Beginning this subject, I thought I was fairly fluent with social media. Only being in my 20’s and having grown up using social media from the days of Myspace, I thought I knew what I was doing. Through this subject, I realised that I only knew a tiny fraction of the world of social media. This subject has opened up my eyes to the amount of different platforms that there are, the volume of people who use them and how I can use them in my professional life.
Beginning this subject I used Facebook and Instagram religiously. At the end of this subject, I find myself now using Twitter and reading blogs by other professionals to help me keep up to date with educational news and theories. I initially thought social media was the place to keep in touch with friends and family, not the place to learn of new professional learning, connect with colleagues and peer teach. This subject has really opened my world up online.
Twitter was never my go to social media platform. I always found it informal and too brief. Through this subject, I was introduced to the idea of peer mentoring and collaboration through Twitter. Whilst I still don’t really tweet, I follow many librarians and library networks both here and overseas. This allows me to see what others are doing in their library spaces to make them engaging and also to be better informed about professional learning in the library space. By having these relationships with other librarians, I am gaining knowledge that I just couldn’t get in my school alone due to having no other TL. I now have a network at my finger tips to ask questions to, ask for suggestions or just watch as they innovate. This network is free professional learning that allows me to continue growing as an educator without leaving my classroom (Willemse, 2016).
This course has also made me think about my online identity. As much as I hate to admit it, there are two versions of myself; my personal life version and my professional life version. When online, I don’t want to bombard my friends and family with post after post of new educational reform but at the same time I also don’t want all of my colleagues to see photographs of my nieces and nephews. This made me think about creating a “personal professional” account (Cho & Jimerson, 2016). This now means that I can confidently share my personal photos still without the fear of a colleague seeing something that they shouldn’t as well as not making my friends’ unfriend me as I post a link to a new professional learning aimed at low literacy.
Moving into the future and considering social media and the internet, I am slightly concerned about what these platforms know about my identity and what they will retain even if were to delete my profile. This thought was presented to me through this subject and since then, I have been more concerned with what I am posting or even searching online (Me and my shadow). I am worried that in the future private medical companies may have access to our online trace and will be able to see our past searches which could flag medical issues to drive up premiums. Despite this, there are too many advantages to staying online. The only solution is to very carefully consider what I post and ensure that I read terms and conditions to see who my private information is being shared with. Ultimately my privacy is up to me and I will ensure that I take all necessary precautions to cover myself both now and in the future.
Throughout this subject, my ideas have definitely evolved. I no longer see social media as a recreational tool. I see it as a professional networking tool as well. I am now more informed about the dangers of sharing too much information online and will work towards minimising this risk. I am now utilising more platforms in a much more effective way to make the most of my experience both professionally and personally.
References
Cho, V., & Jimerson, J. B. (2016). Managing digital identity on Twitter: The case of school administrators. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 45(5), 884-900. doi: 10.1177/1741143216659295
Me and my shadow, (n.d.). Take control of your data. Retrieved from https://myshadow.org/
Willemse, A. J. (2016). #TwitMentoring: Librarians using Twitter in forming and cultivating mentoring relationships. In D. Lowe-Wincentsen (Ed.), Beyond mentoring : A guide for librarians and information professionals. Oxford: Elsevier Science. Retrieved from Ebook Central.
