Social media networks have become the norm to communicate. The questions remains do you install these social media networks in schools? What about the safety protocols that go along with the use of the internet? When you think of social media sites, you think of Facebook. Right away I can tell you that the social network, Facebook is not a good source to use in schools because it is already labeled as purely for social media purposes only. This could lead to cases of cyber bullying. There are other social networks to use that are geared toward educational purposes. It is important to separate social life from school work. However, it is important to make education relevant by connecting school with outside influences. Social media has taken over! Educators have to adapt to these new technological advances. After all we have to prepare students for the 21st century digital technological world. Students are computer savvy and educators have a responsibilty to enhance the skills they already know. Educators needed to become informed of how to implement technology in classroom lessons that is not intimidating for an older generation of teachers. Teachers need to research websites and utilize those that can be carefully monitored and used for educational purposes only. Some educational social networks include Ning, VoiceThread, and Second Life (taken from Social Networking Goes to School). Ning.com is a free social network site where you could add links, video links, discussions, blogs, photos, and so much more ( Richardson, 140). The best part about Ning.com is that the teacher has full control of the site and can monitor the discussions carefully (Richardson, 140).
Social media networks have many beneficial attributes that improve the quality of education. Taken from the article Facebook For Educators by Linda Fogg Phillips, Derek Baird, M.A. & BJ Frog, Ph.D., social media networks enrich students' educational experiences, make the topic relevant, and promote collaborate skills. Another key feature about using social websites is that students can discuss and post their ideas with their peers. When using educational websites, parents, teachers and students are updated with assignments, events, and resources that organize everyone. The ability to use social media networks in schools allows educators to reach out to all learning disabilities which are another added advantage of social networks (Richardson, 133). Social media networks promote digital citizenship, safety, information literacy, and so much more (Richardson, 133).
CHECK OUT THIS YOUTUBE CLICK
This youtube clip emphasizes how educators need to implement social media networks in classrooms. Social media networks foster thinking, creating, analyzing, evaluating, and applying learned knowledge.
I agree that Facebook is not the most optimal social network site to use in the classroom. You have to be at least thirteen to sign up so that eliminates use for Elementary age students. Also, Facebook is probably has the worst reputation of all the social networking sites out there. Your statement “It is important to separate social life from school work.” really made me stop and think. While I agree that students should not talk about their social lives in the classroom during lessons I feel that there is a way to effectively combine students’ social lives with their education. Also, it is very unlikely that teachers will be unable to keep students’ social lives out of the classroom at all times so we might as well use it as a learning tool. If a teacher is willing to allow his/her students to use social networking sites in the classroom he/she will also have to allow some of the students’ social lives in as well.
ReplyDeleteTeachers can connect what they learn from their students’ social lives to help promote learning. If a teacher finds out that a majority if his/her students are interested in a particular sport the teacher can create a math problem involving that sport to create relevance for the students. I believe there is a very fine line between students’ social lives and their academic lives. I also believe that it is alright for that line to be crossed on occasion as long as learning is achieved.
Kristin