Social Media in the Art Room.
My initial reluctance, hesitant progress and a possible way forward.
The weight of 'the cloud'. 2017
I have been reluctant to use social media
in the classroom as I have been scared about the negative effects of social
media; distraction, oversharing, safety of students and myself, the potential for posts to go viral (Clun, 2015). I am also very
concerned about making sure I do not cross any legal or ethical boundaries as a
teacher and representative of my school so have tended to tread lightly in this
area. I have however used Pinterest with my students before for gathering
visual ideas for artwork and design problems. I once followed a photography student
on Instagram then decided that this led me too much into the personal life of
the student.
In an earlier blog post (Jan 1st 2017) I set myself a list of digital goals
for 2017 and one of them was to start using Facebook with students to critique
their art work. This did not happen as in term one our school blocked social
media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. It was discovered that students
were using up all the Wi-Fi on their use of social media. This was then
disrupting the teacher’s use of internet for legitimate learning. The blocking
of Facebook during class time has meant that we are unable to access Facebook
groups such as NCEA Top Art folios. The 2016 work is accessed via a link that
guides you to the Facebook page. This is a problem for my teaching practice. It seems that as social media becomes more a part of the professional realm, schools and teachers will have to update their views and use of social media to stay in touch with the world.
(NZQA, n.d.)
Student Blogs: Through the Mindlab course I
have been introduced to Seesaw ‘student driven digital portfolios’. (“Seesaw,” n.d.) Seesaw is a virtual classroom that teachers can invite students to,
post assignments, collect student work on the class feed and in student
folders. There is also a class blog tool so that students can publish their
best work to the blog, parents can be invited and it is kept separate to
personal Facebook and Instagram accounts. It does seem like another platform
that students have to learn however it is a way to keep everyone safe but to
also connect with whanau to display the good learning that is happening. I have
just trialed this with a group of year 8 students and it has been highly
successful. Not only does it make it easy for students to talk about art
through captions, comments and blog posts but also through video recordings, linking
to artists work and adding their own images. A digital record of their learning
has now been stored all ready to report on at the end of year.
In my year 9 –
13 Art classes I use google classroom. However Google Classroom does have
limitations and I have not used it as a class blog but rather as a delivery
method for assignments and announcements. I am now considering if I can use Google
classroom in a similar way to seesaw or switch all together with my junior
classes.
Professional Networks: In my professional networks I am a member
of visartsnet and dancenet. These are email lists of NZ arts and dance
teachers. There is a moderator who reads all emails before they are put out to
the arts/dance community. The purpose of the moderator is to make sure topics
are relevant and teachers are not exposing themselves or students to potential
risk. Art can get contentious and occasionally the moderator will need to pop
into a heated discussion and remind teachers to be polite. Having a
moderator means there is a time lag from an initial email to getting responses.
In contrast the google plus community gives a faster turnaround and smaller interest
groups are created with often instantaneous replies. Push notifications when someone replies to your post or comment are a good way for a thread to gain momentum, (Melhuish refers to this as feedback loops),(Melhuish, 2013). Also the ability to add links and search for a thread later adds to the value of this type of social networking. As teachers become more used to online networking we may be more inclined to moderate our own online contributions, however the need for a moderator is not necessarily negated as Melhuish states ‘A dedicated facilitator is not there to firefight, but rather to provide a supportive yet critical eye on proceedings.’
Ideas for my future classroom practice:
I have enjoyed using Google+ with Mindlab and was thinking I could use Google+ as a social networking
tool in senior art. Students could post images of their folio work to gather instant
feedback. Classmates (levels 1 - 3) comment and offer ideas suggesting artists and
future directions. As the owner of the group I would get notifications when
students post thus keeping an eye on their online behavior and being the ‘balanced,
non-partisan voice for effective learning,’ (Melhuish, 2013, P 56)
References
Clun,
R. (2015). Teacher’s social media lesson goes viral. Retrieved June 25, 2017,
from
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/family-life/technology/11020133/Teachers-social-media-lesson-goes-viral
Melhuish,
K. (2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’professional
learning, 1994, 219. Retrieved from
http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
NZQA.
(n.d.). Top Art Exhibition. Retrieved June 25, 2017, from
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/subjects/visual-arts/top-art-exhibition/
Seesaw.
(n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2017, from https://web.seesaw.me/
Looking good Sara. It is such a worrisome 'to and fro' sometimes. I am in a school that works on a policy of having everything open and teaching the students to be responsible with their social media access. Most of the time it is pretty good, but I think it has taken a while to develop a positive school culture around the use of wifi access at school. I agree that schools and teachers will need to update their views - but there is a place for the voice of concern in all this too! Good idea using Google+ as a tool in class, as it is linked to their school accounts if you are already google based.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this blog post and have similar fears around social networking and teenagers. It can be a tool for wonderful things; but can also cause a lot of harm. We have similar problems at our school with kids using up a lot of data. Interestingly they are like password ninjas. It takes less than a week for kids to find out what the new wifi password is and then half the school is on it with their phones.
ReplyDeleteI rate google classroom and I use it regularly for the whole class and for target groups. It can be used a bit like a facebook page and works well in unison with google docs, slides, e.t.c. The more I use it the more I like it. The downside is students having that 24-7 access to you. You have to cut the ties sometimes, turn the notifications off, and enjoy your breaks.
Keep up the good work and keep the reflections coming. Well done.
A great post Sara.
ReplyDeleteIs there a way Teachers can shortcut the school Facebook block for Teacher controlled use in the classroom? Seems a bit of an all or nothing reaction at first look.
Seesaw sounds exciting because it is student driven and therefore empowering. Also a great source for Teacher assessment.
The idea of Google + for positive comments from all levels is interesting not only in the possible art outcomes but for the students experiencing regular non-judgmental or personal critique which must lead to stronger, more resilient and self-aware students able to explain, justify, accept and make changes as artists.
Could teachers do this?
I also enjoyed reading this and have shared your reluctance about "social media" in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWhether we like it or not our students already use multiple social apps in the classroom but they are a distraction rather than as a learning tool. Right at the beginning of the course I read a paper that said that as teachers of Generation Z , a generation that reaches for a digital device on average every 7 seconds we should be embracing we should be embracing this way of communicating as we cannot fight against it. I was interested to read your review of seesaw and also ideas about using a google plus community.
For me it is not whether we could be using this type of on-line interaction but rather a case of the tools that we use at school get the buy-in from students. This I feel will take a mind shift for all involved, teachers and students alike.