Social Networking is the ability to socialize through the Internet by having a direct connection to anyone in the world. The first social networking site that was popular in my high school days was myspace.com. This is a website where adults, teens and even some children can post pictures, chat and keep up with friends and family through blogging on each others myspace page. As myspace’s popularity grew, Facebook began to arise. Facebook, similar to myspace, became the most popular social networking tool for young adults to share their lives, information and their opinions. Other networks joined in, and before we knew it, you could tell the world where you are and what you are doing in a matter of seconds and on multiple networking sites at once. Since children and young adults became experts in blogging and using these different social networking tools, schools began to use some of them for teaching. Some networks are filtered from school computers, but others have become a source for educational blogging and a sharing tool for projects, books, and lesson plans. Under supervision and parental approval. Social Networking can be very useful in the classroom and the media center. Students can blog about books they are reading or debate on topics in the classroom. Flickr would be a great place for students to post pictures and information about themselves for a getting to know you activity. Wiki spaces or Google sites are a great place for classes to have online discussions even outside of the classroom. Podcasts are a great way for students to present projects and activities, and then parents can also be involved in what their child is learning and how they are doing in the classroom. By involving parents, and using social networking tools that are available inside and outside of the classroom, students are accountable for their education and parents are accountable for being involved in their student’s education.
I agree that social networking could be very useful "under supervision and parent approval." It is important that the media specialist keep a check on the site often and monitor its activity. Involving parents in the process of using social networking, wikis, etc would help to keep them involved while keeping the students accountable for their participation. This would definitely be a way to incorporate student interests into education.
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas you have to involve parents in the student's learning. It is important for parents to be involved in their child's education and life. However, I believe parents need to be taught the pros and cons of social networking sites and why it is so important for them to be involved. On the other hand, teachers and media specialist also need to be taught what is going on these websites to help protect and educate the students on the right way to use social networking tools. These tools can be used to enhance student learning, but there are a lot of precautions that need to be taken into account when allowing students to use them.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that social networking has the potential to be a very useful educational tool. Unfortunately, without proper supervision and support, it has the potential to cause a lot of trouble as well. I like one idea that I read on another blog where they are starting out small by only allowing one social networking site to be used in their district. Instead of totally saying no to this new tool, they are easing it into the educational setting on a scale that they are able to monitor and support.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned in your post that using social networking is a good way to involve parents and others before me have responded positively to your comments. It made me think of a good idea for a parentworkshop - teaching parents about the social networking tools and how and/or why teachers and media specialists are using them with students.
ReplyDeleteI will admit that my biggest fear of using social networking sites is my lack of knowledge of them and how to incorporate them in the educational setting. But since they are 21st century tools, I must be willing to learn them and use them. My future job as a school media specialist may depend on it!