Sunday, June 2, 2019

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram

SOCIAL MEDIA

Faceboook:
Exploring Facebook with a mission on mind was exciting!  Mission: Find “School Library” pages and find out how they are using Facebook to promote their libraries.  What I noticed when doing the search, is that I had to browse and sift through many pages that actually were school library pages.   Many of the results brought up many other “library” related pages.  Nonetheless, I was able to find many school library pages and was surprised with what I saw.  I noticed many pages highlighted news and events for the campus as a whole, rather than the library itself.   I also noticed the library pages had fewer likes or comments, than the school pages.  Facebook seems to have less presence and activity with regards to advocacy or professional development.  However, it is a great tool for libraries to promote literacy and events with parents and the local community.   A school library page I looked at and admired was that of Pasadena High School Library, PHSLibraryTX.  It clearly is taking advantage of this social media platform to advocate and promote their library.  It posts regularly their library news and highlights, as well as showcases those students who have excelled in reading.
Pasadena High School Library:
https://www.facebook.com/PHSLibraryTX/

Twitter:
Searching on Twitter was a totally different experience.  By far, I noticed Twitter is such a powerful tool for professional development and support.  Many parents or students might not be as familiar or active on Twitter, but the number of fellow educators and school community members make this social media platform perfect to advocate for the library.  I follow several school librarians and authors, but recently I started following some educational technology leaders. 
Gwyenth Jones @ GywnethJones, The Daring Librarian, shares trendy technology tools and innovative resources for libraries. I really enjoyed her Tweet on her Makerspace Starter Kit Decoded Preso.  She shares the file of abundant resources to start a Makerspace.



Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock shares an abundance of tech tools and provides ways to incorporated in the classroom and in the libraries.  She has numerous of websites and writes for many others as well, and from time to time she shares links her posts via Twitter.  One that caught my attention was a Tweet she shared when she wrote about Professional Development in a blog for Discovery Education.



Linda W. Braun @lbraun2000 as a former President for YALSA, she continues to advocate for YA literature and is often sharing ways to promote literature and technology.  She shared a very powerful Tweet from Edutopia, yet she added her own comment supporting the need of reflections for library activities.



Jim Lerman @jimlerman is an educator who offers so many Tweets on educational technology.  The information and resources shared are amazing and very beneficial, yet readers are taken to his Scoop.it site and navigate through it to read the articles.  I found this to be a bit of a hassle though.  Besides this, my eyes were drawn to one post in particular, I know teachers and librarians would appreciate. 

Kristina  A. Holzweiss @lieberrian shares so much resources on her Tweeter feed.  From tech tools, inspirational quotes, retweets to other amazing educators, to weekly FistPumpFriday! shares. I was blown away with a tweet about Telly Prompt Chrome extensions.

Instagram:
Navigating through Instagram is a photographic treat for our eyes!  The numerous Insta posts, stories, and giveaways.  For a visual person like me, I absolutely love following librarians and tech educators that share resources and ideas for others to implement.  I definitely notice students and parents are fonder of following someone on Instagram than Twitter.  Teachers can utilize Instagram to demonstrate what they are doing in their classrooms, for parents and school community members can see.  We all need to advocate all that we do in the classrooms and in the library, and Instagram is a quick and easy way to do it.  From projects, curriculum, reminders, and activities, to community engagement, Instagram can let followers know what is happening at school.  Tagging and using hashtags, will allow businesses, vendors and followers know how tools, resources, and ideas are being implemented.  This is a great window of opportunities to collaborate with others.  A librarian I began following is Jessica Zannini @notesfromtheportable.  She showcases what she has been up to in her library.  She also shares literacy and technology everyday tips.  I think this post about using old technology was fabulous!




On this Instagram post, I shared with my followers a small section of my bookshelf where I store my professional development textbooks and inspirational books.  I keep this section up to date and try to change books as needed.  It is small, because lots of my professional development lately I do it online.




Next, is a post I shared of my daughter caught reading on a Summer night.  It has been a goal of mine to instill reading in every child, and that includes my own.    



Overall, I believe each person will choose their social media according to their preference or needs.  School community members’ needs vary and some like parents will prefer Facebook to connect with teachers or follow the school’s page to learn about events happening.  Pros of Facebook are events and reminders, as well as its opportunity to share with many.  Cons of Facebook can be the overwhelming amount of feeds and lengthy comments that you have to scroll through.  Others like educators or educational vendors will choose Twitter to connect and gain professional development.  Twitter pros can be its short tweets that are fast to read, and the grand educational and news information shared.  However, a Twitter con, can be that tweets can go  unnoticed if the correct or trendy hashtag is missing.  Instagram tends to be liked most to students and parents, because of its visuals and fast reads.  However, many teachers and librarians are becoming very popular on Instagram, by showcasing their work and advocating for their profession.   Which I think its genius!  Instagram has many Pros, but one that I think is amazing is the ability to link to other platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.  Nevertheless, an Instagram con is lack of editing privacy of images individually.  Instagram does not allow you to do so.  Social media has brought many problems to our society, however it is an awesome resource for educators, we just need to know when and how to use it.
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5 comments:

  1. KDavisJune 5, 2019 at 7:52 AM

    I love how you embedded the posts in your blog! Your picture with the overgram was perfect!

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    Replies
    1. Virginia SalcedoJuly 3, 2019 at 9:48 PM

      Kristi it took me awhile to figure it out, but then learned that I had to embed it using the HTML, then go back to the regular view in order for it to work. I hope it makes sense.

      Delete
  2. Virginia SalcedoJuly 3, 2019 at 9:45 PM

    Thanks, I had to sneak back into her room to take advantage of a photo opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carla OyervidesJuly 20, 2019 at 1:28 PM

    Wow! Your blog is amazing! I loved the photos you shared! I also came to the realization as you, Facebook is a bit behind compared to other social media like Twitter and Instagram.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jessi BarrAugust 1, 2019 at 12:13 AM

    Virginia, you have a lot of good observations about the changing users and usage of the three social media sites. I also found that Twitter has a lot of useful professional links to information that school librarians can use in lesson and collection development.

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