Social Media, Risk Averse Administration, and Agriscience Teachers

As many know, I am a huge fan of each of being a digital advocate for school-based agricultural education. Unfortunately, there are several anecdotes I hear from ag teachers who have their administration tell them, "No." and implement restrictive social media policies.

All this in a time when according to a recent survey, mobile technology is becoming more popular in today's classrooms, . A majority of educators -- 86% -- who responded to the survey said mobile technology bolsters student engagement, and 67% said it helps support personalized learning. eSchool News (free registration) (9/3)

A blog I really enjoy following is "Dangerously Irrelevant" by Dr. Scott McLeod. Here is a direct link: http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/  Here is a video of him at a Ted Talk in Iowa talking about Teens and Technology:

He just posted a great post (Cutting off our nose to spite our face) wondering if school administrators restrict conversations that occur at church, the mall or grocery store or limit handwritten notes, etc...

A must read and I am curious to my fellow ag educators thoughts. How can we share with administrators the incredible benefit of community relations and student learning by increasing transparency of inviting others into our teaching and learning processes via social media platforms?

The seem to value those community relationships when bond elections come up, why penalize all for the actions of such a very few?

Apps Apps Apps - Growing out digital literacy

Librarian compiles list of educator-approved apps
Michelle Luhtala, a high-school librarian in Connecticut, used crowdsourcing to compile a list of education mobile applications with the help of educators from across the country. This article organizes the digital tools into categories such as note-taking, social media and digital storytelling and presentation tools. KQED.org/Mind Shift Blog (6/11)

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2014 IAAE Workshop - Leveraging Social Media for Program Success: Preparing your Students for Digital World!

Leveraging Social Media for Program Success:

Preparing your students for the Digital World!

Twitter Conversation: #TeachAgSM14

A 2014 Indiana Association of Agricultural Educators Workshop

Location: https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/inag14/
Time Allotted: 75 minutes

Presenters:

@FosterDanielD -Daniel Foster, Penn State Ag.Teacher Educator, University Park, PA

@AgEd4ME  - Matthew Eddy, Southeast Polk Agriscience Teacher, Des Moines, IA

@czsheehan- Zane Sheehan, California Agricultural Education State Staff Member/Former Red Wing Minnesota Agriscience Teacher

@jillianpsu- Jillian Gordon, Penn State 2015 Student Teacher, University Park, PA

@RCMcLean- Robin McLean, Northern Burlington Middle School Agriscience Teacher, Westampton, NJ (Virtually)

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of the session, participants will be able to:

1.       Define the “why” of Social Media – What is it and how can it help education?

2.       Identify 15 immediate applications for school-based agricultural education

3.       Develop an action plan for immediate action

4.    Promoting engaged digital citizenship and #agedu advocates in our students


Handout Available: http://tinyurl.com/IAAE14SocialMedia 

Presentation SlideDeck:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9rwwS2lj61ca1dHM0FSZmFaYlk/edit?usp=sharing

Other Resources:
Using Social Media with Middle School Agriscience Programs by Robin McLean

Our Connected Culture

Twitter for Teachers

Digital Citizenship Resources