Social media is a great was for people to connect and share their ideas and thoughts whether they are academic or not. As adults we are able to sift through the garbage and only focus of the quality info, as for the classroom, much more QA (Quality assurance) is required from the teacher.
Using social media in the classroom can be a great tool if monitored properly, but un-monitored can lead to a lot of problems such as the child getting into inappropriate material and straying from the task. There are eight risks for children using the internet in the curriculum according the Bernie Poole (2011). Link here. These eight risks are objectionable or inappropriate material, cyber-bullying, online predators, invasion of privacy, inaccurate or bias information, information overload, garbage and wasted time. All of these risks have solutions like filtering software, student training and teacher vigilance but none of these can stop all the risks and make the internet completely safe. There will always be a risk, however, the decision you must make as a teacher is if the instructional value of the internet out weighs the risks. For example, an article posted on the site www.onlinecollege.org, written by the site administrator (2009) offers 100 ways to use and implement Facebook in the classroom in classes K-12. Link here.
For my classroom, I would use Facebook as a way to communicate with the children outside of school. I would post helpful sites and tips for the students to help them with their homework and the students could post questions they have and could be answered by their classmates. I would also post readings and activities for the students to do outside of class for homework instead of giving them paper assignments. It would serve as a means of communication between me and the students and from student to student. Of course I would need to acquire parental permission before doing this.
Another way I would use Facebook is for a means of presentation. The students would make small groups and create a Facebook page on something that interest them. They would research the topic and the internet and post info and websites on the Facebook page. The team would be responsible for maintaining the page and updating it.
I do agree with you in that there are a lot of ways that social media sites like Facebook could be interactive and useful with students, however the points that you made towards what you would do in your own classroom, may be a bit too sophisticated for some of your students. Being that we are educators of students with disabilities, things should be as simple and clear-cut as possible. Having assignments on Facebook may become tricky with some students who are not as computer-savy as others. Your idea on having extra activities and things to look at on your Facebook page however, would be a great way to get students and their parents involved outside the classroom!
ReplyDelete"There will always be a risk, however, the decision you must make as a teacher is if the instructional value of the internet out weighs the risks." That's a really good point. With the Internet - with everything in life, really - there's always a risk. But as teachers we need to decide if the desired learning experience is more important than the possible negative outcomes. I honestly think that in the society we're shaping out to be, people can be too sensitive. That's not to say that there aren't serious problems with things that can happen on the Internet, but I do think sometimes people become too sheltered and because of that don't want to take any risks - particularly parents with how they let their kids use the Internet. I think as long as the adults in these children's lives do their best to filter out the crap, then the lesson is more important than the risk. But that's really for us as individuals to decide in specific situations. It's an excellent point to make.
ReplyDeleteYour initial statement: As adults we are able to sift through the garbage and only focus of the quality info, as for the classroom, much more QA (Quality assurance) is required from the teacher... is very strong and spot on. Of course, the idea of getting in to content we shouldn't, I personally think that can happen much easier on the internet (compared with just Facebook, specifically)...I'd generalize that statement to the WWW. Just today I was able to report something I saw on FB that appeared very out of the ordinary in an explicit manner and why it stuck out to me was that I rarely come across that type of thing on FB (at least, personally).
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are passionate about the topic, but I might shoot for synonyms like "trash", "garbage", "inappropriate content", etc. for a word choice! Thank you!