Social media can be useful tools for educators. Twitter provides links to educational articles and allows communication with colleagues worldwide. Diigo is useful for bookmarking student and professional resources and receiving bookmarks from other educators through groups. Google+ allows more personal connections with educators and strong communities. Pinterest makes following others with common education interests like biology very visual. Successes include participating in Twitter chats using hashtags and getting retweeted. Challenges include too many tools to choose from and spending too much time networking. Moodle is an easy to navigate online learning platform that works well for independent learners. The author uses Twitter, Diigo, Pinterest, Animoto, Google+, LinkedIn, and Moodle.
2. Most Useful Tools
● Twitter
o Conveniently provides links to current educational articles
o Chats allow me to communicate with colleagues from across the world
● Diigo
o Can use for student bookmarks as well as keeping track of professional
bookmarks
o Using Groups allows me to receive bookmarks from other educators
● Google+
o More personal connections with educators
o Great connections in Communities
● Pinterest
o Very visual and easy to follow people with common interests in education,
i.e. biology
3. Successes
● Participating in Twitter
chats using #hashtags
● Getting retweeted
● Forcing myself to find
educator colleagues
outside of my immediate
circle
● Implementing some of the
ideas and suggestions of
those in my PLN
4. Challenges
● Too many tools to
choose from
● Feelings of
redundancy across
networks
● Not using too much
time networking
5. Moodle & Online Learning Opinion
● Moodle is an easy to navigate platform that
makes classes accessible
● Online learning works well for me since I am
an independent learner. The nature of this
course’s material allowed quick and easy
feedback
