What is a social
network site?
Social networking sites (SNSs) have become part of a daily
routine for million of users, including myself. A social networking service is
an online site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or
social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities,
backgrounds, or real-life connections.
This is done by allowing individuals to create some form of profile,
connect with other users, view other users’ profiles and connections, as well
as share links and ideas. The makeup of
how this is done varies from site to site, but the same general concept
applies. These sites allow users to connect, interact, and communicate with
other users. SNSs allow users to create
profiles, display friends, post comments, and private message. Some even have photo-sharing or video-sharing
options while others have built in blogging or instant messaging features. There are even SNSs for dogs (dogster) and
cats (catster) that have to be managed by their owner of course.Social networking sites have been around since the late 1990s beginning with sixdegrees.com. Today many social networking sites exists for various reasons, groupings, and interactions.
Top 15 Most
Popular Social Networking Sites
1.
Facebook2. Twitter
3. Linkedin
4. MySpace
5. GooglePlus+
6. DevianArt
7. LiveJournal
8. Tagged
9. Orkut
10. Pinterest
11. CafeMom
12. Ning
13. Meetup
14. myLife
15. Badoo
SNSs in the
Classroom/Media Center
Some of the top
educational social networking sites include Edmodo and Celly. Edmodo, similar to Facebook, allows teachers
to create a place for their classroom online.
This opens communication for teachers and students outside of the
classroom environment. Teachers can post
assignments, discussion questions, supplemental materials, and more for
students to use at home. Students can collaborate
with both the teacher or classmates from home.
Our school uses Edmodo and the students seem to really enjoy it and benefit
from the experience. Another social
networking site for your classroom is Celly. This tool opens communication
between teachers and students through cell phones. It’s a mobile social network that connects
people and groups together to send out updates, reminders, class news, voting,
and much more. I have not used this for
my students, but have used this for my cheerleading squad. It’s a safe way to communicate through our
cell phones (which everyone almost always has in hand) without sharing phone
numbers. I would love to incorporate it
into my classroom though. A similar tool
is RemindMe.
The Debate
An ongoing debate exists on how to or should you use social
networking sites in the classroom/media center.
Many pros and cons can be identified in this debate.
Pros
1.
Allows students to connect with other students
or teachers outside of the classroom environment.2. Increases student engagement.
3. Meets “digital” or “technology” learning needs and styles.
Cons
1.
Social networks can be a distraction in a
learning environment.2. Cyberbullying- opportunities to bully others behind closed doors in the cyber world; however the effects are carried over into the real world.
3. Discourages face-to-face communication (which can hinder social skills).
4. Personal identity or information misused/stolen.
Many more pros or cons can be argued; however, we cannot
argue the influence social networking sites have on our students. Many aspects of their lives are played out
online through social networking sites.
Facebook, twitter, youtube, instagram, and many other SNSs can be used
effectively in the classroom for learning and collaboration. It only seems natural to participate and find
ways to successfully use these tools to benefit our learners.
What are your thoughts
on social networking sites in the classroom?Additional: Here's a link to a great article on effects of social media & our students.
Most Important Skill to Teach Students in the Age of Social Media
Celly sounds great. Getting students to actively use their phones in a productive way sounds excellent. I also like how it won't share phone numbers. It's ideas like these that make me imagine what's to come. Education applications are multiplying and they're only going to get better. I think it's important to stay up to date with the possibilities.
ReplyDeleteAll of this talk about social media makes me want to get out of first grade, and into an age group where I can have some more of this type of "fun" in instruction.
ReplyDeleteMy school has scratched the surface of something like Celly this year. It may even be Celly. I was asked at a PD staff meeting to sign up for four different users' groups: my instructional specialist, my principal, my asst principal, and the parent facilitator's. Guess how many messages I have received in the first month? you guessed it...ZERO.
I would like to get my parents into a Celly group. I might try that at conferences next week. (Then I can write to them about field trips, picture days, class events, when I decide not to give or not give homework, etc).
Also, Edmodo seems like a good alternative to Facebook.
I'm surprised Pinterest hasn't jumped up higher than #10 on the list. I guess it's still too many moms, crafters, cooks, and teachers...not enough teenagers yet to overtake some of the others. I have not even heard of some of those #6-9. But I did see Google+ in an article, where the writer said he uses it in writing classes as a way to peer edit. (I like that.)
good post. There's a lot of good ones to read this week. Again, I wish I were already in a media center, or older classroom, wherein Iwould have a better reason to spend time on this....
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI also forgot to mention, I read the article at the end of your blog. Yikes. sometimes I too struggle like the girl the writer refers to, especially where politics is concerned: "How can we know what's true?" Not completely, directly linked to social networking, but definitely to critical thinking skills.
I like to think of myself as a pretty good thinker, but when I start looking into some of these political issues, after watching a debate, I think...ugggghhhh. I don't know! (Especially, when my "gut" tends to take me in the other direction than a lot of my friends and family...) Is Fox News the only news station telling the "truth", and all the others are in a left-wing conspiracy? Or all all of the others more on the right track, and Fox is the conspirator? LOL. So I take issue with the writer of that article, on the concept that we can always discern, with good teaching and learning. There is a lot of gray area out there, and a lot of opinion mixed in with truth.
Still with teaching our kids about using the internet, and critical thinking, being effective users of information, I like to start myself and them with a strong sense of doubt..."Hmmm, interesting. I'll have to look that up somewhere else, too, and see what they have to say."
Celly is a wonderful communication tool. My administrator uses this tool to communicate with our staff and parents. He has set up two different groups. I receive both messages because I am both a staff and parent. We receive messages often about upcoming events or reminders. Our Caring Connections committee also uses Celly to alert us of any staff members who may be sick or if someone in their family has passed away. My son's Awana group also uses Celly. It is a wonderful tool to keep staff and parents in the "loop."
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at the pros and cons, I feel that social networking is a here to stay so we should embrace it and use it to our benefit to make our classrooms and media centers more engaging.
Thanks for sharing Celly in your post! I had never heard of this before but after reading your ideas for using it in schools and the ideas of others who have commented, I think that this is definitely a tool I would like to check out. Because I teach third grade, it's not something I could use with students, but would definitely be a great way to communicate with parents. It also seems like it would be a great tool to use for parent communication in the media center!
ReplyDeleteI also have never used Edmodo, but have seen it mentioned in several of the blog posts that I have read. It seems like a great alternative to Facebook for classroom use. It is definitely something that I am interested in looking more into.
Lastly, I wanted to comment on one of the cons you mentioned for social networking which is that it discourages face-to-face communication. I think that it is extremely important to still teach students face-to-face social skills and to encourage this both in and outside of school, because it is an essential skill that I do believe is falling to the wayside. However, at the same time, it is important to teach students and to provide them situations where they communicate online. This could be through a simple format such as e-mail or on a social networking site. I believe that it is important for our students to have both sets of communication skills as I see many using both in their future work environments.