Social Networking in Education

Kassidy Frye

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Social Networking in

Education.

• Myspace and Facebook in the classroom

.

•Using Wiki for Educational Growth.

•Twitter

Facebook, Myspace, and ElggWhile Social Networking sites like Facebook and Myspace are popular among high school and college

students, they are quite infamously known to parents and teachers. Some schools even go out of

their way to ensure these sites are restricted at school. In the article, “Don’t tell your Parents:

Schools Embrace Myspace,” by Robert Andrews, he gives a more positive spin to these popular

sites and way to turn them into educational tools. Elgg is a new social networking site that has

education in mind. It allows you to set up your own online community that allows you to easily

communicate and exchange information. The set up of most colleges is based on traditional

instructor led and structured course that allows little to no room for input or significant

participation by the students. If students are already so familiar with these networks, then why not

turn that knowledge into a useful educational tool. If education is constantly changing, why

shouldn’t its delivery?

Incorporating Elgg into the Classroom

Benefits that Could come from the use of Elgg…

-Time -Teacher to Student

Communication-Access to Internet

resources-Flexibility-Develop skills for the

work field-Education growth from

around the world. I feel that using this resource could really enhance learning as well as provide an alternative

outlet to the “mundane” structure of the typical classroom.

How I might use Elgg in my classroom..

-Easy and quick means to communicate with students outside of the classroom

-Provide helpful links, internet tools, resources, etc.

-Give less “outspoken” students a more comfortable atmosphere to collaborate and share ideas.

-Using online material could help save money that may be used for books, printing, etc.

Wiki in the Classroom

WikiSpaces:Wiki is an online software that allows

documents to be uploaded to a Wikispace and permits users to change the document. Wiki is a useful tool that provides a fast and convenient way to do collaborative work. The most popular wiki is Wikipedia, which I am sure most everyone has used. Wikipedia is a dictionary that allows users to change and add information. Wikispaces, is free, easily accessible, and easy to navigate. Wikispaces is also gaining some recognition in the education scene as well as being a common tool for writers.

Benefits

-Collaborative work-Good organizational tool-Collaborative understanding between

students and other teachers or staff-Useful in the area of my study, English

Education for group work on literature and writing assignments

Once I got over the initial frustration of trying to navigate any site with my lack of technological skills, I began to see how useful Wikispaces could be in Education. After using it in this class, I realized it is a quick and easy tool to help with collaborative work. It helps to give everyone working an easy means to make contributions to a piece of work. I can definitely see myself using Wikispaces when assigning a group writing project to make it easier for people to work together without fear of voicing their opinion in person and a more convenient means of getting the work done. I don’t think that I would require my high school students to have to use it because everyone may not have easy internet access outside of school, but I would set one up for an alternative class resource and extra help.

TwitterTwitter is quite new in that it was only created three years

ago. It is catching on quickly and incorporating the use of texting in to a broader means of communication. It has little recognition right now in the academic world, but I believe that it has potential to gain usefulness in the classroom with the steady growth of technology. I have to be careful not to assume that everyone has a cell phone, therefore, not doing anything required of vast importance if it is not available to all of my students. I believe that it could be of great usefulness in college because of its convenience as well as an extra means of communication between professors and students. They get less face to face time so any alternative mode of communication is helpful. As a future educator of high school students, it could be a useful resource to helpful material and last minute information.

Why Twitter could work in Education

Easy and free to useEffective at communicating a succinct message, new

information, and linksIts fun to use which may be effective in engaging the

studentsIt is a different approach to focusing on a subjectUsing is provides quick access to internet sourcesPossibly generate more student input

Twitter is another easy and free social networking and microblogging service. It allows readers/users to post blogs of 140 characters or less via text messaging. It is qutie similar to wiki, but incorporates the substantial use of texting into its use.

Twitter is an easy reminder device to students because it can be accessed directly from their cell phones.

It can get students to focus quickly and concisely on a topic.

Digital reference blog that people could follow to learn about educational and relevant events.

It may work in Education because… Easy and free to use Effective at communicating a succinct

message, new information, and links Its fun to use which may be effective

in engaging the students

I believe that all of these social networking sites, despite their potential in education, have been overlooked due to the stigmatizations that come along with “social networking.” These sites have major possibilities as being resourceful in the world of academia. The world is constantly changing, and so is education, so the way in which it is delivered should adapt as well. Change is not always a bad thing and it never hurts to try something new. I think that if social networking is slowly introduced into classrooms it will not only make things more convenient for both teacher and students, but I believe that it will be academically beneficial as well.  Works Citedhttp://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/_publish/Guth_WikiSym2007_IsPublicBetter.pdfhttp://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/04/myspaceforschoolhttp://www.infinitethinking.org/2008/01/social-networking-in-education.htmlhttp://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml