Professionalism in the Classroom

"I feel that if we don't use social media in the classroom, we are doing a disservice to our students."

-- from the Professional Advisory: Electronic Communication, Social Media from Ontario College of Teachers video found on YouTube

In the Professional Advisory video, it speaks about the pros and cons of using social media in the classroom. It really speaks to how I/we have learned as teacher candidates in Zoe Branigan-Pipe's technology course here at Brock University.  

My life as a student felt as though the teacher were teaching how they preferred to teach. Nowadays, it feels like we have a shift towards teaching how students learn, through differentiation and modifications, and technology certainly has its place in that. The video recognizes that students do use technology as a mode of communication, so why don't we cater to their strengths and what they might use on a regular basis? 

Like I've reflected earlier, I really want to incorporate technology and use it as an asset - not something separate to be touched from time to time, and not something used every lesson and every time to the point of exhaustion. Technology can be used as a way of students to communicate their learning; technology can be used as a mode of teaching. Using social media is a fantastic way to collaborate, to share, and while it does come with the necessity of teaching netiquette and professionalism, this is a small leap to really making a classroom integrated.