21st-century hallways | PG 1

How social networks are moving to the forefront of professional developmentBy Heather Ellwood

“I really believe that true PD happens in small chunks. That’s what social networks like Twitter and Plurk and Ning provide – small bits of real feedback, right there at the exact right time. Teachers have always talked and shared their ideas in the hallways of their school between classes. Well, now those hallways have gone online,” says Lori Reed, a 20-year veteran third-grade teacher from Kress Independent School District in Kress, Texas. Social networking, she adds, connects her to people and resources that help her do her job better.

Twitter? Ning? Plurk? If these words sound like nonsense creations from the pen of Dr. Seuss, you’ve not yet taken a meandering journey to the multitude of social network sites found on Web 2.0.

Steve Hargadon is the director of the K12 Open Technologies Initiative at the Consortium for School Networking, founder of Classroom 2.0 and the Emerging Technologies Chair for the National Education Computing Conference. He believes that twittering, ninging and plurking, along with all the conversations and connections happening on other Web 2.0 social network platforms and sites, will transform education.

Hargadon explains that Web 2.0 represents the evolution of the Internet, from an information source to an ever-evolving virtual space created by its users. This space includes sites such as Twitter, Ning and Plurk, which can be organized around a particular member or subject area.

“I think, historically, Web 2.0 is at the level of the advent of the printing press, if not more significant. The printing press …. made print accessible to everyone, and while Web 2.0 has further reduced the costs of publishing to zero, it’s also redefined who is in the conversation. And this is a conversation,” says Hargadon. “The material of the Internet is now largely contributed by the people formerly seen as the audience.”

Social network sites that focus on education in all its permutations and combinations, like Hargadon’s Classroom 2.0 and SMART’s own SMART Exchange, are go-to places for up-to-the-minute resources, ideas, advice and best practices, much of which is created by teachers for teachers. The sites and others like them are changing the face of professional development.

Hargadon is quick to note that formal professional development, in the form of conferences and information sessions that bring teachers together physically, still has a place. But he believes it’s the informal online gatherings that most significantly and immediately have an impact on teachers on the front lines.

Real-time enrichment With a population of less than 900 people, educators in Kress, Texas, face the same challenges as many small towns in America. As the only third-grade teacher in the entire district, Reed might have cause to feel somewhat isolated in her quest to bring technology enhancements to her classroom.

“Teachers have always talked and shared their ideas in the hallways of their school between classes. Well, now those hallways have gone online.”

Lori Reed

Third-grade teacher

Kress Independent School District

Kress, Texas

education.smarttech.com

November 2008

newsletterEDCompass

21st-century hallways

21st-century hallways | PG 2

Professional development for teachers in Reed’s situation can often be a costly, time- and travel-intensive course of action that happens only once or twice in a school year. In contrast, online social networks have exposed Reed to innovations and enrichments in real-time and around the clock.

“Earlier this school year, I wanted to capture my students’ reflections during class using VoiceThread, which is a multimedia slideshow that allows my students and others, like parents, to comment in a collaborative way on our work. It was for a project we were working on, and I wasn’t sure how to help my students with it. So I posted an inquiry on one of the networks I use regularly. Within an hour, I had all the responses I needed,” Reed explains. “In that situation, I didn’t have time to go to a workshop, but by accessing one of my social networks, I was ready to get going the next day.”

Kate Kanach, an instructional technology resource teacher with four Hanover County public schools in Hanover, Virginia, believes the treasure trove of rich education resources available on social network sites has a huge impact on her and her peers. Perhaps most importantly, it forges a real sense of community.

“When you tap into the resources and people available on social networks, the connections you make allow your contributions to have a broader impact on education. My colleagues and I are able to support one another through our own education and experiences, as well as the resources we find on social networking sites,”Kanach says.

Part of something larger Instant access to information, asserts Hargadon, is one of the many reasons social networking is transforming education and, more specifically, professional development. As Hargadon, Reed and Kanach can attest, it’s easy to join a social network. Within minutes of signing on, a teacher has access to a personal profile page that serves as a virtual portfolio for interests and areas of expertise. But the list of benefits, these three social networkers agree, doesn’t end there.

Hargadon explains, “If social networking was only about the ability to build community and support networks, that alone would be significant…. When you add to the mix that anyone can be a contributor, it’s as if someone pushed all the magic buttons at once. You no longer have to toil in obscurity but can play a role of significance. Such things drive our behavior.”

“When you tap into the resources and people available on social networks, the connections you make allow your contributions to have a broader impact on education. My colleagues and I are able to support one another through our own education and experiences, as well as the resources we find on social networking sites.”

Kate Kanach

Instructional technology resource

teacher and SMART Exemplary

Educator

Hanover County Public Schools

Hanover, Virginia

21st-century hallways | PG 3

Humans are creative beings. We want to build and create and be a small part of something larger. Social networks, according to Hargadon, are tapping into these innate needs and bringing about a transformation. They are “part of a much larger global change – about what it means to be human, how we interact with each other and what role we play in that interaction.”

While Reed and Kanach may not think about their social networking activities in terms quite so esoteric, they admit that simply strolling through a site like Classroom 2.0 or the SMART Exchange makes them realize that they are part of a much larger education dynamic. Both confess that during their early days of social networking, they were hesitant to make comments or contribute. Hargadon says that they were not alone – this tentativeness is common among newcomers to social networking.

Reed explains, “What I appreciate about social networking is that you can participate in your own time at your own comfort level. Maybe you just want to read the posts or scan a contributor’s blog…. You are either a producer or a consumer – and the best part is you can choose where you want to exist on that food chain.”

Kanach is a SMART Exemplary Educator who conducts formal professional development on SMART products for the teachers in her district. At the end of each session she gets her peers to join the SMART Exchange because it’s an effective and efficient way for them to quickly immerse themselves in the world of social networking. It also gives them access to a whole bevy of other SMART users who have years of experience and reams of troubleshooting tips. Whether producers, consumers or both, teachers are finding that participating has helped them realize it’s perfectly okay to not reinvent the wheel every time they walk into the classroom and fire up their SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard.

“All of the teachers on the SMART Exchange are so open to the idea that there is no such thing as mine. They don’t own their resources. They’re willing to share and are more than willing to be shared with,” Kanach says.

Bringing it into the classroom A willingness to give it a go, agrees Hargadon, is a key to having successful professional development experiences on a social network. He advises teachers to lurk about a social network site for the first few visits, until they feel comfortable. But once they let loose that aforementioned human need to build and create, and actually post a comment or add their perspective to the conversation, they discover “an amazing world where you actually have a voice.”

“If we focus on using social networking for professional development, the beauty is that as teachers discover the benefits for themselves personally … they’ll naturally want to bring it into the classroom. And that’s a very different message than going to a conference where a teacher is told by an expert that they need to be doing social networking in the classroom.”

Steve Hargadon

Director

K12 Open Technologies Initiative

at the Consortium for School

Networking

21st-century hallways | PG 4

“All of the teachers on the SMART Exchange are so open to the idea that there is no such thing as mine. They don’t own their resources. They’re willing to share and are more than willing to be shared with.”

Kate Kanach

Instructional technology resource

teacher and SMART Exemplary

Educator

Hanover County Public Schools

Hanover, Virginia

Reed likens it to a flowing river of information. Teachers can dip in and dip out whenever needed. But perhaps more importantly, she believes that being an active member of a social network is about practicing what she preaches – or walking the 21st-century learning talk.

“By using social networking sites to better myself as a teacher, I’m really modeling the idea of lifelong learning. I’m addressing this new pedagogy head on and learning new technologies. When I weave a combination of all these new tools throughout the curriculum and subject areas I’m responsible for, then I create a valid learning experience for my students,” she explains.

This kind of informal professional development is transformational, believes Hargadon. When teachers like Reed and Kanach use social networking tools to make changes to their instruction, it usually means their students are actively involved in their own learning processes. Finding a place in the classroom for the tools offered by social network sites, whether they be wikis, VoiceThreads, comment boards or online class learning portals, to name but a few, enables students to play a more collaborative role in the construction of their own learning.

“If we focus on using social networking for professional development, the beauty is that as teachers discover the benefits for themselves personally … they’ll naturally want to bring it into the classroom. And that’s a very different message than going to a conference where a teacher is told by an expert that they need to be doing social networking in the classroom,” explains Hargadon.

So whether you twitter or ning or plurk, the key is to wander around the 21st-century virtual hallways of education, eavesdropping, chatting, commenting or sharing with the many other frontliners posting up a storm. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the connections you’ll make, and it might just rejuvenate your approach to teaching. At least that’s Lori Reed’s experience.

“Being connected helps me stay on the cutting edge of my field, and as a result, it keeps my kids on the edge of their seats.” EC

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