EDLT561 - SM Reflections

As I began to read the first part of my book, Communicating and Connecting with Social Media, coauthor Eric Sheninger brings up a major point about making effective connections with people through the ability to be a leader. Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger (2011) stress “communication should be the most important thing that you do every day” (p. 5). I agree that communication is very important in order to build and sustain a successful team. However, “our world has become an increasingly impersonal place in the past two decades” (Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger, 2011, p. 9). It is crucial to have longevity, as a leader you need to constantly be aware of what is changing while remaining consistent with how you relate to your followers. If we look at Twitter, it is clear the connection that Twitter brings to people from all around the world in multiple ways. Twitter is not the only suitable resource, there also is HootSuite, Seesmic, and Facebook. Facebook is a little different from the other resources, however, they all share the common theme to help connect people to people and people to informative in various ways.
In regards to connecting with college students, I agree the being a leader is very important. I believe that In order to lead, your students have to believe. Once they believe, then you have the ability to use multiple resources to connect with them. Twitter is a great resource to use for college students because of how easily accessible it is, and the convenience is has with searching and responding. I like to use Facebook for the parents on our team as well as followers we have from the older generations. I have come to realize, the parents use Facebook to read articles from games and events whereas the students and younger generations are more inclined to use Twitter. Using both of these resources helps my learning goals, because I know how effective they can be. I like the idea of incorporating leadership into how I can connect with my athletes while using social media tools. Twitter and Facebook are two resources I have been using for personal use, however, since being a coach it is interesting to reflect on how we use those tools to connect with our audience. I have learned a major connection strategy on Twitter is to use hashtags. Prior to coaching, I didn’t think anything of that. I question now what else I will learn throughout this semester to better utilize the internet and social media tools to create more connections that have a better longevity. In order to build a successful fan base, we have to discover what the fans want and then how we will get them that information and in what way. I want to be able to be as resourceful as possible in building an effective following for our team.

This section of my book talks about enhancing professional development through the ability to efficiently use social media tools. Professional development is crucial in the growth and successful a school will see into its future, however, for it to make the greatest impact possible there needs to be a collective “by in” from the faculty and staff. It is not only directed towards student learning but also towards the cohesiveness of the staff. “Whether they are called professional learning communities, lesson-study groups, action research teams, or communities of practice, collaborative groups of educators growing together are one of the most promising strategies for improving teaching and learning in our schools” (Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger, 2011, p. 34). Within this section of my book I chose, I will talk about how we as educators can utilize social media tools to establish strong personal development networks with other colleagues.
Educating on a Personal Learning Network (PLN), it is described as relationships that are built within your professional environment that is used to help progress your career. Today in the 21st century, PLN’s hold their longevity due to social media hubs that can be accessed from all over the world. Twitter shows the ability to be effective and efficient in the lifestyles of the busy working life. The restricted use of characters in a message, ability to follow high level professionals in your field, and have the power to access articles and other information that can be retweeted or quoted give Twitter a cutting edge over other social media tools. It is short, to the point, and easy to catch a wide spread of information if you only have several minutes to do so. Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger (2011) describe the six common patterns for learning networks which are “sharing knowledge and resources, monitoring educational news sources, digitally attending important conferences, encouraging reflection, gathering instant feedback, and mentoring colleagues” (p. 37). On top of Twitter, there are additional sources for PLN building which are LinkedIn, Blogs, Social Bookmarking and shared annotation services, RSS readers, Wikis, Facebook, Digital discussion forums” (p. 39-40).
Looking at the information presented in this chapter, I think the authors really promote Twitter and how effective it can be, however, I personally have not utilized Twitter like I have Facebook and LinkedIn. I do think Twitter is very important in connecting to information very quickly and reading what others have to say about it, but my first instinct when I want to know something is to go to Google and look up articles from there. I think I do this because I am usually not interested in the opinions of others, I like to read the source itself and generate my own opinions. The aspect of PLN’s are interesting to me. I never heard of them before, but I definitely agree that it can be a great resource to promote positive growth in an educational setting both with faculty and staff as well as the students. After learning more about PLN’s, I have a better understanding of how I can utilize that towards my own coaching career. Ironically I have already started building my network base on my LinkedIn account over the past month. I have found LinkedIn to be a great tool in connecting with people in my profession. This month so far I have had a dramatic increase in my connections and have spoken to several people which is helping me gain insight and knowledge on what I need to do next to get where I want to be in my career.
The only thing I am questioning is the quality of the widespread amount of information provided in this book. I feel there are more of the common social media tools being explained, but not any off the wall or cutting edge websites that may offer something more unique to the educational resource collaboration. However, I am enjoying reading this because I like to see how these tools can be broken down and utilized in a way other than just “liking” a picture or a tweet.

The focus on this section of the book is Developing Professionally Responsible Social Media Practices. When I first read this, I immediately thought it was going to basically say be smart with what you post on social media because it provides a fairly accurate idea of who you truly are. As negative stories and perceptions come upon educators and using social media, “the majority of schools and districts are overly cautious about the role that digital spaces can play in their own communication and professional development plans” (Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger, 2011, p. 55). What is unique about this situation is the approach schools at all levels are taking to handle any situation that may come forth from social media issues. Some schools are allowing teachers to communicate with students via social media while other schools are completely prohibiting it.
The chapter quickly shifts to focus on actual decision making when your involved with social media in the digital world. “You will have to think through the personal and professional consequences of living out a life in front of a digital audience” (Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger, 2011, p. 57). As a professional, you have to ask yourself these questions. What is your primary goal for entering the social media site, does your district allow you the freedom to express yourself on education, will your successors use social media tools, and how important is sharing in areas outside of education? In any involved with social media, we as educators need to make sure we take everything we do into consideration and make proper choices. You always want to have safe participation within the internet by abiding to not only your school policies but also your common sense.
After reading through this chapter, I have to commend the authors for making sure this topic is well presented in a book for educators. From what I have seen thus far, looking at how to be cautious using the internet is a scarce subject. When communicating with people from older generations, I think it is beneficial for them to have resources that guide them to success with technology and utilizing social media to its fullest capacity. However they may be out of date of modern terminology or methods of communication, so with caution they should face the challenge within the internet. In utilizing this information for myself, I can apply it to my every day work. There is not a day that goes by where I don’t use social media. I found it useful that reading this information was eye opening because you never know what can in using social media. Information can get misinterpreted from multiple perspectives. The best advice I think I can give is better safe than sorry. Play well within the boundaries so you can avoid any chance for fault. This information is important and useful for anyone in a professional career. Social media is a new way of life, and If you don’t use it wisely, you can create a difficult path for yourself in the present or one that will catch up with you in your future.

The last portion of this book focuses on the idea of creating a plan to engage in social media. This can be done as an individual or creating an identity that represents who or what you are affiliated with. This is an important decision for people in the field of education because the identity they create in social media will be a reflection of themselves in the real world, so you have to be careful what you choose. There is good information in educating educators on good practices before entering the social media world. One strategy I don’t really agree with or understand why is would be necessary is the action to tell your supervisor what you are doing online. Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger (2011) say, “One of the first steps that you’ve got to take in order to keep your participation in social media spaces professionally safe is to keep your supervisors aware of what you’re doing” (p. 65). I understand being safe, but at the same time we as educators and adults should be mature enough to know what is right and what is wrong in participating in social media. The epilogue at the end of the book follows with the future of social media in education. “Education will be one of those industries that see significant shifts and a changing of the guard as a result of the widespread adoption of social media spaces in the lives of our increasingly connected communities” (Ferriter, Ramsden, and Sheninger, 2011, p. 69). In reading this book and participating in this class throughout this semester, I have not only learned about new resources that can benefit me in my professional career and personal life, but I have also utilized them as we have continued through the semester. I am the most surprised by the website List.ly because I never knew about it before this class and now I am planning a SME Plan that will integrate it into my coaching career here at NMSU. I liked the ending paragraph that wrote questions towards us educators. The one that caught my eye the most was pertaining to educators and not only recognizing but also accepting that social media is a new way of life and learning, so instead of trying to suppress it, we as educators should embrace and incorporate it into learning on a somewhat consistent basis. Overall, this book was interesting and informative in my learning process throughout this semester. I enjoyed gaining new information that I can apply to anything I do in life let alone just my professional career. It is beneficial that with technology you can take your resources with you anywhere you go, so the ability to utilize them is endless. It all lies on the user and how much they want exhaust it. I am excited to continue learning with my List.ly account that I am creating for my team right now.

During the process of creating my SME Plan, I was challenged to find resources and other information that I was either unsure of or unaware of, and I came to find out I learned a lot more than I was initially anticipating. When we got to pick out goals, I had all three of my goals pertain to areas I was already somewhat familiar with, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake to do this. Boy was I wrong! The most frustrating part of this entire process was trying to think more outside the box, especially in the “Mental Monday” and LinkedIn goals I have set for my team I coach because I know my girls are going to have questions, so I try to plan ahead as much as I can to have as much information I can so that lessens the number of questions or confusion I receive. It was very helpful to skype with Professor Susie because she brought that challenging mindset and helped bring some of questions to the surface. There was also several ideas that I didn’t think to use to make my goal setting easier or incorporate certain aspects that can make the process with my team easier. Her critique definitely helped me shape my goals and the process a lot smoother than I originally had. Talking about “ah-has!” I definitely had one of those when I was stumped on how to make my Mental Training List.ly board more efficient for my team in navigating the information as it starts to compile up. Of course Professor Susie had the answer and said why don’t you use hashtags?! So my ah-ha moment resided in my brain going blank and neglecting the very simple concept of using hashtags. Funny huh? Guess we all learn one way or another! My goal setting for learning ideas and other hacks for using Twitter for personal and professional use is where I took away a lot of information that I know I will utilize for the future especially for my personal Twitter. It was amazing to read about all the different hacks that Twitter has with search engines, dashboards, lists, follower trackers, and even how to see what your favorite people are doing and who they follow. The two goals I plan on utilizing in a more impactful way is the Mental Monday and LinkedIn plans because I will integrate them into my team I coach. I am really looking forward to implementing the LinkedIn goal setting because the program has never done anything like this before in targeting their lives after college. I know I have found some personal success in utilizing LinkedIn, so I want to pass along that information to my student athletes in hope that they too will find some success in making connections with professionals and learning more about the professions they are seeking after college. My ultimate goal for them in this goal setting is to hopefully get an internship or get a tip on a job being offered that they could apply to. In creating these two goals for my team, I would really hope that these are two new ideas that will continue to be a part of the program after I leave.