New findings_#ntchat, Edweb.net

These days I have been searching for resources on the web about teachers' social media usage for their practice and professional learning. At the same time, I have collected social media policy in Florida school districts. One thought, while I was doing those works, was that teachers might not know how to apply social media in their practice and school district policies are not supporting teachers' social media usage. So, I started to explore teachers' online communities and social networks to know how they learn and what they need for their practice and professional learning. However, it was not easy to access to active communities on Facebook. Instead, I could find some clues about teachers' needs and learning behaviors from Reddit, Pinterest, and other social network platforms.

Out of various platforms, new findings of this week were #ntchat and Edweb.net. They looked useful for educators when they need help. In terms of Twitter chats, I learned it in EME6414 class, and my thought just went to teachers' twitter chat this week for knowledge sharing activity. It was amazing that there are a lot of Twitter chats for teachers, and it was even more surprising that they were going on briskly. 

Meanwhile, I found Edweb.net while searching for teacher communities. Edweb.net is not a social media platform but a website to support teachers’ professional learning. There were many kinds of communities and webinars so teachers can choose what they are interested in. I tried to find social media usage for teachers in Edweb.net, and there were over ten webinars about social media usage in education.

It was so exciting for me to search for those resources because I needed to learn how U.S. teachers participate in online communities and how to use their knowledge into practice. I am really grateful for this opportunity of knowledge sharing as I can focus on teachers real situations and needs.