Social media is the new next big thing. Except it has been the next big thing for a while now. The use of sites like Facebook and Twitter has become so ubiquitous that they are now a staple in teen culture. I even had one of the middle school students in my Church’s youth group tell me that Facebook is the main reason to own an iPhone; not a statement I would agree with.
I see the potential of social media sites but am not drawn to participate. A product of my upbringing, I guess I am too old to have the desire properly embedded in me. However, any educator looking to effectively engage students in the teen and twenty-something range simply cannot afford to overlook social media as an educational tool.
I simple use of Facebook, for instance, might include creating a class page where the teacher can post announcements to parents and students alike. Additionally, this is a place where details on assignments can be stored, as well as links to related material. The big deal, though, is that students can use the Wall feature to work collaboratively on projects or help each other at the same time as they are scratching their social networking itch. Other benefits include the fact that most students require no instruction in the use of these sites, and “class” discussions can be held in a format with a permanent format (translated gradable), allowing for use as a formative and summative assessment.
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteI can see pros and cons to using social media for educational purposes, but as I said in my blog it's kind of a pointless discussion from where my school district is coming from. They won't let us use them, although the district has a facebook page. The areas where I would see some concern would be in the student interaction on the page itself. I know that any announcement made on the district page seems to always stir rounds of controversy and almost always involve a couple of inappropriate comments. The school would have to set boundaries as to what would be acceptable for students to post, as well as consequences for going outside of those boundaries. Thanks for your post.
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteEducators are creating their own social learning environments that provide a more focused space for collaborative learning and student engagement. We can give students the opportunities to talk and share without mixing it in with their Facebook lives.
Since the current structure of school is still based on the factory model, the collaborative spaces we use in the classroom have a one year or less shelf-life. What we need is for students to continue to update and modify their online learning space that travels with them over the course of their K-12 career. That too would need to evolve as new tools are created. That would be an interesting journey though.
Joanne