cc licensed flickr photo shared by TorleyA good friend of mine, Beth Still, has recently asked me to write some information for her on why educators and students should be using social media. I wrote her an email but in the spirit of openness and transparency, I thought I would share my information here as well.
I am honoured (I add a ‘u’ because it is Canadian and also that is the correct spelling) that Beth has asked me to share some information on why it is important that students are able to use technology and social media in their own learning, along with teachers. It is important to note that a year ago if you asked me this same question, my answer would have been, because technology skill are important to possess in the future of our students, but now because of my participation USING technology as a form of collaboration, I have a much broader view.
First of all, through my participation, I have obviously learned a lot from colleagues all over the world, and able to have a better understanding of global perspectives. The simple fact that I feel so connected to Beth, Eric, and Patrick, yet have never met any of them personally shows the power this technology possesses. I have always talked about the importance of relationships in a school and helping students find their passion. Using social media has helped me to do both of these things and opened my world up to passionate educators around the world, that share my love for being an educator. Imagine that you are in a small school and you have someone interested in an obscure topic where no one else is interested in that school. How will you fuel that passion? How will you help them connect? The ideal is that we are able to work with students and teachers so that THEY learn to connect and find others, in a safe and meaningful way.
As an administrator, communication is such an important element of what we do. What many tend to think though is that communication skills are only how we talk to others, but it is so much more. How do you take in information and listen to others? I use to have a webpage where I displayed information to our school where the information was only coming from me, but I was not getting any ideas back. If parents and students are partners in our schools, we need to be more open to how we connect and gain information from them. I have moved our school from a singular 1.0 website, to a school blog, and now classroom blogs. We need to be open and transparent in what we are doing. Parents are looking for information on your school; what are they going to find? I do my best to share what we do, who we are, and how we connect. Our school has nothing to hide and we are proud of everything we do.
I have learned so much from connecting and reading the work of others. We sometimes just assume that what has always been done in our schools, is correct, until we start reading other perspectives. As an administrator, we should be the LAST person to say, “that is the way it has always been done.” It is essential that we always look at information to figure out what is best for kids. Books are obviously one way we can do this, but reading blogs, new articles, and other sites that are easily accessible on the web has opened my mind to so many different things in the past year alone. As an administrator, you should should be the lead learner.
Lastly, it is essential that we use this form to connect and show who we are as people. When someone does not know who you are, they are more likely to become adversarial in what we do. If we are willing to show our true side in an open way, we truly build these connections with the people we are trying to communicate with one another. It is not about sharing every aspect of your life, but showing a humanistic side and helping to build those relationships with your community as well as the global community. I do not open up everything in my life as we always need some privacy, but I have been open about things ranging from talking about my family, to the passing of my dog. We always encourage (or at least we should) teachers to be ‘real’ with their students, yet we often hide who we are in a forum where we can connect with so many. I really believe that the world is getting smaller, but I still want to be a part of it. Do you?
I have written about my hope for other administrators in my post, “An Open Letter to Administrators“, and believe that is essential we are preparing our students for, paraphrasing John Dewey, not our future, not our present, but their future. For our students’ sake, I hope you are doing this.
