1.1 Sharing ideas

Figure 3 Social networking allows you to interact however you wish, and so you can focus more on certain networks and communities, and dip into others more occasionally

Long description

Teachers can readily use social networks to share teaching ideas, tips and tricks with others in a similar position. You can join an online network and simply ‘lurk’ (observe without contributing), or once you have a feel for the way things are done, you could comment on other people’s ideas, and use them for your own inspiration. Eventually you can run your own ideas past others, and by doing this you can obtain valuable feedback and improve your materials before they go in front of learners. It is also wise when considering partnerships, networks and communities, to be aware of potential ‘boundaries’ between different types of people, different roles, even different pay grades (MacGillivray, 2017) – this is another good reason for initially ‘lurking’ to assess the situation in each new network or community you join.