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| ASCD.org |
There are several ways to teach kids to use social networking in school without exposing them to the dangers of the Internet. Educational sites like Kidblog, Edublogs, Edmodo, ePals and Wikispaces Classroom, to name a few. These are great sites for sharing information within a class or between classes. The teacher moderates what and who are allowed on the sites. Using these sites kids can learn rules for digital citizenship while interacting with other students. Another site for interacting with other students from around the world is Skype in the Classroom. There are also educational portals for Glogster, a multimedia poster creation site, and Voki - a site that allows students to create a talking avatar.
Once students have had a chance to use these tools and learn how to interact with peers and others, locally and around the world, they could be ready to use other social networking tools, provided they are over 13, which most social networks require and they follow the rules. This is a great way to teach students to create positive digital footprints. I loved the Ning rules laid out by Michael Umphrey in Chapter 5 of Web 2.0 How to for Educators (Solomon and Schrum, 2010).
Twitter could be used in the classroom
with classroom hashtags, and using alternative Twitter feed sites, such as TweetChat or Twubs, which limit the screen to the chat only, eliminating
distractions. TweetChat also allows you to block people, if they are
posting inappropriate comments. But if your students don't follow the
rules, they should also lose their right to post – a good way to embed
digital citizenship lessons into the project.
Teachers can use social media in class, to get input from everyone, especially the ones who don't want to speak up in class. Students can also use social bookmarking tools like Evernote and Diigo to share information on research for projects with group members.
Social networking allows people to learn from people outside of their local sphere and expands your knowledge base. It allows students to interact with each other and their teachers even after school hours, to ask questions about homework, share notes, or expand on class discussions.
More blogs on this subject:
A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom by Vicki Davis
Using Social Media in the Classroom for Real World Learning (Teachthought)
Seven Ways Teachers Use Social Media in the Classroom (Mashable)
Social networking allows people to learn from people outside of their local sphere and expands your knowledge base. It allows students to interact with each other and their teachers even after school hours, to ask questions about homework, share notes, or expand on class discussions.
More blogs on this subject:
A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom by Vicki Davis
Using Social Media in the Classroom for Real World Learning (Teachthought)
Seven Ways Teachers Use Social Media in the Classroom (Mashable)
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| Jeff Parker, 2012 Florida Today |
Sources cited:
Solomon G. and Schrum, L. (2010). Web 2.0, How to for educators. Eugene, OR:ISTE.
First of all, I love your blog! The graphics and layout are really eye-catching and engaging to read. This post described a lot of advantages to incorporating social networking in the classroom. I like the idea of using it in class to encourage active participation. Social networking allow students to have access to information that they otherwise would not have available to them. Did you find any disadvantages with incorporating social networking in schools? Is there anything to fear by integrating it? I am also wondering how you would use Voki in an educational way. What types of learning objectives could you accomplish by using Voki?
ReplyDeleteThank you for exposing me to such a wide variety of tools! I had never heard of Evernote or ePals before and will be checking it out now.
Thanks, Michelle. I guess I forgot that I was supposed to be including cons of using social media, I am such a proponent of using it. Although I neglected to spell out some of the things, like kids being distracted by the wrong sites, or revealing too much information, I kind of touched on the solutions to those disadvantages by talking about teaching digital safety, starting out with moderated sites, and taking away access to any student who abuses the privilege.
DeleteVoki can be used in so many ways. Students can use it to explain a concept, to give a virtual speech, as part of a web page or project, or even to practice speaking in a foreign language (you can record your voice as well as type in the words). The teacher can use it as a get to know you assignment at the beginning of the year too.
Interesting ideas about Voki! I like the idea about using it to speak in a foreign language. I also might try it as a beginning of the year activity! Thanks for the ideas!
DeleteGreat post! You have inspired me to get a little more creative for my next blog post! One of your information clouds said that 63% of students in grades 6-12 wanted digital books instead of traditional textbooks. I hope this becomes a reality soon. As a parent of a 3rd and 4th grader, I am already hearing, "I forgot my book at school". If we could access those books from our laptop or Ipad at home, that would be one less excuse for not wanting to do homework :). Not only that, I really believe it makes more sense financially. I live in a small community and some schools nearby are making the change to digital textbooks. I hope our district starts soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathleen. The professor in the last tech class I took required us to use links and images. I agree with the kids, i prefer to read on my Kindle Fire and always try to get the Kindle version of the book if it is available. In fact the book for this class is on my KF.
ReplyDeleteCindy,
ReplyDeleteI always learn so much from your posts and all of your work for EDU 642. Although I was thinking this I did not include it in my own blog; social media in education does not always mean using Facebook or the other social media sites that are so popular for purely "social" purposes. I also enjoyed how you have clearly shown the technology tools that help counteract the safety and distraction concerns so many education stakeholder have about the integration of technology and social media into the classroom. Great post and I am sure I will be referencing it often! Thank you for sharing!
Cindy I love that you mentioned the fact that using social media in the classroom allows for teachers to teach students about positive digital footprint and digital citizenship. Too often those against the use of social media in the classroom automatically assume that this means using FaceBook in the classroom which will lead to complete and utter chaos. But with all the options at our fingertips like the ones you listed we can have the benefit of social media without the potential issues that traditional social media may provide. Great post!
ReplyDeleteFormerly known as the 'pound sign' by generations past, the cross hatched symbol synonymous with social media messaging is now fondly referred to as the beloved hashtag. Unless you've completely unplugged from the digital world for the last few years, you've undoubtedly run into these somewhere in your communications. While they may be a familiar sight, the concept and purpose often requires some clarity 토토사이트먹튀
ReplyDelete