Social Media Workshops here at PQ

I've been lucky enough to attend some Social Media Workshops here at PQ this week, run by Double Shot Consulting. Yesterday's session was an introduction to Social Media; today was all about blogging, and tomorrow is devoted to social media marketing. The videos that I have linked to here are made by Commoncraft, and I love their 'Plain English' approaches to what can seem like complex ideas.

Now,anyone who's been following this blog, or who has met me at an event or even chatted with me on Twitter, will know that this was somewhat preaching to the converted. At each point when a new online tool was mentioned, the lovely Justin and Simon who were running the course would ask for a show of hands of who was using it already. This morning, a turning point came. They stopped including me in the count, and I realised I had been identified as a real geek.

I'm not a geek for geek's sake, though (or, I like to think not). I genuinely believe that social media are the way forward, not just for broadcasters and techies, but for teachers and learners. Yesterday, Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua showed us their podcasts and resources for language learners - inspiring stuff. I'll definitely be using some of their quick lessons in the future.The wonderful John Connell, whose blog is listed in our 'blogroll' on the right, was today's guest. John said something rather illuminating this morning (and I'm paraphrasing here) - that teachers who did not equip learners with the tools to navigate and filter information they access online were simply not doing their jobs. I have to say that I am inclined to agree with John on this.

When you're shown how simple tools like Google Blog Search, Twitter and its various filter engines, and Delicious are to use, it's unfathomable that they aren't part of every teacher's daily routine. It's easy for me to say, I hear you cry, with the time I have on my hands, the lack of 30-plus children to teach and the technological know-how I have at my disposal. All valid and fair points. But in any job, in any profession that deems itself worthy of the title, people have to constantly retrain, learn new skills, enhance their own knowledge. Good teachers are, after all, consummate professionals. If teachers can meet the challenge of the seismic shift that is Curriculum for Excellence (and I have no doubt that they can), it is a much simpler task entirely to get them to engage with technology that can help enrich the classroom experience - for them as well as the learners. Perhaps better use of CPD is the answer? Or just a more integrated culture of using internet resources alongside traditional methods? Those at the chalkface will know best and vote with their lesson plans, but learning must not stay still while the world turns.

I'll follow up this blog with another one directly about the whole point of blogging, and using social tools as part of your personal learning network. Ollie Bray, who's currently seconded to LTS, but whose substantative post is as DHT of Musselburgh Grammar, has blogged extensively on his own development in this area, it's well worth a look.