In today’s society you will rarely
find anyone who is not on some sort of social network, including our students. Library
2.0 describes social networking as “websites offering additional opportunities
for finding others with shared interests.” I think that this is one social
benefit, but I also think that there are many educational benefits of social
networking. Social networking can be used as a platform for group discussions
and work on any needed topic and or idea. Social networking can also give our
students an outlet to speak on. Often times we will have students who do not
want to speak in class, but feel comfortable sharing in an online setting. I definitely
think that there is a role for social networking in schools. With that being
said though, we also have to think about the “dark sides of the social web”
(Library 2.0). I think that it is important (especially at a young age) that
any social networking sites that students are using be only within the schools
community. According to Barbara Fiehn and the article we read Follett Destiny
already has a platform in place so that students and teachers can communicate
effectively with each other without the extra worry of online predators. Unfortunately along with cyber discussions
also comes cyber bullying. This is something that I feel should definitely be
talked about and discussed with students and closely monitored.
Right now our school does not allow
any social networking sites through the filter. It is very closely monitored. I
am not sure if it is due to security or band width or both. I do hope that soon
we can convince them to at least unblock some educational social sites that can
be used in the classroom. I think that
these sites could be used for group discussions, to give critiques/ reviews of
materials, and even to get help from other students in the classroom. I think
that if we had a site where students could openly post books that they were
reading and excited about along with reviews and even questions this could go a
long way with getting our students motivated to read.
The students at my school are also restricted from accessing any social networking sites through our internet filter. However, I bet if we could find a nice platform like Follett has we may could get away with it. The students would love interacting through a social media site because it is what they do at home in their free time. You brought up two very good points about using social networking for group discussions and also how students who do not want to talk in class may feel more comfortable stating opinions through social networking. As far as cyber bullying goes, we have to teach our students to be courteous and respectful when using any type of social networking porgram.
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