This is the P2PU Archive. If you want the current site, go to www.p2pu.org!
CPD through Twitter for Maths Teachers
CPD through Twitter for Maths Teachers
I founded #mathchat on Twitter, as a recent convert to using Twitter, in July 2010 and began to realize its power as a tool for educators. Having presented at a number of TeachMeets about Twitter and CPD, and less formalized ways of conducting professional development, I felt there was a need to allow a focused or sheltered way for others, like myself, who may have doubts about the efficacy or use of Twitter as a means of CPD.
Mathematics is a particularly thorny area for many teachers, especially at the primary or elementary levels, and finding sources of help without embarrassment can be tricky for many.
You can find out more about me by following the links on my profile in P2PU or just ask me on Twitter!
Members
Colin
|
Cathe
|
Dave
|
Dorot
|
Jared
|
Maria
|
Magnu
|
Sue H
|
Susan
|
Summary
So, I've heard about Twitter and other kinds of social media, but is it really useful for helping me on a day-to-day basis with my teaching?
The aim of this course is to show you the power of using Twitter as one of the tools in your professional development as a teacher involved in mathematics. The sign-up task is designed to make sure that you can communicate with other members of the group and, from then on, you proceed at your own pace through the four stages of the course.
Most of the communication will happen through Twitter itself, but you will also be expected to contribute to the group's learning goals and take part, when possible, in some of the synchronous meetings.
The main aim of this course is to help you feel more confident about using Twitter as another point of access for your continuing professional development as a teacher, and you can complete the stages in six to twelve weeks as best suits your needs.
Some questions we will look at could include:
How immediate is the response I can get?
What if I need to discuss things which are sensitive? Can I protect my views?
How can I best share information or find it using Twitter?
Do scheduled chats help me or should I use hashtags? [Help, I don't know what this is!]
How can I adapt Twitter for my own needs as a teacher (of mathematics)?
Learning objectives
This course has four stages, which you may be able to complete inside one week, but we will be allowing twelve!
- To be able to use Twitter comfortably, to the extent of organising/filtering tweets, using hashtags, tweeting and retweeting on a variety of topics, understanding the implications of protecting tweets
- To be able to participate in at least four scheduled discussions held on Twitter, including being aware of other opportunities for CPD using Twitter. Not all of these have to be using #mathchat but contributions on other discussions can, and will, be monitored
- To be able to have at least one question answered, or being guided towards an answer, which will help me with a current problem or challenge I have in my classroom
- To build a personal learning network (PLN) which will be able to support me in my development as a teacher
You will be asked to reflect on when you feel you have achieved each of these stages and provide links or examples which other participants can verify or follow (the moderator certainly will!). The reflections can be presented as tweets, links to blog entries, comments made to the group or comments made during synchronous sessions. If possible, three synchronous meetings will be held around week 4, week 8 and week 12 of the course. The bulk of the communication will be synchronous, in Twitter discussions, with a portion conducted asynchronously through the Google group and assigned Twitter hashtags.
Schedule/Syllabus
