Social Networking

Yesterday, we had a guest speaker come to our class and give a presentation about social networking in the classroom. Actually, our guest speaker gave her presentation via Skype. It was pretty neat. She began her presentation by sharing facts about how social networking is changing literacy practices are creating a revolution. Here are a few of the facts that grabbed my attention:

• 62% of adults use cell phones and text message to complete job related tasks
• 96% of 9-17 year olds report using social networking technologies
• 70% social network at least 9 hours a week
• Youth are reading and writing more than any time in history
• 80–90% of schools are against any type of social networking technology like email, posting to discussion boards, blogging, & text messaging
• Children who are avid text messagers tend to have better performance on measures of verbal reasoning ability, spelling attainment and general writing attainment

These facts and statistics blow me away! As educators, we really need to rethink our stance on social networking technologies. Clearly, social networking is an integral part of our students’ lives and we should be utilizing this to our advantage to help students connect with content and curriculum in a meaningful way that promotes digital literacy skills needed to be successful in today’s world. 

Our guest speaker shared artifacts of her experiences with implementing social networking in schools. I appreciated her showing us a student’s profile because it highlighted the importance of students being able to express themselves and share their identity with others. The presentation also included images and examples of how we could utilize free and safe social networking sites, such as Ning and Edmodo, to engage students in literacy activities. I liked her idea to have students decode or translate texting lingo into Standard English, this would be a highly motivating and beneficial lesson. I also valued the speaker emphasizing the need for teachers to provide a purpose for student writing, an authentic audience, and opportunities for collaborative writing. Providing these things helps students to see the significance of writing and allows them to take pride in the development of their skills. 

It is important to address the safety concerns regarding social networking in the classroom. There are real dangers out there but we cannot allow ourselves to be so fearful of predators and hackers that we hinder the growth and development of our students. It is essential that we take precautions to keep our students safe on social networking sites. Here are some precautions that teachers can take:

• Use privacy settings that only allow invited students, teachers, parents, administrators, etc to have access to the site
• Get parent consent to use the student’s name, pictures, work, etc. on the social networking site
• Use first names only or create screen names
• Discuss and set expectations about appropriate social networking behavior
• Establish consequences for cyber-bulling or inappropriate social networking behavior
• Avoid facebook or other “mainstream” sites. Use other social networking sites/spaces such as:

1.       http://www.ning.com/

2.       http://www.edmodo.com/

3.       http://www.twiducate.com/

4.       http://classblogmeister.com/

• Make social networking a vital component of your curriculum. It will not be meaningful or successful if you have the mindset that is an “add-on” that takes away from instructional time. 

**Image of students using social networking in schools found at: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3462/3753081309_69be061892.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.headsupdad.com/2010/04/24/technology-makes-ontario-private-schools-better-than-public-schools/&usg=__blsr0c1pC_Vd748ocVv7WV9AKP0=&h=341&w=500&sz=129&hl=en&start=22&sig2=NnPAvnuSVKNdeHv6gMJ4AQ&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=kF0htjQIToDKYM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bin%2Bschools%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_en%26ndsp%3D20%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D597%26tbm%3Disch&ei=JWXVTbzFBsTI0QG9veWlDA