TheFlippedScientist

Social media is a group of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to  forums,   microblogging ,  social networking  ,  social bookmarking ,  social curation , and wikis  are among the different types of social media. The digital era has seen the popularity of social media expand exponentially. In education, social media has been increasingly adopted to enrich the learning environment. Pearson’s survey ( Joosten, 2013 ) shows that there has been an increase i n social media use in teaching in the United States  of 21.3% from 2012 to 2013. Junco et al (2011) investigated the use of social media in teaching and showed that student motivation and grades can be enhanced by the use of the social media, admittedly in a university setting.  However, social media has not been without its critics. T...

At the recent ULearn conference in Auckland the documentary “ Most Likely to Succeed ” caused much interest and excitement and it’s easy to see what the excitement is about. The film is a damning indictment of secondary education. The documentary argues that the present secondary school system is built on an antiquated Prussian model designed to develop Prussia's military aspirations at the time . The primary goal of this model is to transfer content to the learner, with success or failure measured by standardized testing. However, according to the documentary, this teacher directed and focused approach leaves many children bored and listless. However perhaps of more concern, this method is unsuited for modern society. Information is now ubiquitous. You can google. Computers can write routine news stories and do routine legal work. Our test-driven schools are training students for exactly the rote tasks that can be done much more effectively by computers. ...

The above map shows connections between myself and my wider educational professional  community. At the center are the educators who are involved in secondary education especially those involved in science. The borders of the map include those more involved in science research and research on digital online collaboration. I will discuss the following questions in relation to my map and the community that surrounds it, with potential for further expansion ideas over time. 1. What other professional communities intersect with or lie at the borders of your own profession? What impact do these communities have on your practice and professional community? 2. What are or what would be the benefits and challenges of working in a more interdisciplinary environment? Professional communities that intersect at the borders of my profession include: Scientists and science communicators  @nanogirl : The impact of these communities is that they gen...

An important aspect of being an educator is to know the communities we work in. In order to do this I have asked 5 questions: 1) Who are the stakeholders of your professional community? In what ways do they influence your  practice? 2) What are the current issues in your community? How would you or your community address them? 3) What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you cater for the community of  your practice? 4) What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area of practice relate to the  broader professional context? 5) What are the challenges that you face in your practice? Who are in the community? Catholic Boys School Decile 8 (ranked from 1-10, with 10 being highest in socio-economic factors) Diverse cultural, social and economic backgrounds from all over Auckland Over 20 ethnic groups Pasifika 19%; Maori 10% ; Asian 18% (includes all Asian nationalities i.e. Chinese, Indian etc); European 53% ...