Students’ involvement
with social networking is probably at an all time high nowadays, and this
addiction is increasing day by day. This has made some educators furious while
making others more comfortable with technology. However, the general perception
of social networking involvement with education just does not seem to fit
today's teaching model. Social networking is widely regarded as addicting,
unsafe, dangerous, and posing risk to today's youth and adults. So how can the
idea of schools using social networking for educational purposes fit the scene?
Here's how it can and how it should:
How it should:
Schools should make use
of technology in order to secure the learning environment, such as filtering,
blocking certain access, using secure web space for teaching online through
social networking sites. Though it is not as easy as it may seem, but it is
certainly attainable and enforceable. With that said, educational institutions
should have more control over the learning environment than the students and
they can interact with the students in a way that is interesting yet knowledge
building for students.
How it can:
Schools can guide
students over the do's and dont's of online activities, especially while using
social networking for online activities. Social networking, with the use of
technology, can be used to deliver clear policy and procedures for online
behavior as well as consequences for violations. Effective technical monitoring
is vital in order to successfully achieving teaching and other educational
objectives.
Let us know what you
think in the comments:
Should social networking
really be used for educational purposes? Do we have the right technology to
monitor and ensure such objective can be accomplished?
10 comments:
I'm not sure social networking would be something successful when it comes to trying to use it for educational purposes. If websites such as facebook were used as part of a class activity, it would probably be somewhat distracting for students. It is possible, however, to put controls on what pages students can visit while on a school campus. With technology being used on a daily basis, students would be very comfortable with assignments that are done online.
I think social networking will be a bad idea for educational purpuses. I think this becouse alot of social networking sites presents so much information that you may not want anyone else to see. I think social networking sites are more for personal relationships not for eveyone to follow.
Jacqueline and Nicholas- I agree with your statement that it would be difficult to use Social networking in the school environment. Although filters and controls can be enforced, I feel that many students would look for ways to bend around them just to check Facebook or Twitter. Now, I do feel that it can be used in school for Clubs and Programs that are educational. For example, the Disney College Program uses Facebook to constantly update its members on new rules and deadlines. It is also a place where we can watch training and educational videos on our current and future job tasks. In certain educational settings, I feel that it could be an appropriate learning tool, but in most situations, I fear that it would be unsuccessful.
I believe that social networking certainly cannot be ignored in public schools but I don't think that it should actually be used to instruct or for educational purposes. Social networking is, in my opinion, only good for keeping up with people and what they are doing. It has it's place but education is not one of them. There would be to much distraction if we were to start using social networking as a means of educating students. Many teachers have their own websites where they can communicate with students or send them assignments or what have you. Take Moodle for example, we all are on it daily to access/turn in assignments. I do not think that Facebook needs to be associated with education at all.
John, thank you for the wonderful feedback! I definitely see your point in regards to not using social networking for educational purposes. Social networking has become vastly popular, and many students young and old are becoming more keyed into using these particular websites. Maybe Facebook isn't what we should make interactive in the education setting, but maybe new ideas such as Moodle can take these brilliant ideas and use them to their advantage. I highly think that having a social networking site that serves for solely educational purposes only would be beneficial.
In high school my AP Governemnt teacher had us use twitter to stimulate class discussions. He had us make accounts with unidentifiable names and he would pull up his page and have us @reply him. It was an interesting use of the site and allowed us to voice opinions without being singled out or embarrassed by our views. It was nice to see a teacher utilize a social networking site in the class room for educational purposes, but I know that not all teachers would be able to.
Danahalsubagha, I myself haven't had the pleasure of getting a professor that would do something like that. The thought of it is really great though, it would definitely be a awesome way to get a lot of people interested in discussions. I hope to end up with a professor that does that soon. My question is, was it a required thing to do for the students in his class or completely optional?
I don't think that social networking should be used for education purposes. It would pose more of a problem than a useful tool. Students today are becoming more and more addicted to social networking sites and for schools to condone it could send a message to the students that it is appropriate to use the sites more. Sites such as moodle and blackboard are useful tools in college, but with those websites they aren't used for person communication. There needs to be a distinct line between personal use of the sites and educational use. That being said, Facebook would not be a good tool for educational use because it is already used personally.
Personally, I don't think it's a good idea that using social networking for education. Like somebody mentioned before, social networking sites are more for sharing personal stuff. Social networking is a really good way to connect people, such as keeping in touch with the friends you can not meet often, let your friends know the interesting things you met, and so on. However, I don't think the networking sites is a good tool to connect and communicate with people for education purpose.
Interesting feedback - it seems like people are agreed that it is more a distraction than anything else when it comes to education. It's more for social networking and sharing than for education that we should use things like Facebook and Twitter. If education encourages this "addiction" or whatever it might be, it might cause more of a problem in the long run. However, if there was some way to control and creatively use social networking, perhaps then schools might consider it?
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