Social networking offers tremendous potential to connect students with each other in learning communities. Lindsey Wright share some of her thoughts on the benefits of using social networking in an educational setting. This is the first guest post I have ever hosted on my blog. Thanks Lindsey for contacting me!
Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.
Social networking websites and other Web 2.0 technologies engage students of all ages. They provide a rich learning environment that prepares students for advanced education, professional careers, and life in a high-technology world. Unfortunately, with the exception of online college classes and the like, many schools are missing a golden opportunity when they ban online social networks from the classroom.
While the reasons for using school filters with social media are understandable, educators are beginning to think outside that particular box. Popular social networks like MySpace may be inappropriate for a classroom setting, but there is more than one brand of social network. An academic social network blends education, social development, and technology. This combination is a real value in schools today.
Teenagers And Social Networks
In February 2010, the Pew Research Center completed a survey for the Internet and American Life Project. The report reveals that 73 percent of online American teenagers use social networking websites. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Bebo are considered the most popular sites for teens.
Teenagers use their social network pages to update their status and catch up on what their friends are doing. They also share photos and videos, podcasts, and links to other pages of interest. Teens typically use social media websites when they are away from school: at home, at the library, or from their cellular phones. Most schools use filtering software to block student access to these services at school.
Social Networks For Schools
Updating user profiles, chatting with friends, uploading photos, and sharing music links may not be appropriate practices in a classroom setting, but the technology of social media is not irrelevant. Banning technology is as controversial as banning books from the classroom.
Books are a staple in all schools, but not all books are appropriate for the classroom. Rather than removing books altogether, educators select appropriate books and incorporate them into the learning process. Likewise, schools can allow students to access suitable social network pages rather than ban social media on the whole.
One way some schools address the social media concern is through educator-built online social networks. The Ning Network’s Flat Classroom Project is one example. The Flat Classroom is an online social network built by educators for classroom and homework use. The site contains personal profile pages for students and teachers, a live news feed, videos, blog posts, discussion forums, and more.
Not only do educator-built social media enable educationally relevant communication between students in a classroom, but it gives them an opportunity to interact with other students in classrooms around the world. Students learn from their teachers and from each other in a safe, technologically facilitated environment.
Intramural Social Networks
Online social networks are feasible on a local basis, too. Schools can create intramural services with software produced by companies like School Center and other providers of software for school websites, online classrooms, and learning communities. When designed well and with the right network security, these social networks can be ideal for classroom use.
Intramural social networks combine a number of Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate the exchange of information. Examples include user-generated content through status updates, news feeds, blogs, photo and video sharing, and various other web applications. Schools can take advantage of student familiarity with these online technologies by providing a school-maintained social network that is safe and productive.
Academic social networks allow students to network with their peers, discuss homework assignments, and share ideas and media. Private work spaces encourage them to ask questions, get homework help, complete assignments, and turn in projects. School calendars keep them informed of various activities and events. And personal pages enable students to interact with their peers in a fun, secure online environment.
School-maintained social networks allow educators to manage their classes more effectively. Web 2.0 technologies enhance the learning process and encourage student participation. Teachers share ideas, information, and media with their students and other educators.
School social networks have value for parents, too. They give parents a view of their children’s classroom, with access to assignments, grades, calendars, and event listings. Communication often improves between parents and teachers, and social networks give parents an opportunity to connect with other parents.
Social Networking For The Future
Students benefit most from schools that reflect the world in which they live. Today, students live in a high-tech world and a social one. To be successful, educators must teach students how to be engaged, informed citizens who can work in cooperation and collaboration with others.
Social networking technology can be used effectively for great academic benefit. In fact, some educators suggest a change in terminology from “social networking” to “academic networking,” at least in thinking. Teachers can begin this change in the classroom, but they can’t sustain it on their own. School administrators must act as facilitators, giving teachers time and freedom to learn and experiment.
Many people think of social networking as a fad or trend, but there is nothing new about socializing and networking. Technology just makes it easier to connect. School social networking has tremendous academic value. By using some adaptation of these kinds of services, schools can harness the power of Web 2.0 technology to prepare students to inherit a social, high-tech 21st-century world.
Image Credit: fredcavazza