A group of IUP faculty shared advanced ways they incorporate the use of social media platforms into their pedagogy during a panel discussion at a Reflective Practice Large Group Meeting.
The Social Media SWOT Team: Tweets, Likes, Selfies, and Pins
The panel was centered on three topics of discussion. (The SWOT team concept referred to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for using social media.)
First, they provided an overview of some of the most popular social media platforms used today that they have experimented with, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat. They gave details on the basics for getting started and provided ideas for incorporating these mediums into pedagogy.
Second, they provided, based on their personal experience and professional knowledge, an accounting of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for using social media in your professional career and classroom pedagogy. Social media is a powerful and valuable 21st-century teaching tool, but is not entirely benign or benevolent. The panel provided information to help navigate the use of social media.
Finally, the SWOT Team provided information regarding university policies for faculty and students.
A SWOT analysis asked how IUP can capitalize on its strengths, diminish its weaknesses, maximize opportunities, and limit consequences of external threats.
Panelists:
Pao Ying Hsiao, Food and Nutrition; Christian Vaccaro, Sociology; Crystal Machado, Professional Studies in Education; and Christine Baker, History