NETWORKING: IT’S FOR

EDUCATORS TOO

Created By:Aminah Geary

EDLD 5362-Informational Systems

Management

LINKEDIN.COM© Is a professional social networking

site that connects past and present colleagues and classmates.

Is full of industry experts that are to share knowledge in discussion forums.

Grew from 3.6 million monthly visitors to 7.7 million within a year

As of October 14, they are up to 50 million users.

- Statistics courtesy of: (Owyang, 2009)

WAYS TO UTILIZE LINKEDIN.COM©

“Technology also gives teachers access to resources that can help them identify and refine standards and objectives.”

(Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2007) LinkedIn is a unique networking website for professionals to

communicate and collaborate according to interests and profession.

It offers automatic friend suggestions based on your area and career so that you can find other like-minded peers to connect with.

The most beneficial aspect of this website is that you can “ask an expert”. You can browse discussion topics of interest or create a new one. This feature allows you to get fast and accurate information in one central location.

This website could be used for some types of professional development and team collaboration. I would recommend this site to my colleagues to share resources and discuss with other peers in our area. I noticed that I actually knew some of the educators that were generated in my “friend suggestions”.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Being a member of a professional social

networking site builds on at least two of the three types of knowledge, individual knowledge and community knowledge (Cartelli, 2006)

Community knowledge is the most important to build on as educators. We must have a support system of interaction among fellow colleagues in order to be successful. Although many times we may never see one another face to face; our experience, knowledge, and common goals are invaluable tools to share.

I envision LinkedIn to be a great resource for educators, especially those in the same geographical location.

WWW.LINKEDIN.COM

Advantages Disadvantages

Diverse connection to people all over the world

Network professionally

Free service “Ask an expert”

feature Site navigation

tutorials

Site does not have real-time chat features

Site is not education specific

You must import email address book in order to make “connections”

Must sift through many other topics before you reach a narrowed search

WWW.SCHOOLRACK.COM©

A FREE basic classroom website or educational blog that is designed for teachers K-12 for students and parents to interact with the teacher.

A plus membership is $5.95/month and includes unlimited pages, unlimited discussion groups, and more storage.

Over 34,000 schools are currently members of the site.

Their mission is to enhance communication outside of the classroom between teachers, students, and parents.

WAYS TO UTILIZE SCHOOLRACK.COM

One way I would utilize this website is for the parents of my students. I can post grades, important information and dates, and even private message individuals.

My students are fairly young (2nd grade) At this grade level, I would not post assignments to be taken for a grade. Rather, I would give assignments in class and use this site as a reference. About a two-thirds of my students have internet access at home, so I couldn’t use this site as the only source of giving them information. 62% of American homes have internet access (USA Today, 2009)

Many parents in my district have inquired about the inability to see their child’s progress and grades online. We are moving in that direction in the near future, but until then I could give parents my website to report grades and host discussions if they are unable to meet for a traditional conference. The private messaging feature lends itself well to conferencing.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE My 2nd grade team has taken on a new challenge of team

teaching. I teach math and Science while my team mate teachers literacy and social studies. Using this website could be beneficial to our students parents because it allows for a user to subscribe to multiple teachers’ sites. Also, we are the English As a Second Language (ESL) certified teachers, so our parents that may not be fluent in English could translate the page to their native language.

The website also has a feature to search for other teachers by school name, location, or teacher name. This allows for collaboration outside of your own campus.

Having a personalized teacher website that encourages interaction among the teacher, students, and parents can build a close knit, accountable enviroment.

WWW.SCHOOLRACK.COM©

Advantages Disadvantages

Opens up new avenues of communication

Parents are able to stay informed despite busy schedules

The teacher can share important information quickly

Can subscribe to multiple teachers

All children don’t have internet access

My students may be too young to navigate the site

Can possibly be quite time consuming to keep up to date information

BIBLIOGRAPHY Owyang, J. (2009, January 11). A collection of social network

stats for 2009. Retrieved from http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/01/11/a-collection-of-soical-network-stats-for-2009/

Pitler, Howard, Hubbell, Elizabeth, & Kuhn, Matt. (2007). Using Technology with classroom instruction that works. ASCD.

Cartelli, A. (2006). Semantics, ontologies and information systems in education: Concerns and proposals. Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, Vol. 3. Retrieved on November 17, 2009, from http://informingscience.org/proceedings/InSITE2006/IISITCart211.pdf

Cauley, L. (2009, June 03). Percentage of homes with internet triples within the past 10 years. USA Today, Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-03-internet-use-broadband_N.htm?csp=34?csp=23&RM_Exclude=aol