Activity 15 - Summarising your Postgraduate Learning Journey and your planning towards the future:

Summarising your Postgraduate Learning Journey and your planning towards the future:

Create a blog post where you reflect on your personal 32 week learning journey through the whole postgraduate programme. Identify and evaluate your most significant learning outcomes and outline your future goals by mirroring them against the Registered Teacher Criteria in e-learning area. If you want, you can choose to focus just 4-6 out of the 12 criteria. 

• Criteria 1: Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of all ākonga.

The students at my school have been able to use e-learning tools like survey monkey to provide feedback for our PB4L initiatives that we have already outlined in other parts of DCL course. The preferred features of the LEAN canvas was collected and meant that we got good customer validation and thus we were able to use it to inform our pivot and changes to the next CANVAS. My Goal in this criteria would be continue using customer validation (student feedback) to inform practice with the PB4L application development, with the aim of creating an app that students will be able to use to track their PB4L incentives in a gamified manner at school. 

• Criteria 2: Demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of ākonga.

I have been able to use the online/ICT lesson for PB4L to teach our students about acceptable online behaviour and to set them up as global online citizens who act with respect for others, themselves and their environment in the online environment. I have a goal of being able to incentivise the values so that it will be linked to criteria 2 as it promotes the well being of all students and teachers at the school. 

• Criteria 3: Demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Even though our school is at the start of the journey to being more responsive, we have done alot recently to grow in our capacity as agentic teachers. By attending PD on Ka Hikitia our BOT and staff will gain huge insight into increasing achievement for our Maori students. The plan is already in place for BOT training with NZSTA and so I am really excited about seeing the changes implemented as shared by Mike Hall in the previous post. 

• Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

I have been overwhelmed with the amount of professional development provided by the Mindlab course this year and have also grown in my ability to provide more engaging opportunities for my learners. I have also decided to continue pursuing further studies in the years to come as a result of the success I have experience in the academic achievement during this course. At school, I can see a lot of growth that will be provided this year through the partnership of the Ako Hiko trust. We have already gained PD in running a blog and some other PD on the philosophy of Learn, Create and Share.  I am looking forward to the growth of our third e-learning class next year as well. 

• Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

I have provided a lot of support for our staff along with Gerhard our IT specialist in the areas of Blogging and sharing the news through our news blog this year. However I am a little worried that some teachers consider working on the community as not real teaching so will hope to win them over this year, with some positive PD for blogging and sharing students work online. 

Lastly My hopes and my future dreams of professional practice -

I hope and dream that one my application will be available for students at my school and that PB4L takes it seriously enough to pay me to implement it in other schools. Effectively speaking I would like to undertake a course of study that will justify its implementation and use with the professional practice of behaviour management professional development. The ministry currently has a programme to sub-contract the work of PB4L cluster teachers and I would love to be able to be one of these contractors but I require more training and leadership experience. I have been mentored by a former principal in this area and am excited by the prospect to study more and gain experience in the digital, and behavioral fields of practice. I am sincerely thankful to Mindlab team for the hard work in teaching us and for inspiring me to pursue my dreams!

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.-Lao Tzu

Activities 14: Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

This blog post aims to evaluate how my school or I address cultural responsiveness in practice in at least 3 of the following areas:

Vision, mission, and core values, policies, planning and goals have been evaluated using the Wesley Intermediate schools strategic and charter documents 2015-2018

Evaluation of cultural responsiveness in practice at Wesley Intermediate School.

Teachers:

As a staff we recently reviewed what we were doing to meet the requirements of the charter, appraisal and strategic aims documents. In our review we found that a lot of different approaches were being used in each class and via the WIS curriculum document but some areas needed to be more focused. During my visits into the classrooms for appraisal of the assessment for learning, I found most teachers were using performance data to discuss with students about their learning and thus having a similar approach stated by Russell Bishop in his term for agentic teachers.Teachers were also using engaging ways to create a context for learning through students first world and develop safe learning environments whilst using PB4L practices which enhanced learning outcomes for Maori learners within teachers target groups. 

Senior Leadership:

As part of the senior leadership this year, I have found that more could have been done to challenge ourselves regarding catering to the needs of Maori learners. We have recently employed a Maori teacher who is passionate about teaching tikanga and te reo to our other classroom teachers and students. She recently helped with teaching the whole school staff about Matariki and the providing PD and resources, so I suppose as a leadership team we have done well by employing her, where we ourselves may have lacked knowledge to teacher Maori tikanga and Te Reo. 

At the Board of Trustees level:

Recently our Board of trustess also has elected to do more Professional development in the areas of Ka Hikatia and and Tataiako. The Board has however implmented a number of changes to the Maori education plan as set out in the strategic aims from last year, which were to effectively engage with our parents in response the needs of Maori learners. BOT members contacted parents directly and asked them questions which were collated and presented to the BOT to make decisions for resourcing and planning a Maori Education plan along with the Principal. 

Activity 13: Indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy

Indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy

Outline of blog post: share your own views on your indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy you have implemented appropriate to your student community. 

After reviewing the Russell Bishop, ed talk (2012) video, I have decided that I agree with him in that the educational disparities of Maori Achievement show a great debt for which we as educators can have an effective role in mitigating. Bishop (2012) states that the debt was largely caused by colonization and as seen by other indigenous cultures ie. Aboringines, African and parts of south Americas which is an artefact of post colonialism. It becomes clear that the problem of Maori underachievement needs to be addressed as Bishop (2012) states that -

"as a society we need to address the disparities that show Maori students who are underachieving." Bishop (2012)

 Bishop describes a the Metaphor of fiscal deficits – accumulation of achievement gaps of Maori learners and non Maori learners as a debt to those people who have not been able to achieve.Under article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi and it is significant in underpinning policy which provides ways to implement the article (Findsen, 2012).

I have seen the concept of Ko Tahitanga in action with our school– As I believe that I am an agentic (Bishop 2012) teacher, who has in the past been able to create a  context where young Maori can make learning connections and engagement that brings about improvements on attendance and achievement.
Bishop states that

"agentic teachers do not draw upon deficit models of teaching Maori students. Demonstrate a responsive and relationship centered context for maori students as maori and have high expectations, learning context caters for maori and the pedagogy that they use interactions that increase academic feed forward"
Bishop (2012)

 Teachers also need to consider using -

"a range of strategies effectively, Use evidence of the students performance to guide their teaching and learning. Learning focused relationship." Bishop (2012)

When developing our programme we have tried to enter the students first world and consider the prior knowledge that they bring or have learned through the life experience (Cowie et al. 2011) and address some of the barriers that exist (to counter the deficit model) in the students world and take them into consideration when planning and assessing as to connect to them through their indigenous background or tikanga. In a similar way Vicky Tauli-Corpuz in UNUchannel( 2012,October 1) states that there is the change in the way scientific practices are no longer the preferred method to address the modern problems facing climate change. 

Mike Hogan (Edtalks, 2012) describes the tokenism that exists which is exactly what Bishop is identifying and states that there also needs to be more support from the school, time, very qualified professional development. Bishop (2012) believes that the education system needs to provide sufficient funding and support and this needs to be part of a larger project development. The costs of educational reform compared to the cost of incarceration are evident cases for providing the support by the government.  Bishop (2012) also stated towards the end of his video that the number of Maori in prisons is directly related to the academic achievement/job placement.  

References

Rusell Bishop in Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/49992994

Edtalks.(2012, May 30). Mike Hogan: Culturally responsive practice in a mainstream school. [video file].Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/43097812

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative.

Findsen,B.(2012) .Older adult learning in Aotearoa New Zealand: Structure, trends and issues. Presented at Adult Community Education (ACE) Conference.

UNUchannel( 2012,October 1).. Understanding Indigenous worldviews - Vicky Tauli-Corpuz.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watchv=gXjGPR41zhk&feature=youtu.be 

Activity 12: Code of ethics

Code of ethics

Blog post outlines- the code of ethics’ principles that relate to your teaching profession. Think about how these principles govern your practice.

In your opinion are ethical codes of conduct reflective of societal norms or essential principles of humanity?

In the context of my own profession, the key applied area of applied ethics relates an academic paper in moral and ethics at the University of Auckland which students have to study for their teachers degree. During the degree programme, we studied case studies and reflected on the resources regarding our moral and ethical decision making. (teachers council)  moral and ethical problems and had to make links to the current Professional Code of ethics documents by the New Zealand Teachers Council (2004).

Code of ethics for registered teachers. (NZTC, 2004)

The Code of ethics is primarily societal norms in terms of interactions of a service provider and client (students and families). However the explicit links to principles of humanity like the right have information kept in privacy or relationship which a respectful make me believe that the code of ethics is essentially a blueprint for teachers to self govern against. 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a Code of Ethics?

The main advantages of the ethics is accountability within a profession and allow for teachers to justify their practice where needed. Some teachers require extra support to meet the requirements in the provisional registration and so having a code of conduct allows managers and tutor teachers to effectively performance manage where needed. Alternatively a disadvantage is that teachers are not able to get registered by not meeting the code when a subject judgement is made on a moral or ethical decision. An example of this is when a dichotomy exists in teaching in a semi neo-liberal government run education ministry which conflicts with lower socio-economic decile schools. In the previous post, I use the example of schools not being able to support students with special learning needs as the government wouldn't release close to 30 million dollars worth of funding. The teacher is then left to make a moral and ethical decision to request for funding from other areas of the school budget or  the principal and thus the school board. The cycle becomes even more problematic if the funding is sourced from another student which again conflicts with the code to provide essential learning and tailored resources to the needs of the student. 

In your own field to what degree are ethics concerned to protect individual rights and to what degree do they exist to minimize organisational risk?  and How is the balance between the two distributed?

As a member of our school board of trustees,  I am morally obligated to sit with the organisational risk management as required by my post. However as a assistant principal I have my own individual rights to consider. The key similarity to is that they are both concerned with the relationships between the client (students) and Parents, the ministry and staff. Therefore a code of conduct which is unified may be useful to balance them evenly. I have read a few examples of the rights of individuals exceed the rights to minimize the organisational risk, as in the case of teachers who commit criminal acts and may not disclose this to the media. Often the media and the Ministry of education will follow its procedures which are underpinned by the Code of ethics to protect the students privacy by not naming the school or the students name. However it could be argued that schools also do not wish to be tainted with the label of harboring a criminal. The best way to balance this would be to collaborate with other professions when making decisions whilst using their respective code of ethics eg Police, Ministry of education and teachers council. 

Activity 11: Applied and Professional Ethics

Applied and Professional Ethics

Activity outline -

Create a blog post where you highlight key points from the article on Applied and Professional Ethics by Collste (2012) and discuss what you find relevant or applicable to your profession.

The first relevant point of Collste (2012) article -Applied and Professional Ethics is to describe the concept of applied ethics and Professional ethics -

Applied Ethics

Applied ethics is an academic discipline analysing moral problems in different social arenas. Applied ethics is often worked on in collaboration between philosophers and academics from other disciplines and with professionals who are affected by a moral problem. (Collste, 2012)

Professional Ethics- 

Professional ethics is, on the other hand, a response to moral problems facing professionals in their work or also later described as virtue ethics. (Collste, 2012)

Collste describes the following indicators of a professionalIndicators for a professional - 

1. Academic education, 
2. Importance of services provided, 
3. Professional degree, 
4. Professional association, 
5. Autonomy 
6. Ethical code or code of conduct. 

Some implications for Educators

As educators the implications for a morally ethical practice is based on adherence to the teachers council code of ethics and the registered teacher criteria. Even as a university students we are required to adhere to the graduating teacher criteria which is then scaffold-ed to the registered teacher criteria.

I have studied the origins of modern day ethics as described by Collste, such as Immanuel Kant, J.S Mills and other enlightenment theorists.  A key concept which Collste starts as being part of the professional body is "autonomy". The enlightenment theorists strongly believed in the individuals determination of what is moral and ethical for them, however Collste goes on to say that some decisions are not as autonomous in many professions.

Lastly Collste (2012) describes the practice of Reflective Equilibrium which I believe resonates in the effective use of the teaching as inquiry model, which is both utilitarian in its nature to balance beneficence and non-maleficence. The model or method for this reflection can describe in its application as teachers make moral and ethical decisions on a daily basis without even realizing it but when it comes to academic interventions than Teaching as Inquiry becomes an efficient and transparent process to use along with the code of ethics.

I believe that all teachers in New Zealand should be moral and ethical, however many are allowed to continue teaching even when they do not meet the stated professional criteria. Most notably are teachers who breach the code of ethics for misconduct but are left to continue harming students. Governing bodies like Board of trustees and senior leaders are often the key people that hold teachers accountable but often lack the authority to change the governments actions when it opposes the ethics of the school such as the examples shown in the media recently of lack of use of educational funds - which evidently is maleficence which as a result of not using the funds appropriately has caused harm. 

Stuff (2015)

References
New Zealand Teachers Council. (2004). Code of Ethics. Retrieved on 12 July 2015 from http://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/required/ethics/index.stm

Collste, G. (2012). Applied and Professional Ethics. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden in KEMANUSIAAN Vol. 19, No. 1, (2012), 17–33

Activity 10: Ethical dilemma

Ethical dilemma

Activity outline -

Identifying your personal ethics allows you to understand what drives and motivates you to respond to situations in certain ways. Being able to reflect on your personal views will enable you to more easily set them aside while you make the ethical decisions required in your practice.

Examples of ethical Dilemmas - 

I watched the 2 teacher ethical dilemma videos stated on the Mindlab portal and I have written my responses to the ethical problems raised in the videos below.

Example one - Inappropriate sharing with staff and students:

My response - Firstly the teacher who really has the ethical dilemma seems to the be the male teacher who has found the material posted in appropriate. Does he report this to the principal or approach the teacher involved. Secondly the influence of an older respected adult has a huge impact on the lives of young impressionable to students. If the teacher chooses to drink and smoke than it shouldn't be shared in the same domains or network sharing as with her students as stated in the Guide lines for social media use by the Teachers council as - 

• "When using a social media platform, consider setting up separate groups for specific teaching purposes. Keep your private and professional use of social media separate."  (Teachers Council 2015) 

If I was the male teacher, I would first discuss the matter with the teacher, as suggested in the guidelines to discuss sensitive matters directly, failing this I would approach some member of the senior leadership team and failing this I would make a formal complaint to board of trustees or the teachers council. It is completely in appropriate to teach our students that smoking (drugs or cigarettes) is appropriate behaviour and where possible than privacy blocking needs to be in place so that not all students can view photos that the staff member is tagged in. I personally do not add any current students to my facebook because of this reason, but I do know other teachers that do which I believe is playing with fire as it only takes one post of an inappropriate image that can ruin a career.

Example two - Professional Boundaries 

My response to the second example video: the teacher has exercised his rights to address a truancy issue but failing to address the social issue through a social worker or similar service he is now is a ethical dilemma to provide transport for the student. This places him is a very vulnerable situation. As a male teacher myself, I was told on the first day of work to never be alone with a student due to the number of child abuse cases against male teachers. I have always found this morally wrong as I do not believe that I would harm a student, however I advise other male staff the same as in the case with the transporting the child. I would also be inclined to refer this family to the social worker in the school for help with transport as their are services available for this.

My Personally identified ethical dilemma in the practice of social media  and digital/online access. 

Social media "Shole" Video Incident-
Last year, member of the staff posted a video of a "shole" prank on another staff member during a school trip on their facebook page (this was sincere a kind hearted joke). However at the time, we as staff were trying to stop our students from specifically doing the "shole" prank on other students. For privacy reasons, I will not be posting the original video on this blog, but have included a publicly known example of "Shole" for this reflection activity. 

The "Shole" prank was made popular recently on social media and tv shows as some major sports stars would film themselves conducting the prank on others. 

Sadly the students at our school started to copy this type of behaviour too excessively and took to "shole" students in a bullying manner. The senior leadership at the time hoped that by letting staff and students know that this was unacceptable behaviour we would see a reduction in the number of incidents. Sadly a video turned up on facebook of a staff member being pranked in such a manner and although the staff member involved didn't mind it was seen by a number of students because they were both friends with students online. As stated in the first example, all teachers and staff need to consider -

• "When using a social media platform, consider setting up separate groups for specific teaching purposes. Keep your private and professional use of social media separate."  (Teachers Council 2015) 

The staff member involved was asked to remove the video which they compiled with and sincerely apologized. They were not aware of the impact of video on our students, so some training was given, regarding what is appropriate content to post online as described in the social media guidelines set out by the teachers council. 

Activity 9: Legal contexts and digital identities

Legal contexts and digital identities

This blog post aims to make connections between my own context of practice and general guidelines in promoting professional communication using social media sites.

I have examined social media policies within my organisation and also considered how the points raised relate to my own situation of building a professional network at Wesley Intermediate School.
The New Zealand Teachers council outlines the following guidelines and aims to provide professional standards for teachers to guide appropriate practice when communicating through social media-

Teachers have a professional obligation to develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based on the best interests of those learners. A teacher who is both aware of social media and a competent and confident user will be a role model for their learners and encourage them to become good digital citizens. Teachers Council (2015)

Teachers council, 2015

Some key safety and legal parameters to bear in mind when dealing with students are also covered by the Teachers Code of Conduct and the Registered Teacher Criteria. The guidelines spell out some pertinent behaviour that will protect teachers and learners in the digital context for example. 

"Consider ethical risks that could arise. Act the same way when using social media, as you would in a face to face setting and consider setting up separate groups for specific teaching purposes. Keep your private and professional use of social media separate." (Teachers Council, 2015)

The guidelines also state that its best to follow the school or center’s policies on dealing with information divulged to you as a teacher and to monitor content so that posts and discussions remain on-topic (Teachers Council, 2012).  The Guidelines go on to say that the profession is a knowledge-building community and as a member of the profession you should seek and respond to opportunities to share knowledge and discuss concerns.

 PB4L and ICT use at Wesley Intermediate School. 

During the course of the other DCL assignments I have extensively developed and reviewed the school wide policies and procedures for implementing the social and ethical use of online content. I have created a series of PB4L lessons around  putting these guidelines into practice.  The  main functional aspect of creating these lessons have been due the fact that when learners are taught explicitly, the expected behavior -they are more likely to exhibit the behavior during the lesson or activity (Lewis and Sugai- PBIS, 1999). 

Legal obligations from Parents and students incoprated with School Policy

I have also collaborated with Gerhard Vermeulen (IT specialist) at my school to create a Kawa of Care (online contract) for students and teachers in order for online behaviour to stated clearly and agreed upon. 

In Reflection of this Blog post -

We have tried to use the best approaches to teach our students and teachers about the Pb4L lessons for ICT and online behaviour. Students are shown examples of appropriate pro social behaviour and staff role model this in their day to practice. However I believe there is more room for improvement since reviewing the guidelines. I have personally come across staff using social media that goes against the guide lines and this will need to be addressed with them as stated in the professional aspect of the guidelines and the NZRTC. 

References:

Lewis, T. J., & Sugai, G. (1999, 6 31). Effective behavior support: A systems approach to proactive schoolwide management. Focus on Exceptional Children, pp. 1-24.

New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520

New Zealand Teachers Council (2012). Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family/Whānau. [video file] Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/49804201

New Zealand Teachers Council. (2015). Teachers & Social Media . Retrieved from http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz

Activity 8: Create or extend your professional social media networks

Create or extend professional social media networks

Provide evidence (links/pictures) of your professional involvement in social media networks. Briefly discuss one or more platforms that you feel best supports engagement with your professional development.

Use of Facebook page- 

During the course of the the DCL paper we have been encouraged to use the social media channels that are available to us to connect to our colleagues. I have joined the group and this has greatly enhanced my professional development because it has given a chance to ask questions outside of lectures.

The way students on the DCL course were able to share resources and articles was really helpful as some of the students hadn't studied through an online portal before. Some of my queries and questions also provided answers for other students who were wondering similar queries.

Tanya Kearney, 2015

The following blogs have been developed recently and I have found them most useful to my own immediate professional learning as Sepcial Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) at my school and also to track what I have covered in my learning thus far as an educator in the DCL course.

RTLB SENCO's Network

The SENCO blog is a good place for all of the SENCOs in our cluster to share resources, ideas and also to update the Resource Teacher of learning and Behaviour (RTLB service) professional development forums. These are essential for learning new approaches, systems such the recent Barbara Bran PLD that I attend along with other SENCOS. 

LOU REDDY's APC blog

This blog has been a great tool for me to gather and share my ideas with my peers. Although I don't get as much traffic as other bloggers, I have learned a lot from this course and so am really keen to share my learning through a blog. Similarly I have taught my students to do the same through the Wesley News Blog that I have discussed in previous assignments. 

Activity 7: Social Media

Social media in learning and teaching and professional development.

My views on social media use in learning and teaching and in professional development. 

• What are some key features of social media that you have identified as beneficial for teaching and learning?

In regards to teaching and learning and professional development, its clear that social media/connectivity has resulted in a lot of benefit on education system (Melhuish 2013). Social media, provides an intrinsic opportunity for learners to engage with the subject matter informally outside of the classroom by collaborating with their peer group (Gouseti 2014). This enhanced learning (Silius et al. 2010) occurs without the explicit instructional focus on summative outcomes for learning as students with the study were highly motivated towards using social media. 

Some of the other benificial features of social media is that students experience greatly levels of gamification and gain a great deal of peer affirmation using social media (Kapp, 21012). In the text Social Media Tools and Platforms in Learning Environments (White et al. 2011), it is mentioned that social media can be harnessed to describe and implement new paradigms for communication, learning, and education.

Learners are venturing into places that formal educators may never go, absorbing new kinds of knowledge, creating their own interactive learning arenas, and joining 24/7 global dialogues in affinity spaces such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube- (Sharpe, Beetham, & de Freitas, 2010)

• 

  Pearsons: Social Media for teaching and learning

• What are potential challenges that teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities?

Whilst researching social media for my other assignments, an ongoing theme arises around the failure of teachers to effectively use social media to not only engage but actively build learning focused relationships through social media (Gouseti, 2012 & Gouseti 2014). The studies conducted by Gouseti (2012), involved a range of schools in Britain and Greece and were part of the larger e-twinnings study into collaborative learning. Many participants gave feedback about learning collaboratively on procedural tasks which Gouseti (2012) negates as educators not fully utilizing the opportunity for collaborative learning. Learning collaboratively online is a fairly new paradigm and educators need to move away from previous notions of procedural or rote learning with the context of collaboration.

Some of the other challenges relate to the capacity of educators to provide safety for their learners whilst they are online. Its not just about protection with firewalls or filters but rather equipping learners to make appropriate and independent decisions about their online behaviour.

Kenny, 2014 

• How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development?

I am currently using social media in a range of formats to enhance my own professional development, by providing a way to share my learning and to collaborate with others. One of the main ways to use it in the future would is similarly stated by Gouseti (2014) - as providing a platform for myself and my learners to engage with each others, outside of the formal learning environment. 

During the course of the DCL assignments I have regularly found the online collaborative aspect (which I have covered in previous posts) as the single most beneficial factor to using social media. Also there are other extrinsically motivating factors like the fact that a lot of people boast about their success on social media forums which goes against the normal 'Tall poppy syndrome" that exists in education.

Reference

Gouseti, A. (2012). A comparative investigation of the use of digital technologies to facilitate school collaboration within the framework of the eTwinning programme. Institute of Education (University of London).

Gouseti, A. (2014). Digital Technologies for School Collaboration. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Joosten, T.( 2013. October 22). Pearson: Social Media for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved fromhttp://www.slideshare.net/tjoosten/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-27456257?ref=http://professorjoosten.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/pearson-social-media-for-teaching-and.html

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Melhuish, K.(2013) Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...

Sharpe, R., Beetham, H., & de Freitas, S. (2010). Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age : How Learners are Shaping their Own Experiences. New York: Taylor and Francis.

Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’ Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1). Retrieved on 7th May,2015 from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication/article/view/55/39

White. B.,King, I.,Tsang, P. (2011). Social Media Tools and Platforms in Learning Environments. Retrieved from http://www.eblib.com