Initial Thoughts of EDTECH543

My initial reaction to joining multiple social networks for use in this course was excitement. I use Facebook daily; however, I have not used Twitter or Diigo. I enjoy using Facebook because I feel connected to the world and love getting updates on my friends and family. I would like to get to know how both Twitter and Diigo work. I have heard only positive things about Twitter, but haven’t set the time to get to understand it all. I do have a classroom website through Blogger, but I feel like I can still learn a lot more about Blogger. My website is very basic and does not have all the widgets that can be added.

I have not used social media for my own professional development. Every now and then I come across an article or video about education on Facebook. I also follow fellow teachers that inspire me and participate in hashtag groups. For example, I am part of the #iteachfourth group. In that group, teachers ask questions or have discussions about their classroom and fourth grade curriculum. I think I could use social media more for professional development.

I have never used social media as an instructional strategy in my learning environment. I would absolutely love to! I think I am just nervous and would like to learn how to do it the right way. I want to make sure my students use social media safely and productively.

My expectations for this course is to learn how to navigate the social media websites and use them for my professional development and my learning environment. I hope this course can teach me strategies for my students to use social media. I think social media is part of my students’ daily routine, why not find a way to slip education into it too? Lastly, I would like to learn what type of education communities I can become a part of.