What are you initial reactions about joining these social networks for use in this course?
I’m excited to embark on another course which integrates social media and learning. Last summer I took a special topics EdTech course – Blogging in the Classroom (the initial reason this blog was created) and it has been my favorite course of the program to date.
What is your experience in using social media for your own professional development?
I work as a webmaster for a technical college and we use Microsoft SharePoint for our web content management system. There is a huge Twitter community related to SharePoint and on several occasions I’ve used #sphelp and gotten responses from strangers – it’s wonderful and shows the power of social media!
What is your experience in using social media as an instructional strategy in your learning environment?
I’m not, nor have I ever been, an educator so I’ve never had the opportunity to teach with social media, but I’ve been on the receiving end in my aforementioned Blogging in the Classroom course. Before that course I was not very active on Twitter, but our instructor used it extensively and I found I really liked it.
What are your expectations for this course?
I’m looking forward to the exposure to social media that I’m not familiar with - our first assignment already introduced me to Diigo which I’d never used before so we’re off to a good start. I work in marketing and although I have no plans to be an educator – so while I won't be using the techniques learned in the classroom, I think the exposure I will gain to social media will help our college as we attempt to use the same tools to reach prospective students.
