Social Media forEducators -Rich Kiker,

Instructor

Bob Gillmer

Most Useful ToolPaper.li was a new resource for me. I am beginning to create special papers for my students and my staff on appropriate headlines.http://paper.li/NPTV/1472418011

I created this paper to mix both education and television

Successes and Challengeshttp://del.icio.us/gillmerk was interesting and I think it will be a useful tool. But It also was one of my biggest challenges. I could not get the app to work in chrome and I was unable to connect with other users. It does not seem like a modern tool but rather something that is still hanging on from a few years ago.

Moodle and online learningI was an early adopter for moodle in our district. I am a firm believer in connecting with kids where they are and use the tools they use. Google classroom is taking over for my uses in the classroom since it provides so many tools with GAFE. It is also very easy to share across platforms, networks and devices. Edmodo has been an extremely useful tool for my TV Club. It is a free and easy way to connect with my students, send schedules and alerts. Parents can follow too.

Facebook for School DistrictsFacebook for school districts have become a powerful tool for communication and outreach. When parents and community members like our page, we have an opportunity to share positive stories and share the amazing opportunities students have in their feed everyday. We have also been able to survey and gather feedback from parents and community on ideas and policies within hours with a much better participation rate than phone or web surveys that take days.

Outside of the website, which is a depository for all information, Facebook has become the primary tool to push information to parents.

Connect all the dots and find new ones.

Social Media Connections

Recently on our Facebook page, we shared our Convocation Open Video for our staff. While it was a great moment for our staff, it was the community who really connected with the video. Shared over 245 shares and 40,000 impressions, parents were so pleased to see our parents excited to start the year. Educators in other district shared comments saying what a great place this is to work. All other videos from that day were also shared hundreds of times and reinforced the notion that our teachers come to work everyday to do what is best for kids and that they enjoy doing it.

Click here for another fun Convo Video

Social Media and EducatorsMany educators shy away from social media and it’s not without cause. Too many teachers make life changing and career altering mistakes when they post personal items for the world to see. But to ignore the power of social media, the tools, the connections, the sharing, is to ignore the world our student live. There are literally more tools than each individual educator needs, but it is important to know what tools are in your virtual toolbox. This course exposed me to more items that I believe I can use to enhance my instruction as well as my professional learning network.