how to respond when someone actually tweeted me directly, being in awe of people with thousands of followers and who have sent thousands of tweets and yet now, here I am completely embedded in Twitter, wondering how I will survive without it for my 2 weeks of holidays.  It’s no secret that I love Twitter but I find that generally the people I interact with most are those whom I have met in person or whom I have hung out with via Skype or Google+ hangouts as I find that this gives an added dimension to our interactions.  When the chat turned to the idea that we as humans don’t like the feeling of being alone it echoed the sentiments of the panel earlier in the day and for many this is what social media gives them – a way to connect with people regardless of geographical location.

The discussion point between Jane and Greg that I’ll leave you with is the real power of social media which has people discussing what ‘we’ did rather than what ‘I’ did.  Social media in it’s many forms makes collaboration so much easier and to quote Jane it is ‘incredibly inspiring to collaborate with people around the world’.  This has certainly been my experience whether it was my involvement with Liam Dunphy and many others on the #ccGlobal Project or interacting with Ira Socol, Pam Moran, Conor Galvin and Bernie Goldbach in the preparations for the ICT in Education conference.  To echo Greg, putting your ideas out there and having them picked up by others and added to should be viewed as a positive rather than a losing of something in the sharing.

For some ideas of other social media applications to try out check out the infographic below

image from  http://www.integralseo.com/images/socialmedia.png

My 2 year Twitteversary

Yesterday, Sunday 5th February was my 2 year Twitteversary.  I signed up at approx. 11.30 pm on Friday 5th February 2010 after returning from the CESI Meet in Portlaoise. It seemed that everyone was tweeting so I thought I’d get in on the act. I didn’t really get it back then but decided to sign up anyway.  My first year on Twitter was nondescript, and that’s being generous.  I tweeted very little as I still didn’t really get what everyone was so excited about.  Fast forward to today and now I finally get it. I can’t imagine not tweeting now.  In fact Twitter is probably my main method of communication with a lot of the people I contact.  The change came about this weekend last year when I returned to the CESI Conference and again everyone was tweeting.  At this stage, I still didn’t have a smartphone so I still didn’t really get it but I suppose I was starting to.  After the CESI conference last year I managed to get the use of an iPad, purely for educational purposes you understand Then I got what Twitter was – no more having to remember to log in and check what people were tweeting and so really this is effectively my 1 year Twitteversary.

I can honestly say that Twitter has had a huge impact on my life.  It has changed my interactions with so many people.  I have made changes to my teaching – I used Java in my Maths class among other things this year.  I think for teaching functions particularly this has worked really well.  There are also more subtle changes to what I do in my classroom and how I do it.  The enthusiasm and encouragement you get from people on Twitter is infectious.

Something else that has changed as a result of Twitter is my interaction with local schools.  Over the past 10 years I have worked on various initiatives with local schools to introduce technology into the classroom.  My involvement with the Connected Classrooms initiative on Twitter (#ccGlobal) has given a renewed focus to my interaction with local primary schools.  I’ve used webtools such as Animoto to create greetings to be sent around the world as part of the #ccGlobal Greetings project.

My weekends have changed dramatically as a result of Twitter.  Back in September I saw a number of tweets about a new initiative called Coder Dojo which had set up in a number of centres around the country – my nearest one was in Limerick so I decided to take my son and see what it was about.  Since then I have signed up as a mentor and our trips to Coder Dojo have become a family affair with my son, daughter and niece making the trip twice a month to the Limerick Coder Dojo.  Check out what we get up to at Limerick Coder Dojo.

And finally my Monday nights have been taken over by #edchatie.   I really enjoy 8.30 to 9.30 on a Monday night where educators across all levels in Ireland come together to discuss some aspect of education.  Our musings are guided by the very capable @fboss who helps to keep us on track or just gives us our head as required My husband and children all realise that there is no point in trying to get any response from me during this hour of the week!!

So that’s been the highlights of my 2 years on Twitter.  I’m looking forward to the trip to Portlaoise on the weekend of February 24th/25th for the CESI Meet and Conference.  Who knows what I might be inspired to try out as a result of the trip this year!

Why I love Twitter

I first heard about Twitter at an event in Tipperary Institute a few years ago, I think it might have been the ICT in Education conference (@ictedu).  I work with Bernie Goldbach (@topgold) and he told us all about this new site where you could share what you were doing with the world.  To be honest I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed by this proclamation (sorry Bernie!) and promptly forgot about Twitter.  My own Twitter journey began back  in February 2010.  I attended my first CESI Meet in Portlaoise, where it seemed everyone was tweeting.  On my drive home from Portlaoise that night, I decided to sign up for Twitter to see what all the hype was about.  So when I got home at 11.30 pm, I created my Twitter account and started following people.  To say that my husband thought I had finally lost my marbles is probably the understatement of the century

My initial interaction with Twitter was tentative to say the least.  For me, figuring out who to follow was probably the most difficult part.  I was also very conscious of what I was tweeting, so erred on the side of caution at the start.  My initial tweets were sent to commend the CESI team on a great CESI Meet and conference on the following day.  After that initial foray into Twitterland I didn’t really think about Twitter much.  My next interaction came as I was organising the 2010 ICT in Education conference (@ictedu) in Tipperary Institute with John Jennings (@seoinin).  John had embraced Twitter and so I decided to try again.  I connected with some people who were either presenting at the conference or attending. Again, my interactions were tentative at best, and again Twitter was forgotten about for a while.

You might be forgiven for questioning my title for this post at this stage.  After all it is titled “Why I  love Twitter”, but all I’ve done so far is tell you of my non interaction with it.  What changed for me was the CESI conference in 2011.  Again I went to Portlaoise, and again lots of people were tweeting.  At this stage I didn’t have a smartphone or an iPad, so for me Twitter was something I checked in with sporadically on my laptop.  At the conference, I got the chance to work with the iPad and, as I’ve mentioned previously, the love affair began.  I was lucky enough to be able to get the use of an iPad through work, and suddenly Twitter seemed so much more accessible.  I began to follow more people, who gave me an insight into the possibilities that exist in lots of different areas.

I used Twitter extensively in the run up to the ICT in Education conference in 2011.  I think that the conference this year was probably our best yet and I firmly believe that this was due in no small part to the power of Twitter.  I connected with so many people, who both presented at or attended the conference.  Twitter also helped us to spread the word about the conference.

Initially, the people I followed were mainly from Ireland. Twitter gave me the opportunity to chat with people across primary, secondary and third level here in Ireland.  I got involved in the #edchatie conversations on a Monday night, which have been organised by Fred Boss (@fboss) since March 2011.  This is an opportunity for people to discuss matters relating to Education in Ireland.  Getting involved in these conversations gave me more people to follow and really made me think about how I do what I do.  Summaries of the #edchatie conversations can be found at http://edchatie.pbworks.com/w/page/37159466/edchatIE-Summaries.

Through the #edchatie conversations I also connected with educators across the world.  Through these connections I have become involved in the connected classrooms project #ccGlobal.  This is an initiative started by Liam Dunphy (@liamdunphy) and Pam Moran (@pammoran) and its aim is to connect classrooms across the world. Further details of this great initiative can be found at http://connectedclassrooms.wordpress.com/.

So back to why I love Twitter:

1.  I have connected with some amazing people who have pushed me to try new things.  Before I began to use Twitter I had a Facebook account and a LinkedIn account, both of which I rarely used.  I now have Google Plus, Edmodo, Ning, Delicious, Evernote accounts to name but a few.  I’ve also started this blog and have started podcasting.

2. I have gotten involved in some great initiatives, like #edchatie and #ccGlobal

3. I have found lots people who are doing amazing things in their classrooms.  Many of these people are willing to share these experiences with others at our ICT in Education conference.  For this generosity I am truly grateful.

4. I have been able to virtually attend conferences that I can’t attend in person by following tweets from these conferences.

These are just some of the many reasons why Twitter has now become the first thing I check in the morning!

As always, any thoughts, ideas etc. gladly welcomed.