Over the past four to five weeks I have been marvelling at the growth of the facebook page - NZ Teachers (Primary )
From humble beginnings by one teacher in Auckland in January to 3826 members today sharing, connecting, networking, discussing all things education.
This got me wondering...
- why has there been such exponential growth of members over such an incredibly short period of time?
- why such open sharing and questioning?
- why are so many educators connecting here as opposed to Twitter, Pond, vln? Or are they in many spaces?
Is it because of the ease and familiarity of facebook?
Is it the rapid response with so many members?
This rapid growth of members connecting and sharing is akin to the phenomenal growth from Danielle Myburgh's dream #edchatnz.
Taking my wonderings into my personal and professional roles, I am aware of the need to meet learners wherever they are. We must be mindful of supporting learners, and ensuring opportunities are made to meet, share, learn and connect within familiar networks and online spaces.
The share volume of sharing in the facebook page could well be cross posted to literacy spaces within the vln, and shared via twitter.
The challenge is knowing who is out there, who is sharing, and in which spaces.
What are your preferred online networking spaces and why???
Anne I think people love the ease of Facebook. You are right the sharing of resources is amazing! I am loving it. As a teacher I am busy and don't have time to go on Twitter. Or VLN . The other thing is I am not confident using those sites.
ReplyDeleteKerren
Thanks Kerren,
DeleteI totally appreciate your comments. We need to feel comfortable in a space to explore and exploit it. For now the facebook is serving a lot of people, connecting a lot of people and doing a whole lot of good.
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Anne K
Like you I've watched the growth of this group and wondered why and how; maybe it reflects our age, lots of us middle or older age teachers would be on Facebook privately anyway lol, and the idea of having everything in one place certainly appeals. a couple of years ago I was looking for a tool that would bring all my feeds from various sites together to save time, too (now I have established a routine where I check them all regularly and I don't worry about what I miss out on).
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the discussions, and the fact that topics are not separated out into different groups. However, I've been a bit concerned about the group becoming hard to manage with the growth and the number of posts - with the VLN being moderated this is not a problem. I think people need to be aware of the mixing of private sphere and professional role, I made a choice to have a professional FB account so that I don't need to think about if I want to share my private life with people I don't know well.
I like the VLN though admittedly lately I’ve been spending a lot less time there as it's less relevant with my move to Oz (I haven't come across anything similar over here btw). I know not everyone 'clicks' with it, not all platforms work for everyone. So I think we need to do what we do with our students, find different ways of engaging and connecting. This will probably include having different platforms to engage different teachers:)
Thanks Monika,,
DeleteHow wonderful to hear from you.
I am thinking that it really does not matter how and why we connect - what matters s that we are connecting. We are finding a space and a way of working that is supporting our journey!
I am loving the sharing and connecting that is happening in the facebook group for now!
Hope you are well and enjoying your life change....
AK