Essentials

摘要

What kind of support can teachers find on Facebook? This paper describes six ways in which teachers support one another in online groups. As noted by co-author Nick Kelly, "In a review of existing online communities, it appears that certain conditions are needed for teachers to be willing to engage in the most important of these roles: modeling practice, supporting reflection, and providing feedback. Such a connection appears to have preconditions of a trusted environment with stable relationships and a sense of privacy." The authors present evidence from a study of a large, open group of teachers online over a 12-week period, repeated with multiple groups a year later over a one-week period. The findings suggest that large open groups on social network sites can be a useful source of pragmatic advice for teachers but that these groups are rarely a place for reflection on or feedback about teaching practice.