Social Media

1.      “A social network site is an online site where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users for a variety of professional or personal reasons” (Dawley, 2009, p. 111). I think the biggest appeal to social media and social networking for the young and old are the opportunities to use their own tools such as blogs, voice, and video sharing all over the world. It allows the individual to be creative, to create something of their own that they can share with others who care, and to communicate with others beyond their homes, schools, or workplaces. It can also give people a chance to meet friends or to find jobs. The best thing about social networking is the fact that you can see all the connections that are made. So now you are not just seeing your friend, but you can see beyond that. You can see who they are connected to and who those people are connected to. In this day and age with technology being so prevalent, the appeal to reach beyond what we used to be able to reach is so great.

2.      I think the possibilities for classrooms at this point are endless with the amount of social media and social networking that is available. The nice thing about social networks is that there has been a creation of educational social networks where teachers and students can feel more protected than just simply using any commercial networking site. For example, Edmodo is set up in the same fashion that Facebook is, but it is strictly for educational purposes. The benefit to using something like Edmodo is that students are used to layout and understand how to use it.

“In concept, personal learning environments would encourage students to approach learning in ways best suited to their individual needs. Visual learners, for example, might be able to obtain material from a different source than auditory learners. Students using personal learning environments may further benefit from the practice of keeping track of, and curating, their own resource collections. Personal learning environments are seen as a way to shift the control over learning – particularly its pace, style, and direction – to the learner” (Johnson, 2011, p. 31). With education moving in the direction that it is where learning and teaching is much more individualized and educators are trying to meet different educational learning styles, social media and personal learning environments are a great tool to use in the classroom. Students now have grown up using technology and are already good at using social media and social networks, so why not bring learning to their level and engage them using what they already know? Another positive aspect of incorporating all of this into the classroom is that now the teacher is not the only one teaching all the information. Everyone in the classroom, including the teacher is learning from each other. Information has never been so easy to get a hold. Why teach and lecture on things that students can find online? We should be letting them use those resources to find information and our role of the teacher becomes asking questions that make students think based on the information they are finding. According to Dawley, social networks allow the learners to take on many more roles than they are used to. In the past, learners have been the ones to sit and take in information. However, Dawley points out that now the learners has become part of the learning process by being identifiers, lurkers, participants, creators, and leaders.

The negative effects that this could have on teaching and learning is that the teachers need to be completely aware of everything that is going on during the lesson. They should depend on social media and social networking to be the soul teacher. The teacher needs to make sure to continue to guide and teach and question where it is appropriate. The teacher also needs to be conscious of where and when all of this is put into a lesson. It should not be put into the lesson for the sake of using technology because then students will not get what they are supposed to from the experience they should.

3.      I can see myself using something like The Educator’s PLN. I am always looking for ways to enhance my classroom environment and my lessons so they incorporate technology and become much more engaging for my students. This personal learning network on Ning shows all kinds of videos and posts from other educators that I think I would find helpful in creating a more student-centered classroom. I like looking at the ideas that are put out there by other educators that I can use in my classroom. Reading through comments is helpful because you get to learn what works and what doesn’t. It is nice to see that others have tried the same thing and then learned to adjust based on how the lesson went.

4.      This will benefit me because it has opened my eyes to the possibilities of using social media and social networking in my classroom. The hardest part about incorporating technology into the classroom is that I want to make sure that whatever I am using is relevant to what I am teaching. I don’t want anything to be forced in where it shouldn’t be. It is very time consuming to look for all the different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom because there are so many options out there that I want to try in my classroom. I would like to start using some of the ideas that we have learned so far in this course so I am going to have to take baby steps by only using one thing at a time. I also don’t want to overdo any of it and make it difficult for my students to stay on track.

5.      As educators when we use social media and social networking it can be dangerous. There are technical and potential legal issues, student safety, teens that may not make good choices, or dangerous strangers that students can run into that we have to be aware of. However, there are ways to reduce these problems.  Before starting use these resources in the classroom it is important to educate everyone involved including: teachers, parents, and students about the sites that will be used and the possible concerns that will be faced. There needs to be training for teachers, guidance for the parents, and students need to be taught what is appropriate and the proper etiquette for using all of the sites that will be used. The teacher needs to carefully monitor what students are doing where they are going and what they are posting. Most importantly, the teachers in the school should only be using educational networking sites that have been approved by the technological team at the school. Keeping students safe is the most important issue, but we do want them to see the educational benefits of social media and social networking so I do think it should be incorporated as long as the proper steps are followed. The school should also have a clear plan laid out of appropriate consequences for students who do not follow the rules.

References

Dawley, L. (2009). Social Network Knowledge Construction: Emerging Virtual Wold Pedagogy. On The Horizon. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Johnson, L. A. (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Willard, N. (n.d.). Schools and Online Social Networking. Retrieved from Education World: http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues423.shtml