VIEW THE WEBINAR

While there are some educators who feel the best advice when it comes to social media is to stay away, presenter Lisa Nielsen, Director of Digital Literacy and Citizenship at the New York City Department of Education, disagrees. In the edWeb.net Digital Citizenship community’s January webinar, she told teachers that if they’re not using social media, they’re not doing their job. The role of today’s educator is to prepare students to thrive in the world in which they live. In today’s world, if you want to run a business, run for office, or change the way things are run where you live, play, or work, you must be savvy in the use of social media. If we do not ensure our kids are equipped to do so responsibly and effectively, we are robbing them of the real and relevant education they deserve. Lisa shared how educators are using social media such as Facebook and Twitter both as a powerful tool for professional development as well as how it can be used as a vehicle for student learning. She discussed one example of a teacher who uses Facebook with first graders to strengthen the home-school connection via informational posts.  Lisa gave another example of a teacher who uses Twitter with second graders to increase tourism in their community. Schools are using social media to share the stories of their classroom with the world and even using it as a tool to increase enrollment.  View the webinar to learn how Lisa suggests taking the learning outside of the confines of a classroom.