Social Media and Adult Education

  IET (Integrated Education and Training) programs are relatively new and specific even within the context of adult education. For this reason, IET teachers might feel quite lonely within their field. To connect with like-minded teachers and to see if I could do it, I created two posts on LinkedIn. The first one missed the mark. The second one, discussing microlearning credentials in adult education, gained a little bit of traction. Perhaps it would have done better if I had used hashtags. In truth, not very many teachers have LinkedIn accounts, but I decided to build my Professional Learning Network and thought that it might work. I would like to connect my experience with the self-generating professional learning paradigm by Prestridge (2018). Months before I created my post I had been lurking on LinkedIn, observing what is out there and sometimes finding a useful resource in the field of TESOL. Clearly, I was an info-consumer who had to fulfill self-driven needs. Yet, I ...

  While reading this week’s material, I was naturally drawn to explore Facebook. As an ESOL teacher, I have been looking for new ideas on the internet for years, but never much on social media. Here is a summary of my observations: Teaching English as a Second Language is somewhat specific. Most students will never need it, while it is crucial for those who do. Furthermore, in terms of social media, the concept of an ‘ESOL teacher’ can be as broad or as narrow as one chooses. For example, there are many ESOL teachers whose only qualification is the fact that they were brought up in an English-speaking country. Add to that the scores of passionate non-native teachers and you get a digital landscape that is incredibly varied. And so, because the barrier to entry in online spaces is so low, social media easily becomes flooded with spam and low-quality material. How does an ESOL teacher find a group to support their growth? On Facebook, there are over 50 different groups for ES...