I do believe
that there is a place for social networking sites in our media centers and
classrooms. I teach gifted ELA/SS middle
school students and part of my curriculum/standards involves technology. My students are avid techies and can do just
about anything on a social network site, a Smartphone, a tablet, etc. As an
educator, we are supposed to engage our students and what better way to engage
them then to relate to them. I have
several students that bring their Kindles to class to read and of course 90% of
my kids have a Smartphone. I have no
problem with them reading in class on or even using their Smartphone’s for
dictionaries and or a thesaurus. Yet, my
school district frowns upon social networking sites in the classroom/media
center. I just asked my school technologist if our student computers would
support wikis, blogs or LibraryThing. and he said as of right now no. This is
crazy to me and of course, prevents me from teaching the technology standards
to my students. So AASL’s poll was off a
little when it generalized that social networking is “widely accepted” in
schools.
While I understand
the filtering of FaceBook and Twitter, I wonder why we have to block all of the
sites. However, our OPAC system is Follett’s Destiny and so we have Destiny
Quest which is great tool for students to use. Yet, not many of our kids know about
it and I only recently learned from Barbara Fiehn’s article that we have access
to 65 e-books! This is something I can try to explore with my students once I have
better idea of how to use it.
My school
system simply does not support technology in the form of social networking
sites and I think that is a shame. As we progress in society with technology, so must our students.
They love social networking and if we can find a way to link social networking
to education and curriculum, then why can’t we explore those options that are already out there ? I’m still hoping that one day my district
will truly understand the disadvantage our kids have from our filtering
methods. Until then, I will just have to make one more PowerPoint instead of that
cool wiki.
Carley,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you--that schools should be more supportive of social media sites! While completing the Internet Filtering paper, I found a great article, which basically states that students need to be taught how to swim, or how to use the Internet effectively.
Of course, there are going to be those sites such as Facebook and Twitter that are going to be more tempting to students to misuse instead of using them for an educational purpose; however, I believe that these tools would be a great inclusion into a lesson plan. One of my favorite assignments in undergrad was a Shakespeare 2.0 class, where we used Facebook to create profiles for characters in Hamlet and interacted among each other. I think this a great way to demonstrate character understanding and development!
Carley,
ReplyDeleteMy students sound just like your students. They all seem to have Smart phones, tablets, or Kindles. They have the technology and they know what to do with it. My husband and I were talking the other night when I couldn't get something to download on my phone and he was joking that I should be able to do it considering the course work I am completing right now. He also wondered why we didn't have a class on Smart phone use. I told him it was because the students all already know how to operate them and everything that goes with them - including social media sites.
I am able to access LibraryThing from my school, but I have not had the students try it yet. I think they will have access, but I guess you never know. Sites like LibraryThing and having access to Wiki's would be greatly different than if they were posting on Face Book from class everyday. Maybe there will be some changes at your school in the near future.
Carley,
ReplyDeleteI teach first grade so I don't have the smart phone savvy students, yet. Hopefully, if I'm in a media center soon, I can come up with new and interesting ways to use social media in positive ways. I do worry about the negative things that can happen behind social media.
I'm really surprised you cannot access Wikis or Library Thing at your school! When I was in Fulton County, we couldn't access anything! In APS, we have access to pretty much anything an educator might need. I would love to let my students use Library Thing as a media specialist. I think it is a great resource. You really made some excellent points about the positive things you can do with social media and today's students.
You make many valid points in favor of social networking in schools. Although I am in an elementary school I have seen many of the things you talk about as far as students and their devices. This is what our students are like today and as educators we need to be able to communicate with them effectively. I especially understand your point about your county not allowing many of the technology tools that are available just because they are social networking tools. It's the same in my county where filtering tools put many restrictions on our technology use. We do use Destiny Quest with our 4th and 5th grade students. However, we have had issues with students misusing Destiny Quest by treating it as a messaging board with their friends instead of making book recommendations or sharing ideas. I think we really need to make sure that our students know how to use these tools correctly.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI think just about every grade level has technology standards embedded within the main domains (English, Science, Social Studies, and Math). Most teachers like to set their students up for success, however, school districts aren't equipping teachers with necessities such as social networking to take teaching and learning to the next level. Social networking could be a very positive tool in the classroom, when utilized correctly and wit supervision. I think it would empower children because they are already knowledgeable about tools needed to access social media (smart phones, tablets, laptops), just giving them confidence in their abilities will go a long way in increasing student achievement.
It is interesting to see where other schools are with having access to sites such as facebook, twitter...we just recently became a wi-fi school with BYOT so they are beginning to see what needs to be filtered and what can be considered "safe" to open. It is still scary to think about opening up so much more to the kids but at the same time it's up to us to teach tech responsibility. I agree with the comment above about empowering students to succeed and achieve. There is nothing better than watching a group totally engaged in learning when they are driving the lesson with their technology! I think of all the amazing things that could come from some of our students if given the chance to explore more.
ReplyDelete