Social and Professional Networks

My participation in a social/professional network – Pinterest!

I began using Pinterest as a personal network and then saw a huge potential for it as a professional network.  I now have two accounts, one for personal use and one for professional use. 

In the past, I was always bookmarking technology sites in the traditional way – searching the Internet, then adding the site to either my bookmarks bar or to a folder in my bookmarks menu.  Like the saying goes, though, out of sight, out of mind.  I would forget what I had bookmarked and would have to make a concerted effort to look through all my bookmarks every month or so.  I am a highly visual learner, so when I found out about Pinterest and started to use it, I was hooked!

Pinterest allows me to create boards (think visual bulletin boards) where I can pin images with links to websites and add comments or notes for myself. I began by creating different subject boards – math, social studies, technology, literature, science, tech tools, etc.  I added the “Pin It” button to my bookmarks bar, went through my old bookmarks and added them visually to Pinterest. What a difference when I could view them as images!

Even better, I learned that I can follow others in the teaching profession and repin what they’ve already found.  What a timesaver!  I am able to read others’ comments (e.g. how they manage their classroom, how they conduct science experiments, etc.).  I can connect to their blogs and websites, too.

I highly recommend Pinterest for professional networking.  I can also see it’s applications for my students to use – website resources, homework help, etc.  Right now, Pinterest is set up for individual use.  I hope they provide an educational component soon where teachers can set up classroom accounts.

How the Internet helps me learn and how it can distract me

I think back on my elementary, high school, and college days and what a chore it was to research a topic.  I would go to the library, search through the card catalog, write down the dewey decimal number and walk up and down the library aisles in search of a book I could use.  More often than not, I would not find the exact book I wanted; the books I did find would be horribly outdated.  If I was lucky I would find two or three books I could glean some information from, so I would lug them to the library table, take out my index cards, and jot down some facts.  If I was even luckier, I might find a newspaper article I could read on the microfiche, which meant checking out the film and sitting there at that huge machine, fast forwarding until I came to the article I needed.  I could usually print the page I needed from there, if I had remembered to bring some change with me.

Now, with the Internet, I can search from home and find up-to-date information in a flash.  And the information isn’t limited to print media. There’s videos, animations, simulations, and audio.  I can play games and attend webinars to learn concepts, too! I can read blogs and get on Facebook and check to see what’s happening with friends and family.  I can access any of my own files from anywhere with iCloud and Google Drive.  It’s all at my fingertips, 24/7.

That’s part of the problem, though. It’s all there – the good, the bad, and the ugly.  24/7.  So, that means it takes awhile to sift through the bad and the ugly to find the good.  And there’s so many layers once I’ve found the good, sometimes I get sidetracked by links and videos that may not have to do with what I’m trying to learn about.  Since I can access the Internet 24/7, I no longer have to leave at 5 p.m. when the library closes, or wait till it opens at 9 a.m.  Time often comes to a standstill, it seems, while I’m on the Internet, and what seems like mere seconds is really hours and hours.  I am no longer hunched over a library table, but I am still hunched over the keyboard, squinting to read, view, or listen to what’s on the screen.

The same or different experience for my students?

I don’t think my students even know what a card catalog is or what a microfiche machine looks like.  I’m not even sure how many of my students regularly visit a public library.  They don’t really need to anymore. The Internet is their library and their connection to their friends.  They assume they will be connected wherever they go – at school, at home, in restaurants, in theatres, while walking around campus.  And usually they’re right. 

I often hear that using computers and devices is second nature to the younger generation.  However, what I see daily is that my students have a difficult time discerning what is reliable, credible information.  If it’s on the Internet, it must be true; if the website looks official, then the information must be accurate.  Students still need to learn how to sift through all the information to find the good.  From what I see, they tend to click on the first link or two that comes up when they search, and are satisfied with the information those links provide.  They don’t want to research any deeper.

Also, being connected 24/7 can be detrimental to learning necessary social skills.  I’m sure that is contrary to what my students believe, though.  If you ask most teenagers if they think it’s odd that their friends text or play games on their devices in a restaurant, or while they’re sitting on the beach right next to them, they would say no, it’s normal.  Most adults my age, however, would say it’s rude.  And I believe being connected to a mobile device, with no boundaries, allows teens and children to hide behind the devices.  They miss out on what’s physically going on around them.  They do not participate fully in one-to-one interactions in the real world.  But, most of my students would say they are interacting, just in a different way.

As for being hunched over a computer or another device, it’s probably much the same for me as for my students.  It may be that they’re using the device in a different way, though.  They’re probably gaming much more than I do, learning skills nonetheless.  They’re probably using the Internet more actively, to create rather than to passively read or watch videos.  They create their own videos, music, and blogs and are not shy about wanting to share it with the world.

Supporting my students’ use of the Internet as their personal learning space

My role as a teacher is to help my students learn how to discern what is reliable, credible, and accurate information on the Internet and teach them the skills to best find that information.  It is my role to show them a variety of tools available to them on the Internet, tools they can use to effectively create, communicate, and share with others, and to teach them to choose the most appropriate tool depending on the outcome they hope to achieve.  It is my role to help them set boundaries, to realize when they need to disconnect and interact in the physical world. And one of my most important roles is to teach them how to be safe on the Internet and how to be good digital citizens.  Not a small task, all that.