The Social Media Classroom

The term “social media” includes all those forms of digital technology that allow as to communicate and share information or “content” with others using the internet. Social media include everything from blogs, wikis, and podcast to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, websites and apps.
Social media are ideal for educators because they are nimble, flexible, easy to use and often very powerful: they focus on doing one thing only and on doing that thing well. Moreover, with social media students can participate easily in the creation of content, websites and their own learning spaces, meaning that these tools can be student– and class-focused rather than teacher-driven. If used correctly, social media can have many benefits in the educational setting, depending on the task and the type of media employed.

Purpose
With the rapid advancement of technology, it is challenging for teachers and educators to ensure that learning design approaches remain current. Teachers are expected to be up-to- date on -and be proficient in- the newest technology in the classroom. While using various technologies to supplement learning is attractive, the use of these tools is not always intuitive. It can be difficult for instructors to maintain best practices of pedagogy while continuously learning and relearning how to incorporate emerging technologies. One group of technologies that is increasingly of interest to instructors is social media. Social media are web-based platforms that facilitate collaboration, interaction, and ex-change of user- generated content. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and various wiki- style sites are integrated firmly into the personal lives of most students, allowing faculty the opportunity to customize course material to facilitate and accomplish learning expectations and goals.
This course is designed to help teachers and educators understand how to incorporate very popular tech trends - social media, blogging, web-based tools - into the classroom. Through a series of theoretical lectures and practical workshops teachers are expected to get familiar with social media and become able of using them in the classroom for education purposes.

Objectives
✓ Understand the concept digital pedagogy and the need for developing a digital pedagogy of your own
✓ Know some of the imperatives that drive change in educational practices
✓ Explore new ways in teaching through social media and web tools
✓ Provide school education staff with practical ideas on how they can incorporate technology into their existing teaching programs
✓ Familiarize school education staff with using social media during classroom activities
✓ Enable school education staff to become confident and competent enough to create a collaborative, interactive classroom experience for their students through the use of the ICT and social media.
✓ Use different Social Media in the classroom: managing groups, interacting, communicating, sharing materials
✓ Make a search easier, create playlist about different topics, share and embed videos and playlists
✓ Propose tasks and exercises through Social Media

Target Groups
✓ Teachers (primary, secondary, vocational, adult, special needs).
✓ Teacher trainers.
✓ Careers officers, educational guides and counsellors.
✓ Headteachers.
✓ Principals.
✓ Managers of schools

Methods & Tools
Lectures, exercises, discussions, teamwork, role-playing, study visits.

Agenda
Day 1
✓ Introductory meeting, explanation of practical arrangements, presentation of timetable, information about course venue.
✓ Icebreakers, Introduction to the Course
✓ Visit to the historical center of Heraklion
✓ Visit to info point of the Municipality of Heraklion for information about Crete.

Day 2
A digital pedagogy for creation, literacy and numeracy in inclusive education
✓ How digital expectancy will change teaching
✓ Meaning and Importance of Creativity in Modern School
✓ Creative technologies and play
✓ The role of technology in emerging literacy and numeracy
✓ Developing a digital pedagogy for creative, purposeful and experimental learning with technology

Day 3
✓ Social Media and Education
✓ Common aspects of social media and practice
✓ “Digital naives”, new learning and digital literacy
✓ Cyberbullying
✓ Understanding risks online
✓ Practical and in-class considerations

Day 4
The big four
✓ Blogs
✓ Wikis
✓ Social networks
✓ Podcasting, music and audio

Day 5
✓ Visual media
✓ Instant messaging, Chat, Skype and Twitter
✓ Bookmarking, Pinterest, mind gapping and polls
✓ Educational games
✓ Mobile learning
✓ Erasmus+ program : objectives, priorities, actions, forms, budget, tips for applicants
✓ Planning follow up activities, dissemination and exploitation of learning outcomes
✓ Course Evaluation
✓ Certifications