Post #3- Chapter 6, Chapter 9, Tweacher & Social Networking Goes to School

Chapter 6

I thought Chapter 6 was very insightful into the world of social networking and using it in the classroom.  There was one quote on page 89 I found especially interesting about using Twitter in the classroom: “…more and more I see Twitter as an excellent resource for assessing several of the skills that are fundamental to learning and living such as: the ability to make mistakes and immediately get positive critical feedback [and] the ability to take part in a communal discussion.”  I like that Twitter is like a discussion; everything is put out for your followers to see.  With more and more people getting social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, it would be much easier for teachers to keep parents as well as other teachers and other school officials informed about what is going on in the classroom, school- and community-wide.  The part of the chapter that confused me was about Diigo and Delicious, two sites I’ve never heard of before.  It was tough for me to try to follow how these sites are used, probably because I don’t know what they are and have never visited these sites for myself.  After reading the chapter, though, it made me curious about these two sites and I might check them out in the future.  It may just help me in my classroom someday.

Chapter 9  
One thing that struck me right off the bat was that kids are using social networks to “explore interests and find information that goes beyond what they have access to at school or in their local community (pg 131).”  I think sites like Facebook are very hard to ignore in school nowadays because it seems that literally everyone has a Facebook or a Twitter.  While I don’t think everyone needs to have a Facebook, I think “we have a responsibility to understand what Facebook is all about, even if it’s just to the extent that we participate there for ourselves, on our own time, for our own connections (pg 133).”  One thing I found amusing while reading about Facebook was that it’s not as simple as it is written in the book; Facebook keeps changing its layouts and everything about the site, and it just recently changed again this week.  It’s not as simple anymore; the user actually has to poke around and pay attention to what they’re doing.  While I think using Facebook in the classroom is a very controversial issue, I think that it could at least be tried out for a little while.  Just like Diigo and Delicious, I had absolutely no idea what a Ning was, but I think it could be something to look into if it’s useful in the classroom.  While the book may help get started with a Ning, I always think it’s best to log into the sites for yourself and learn about it that way, especially since sites like Facebook and Twitter are constantly updating the looks of their site and where things are.   

   

Tweacher & Social Networking Goes to School

I use twitter for personal and entertainment purposes, but reading these articles gave me more insight into how teachers and even administration in schools can use social networking in schools for education purposes.  In Tweacher, Adrienne Matteson showed students can use Twitter for photo sharing with their classmates and teacher.  I liked the example used in the article how students can post a photo of a leaf in the news feed and their classmates can respond to the photo.  It allows the students to be more creative than just going out and collecting a leaf to bring in, plus it’s a lot less messy.  Since Twitter is home to many celebrities tweeting about their daily lives as well as events they’ve gone to, it would be beneficial for the students to see if authors they like or are reading about have Twitter.  Sending messages to the author would be a lot quicker than sending a snail mail letter to them.  While celebrities and authors don’t always respond to their followers’ messages, it would be cool for the students if someone they’re following did send a response; it would definitely allow the students to feel more connected with their favorite authors.  I liked how in the article Social Networking Goes to School, I liked how right on the first page it talked about the principal who formed a partnership with a company that ended up donating the technology equipment to his school, all based on his followers on Twitter.  Even though school officials are so against using social networking in the classroom, something like this shows how beneficial using these sites can be.  It shows that school officials are willing to “step out of the box” and go deeper than what is done in the school building.  I can see why using social networking sites can be dangerous for students, but if things like teaming up with other schools from different parts of the country are happening because of these sites, why can’t it at least be tried out in schools?