Facebook and Twitter

Twitter and Facebook are both two of the post popular social media networking sites.  On Twitter, you have the ability to follow thousands of people and organizations, such as friends, news sources, celebrities, etc. You are also able to make others aware of ideas or articles by either retwitting them and making them a part of your timeline, or by addressing someone specifically in a comment about an idea or article.   Facebook is another popular social media where you can create a profile, share posts, videos, pictures, and send messages to keep in touch with family, friends, and others.  Personally, I tend to use Facebook a lot more regularly than Twitter. I need to make using Twitter a regular habit.  Both social media sites allow you to communicate with parents, staff, and the community. 

Twitter

Linda Braun @lbraun2000

Linda Braun was able to bring awareness to Do Space by tweeting about their library with no books concept. I found this article interesting because it is a great example of providing young individuals with 21^st century resources that can help them create and enhance their learning by using free advanced technology.

There is a lot of truth to this tweet. Internet access brings a new level of learning that can more rapidly expose learners to a vast amount of information about any given subject. Connected learning allows for students to stumble upon new ideas and subjects at their own pace of discovery without feeling like they are being lectured to or in a structured environment.

Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock

Kathy shares the above information  on how to untagging yourself on unwanted posts.  In social you always run the risk of someone tagging you on pictures or information that may not depict your character or behavior.  With the ever increases pace of social media, a post with wrong information can sometimes lead to negative exposure.  Making sure we set our privacy setting is important.

Buffy Hamilton @buffyjhamilton

Buffy Hamilton shares information on her media center page The Hooch Learning Studio.  There at the learning studio she engages students and on her page she blogs about the activities that have occurred and shares pictures about it.  She also shares important information about other topics that would interest readers.  I think it is valuable to have a current site that can continue to bring relevant information to readers. I would like to incorporate something like this when I become a librarian this fall. 

The Daring Librarian @GwynethJones

Gwyneth Jones shared a Makerspace infographic which caught my attention because gets her message across using a simple infographic, yet eye catching and informative to the reader. Infographics are ways to take lengthy information and translate them into graphics with minimal words and easy to understand.  You have the freedom to design your information in a create way and is very beneficial to the visual learner.

 Jim Lerman @jimlerman

Mr. Lerman tweets about various Information Technology sources that would be beneficial to read for teachers. The sources give creative ways for teachers to enhance student learning through the implementation of technology.   

Facebook

Ann Richard School Library

This school is for young women.  Their posts are geared towards the young adult population and often times posts about technology, current events, and books.  It shares posts about how storytelling telling could possibly be the secret sauce to STEM educations. They posted a video on how two young men invented gloves that would convert sign language into spoken word or text.  There was another post from the Texas Teen Festival about how Author John Corey Whaley was featured in a People Magazine.

Curry Elementary School Library

This library shares important information on current school events.  There are several posts about the Author Michael Finklea.  The post about the various activities that will take place during his visit.  She also posts about returning overdue library books.  She uses cute quotes, pictures, and emojes to catch the reader’s attention.  There are also several posts about Dr. Seuss week activities that students will be able to participate in. 

Crockett Intermediate School Library

Crockett Intermediate Library posts reminders, links, pictures, and information on important topics and current events so that parents and students may be aware of what is happening.  There were several posts, links, books, and videos that were shared about the Scholastic Book Fair.  There is another post about Dav Pilkey.  He shares a video on YouTube on the life-changing power of reading.  In his video he is drawing as he explains the importance of reading.  He gives his life story about how he loved to read even though he was dyslexia.  He gave a powerful message in a catchy way.

There are many advantages and disadvantages in having social media accounts in Twitter and Facebook. 

Having a Facebook library page you are able to quickly share current information and events that are happening in the school, you can get immediate feedback from others, share important links and pictures, and it can serve as a teaching took to enhance learning.  Parents, teacher, and students can be aware of all these things in seconds.  Some disadvantages of Facebook are that people can steal your profile and start posting inappropriate things and it can be very addictive and can cause you to be counter-productive because you get lost in looking at other posts.  Another disadvantage is that you need to make sure that when you post pictures of other students, you have the parent’s consent.

Twitter has many advantages like it is free, easy to use, it has security, you can use it on smartphones, and follow anyone and they can follow you.  You can tweet your blog post, you can retweet other posts, and easily mention people on your tweets. Best of all it is a massive social media where you can develop of following and relate information. Some disadvantages are that you are limited to 140 characters, you must first develop your network to be truly effective, there is spam and fake twitter accounts, and it is more link based than sharing pictures or videos.

Social media is here to stay. As a future librarian, I for see myself utilizing social media as a resource to connect to the community around me.