“I’m sure you’ll understand my point of view
We know each other mentally”
Like the catchy phrase in the song physical by Olivia Newton John , the first topic of the ONL192 was about online participation and digital literacies, or in other words, about become a digital user, the consequences and responsibilities in our daily physical life. We had very interesting discussions with the members of my group (PBL14). We analyzed the scenario presented and tried to answer from our own perspective and experiences. We arrived at two major questions that we turned into topics that we had to research individually. Those topics were, first, if we are able to find a standard book of rules or criteria when teachers engage to their students in the use of social media as an extension of the classroom and second, once we engaged in the use of social media for pedagogical purposes, how much we should share in these spaces about our personal life. Our own research in the scientific literature showed a positive effect on the use of social channels with students [1], these results were supported in some cases, by our own experience as teachers. One rule of thumb that we found, “don’t say anything on your social media profile that you wouldn’t say in class [2]. Other rules were dependent on the age of the target group, but in general, it is recommended to ask if there is a set of institutional rules regarding the use of social networks. We discussed the possibility that the level of engagement in teachers were influenced by socio-culturally factors and one topic that arises during the discussion was the future consequences that the misuse of social media can cause to students. We share experiences about our own educational fields and countries about how some social networks are used as a way to filter candidates seeking for a specific job. The main conclusion of our discussions of this topic is that teachers cannot avoid the use of social networks as an extension of the teaching experience and second, that once we engage our students, In addition to the pedagogical benefits, we can also teach them to use their social media with responsibility.
So, now let’s get digital!
References
[1] Song, H., Kim, J. & Park, N. I know my professor: Teacher self-disclosure in online education and a mediating role of social presence. Int. J. Human–Computer Interact. 35, 448–455 (2019).
[2] Dos and don’ts for using social media as a teacher (2018). https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/leaders-link/educational-social-media-use/.