Articles

Social media is burgeoning, and is not going to go away. These media can be harnessed to advance schools as learning communities. The article considers the ways in which social networking tools may be used to overcome some of the obstacles schools face when attempting to develop a professional learning culture. It then examines a key social media service, Twitter, and the ways in which it may help educators to build a personal learning network. The article also looks briefly at some other useful tools. For schools to be considered professional learning communities, they must increasingly orient themselves within the wider world beyond the classroom walls. Social media provides the channels for this open communication to occur. It is through adopting new modes of accessing, sharing and creating information that teachers and students will be able to work together to transform education for the 21st century.