Nebraska Change Agent
' I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive.' John W Gardner
Networking on the Clock
For approximately 185 days a year from 7:45am until 4:15pm I belong to my district. During that time I have a variety of duties including teaching students face-t0-face as well as teaching students online. When I am not engaged in either one of those activities I certainly have no problem figuring out things to keep me busy. Not just sitting behind a computer pretending to be busy, but really doing things that matter. I do things like work on future classes that I would like to teach, tweak my online classes, and plan training camps for teacher. I’m also the go to girl when people have tech questions. During my office hours I have Tweetdeck open and I spend time reading through the stream on the lookout for any tidbits of information that might help me. There are times when I work with other teachers on different projects. Typically we have a GoogleDoc open and work on these projects as we have time during the day. I also read various educational blogs and once in a while I manage to hammer out a post during the day. The conversations that I have with teachers online have taught me so much and have helped me grow.
I think it is safe to say that 80% of the people I am friends with on Facebook I’m also connect with on Twitter. They are also members of some of the Nings I frequent and they write many of the blogs that I read. The one place where I WILL NOT go while I am on the clock is Facebook. While almost 200 of my friends on Facebook are educators most of the are not terribly active during the school day. From time to time they hop on Twitter, but I rarely see them actively engaging on Facebook.
I cannot count how many times I have heard educators say that Twitter is the most amazing source for self-directed professional development they have ever experienced. When was the last time you heard someone say that about Facebook? Exactly. Do you see where I am going with this?
Twitter, Nings, blogs, Facebook as well as other sites give us the ability to connect and share on a personal level as well as a professional one. While there are many educational pages and people who post educational content on Facebook, I don’t find nearly as much professional content on there as I find on other channels. While I have conversations that stray off the educational path on Twitter, they help me build stronger relationships with people that I consider to be my greatest sources of information. I would define this as professional networking. When I’m on Twitter my intent is to learn and share. When I am on Facebook my purpose is to catch up with friends and family and socialize. I think it is perfectly acceptable to ask my employer to provide me with time to explore and learn with educators. However, I do not expect them to pay me to chat with my friends and family during the school day. I cannot help but wonder how many hours are squandered by teachers who are just as obsessed with Facebook as their students are.
What are your thoughts? How do you use these different networking tools?
6 Responses to “Networking on the Clock”
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April 15th, 2012 at 6:00 p
Hi Beth!
Ok, here are my thoughts, I think you or someone else were once quoted as saying, “Facebook is the people I went to HS with, Twitter is the people I wish I went to HS with.” anyway, I am not on FB, however I know many people who are including many teachers & I would have to agree with you about the educational content on FB vs Twitter. Anytime I am on Twitter I am growing professionally & what is wrong with that. I fought so hard to get Twitter unblocked in my district because I see so much VALUE in being on Twitter during my work day much like you have mentioned.
I think Twitter has huge potential for communication within a district if utilized correctly. My colleagues and I held a “virtual on line” meeting with a group of “building tech coordinators” from our district with a Chat via Twitter that accomplished the same thing as a meeting with the exception of driving to a central location. It was very successful.
I think networking on the clock is perfectly fine. I think it makes me a wiser, more inspired educator burning to bring my new passions to the students I serve!
April 16th, 2012 at 11:48 p
Thanks for your comments Brent. I fought hard as well to make sure that Twitter was not only open, but that it was seen as a valuable networking site. I cannot look my administrator in the eye and say the same thing about Facebook. I love the way that you use Twitter in your district. I see the chats you have once in a while and I think it is such an effective way to not only share within your school, but with others who follow the hashtag as well.
This last Friday I had the chance to promote Twitter at a meeting with teachers from around my region. I pointed out that one of the reasons I enjoy the connections I have made on Twitter is because nearly all of the interactions are either positive or they help push my thinking. In my experience, the vast majority of conversations with my f2f colleagues focus on immediate issues that relate to students or to my school. Due to the way my school is structured we don’t typically plan joint lessons and each of us is our own department. My connections online allow me to dive deeper conversations about what is happening in the world of education. Engaging in these conversations online allows me to explore ideas that I simply don’t have time to do with the people with whom I work with directly.
What you are doing with Twitter provides a prime example to show districts that still have not quite embraced Twitter as a legitimate form of communication.
April 16th, 2012 at 5:30 p
There is a band director group on FB with over 9000 members. It has great discussions. Facebook has some quite valuable spots
April 17th, 2012 at 9:30 p
That is a wonderful example of using Facebook to network. I never said Facebook was not valuable. What I question is the value of it during the school day. While I know some great links come across while I am in school there is much more that comes across that is not professional that I would find completely distracting. If I were to venture onto Facebook during the day I would get caught commenting on the latest pictures of my niece or chatting with my friends from high school. I am not paid to do that. Most of my teacher friends who post professional things to Facebook crosspost to Twitter so there is no need for me to be on there.
April 16th, 2012 at 5:56 p
I totally agree! That’s me too. During work time, when students are not with me I will check Twitter and I feel that’s OK because it’s almost all work related, but even though I have some facebook work related “friends” I don’t check it in school. It’s for home with the feet up and a cup of tea!
April 17th, 2012 at 9:32 p
Linda,
We are both so fortunate that our schools allow us to tweet during the day. If it weren’t for the things I have learned because of Twitter I would not have nearly the base of knowledge that I have today!