Educators Shouldn’t Act Differently on Social Media – from Patrick Larkin

Patrick Larkin writes regularly on his Education Week blog, Reinventing K-12 Learning. He first published this post on February 18th.

As someone who is a big proponent of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. as tools to communicate, connect, and learn, I often get asked about the downside of social media use for educators.  My honest answer is that I really don’t see a downside for educators in using social media tools for the purposes I mention above. The two biggest reasons for educators to be using social media are as follows:

  1. Educators need to model the use of these online communication resources in a responsible manner.
  2. Social media provides an avenue for educators to amplify their voices and share the great work happening in their classrooms at a time where teachers and schools are often viewed with disdain.

I was asked about this topic by Tanya Roscorla from the Center for Digital Education in her recent article How should educators act on social mediaHere is my response:

“If people out themselves as intolerant, ignorant people on social media, I think it’s a good thing, and they shouldn’t be in those positions to begin with.”

>> Read the rest of the article on Patrick’s Education Week Blog.

Learn more from Patrick on this topic at Leading Future Learning on March 11th.

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