Is flicking through EduGeek during personal time work?

[TJ-Diggers]

Hi All

 

Here is a debate I am current having!

 

When your at home watching tv in the evening’s or laying in bed flicking through EduGeek.... do you class this as work?

 

I am in the opinion off I am keeping up to date with my tech hobbies and just reading new threads.

 

What’s your thoughts?

[MatthewL]

Not to me, I use the site to keep up to date and if i can help I will do.

 

If I am doing something work specific during the day as part of my job then yes its work.

[round2it]

Edugeek is my facebook and twitter weird its not just me sat in front of the tv flicking through threads.

[Garacesh]

Kinda depends, really...

If I'm using it to research an issue at work... Kinda? But let's be real. We work in schools, for the most part. There's no pay for off-the-clock time used for work. So even if I do class it as work, I'm not going to get paid for it.

But sometimes I'm just here for the social aspect, so in that case, no, not really.

[elsiegee40]

@GrumbleDook always has a good line or two for the CPD from EduGeek.

 

As in all things in life, it’s about balance. Yes, you learn from EduGeek, but that doesn’t justify spending massive amounts of time on it in working hours unless you have a specific problem to solve.

 

Dipping in occasionally whilst making sure you are on top of your work is fine.

[Andycat]

I only look at work really, when time allows. I do have school Facebook and Twitter to oversee anyway, so I just have it on a tab next to them. Strangely, therefore, it "feels" like a work thing so I don't look at home!

[sonofsanta]

Given that not all of my EduGeek time in work is strictly professional, then no, I don't. Though I confess I only really check out of hours if there's been an interesting conversation that day; if it's about work related stuff then I'm better off checking in the morning when I can do something about it, otherwise I'll forget without the "new posts" notification!

[TechMonkey]

Depends on what kind of flicking. If it is mindless flicking then it is possibly slightly better than Facebook or Twitter but still just brain busy work. If you are actively engaging then it could be a fine line between work and online social. Also depends on what is going on around you. If your family are sitting around you or your friends at the pub and wondering why you are looking at technical things rather than engaging with them, I can see an issue and why they may see it as you working.

 

As ever it is about a balance between reading all things technical and getting a break from it all. If you are looking at an Edugeek thread about something that may be relevant to work then you are engaging your brain into work mode and not disconnecting. This can, unwittingly, also stir up certain chemicals as your brain getting ready for work mode and bring all the baggage associated with it to the forefront of your mind.

 

So TL;DR, no but it is more about context and making sure you have proper downtime

[GrumbleDook]

The use of online communities is a fairly well-established method of gaining CPD nowadays. You will hear of people talking about their PLN (personal learning network) or PLCs (professional learning communities) and include other aspects of social media/social networking in there too.

 

Looking for established good and best practice is part of what all staff in schools need to do. Any avenues you have for access to peer-support should also be explored, but there is a balance. This is a community and you have to be mindful of the signal to noise ratio. Contributing to a community can be done in a variety of ways, from being a subject matter expert to the class clown, the critical friend to the early adopter ... but you have to be careful that there is a balance. This is a community for IT Professionals. IT is work-related but has opportunities for the non-work aspects of communities too ... but first and foremost it is a professional community.

 

If you are looking for justification for the powers that be....

 

EduGeek.net is one of the large online communities for IT Professionals and the largest where there is a strong focus on the educational environment. Drawing on the wealth of knowledge and experience of its members, it provides real-time access to best practice, critical friends, peer support and peer review. Inter-organisational collaborations are balanced against robust engagement from leading IT vendors within the education space. If you have a question, someone will answer it. If you have any idea, someone will help turn it into a reality ... or at least explain all the stumbling blocks they hit on the way! Microsoft, Google or Apple deployments; safeguarding tools; discussions on the best and most reliable hardware; information governance and data protection; supporting educational software solutions; all regular discussions with healthy, and often extremely in-depth, contributions from members.

[Garacesh]

to the class clown

 

Guilty!

 

But you're not wrong. Not all of my time on EduGeek is entirely professional, but a good chunk of it is, and it's definitely made my job easier a good few times.

I'd certainly advocate for it to be unblocked for any IT staff in schools if management were seeing their hump about it.

 

Edit: I used to think that 'networking' (as in the social form, not the linking-computers-together form) was just buzzword BS for jobsworths to add an extra thing on their CV, but after EduGeek it's shown me how important it actually is when done properly.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Garacesh

[sonofsanta]

Guilty!

 

But you're not wrong. Not all of my time on EduGeek is entirely professional, but a good chunk of it is, and it's definitely made my job easier a good few times.

I'd certainly advocate for it to be unblocked for any IT staff in schools if management were seeing their hump about it.

 

 

Without exaggeration, I learnt how to do my job from EduGeek. I'd have sunk completely in my first year in this role without this place to beg, borrow and learn from.

[hardtailstar]

I'd say my only 'work' use is when I am creating threads or replying to similar threads about an issue im having. I only post these threads during work time.

 

The rest of the time its non 'work'. Which is usually during my lunch or if I get 5 minutes whilst waiting on an email/download etc.

[PotNoodleTech]

I only view edugeek in work time!

[DJ-1701]

It's can be used for both, just like all technology. There is a work side and social. It's like Discord, or Teams, or any other collaborative application.

 

I consider it more work based though since we are helping each other out with problems, and when we do that we are also creating documentation or can use it to create some at least.

[Garacesh]

I consider it more work based though since we are helping each other out with problems, and when we do that we are also creating documentation or can use it to create some at least threads that we'll inevitably find again in a year when we Google the same issue.

FTFY

[jthompson]

I only rarely look on EduGeek out of hours. The reason being that whilst I might start off with the intention of just seeing what jokes are happening, I very quickly come across something which turns into work (e.g. "hmm, I'd better just check whether I'm doing $thing wrongly!").