Resource: Kessler, Sarah. "The Case For Social
Media in Schools." Mashable. N.p., 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Oct.
2013. <http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/>.
There is no doubt that the time students are
spending on social media is on the rise. In the online article "The Case
for Social Media in Schools," Kessler provides the example of a teacher
who engaged her students via a social media network with remarkable success. It
had the trickle effect of it spreading throughout her school which consequently
engaged students a lot more and absentees were decreasing. The
article discusses safer options for students to engage online including
websites such as edublogs, kidblogs, edmodo, and so on. It also discussed using
text messages as a means to communicate with students, in particular, the
students who were late or absent would get reminders to come to school.
I think in order for this type of educational
networking to work, a teacher must first make sure that all her students have
access to the internet. Chances are everyone well, but it's important to know
for sure first - there is no doubt that if a few students are not capable of
engaging with everyone else the feeling of isolation may be difficult on those
children. Furthermore, I believe social media is an effective tool as long as
the teacher knows how to introduce it and motivate students to use it
properly.
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Question #1:
Have you seen social media work successfully in a
classroom?
Answer:
Yes. I have been on e-mail lists among students
in Model United Nations sharing and discussing their position papers and their
availability to come to our meetings. Also, in a class that I have observed a
teacher was reading a novel and asked each student to create an instagram
account portraying that character and talking/acting/posting as if the story
character was real. That was really engaging and exciting for the students.
Question #2:
Are there any social media networking attempts
with students that wasn't successful that you may know of?
Answer:
For an English class that I taught, I created a
blog account for the students. They were all able to post an entry as members.
I remember there were a few students who really enjoyed it and posted all the
time, and there were some that asked me if they had to do it, because they
would rather not. In hindsight, I should have assigned them tasks and subject
matter to write about, but I simply opened it for fun to allow them to express
themselves. It didn't work, to say the least. This is mostly my fault because
of poor execution.
If you're interested, here's a successful way of getting your students interested in blogging:
I can see how we can assume that every student has access to the internet or to a cell phone, especially in a time where technology is everywhere. The truth is, however, that we really don’t know that every student does have consistent access to such tools. This is where using online services becomes tricky to use, because we must first make sure all students have the means of being equally capable as all of the other students.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you in that the teacher needs to be able to motivate and guide students with the use of technology in the classroom. Technology can be a great tool in the classroom, but if it is not implemented and monitored closely, the result might not be as great as it could be. I know students could tend to want to chat with one another as they do in social sites, so it definitely falls on the teachers expectations and involvement.
ReplyDelete@ Erika: I would agree with you that it is easy to assume that all children have access to the internet, but reality is that some do not. A nice way of integrating the use of technology would be to take advantage of computer lab or tablets (if available).
It is interesting to hear someone's thoughts about using a blog who has actually implemented using it in class and had it not work out as intended. That is extremely useful information to build upon, I thank you for sharing! I would agree with your conclusion that focusing the topics more might have had a different effect.
ReplyDelete@Erica Noriega - I agree with you, we really do not know the amount of access to internet or internet capable devices and the goal first needs to be making sure those students without access at home or with reliable friends/family to have access to it in the classroom. That is another topic altogether though!
I love the mailing list idea! While I do not believe it is as interactive, for it is a passive form of communication, I does provide users that ability to focus in the conversation itself. This lends itself to critical thinking response.
ReplyDelete