1. What is the appeal for the young and old to network in online places like the ones you examined this week?
On a personal level social media allows people of any age to keep in touch with their family, friends, and other acquaintances. When I'm on Facebook I learn so much more about my friends and extended family than I would have otherwise just by reading their postings. It is great for keeping in touch with friends who have moved, relatives living elsewhere, and those who live nearby. If you have a smartphone it is easy to access social media from just about anywhere. Social media can help you learn new information about products you may want to buy or to learn more about a hobby you have. People may easily become part of a group, whether it is political, a hobby, or practically any interest you can think of. I think this leads to less of a feeling of isolation from other people sharing the same interests or values.
At the professional level social media also has much to offer in terms of collaboration, communication, information resources and other enrichments. This is true for business and education. In the MMS Education 2012 Survey of Educators on Social Networking, Online Communities, and Web 2.0 Tools, 82% of the educators surveyed have memberships in social networks, http://www.mmseducation.com/Educators-and-SocialNetworking_FinalReport_MMSEducation.pdf The report indicated that there is growing awareness by educators that online networks allow access to other educators and classroom resources. There is so much information on the internet and it can be tough to find what is wanted for your classroom so it is helpful to find a quality education-focused site. Using quality sites offer some of the same rewards as personal social media sites do-communicating with others in the same specialty or areas of interest, learning new information, and forming groups with others.
2. If used in a classroom, how might networking websites positively and negatively affect teaching and learning?
In the 2011 NMC Horizon Report K-12 a personal learning environment(PLE) was discussed, (Johnson, et al, 2011). It is described as a system that helps enable self-directed and group-based learning which is designed around each student's goals. One benefit is more student control over learning, while teachers are more of a guide rather than directing all learning. This hopefully will create more motivation and interest on the part of the student. Since students help choose what is in their PLE they may select the method of learning that helps them the most whether it is visual, auditory or something else. The 2011 NMC Horizon Report mentioned a school in Canton, Georgia that uses Netvibes, go.nmc.org/nlrof, as a PLE. The report stated that the goal In Canton is to balance predetermined lessons with educational sources chosen by students and reflecting their interests.
In order for schools to adopt PLEs and other networking websites the infrastructure to support them obviously needs to be there. Students also need access to their own electronic device, whether it is a phone, iPad or something else. There are usually restrictions on what websites may be accessed at school, especially Facebook and other "personal" social media sites. As networking websites become more accepted hopefully most of these road blocks will be removed. There are security concerns when letting students access the internet at school. Websites track what is searched and many data mine in order to tailor advertising and who knows what else for. After student teaching I can see there would have to be a lot of monitoring to make sure students are safely and responsibly using the internet. I think there need to be rules established about internet use. My experience is with grades 7-12 so my comments are more directed to that group. In an article by Nancy Willard about schools and online social networking, http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues423.shtml , she suggests that clear internet rules need to be stated. They need to: include that the internet is to be used for educational sites, discuss online safety, have technical monitoring, and have appropriate consequences for not following the rules. And last but not least teachers need professional development in technology for the classroom.
3. In what kind of site might you tend to spend most of your time networking and for what purpose?
I do not currently belong to any professional networking sites but Classroom 2.0, Discovery Education Network and The Educator's PLN look interesting. I want to learn how to integrate technology into lesson plans. I will look for: information related to the subject I am teaching, lesson plans, comments from other teachers on what works and what doesn't, possible collaboration with other teachers, how internet security concerns are addressed, how to motivate students, how to tailor learning to individual students, developing more student directed learning and to keep up with trends in education. Discovery Education offers many science-related videos and lesson plans although some of it is not free. The schools where I did Methods and Student Teaching subscribed to it. Classroom 2.0 and Educator's PLN are free though. The Educator's PLN should be helpful in getting started on developing PLNs. It should help me expand my knowledge on topics I am interested in and interrelate with other teachers.
For personal networking I use Facebook and Twitter. I like to keep up with friends and family and many of them use Facebook. I do not post to Facebook all that often although I do share sites I like. I sometimes comment on other posts. I started using Twitter fairly recently so I am still learning about it. I have found lots of people to follow and it is great to be able to see what is trending in the areas I am interested in. I now follow news sites, some celebrities, financial sites and personalities, friends, my son and some of his friends. I am reading a book on Twitter now. It is interesting to read about how businesses use Twitter to promote and analyze whatever their product is.
4. In what ways will this benefit you and what do you think might be the drawbacks?
I can think of many benefits to using networking professionally and personally. Exposure to what other educators besides just those in your building are thinking and doing can greatly expand what you learn about teaching. There are the benefits of possible collaboration, helping students become more interested in learning by getting them more involved in their own learning through use of technology, gaining access to quality resources for the classroom, possible interaction with other classrooms in other parts of the country or world, and finding out from other teachers what has worked or not in the classroom.
Some of the drawbacks are those that anyone using the internet might face. Internet security, data mining, hacking, cyber bullying and other issues might all be concerns. On top of that if students are using the internet there must be safeguards to try to protect them. The teacher and school are responsible for the students so it really important to discuss possible problems from using the internet. I also think continued research is needed on whether using networking in the classroom helps learning. I think it needs to be integrated into lesson plans but It should probably be gradual at this time.
5. What can you do to minimize the problems associated with social networking?
I think teachers need to carefully study what has happened in schools currently using social networking. Reports like the NMC Horizon Report, www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon, are good sources for finding schools using social networking and other technologies. Educators need the approval of administration before proceeding with introduction of new technology in the classroom. Classroom rules, or school-wide rules, need to be established on how to safely use the internet. Some internet sites need to be blocked so students cannot access them since I think it would be very difficult to make sure 30+ students are not visiting inappropriate websites. If internet rules are violated then the appropriate consequences need to be followed. I think there are concerns from teachers about repercussions from online collaboration and from other forms of social networking. I think some of the concerns are valid and you need to be very careful about what is posted.
References
Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
At the professional level social media also has much to offer in terms of collaboration, communication, information resources and other enrichments. This is true for business and education. In the MMS Education 2012 Survey of Educators on Social Networking, Online Communities, and Web 2.0 Tools, 82% of the educators surveyed have memberships in social networks, http://www.mmseducation.com/Educators-and-SocialNetworking_FinalReport_MMSEducation.pdf The report indicated that there is growing awareness by educators that online networks allow access to other educators and classroom resources. There is so much information on the internet and it can be tough to find what is wanted for your classroom so it is helpful to find a quality education-focused site. Using quality sites offer some of the same rewards as personal social media sites do-communicating with others in the same specialty or areas of interest, learning new information, and forming groups with others.
2. If used in a classroom, how might networking websites positively and negatively affect teaching and learning?
In the 2011 NMC Horizon Report K-12 a personal learning environment(PLE) was discussed, (Johnson, et al, 2011). It is described as a system that helps enable self-directed and group-based learning which is designed around each student's goals. One benefit is more student control over learning, while teachers are more of a guide rather than directing all learning. This hopefully will create more motivation and interest on the part of the student. Since students help choose what is in their PLE they may select the method of learning that helps them the most whether it is visual, auditory or something else. The 2011 NMC Horizon Report mentioned a school in Canton, Georgia that uses Netvibes, go.nmc.org/nlrof, as a PLE. The report stated that the goal In Canton is to balance predetermined lessons with educational sources chosen by students and reflecting their interests.
In order for schools to adopt PLEs and other networking websites the infrastructure to support them obviously needs to be there. Students also need access to their own electronic device, whether it is a phone, iPad or something else. There are usually restrictions on what websites may be accessed at school, especially Facebook and other "personal" social media sites. As networking websites become more accepted hopefully most of these road blocks will be removed. There are security concerns when letting students access the internet at school. Websites track what is searched and many data mine in order to tailor advertising and who knows what else for. After student teaching I can see there would have to be a lot of monitoring to make sure students are safely and responsibly using the internet. I think there need to be rules established about internet use. My experience is with grades 7-12 so my comments are more directed to that group. In an article by Nancy Willard about schools and online social networking, http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues423.shtml , she suggests that clear internet rules need to be stated. They need to: include that the internet is to be used for educational sites, discuss online safety, have technical monitoring, and have appropriate consequences for not following the rules. And last but not least teachers need professional development in technology for the classroom.
3. In what kind of site might you tend to spend most of your time networking and for what purpose?
I do not currently belong to any professional networking sites but Classroom 2.0, Discovery Education Network and The Educator's PLN look interesting. I want to learn how to integrate technology into lesson plans. I will look for: information related to the subject I am teaching, lesson plans, comments from other teachers on what works and what doesn't, possible collaboration with other teachers, how internet security concerns are addressed, how to motivate students, how to tailor learning to individual students, developing more student directed learning and to keep up with trends in education. Discovery Education offers many science-related videos and lesson plans although some of it is not free. The schools where I did Methods and Student Teaching subscribed to it. Classroom 2.0 and Educator's PLN are free though. The Educator's PLN should be helpful in getting started on developing PLNs. It should help me expand my knowledge on topics I am interested in and interrelate with other teachers.
For personal networking I use Facebook and Twitter. I like to keep up with friends and family and many of them use Facebook. I do not post to Facebook all that often although I do share sites I like. I sometimes comment on other posts. I started using Twitter fairly recently so I am still learning about it. I have found lots of people to follow and it is great to be able to see what is trending in the areas I am interested in. I now follow news sites, some celebrities, financial sites and personalities, friends, my son and some of his friends. I am reading a book on Twitter now. It is interesting to read about how businesses use Twitter to promote and analyze whatever their product is.
4. In what ways will this benefit you and what do you think might be the drawbacks?
I can think of many benefits to using networking professionally and personally. Exposure to what other educators besides just those in your building are thinking and doing can greatly expand what you learn about teaching. There are the benefits of possible collaboration, helping students become more interested in learning by getting them more involved in their own learning through use of technology, gaining access to quality resources for the classroom, possible interaction with other classrooms in other parts of the country or world, and finding out from other teachers what has worked or not in the classroom.
Some of the drawbacks are those that anyone using the internet might face. Internet security, data mining, hacking, cyber bullying and other issues might all be concerns. On top of that if students are using the internet there must be safeguards to try to protect them. The teacher and school are responsible for the students so it really important to discuss possible problems from using the internet. I also think continued research is needed on whether using networking in the classroom helps learning. I think it needs to be integrated into lesson plans but It should probably be gradual at this time.
5. What can you do to minimize the problems associated with social networking?
I think teachers need to carefully study what has happened in schools currently using social networking. Reports like the NMC Horizon Report, www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon, are good sources for finding schools using social networking and other technologies. Educators need the approval of administration before proceeding with introduction of new technology in the classroom. Classroom rules, or school-wide rules, need to be established on how to safely use the internet. Some internet sites need to be blocked so students cannot access them since I think it would be very difficult to make sure 30+ students are not visiting inappropriate websites. If internet rules are violated then the appropriate consequences need to be followed. I think there are concerns from teachers about repercussions from online collaboration and from other forms of social networking. I think some of the concerns are valid and you need to be very careful about what is posted.
References
Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
