Written by Allison Rosemond
The
use of social media in career development continues to grow. From college
career centers using Facebook for marketing career services to career-seekers
using LinkedIn for networking, social media sites are fast becoming a mainstay
of the career development process for adults. However, only within the last few
years has the use of social media for career development trickled down to K-12
public schools. To help close the gap, readers will be introduced to the use of
Twitter for virtual job shadowing at a middle school, consisting of 6th,
7th, and 8th grade students who learn through the
experience of professionals representing several career clusters using 140
characters or less.
In
the Beginning
The
goal of this project was to design an age appropriate career activity using a
medium familiar to students. To accomplish this goal, the author utilized a
modified version of a Twitter-based virtual job shadowing activity developed by
the Southeast Florida Information Network with permission from the Manager of
Staff Development Services. The final version was tweaked to suit the needs and
capabilities of the school and students.
Planning
The
first stage of the planning involved identifying the resources needed. The
project required participants to have access to the Internet and Twitter
throughout the day to tweet about their daily tasks, special projects, etc.
After reviewing the list of the 16 federal career clusters, the school surmised
that careers within the Information Technology, Business, Marketing & Sales
and Arts, A/V Technology & Communications career clusters would be appropriate.
Likewise, students would need to have access to the Internet, so the
Keyboarding classes were chosen to conduct the interaction.
To
recruit participants, businesses were contacted through their Human Resources
or Public Relations department. To promote the idea, the project was described
as a way for employees to share information about their careers in a casual
manner with little interruption to the business day, in ways that will allow
students to broaden their knowledge of the World of Work without having to
leave campus.
Next,
the school corresponded with and secured confirmation from interested
employees. Overall, seven businesses and 15 employees participated. Also, the
school collaborated with the Coordinator of the local Regional Education Center
(REC) for Greenville County South Carolina to offer an orientation. South
Carolina has 12 RECs across the state to assist in the implementation of
Personal Pathways to Success, the state’s interpretation of the Education and
Economic Development Act (2005). Through the collaboration with the local REC,
the orientation allowed the participants to learn details of the virtual job
shadowing project and, receive a Twitter ‘crash course’, about setting up an
account and sending tweets. Employees were required to make their Twitter
accounts public for the duration of the project.
The
Project
Each
participating class received an introduction to the project and a 3-5 minute
Twitter tutorial. Prior to tweeting, students conducted research, using O*Net,
on a career of one of the employees by locating the following information:
- Tasks
- Work Activities, Styles, and
Values
- Education required
- RIASEC Interest Code
- Median Hourly Wage (for South
Carolina)
- Projected Growth (for South
Carolina)
The
first class received an initial tweet from each participating employee that
read:
“Welcome to my day! Just started (specific
task) as (job title) for (company).” #GMSvirtualjs
Each
subsequent class reviewed the timeline of tweets exchanged before sending new
tweets. One by one, students came to the front of the classroom to send tweets
from a chosen computer, as the Twitter feed was shown on the Promethean Board
for all to see. The employees also tweeted pictures, so students could see
their colleagues, office amenities and office spaces.
Participating
employees were able to respond to students’ questions regarding:
- how you got your start in this
career- what or who encouraged you to pursue it
- interesting things about your
career
- uninteresting things about your
career
- hobbies or extracurricular
activities that can prepare someone for this career
- high school/college classes
someone can take to prepare for this career
Follow-up
The
success of the project was measured by how well the students were engaged
during the project and from feedback received from participants’ survey. It is
our experience that the students were absorbed and challenged by the project.
Students commented that “the project was a fun way to do virtual job shadowing,
instead of just watching career videos” and many were excited to go home and
show the tweets to their parents. The participants’ survey pointed out that the
project was well organized.
Recommendations
for future projects
- Allow students to take
ownership of the project;
- Have fewer teacher prompts,
more student-directed tweets;
- A classroom environment, with
no more than 35 students, works well and, tweets should be sent from one
designated computer, with an adult supervisor present;
- Spread the project across an
entire day instead of a few class periods, to allow a larger number of
students to learn about a greater variety of job tasks within a career;
- Develop a clear explanation of
what information employees should share and, allow employees to view the
O*Net research activity being conducted by students, for an understanding
of prior knowledge students will have about employees’ careers.
To
view the students’ O*Net research activity and participant survey, email the
author at arosemond@greenville.k12.sc.us. For more information on Personal Pathways to Success,
visit www.scpathways.org.
Source: “The article, Using Twitter as a Career Development Tool: A Middle School Experience, by Allison Rosemond, originally appeared in NCDA's web magazine, Career Convergence, at www.ncda.org. Copyright © 11/2012. Linked with permission.”
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