The connection between social networks and learning seems to me to be an obvious fact and in the case of language learning even more so. In the E/LE classroom, we try to develop the communicative competence of the students and social networks are tools that serve, precisely, to facilitate communication. Consequently, how can we not take advantage of them to promote this development?
On the other hand, these networks help us to extend learning outside the classroom, creating other spaces for interaction in the language of learning and collaborating in the student’s awareness of their learning autonomy.
Hay muchas redes sociales y cada una impone un modo de comunicación determinado. Seguramente en tu trabajo has ido probando diferentes canales, ¿cuáles te resultan más cómodos o más eficaces?
The first thing would be to distinguish between the use that I give them for my professional development and the use that I give them to the students. In the first case, I would highlight three platforms as fundamental. The first is my blog Teacher in distress. It is the place where I reflect and where I share my activities, but at the same time, it has been a space that has helped me to meet other teachers with the same interests as me. The second platform would be Twitter ( @ cometa23 ). To tell you the truth, I don’t know what I would do without Twitter. At some point, I have described it as my faculty without limits and I confirm that opinion. And, in particular, since the hashtag #twitterele was created, that cloister has become more active and more visible. And finally, there would be Facebook, a network that was used less for professional purposes but that has been gaining importance.
As for the use with students, I have tried many platforms, I have discarded some, and I have been staying with others. Right now, I’m experimenting with a virtual learning environment based on Google Drive, Twitter ( #espnico ), and a magazine-style classroom blog that is taking a while to get started.
Social networks have entered our lives very quickly and many people are still reluctant to open a profile, e.g. eg on Facebook. There are fears of not controlling privacy or of wasting too much time “hooked” on the Internet. Any advice to avoid these risks and manage your presence on social channels well?
The first piece of advice is that if you don’t want something to be public, don’t post it on a social network. Everything we post on Twitter or Facebook portrays us and, unlike what we say orally, it remains written there. The second piece of advice: you have to spend some time reading the privacy options of the networks to know with whom we share what. The same Facebook, which previously did not offer many options, now allows you to fiddle with the privacy settings. And the third, although I myself do not comply: it is not necessary to have a profile on all the networks and platforms that are emerging. It is preferable to be in one, but really be, than to be in twenty but without showing signs of life.
There are specific social networks for educational environments. Would you recommend any of them?
The one I know best is Edmodo. I have worked with her for several semesters and the experience has been positive. The work environment is very intuitive and resembles Facebook, so students feel comfortable. It is also a highly recommended environment for teachers with a fear of technique. The platform is extremely simple and does not require a training process like the one necessary to master, for example, Moodle.
Once the course is over, do the students continue to maintain contact through social networks?
My students mainly use Facebook for their social relationships. The contact between them is established in the virtual space as soon as they arrive at the university and continues when they leave. What’s more, thanks to Facebook, many former students remain very attentive to the activities of our center through our website on this network and remain in direct contact with those who were their teachers through their personal profiles.
As for social networks that we have used in the classroom, in the case of Edmodo, the interaction usually ends when the course ends, which seems logical to me because it is still an educational network. In the case of Twitter, many students continue to use it, although it all depends on how they have integrated this network into their daily lives. I mean: if they saw it only as a class activity, the interaction ends at the end of the course. But if they saw it as a social network and even used it to tweet in their native language, then the use continues after the course and the interaction between them also.
Other 2.0 tools that you use in your professional day-to-day?
Apart from social networks, my blog and Google Drive are the two vital 2.0 tools for me. Anyway, I couldn’t live without Diigo either, to store everything I find on the web; without Google Reader, to follow the blogs that interest me; without Flickr or Photopin, to find photos with a Creative Commons license for my blog; without Wikipedia, Scribd, Slideshare … And to close this unfinished list I want to highlight Instagram, an application that I haven’t used for education yet but that has me hooked.
Would you advise “old school” teachers to update their methodology and incorporate new channels of communication with their students?
I would recommend any teacher investigate the potential that ICTs have in any educational process. In the first place, our students (practically of all ages) now live not only in the physical world that surrounds us but also in that virtual space. Secondly, digital competence is a transversal competence that we should develop in our classes. And thirdly, because as communication technologies they are faithful allies to improving the communicative competence of our students.
That said, I also believe that no one is a better or worse teacher for using or not using ICT in their classes. The best advice I can give to any teacher is not to bring anything into the classroom that you don’t believe in. ICT can be an exciting tool that can help us give a different approach to learning, but it can also become a double-edged sword that helps us repeat ineffective practices is simply new and more attractive formats. The use of ICTs has to take us further, to learning processes in which communication, interaction, and learner autonomy are emphasized.
