www.le.ac.uk

The challenges and possibilities of using social media for educational purposes:

Workshop presented at the Inspiring Leaders conference, NCTL Training Centre, Nottingham, 16 October 2014

Dr Alison Fox, School of EducationTerese Bird, Leicester Learning Institute

www.inspiringleaderstoday.com

# • The hashtag has been reinvented with new

meaning. No longer most popular as an abbreviation for pounds in the USA, nor even as the way to end data entry when telephone banking, the hashtag is associated with becoming connected through social media.

• But, what does it mean to be connected? Who are we connecting with? How do we decide who to connect with? Do we know who we are connecting with? On what basis are we making these connections? What do we hope to gain from the connections? What do we offer to these connections?

• The hashtag will feature soon in the University of Leicester’s Social Worlds in 100 objects http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/social-worlds/home

What do we need to know about SM as school leaders?

Where are we now?

• What do our teachers think about becoming connected through SM?

• What experience do our teachers have of using SM?

• How prepared are our teachers to use SM for educational purposes?

• What are our pupils’ experiences and attitudes to SM?

What do we need to know about SM as school leaders?Where could we be?

• What benefits are there to be had from becoming connected through SM?– For our pupils – For our staff

• What concerns are there about becoming connected through SM?

• What are ways forward to overcome these concerns and maximise the benefits?

What do we know about teachers’ use of social media?

Image courtesy of Kathleen Donovan on Flickr

How confident are teachers in using ICT?The Digilit Leicester project collected data from 701

teachers and support staff from Leicester’s 23 Building Schools for the Future programme schools

Data available from: http://www.digilitleic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/140812_Leicester-Gov_Final-

web.jpg

In terms of digital literacy teachers reported being pioneers in terms of e-safety and online identity but with lower levels of confidence in using digital technologies for: a) communication, collaboration and participation and b) technology supported professional development

Teachers’ use (and not use) and attitude to social media – TUSM - projectOf 212 teachers completing an online questionnaire nationally, if both levels of engagement with and attitudes towards social media considered = 5 groups:1. SM ‘enthusiasts' (3% of the

sample);2. More 'cautious

users/engagers' (35%);3. SM ‘sceptics‘ 4. SM ‘impartials’ (3 & 4

together 32%);5. SM 'conscious luddites' (30%)

56% self-identified as enthusiasts

22 % ‘sceptics‘

15% ‘agnostics’

8% 'conscious luddites'

Teachers’ digital literacy – high!

SM enthusiasts SM engagers SM impartials SM sceptics Conscious luddites

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Teachers’ attitudes to and use of SM with students

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Students, SM and online safety (inverse scale)

SM use for students’ skills

Teachers’ attitudes to the potential for use of SM with students

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Potential advantages of SM for students (SKILLS DE-VELOPMENT)

Potential advantage of SM for students (TO FACILITATE LEARNING)

Beneficial use of SM with students

“I use it in my teaching, not loads but quite a bit, the thing I love about Twitter is because it gives me sound-bites…what I love about Twitter is it will say something that’s just happened….and then you can click onto the link and then read the whole article and quite often it will be relevant to what I’m teaching”

(SM engager ‘cautious user’ W, female secondary school teacher talking about teaching with 16-18 year

olds).

Beneficial use of SM with students

(SM ‘enthusiast’ J, female primary school teacher talking about blogging).

“We all have iPads in the classroom so, they are logged in on the generic, sort of, class account and they can just post like an app… one of the school leaders and reception leaders has set up their quadblog with three other reception teachers and it is really, really taking off. They’ve really, in fact they met up in person even though one of them was Australian…. it really has been very, very strong, quite a strong influence on her as well I think …so that’s been quite interesting to see that change.”

Cautious advocation of SM use with students

“My viewpoint is that this is the kind of thing our children are going to be accessing. They access it now, they want to access it…So you can either fight it or you can go with it. And I think if you go with it, you’ve got to then think…what's the best way for us to deliver that for our children to get the best out of it?”

(enthusiast R, female primary school teacher working with 7-11 year olds)

Concerns about SM use with students

“The amount of bullying and whatever that goes on through social media: Having a row face-to-face in the playground and then it all goes onto Facebook and whatever, and parents expecting us to unravel that”

(conscious luddite B, male secondary school teacher).

Open to being convinced about the potential use of SM with students

“I might be missing a trick there, I have been thinking I could have sent this or that to my students. So I am sceptic I guess, I remain to be convinced…If someone actually showed me what I could do with it, I might have a try I think”

(sceptic J, female secondary school teacher, working with 11-18 year old children)

What do students think?Students talking about being introduced to learning through Twitter – in A level Government & Politics, Economics and Maths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQaksxpvDXQ

Children’s use. Let’s debate….!

Look at the data collected by edudemic.com from 2012 and 2013…

http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/social-media-teachers.jpg

http://www.edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/socialmediatips.jpg

An example of a way forward – changing teacher and student roles• Encouraging and supporting students to learn out of

the classroom

• Encouraging students to learn through making new connections

• Building on what they have found in the classroom

FLIPPED CLASSROOMS

• Joint practice development to share experiences of SM and identify practical ways forward (exploring the potential and addressing concerns)

LESSON STUDY

Flipped classrooms

Image by ransomtech on Flickr

An approach to ‘flipping’: Using Blooms’ taxonomy

Image by Xristina La on Wikipedia CC-BY-SA

IN CLASS

AT HOME

Twitter for flipped classrooms

http://novemberlearning.com/blog/2012/07/03/connecting-students-to-geometry-through-twitter/

What is lesson study?1. Teachers meet to identify focus for the study

2. Teachers read, experiment and discuss informally

3. Triad of teachers co-plan lesson,

4. One teacher teachers and the other two teachers collect evidence (observe and interview students post-lesson),

5. Triad of teachers co-evaluate lesson,

6. Repeat 3-5 twice with different colleagues teaching,

7. Teachers share their findings more widely

Lesson study in the UK• The National Strategies, particularly the Primary Strategy led

by Pete Dudley (2006-11) http://lessonstudy.co.uk/

• Current national funded projects– National College (NCTL) funded CPD and Pedagogy project– CUREE/NCTL funded project Closing the gap project

• School-University partnership activity– Initial Teacher Education partnerships– University of Leicester Lesson Study Research Group

http://leicls.weebly.com/– Masters study– Annual East Midlands Lesson Study Conference (Affinity,

LETs, Brooke Weston TSAs with University of Leicester)

Developing Teachers’ Use of Twitter (DTT) project: Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College with University of LeicesterSome teachers’ already use Twitter in their teaching and some don’t. School leaders’ raised the questions:

• Is it a worthwhile teaching and learning tool to use in other subjects’ and therefore colleagues’ practice?

• What are the pros and cons of introducing it/developing it?

These issues were explored through joint practice development using an approach called lesson study

Teachers’ experiences of the DTTPTeachers teaching Government & Politics, Economics and Mathematics A levels (3 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQaksxpvDXQ

E-safety: Protecting children• New sites, tablets and

phones present new freedoms and new responsibilities

• Preparation for adulthood requires discussions about appropriate use

• Schools’ and parents role in anti-cyber-bullying, including student mentors

• Teachers report confidence in e-safety (Digilit/TUSM)

• Next task to encourage effective use

http://vle.latrust.org.uk/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=80

New e-safety issue: Peer pressure• ‘Think you know’ campaign (Child

Exploitation and Online Protection) First2amillion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=214IkmVpa1E

• Selfie addiction and self-esteem issues (e.g. Instagram)

Options:

• What is the potential for social media to be used for educational purposes…– By teachers for their learning?– By students for their learning?

• What are the challenges and barriers to using social media for educational purposes?

• How do we explore the way forward?

Intergenerational debate at the National Space Centre (4th November)

Social Media in Lifelong Education: The debate #SMILE 2014

www.le.ac.uk/smile2014