u05a2 - Using Social Networks with the CCPS Science Teachers

My role with our school district is as K-12 science curriculum coordinator, so rather than creating a classroom science lesson that incorporates the use of social media, I thought I would share how my office is currently using social media with our science teachers in Naples, Florida.

The Collier County Public Schools is quite progressive when it comes to technology.  For over 5 years now, all K-12 classrooms have been equipped with video projection, interactive whiteboards, document cameras and speaker systems.  Our district is also moving to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program at the start of the 2013-14 school year.  The use of social media in our school district has been discussed for some time and we recently (about a year and a half ago) adopted a social media policy in our school district.  

This new policy allowed my office to begin taking advantage of social media with our teachers and model for them how social media might play a role in their classroom.  My office consists of myself and two TSA's (Teachers on Special Assignment) and we work with a variety of teacher groups around our county. We have communicated with these groups in various ways over the years. This communication has taken the form of group emails, meeting minutes, and most recently a Learning Management System (LMS).  We are now utilizing a social media tool called Edmodo.  This tool has allowed us to create "groups" for a variety of teachers groups that we work with.  

We have invited teachers to join these Edmodo groups so they can stay up to speed with what is happening within the various user groups they want or need to join.  This "group feature" within Edmodo, also allows us to customize messages to certain groups or send one message that may pertain to multiple groups and know what each user group is receiving a consistent message from our office.

Edmodo screen of different groups

Currently, we have generated the obvious Edmodo groups such as our K-5 science program, middle school science teachers and high school science teachers.

The power of this social media platform allows us to create more specific groups as well, such as, science teachers who use digital probeware, science teachers who are flipping their classroom and those teachers who are beginning to incorporate the use of iPads into their classroom.  

Example of Edmodo Group Code 

One of the advantages to a platform like Edmodo is the similarities to other familiar social media sites like Facebook.  When we create a group for teachers to join, they have a simple "join code" that we provide to them so they can become part of the group.  These codes can be locked or reset by the group admin making it easy to manage who is able or allowed to join your group.  I will be resetting my group codes this year for the 2013-14 teachers that are invited to the groups.

Additionally we are able to manage our group members by using the built in page in Edmodo (see screen capture to the left) to keep an eye on who is currently in the group.  As teachers change roles, we keep these memberships up to date.

The most powerful feature of Edmodo is our ability to send messages directly to only those that need it.  These messages can shared to multiple groups to keep our communication efficient or members can reply to posts and dialogue with each other on a post to share ideas.  This is particularly helpful for groups of teachers who may be "isolated" at their school (i.e. science academic coach).  See the screen captures below for examples of posts and replies and posts sent to multiple groups.

Example of Edmodo post shared with multiple groups.

Edmodo Group Post + replies

This year, in addition to incorporating this example of social media, we will also be modeling another method for teachers to create "back channels" within the classroom.  This is another way for them to allow students to answer questions, provide feedback, etc. without needing to raise their hand and offer their answer for the entire class to hear.  These "back channels" allow all students to reply and even allows the teacher to expect that all students would reply.  Here is an example of a back channel I have created using Padlet for the 2013-14 Middle School Science Department Chairs.

Social media has embedded itself into many of our personal lives.  We think it is important to model for the teachers we support how to incorporate social media into their classroom and support them in using these valuable communication tools with their students.