Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Social Media Use in an Educational Setting
Through facts addressed in the required reading for this weeks module as well as my personal opinion, I believe the use of social media in an educational setting is unnecessary and extremely risky. Although the Internet is a great way to maintain a student's attention, it can also be a way to lose it. Being that the Internet has a broad spectrum of sites, blogs, and videos it easily can be manipulated and used in the wrong context by all types of students. Like Bernie Pool stated in his article, certain "sites are devoted to pornography (however that might be defined), hate groups, and other inappropriate subject matter contain content that's unsuitable for children at various stages of maturity." So when addressing the use of social media it's extremely important to have supervision over the students and the time they spend on these sites at all time.
Sites such as Facebook being used as an instructional tool in my personal opinion shouldn't be a necessity in the classroom for the simple fact that I find it to be a distraction. I feel as though there are many distractions already placed in the classroom, and the distraction that Facebook leads to, is one teachers can easily avoid. Bringing social media in the classroom does not make you a better teacher and doesn't make it easier to teach. "Facebook is not a quick fix for your teaching and learning problems."(Sarah Stewart, 2011) When Sarah Stewart stated in her blog that if "you're having problems engaging and retaining your students, you must have a careful look at your teaching" she was not over exaggerating. It takes a lot of effort and time to teach a curriculum and "teachers who are not well prepared to integrate the Internet into instruction are just creating a waste of time" (Bernie Pool, 2011) Things like Facebook and other social networks don't erase these problems, in fact I believe that it makes it harder. Facebook exposes the idea that it's okay for everything to be done through the Internet. Facebook and other social media sites take physical interaction, face to face conversation, and throws it out the window.
One thing is for sure though, social media is not going away (Kessler 2010) and being that it isn't going away, as future teachers we have to somehow make it positive for our future students.
When deciding to involve sites such as Facebook into curriculum it's important to "keep students from abusing it, teachers should properly explain what is considered appropriate and inappropriate use of the Internet" according to Bernie Pool. Although I personally am not the biggest fan of the idea of Facebook in the classroom, there are some benefits. According to Kessler, benefits of social media "help diminish the idea of cliques and creates an environment where students have to work together." Other benefits promote the use of advancing technology in the classroom as well as easier connections to one another.
When thinking of ideas to utilize Facebook into my future classroom I will create a public page visible to all students, so students who are not interested in signing up for Facebook can easily view it. This page will list contact information if any questions or concerns have to be addressed immediately. It will also be used as a tool to post homework, student's attendance, upcoming quizzes, and specials events going on in the classroom as well as the school. These events can be half days, days off, as well as guest speakers.
Another way to use Facebook in a positive light for my future classroom is by using Facebook as a communication device. Facebook will help promote interaction between students around the world. Like Professor Shannon Budin spoke about in her short video, Facebook is second to Google as the most popular website on the Internet. Which means millions of people use it all over the world. With that said, I will set up a page for communication where each student will be paired with another student outside of the school like a "pen pal." This will be used as peer to peer approach where students from different areas can teach each other about their own personal norms.
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I am impressed with your opinion that social media is more of a distraction than it is worth. Since you are more of a digital native than a digital learner, I would have expected you to feel that social media in the classroom is a great idea. I agree to an extent but I find that social media tools can be used in a safe way to enhance but in no way replace traditional teaching. I've decided to set up a Kidsblog site with my 5th and 6th grade Sunday School class to see first hand how this would work. Since we only meet once a week I thought it would be a great way to keep our communication open throughout the week. The Kidsblog site is only open to our group, the students and parents that I added. I also have to approve every post before it can be viewed. I just introduced this to the students last week and I'm waiting for them each to have parental permission. I will post on my blog how it works out as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of Facebook being used as a communication tool. Many parents are already checking Facebook daily and this way they would get updates without having to check yet another website. I'm not comfortable with having the page open so students without accounts can see. This just opens the page to the vulnerability of all eyes out on the World Wide Web.
While social media isn't necessary to successfully teach students, it can be a good asset. I think this would work best with older students, who have a certain level of self control. I think that incorporating things like this in the classroom can get students ready for college courses that require online participation.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that facebook can be a distraction, what about other options like Edublogs? I agree that social networking can be distracting, but seeing that we are living in a digital world shouldn't we help students learn the skills necessary for that? For instance, if they move onto high school and the teacher already expects them to have a working knowledge of social media sites to implement something or is expecting them to know how to do simpler things like typing and conducting searches shouldn't we, as teachers, prepare them? Social media can be abused, I'm not arguing that, but if we don't show students how to properly handle social media sites, where will they learn it?
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your opinion that FB can be a distraction in the classroom. I would argue that the same could be said about most content available online-- but we still need to use it in order to function in the 21st century classroom. So, I think that we, as teachers, need to offer appropriate guidelines and show students that there are tools that can be used socially, but also educationally (even in a social manner).
ReplyDeleteI recall using paper in 6th grade to write many notes and letters to my friends. We would sneak them to each other in class, on breaks, or heading out to the bathroom. We obsessed over the notes in class and read them when we should have been listening to our teacher, reading, or writing something on topic. We 'abused' the paper we had access to-- Yet, paper didn't get tossed out as a learning tool. Rather, there were expectations and consequences that were put in to place. Did I get "busted" passing a note? Yes! Did I get embarrassed when it was in the wrong hands? Yes! So, did it change the way I used paper in school?? Yes!
Now, I'm NOT trying to change your mind, but I want us to walk away with the idea that all of these things are no more than TOOLS and it is the classroom, the teacher, the parents, and even the students that set up the expectations as to how they are used-- and what the consequences might be if not used appropriately.
Thank you for taking a stand, however!