Reflect/Tech
Welcome to the new
Academic Year!
To kick off the new
Academic Year and celebrate Art and Design’s new technology initiative this
first blog post will focus on ways to dip your toes into the digital waters.
Lets start with three
simple ways to introduce yourself to the world of social media and education.
Social media has become increasingly important in education, but what does that
mean? The best way to find out is to start exploring for yourself by focusing
on your own professional development.
1. Start
a Twitter Account
Forget all your
preconceptions about twitter. It is not all about what I had for lunch. Twitter is a major force in education these
days. Educators connect to each other and follow each other on twitter.
Sign up for Twitter and
create an account.
Once you create an
account, you can start to follow a few educators (I recommend three to start,
an easy number). Some great educators
that I follow are: John Seely Brown (@jseelybrown), Clay Shirky (@cshirky),
Howard Rheingold (@hrheingold) and danah boyd (@zephoria). You don’t even need
to tweet yourself to start with, but I am sure you will soon want to join in
the conversation.
2. Read
Blogs
If you are looking to
read more than 140 character about different topics, you will have to read
blogs. Blogs are basically web-based online diaries. They are usually organized
chronologically, and are composed of a mixture of text and images. They are
generally used to document and share hobbies, passions, foods etc. Some of my
favorite blogs are:
These are a mixture of education, design,
technology and one favorite food one.
3.
Write a Blog
Blogs are a great way to get into digital
conversation. Blogs are helpful in reflecting on your teaching practice, and
share your ideas. There are many blogging platforms out there, some of the
better known ones are wordpress, blogger, edublog and tumblr—which is a more
image-based platform.
Blogs can also be useful as a classroom
tool, my students blog about their experiences working in a company. By
blogging they are able to share their experiences not just with me, but with
their classmates.
Conclusion
Twitter and blogs are a
great way to join the digital conversation. Enjoy!
Follow me @slmarkusnyc
(twitter)
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