Monday, March 18, 2013

Immersing Myself in Social Media Feels Like Rush Hour 24/7. Can you help me steer the way?


Destination: Making school an engaging, caring and compassionate place
Objective: Seeking a better social media route

Using social media as a professional development guide to improve education will most certainly yield positive results throughout my school community; especially once more FHS drivers enter the road. I initiated my journey about 9 months ago. I still feel I am utilizing social media more so for myself professionally than for my community. Social media has helped to expand my educational philosophy; has helped me connect ideas to movements and clarify some of my misconceptions. I do share what I learn with others via social media, through personal conversations and through traditional email, however, at the moment I have no idea what the impact on the community has been. Don’t get me wrong; social media has led some colleagues to move in a particular direction.  We have participated in a few school wide projects and divisional projects as a result of what we have been exposed to and learned through social media; we have many teachers reading and writing blogs, and some students are blogging and publishing iBooks, as well. There is also a pretty large group of us that “carpool together” frequently, exchanging ideas and looking for ways to implement them in our school. I know the road toward change is a long one, and that is OK, as long as we keep moving forward.
Let’s get back to rush hour and at this point I am driving on my own, but seeking some advice to make my own professional journey a bit more efficient. I think many of us out there are constantly looking for better traffic patterns or alternate routes. I bury and overwhelm myself with so much information that I tend to skim the surface by reviewing all paths, instead of taking a pit stop or considering a detour. The traffic patterns I have explored are Google reader for my blogs, TweetDeck for my tweets, and delicious to park my favorites, and I use Flipboard as the suitcase for all my apps while on the go. However, I still would appreciate some advice from those experienced drivers, map developers or analysts who could help me reach my destination.

It’s spring break, I am set to refuel, can you help me steer the way? What do you use to navigate, explore fully, park your information, and make rush hour a pleasant experience?

Thanks in advance for helping me refuel. 

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