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Social Networking in Schools

Chlebisch 6/17/2011

Social Networking in Schools

Abstract

Social Networking is becoming a new way for teachers to interact with their students, parents, fellow teachers, and administrators. Social Networking is slowly moving into our classrooms, and the students are all for it. Teachers on the other hand, are a little more cautious, as some still prefer the old style of teaching. With the changes being made all the time with technology, social networking has its place to stay up with these changes. It is easy to use, free in cost, and the majority of our students already know how to use it, so trainings would be minimal. Social Networking is a great tool to use in the classroom, for everyone involved.

Social Networking in Schools

Social Networking is an internet tool that educators are looking at more and more. Social Networking is a way for students, parents, teachers, and administrators to stay in contact with each other. It is a way for all parties to interact with each other; all they need is the Internet. Social Networking includes sites like MySpace and Facebook, sites that our students use on a regular basis anyways. The first two articles I reviewed (Williams &Merten, 2008; Williams 2008) talked about Social Networking, when it was first trying to find its way into the classrooms. They talk about how this online way of interacting could put students in touch with people all over. They also stated that this way of teaching and interacting could be very beneficial to our schools and the learning for our students, but more testing and research would be needed. These articles looked at adolescents in schools and then at school age kids in general. I put this in there to show how things have changed in as little as just three years. I then found a couple articles that were a little more current. They first one (Roblyer& McDaniel & Webb & Herman & Witty, 2010) talked about Facebook, and how students in college would use Facebook in their classes, and if they would be open for using Facebook for their classes. Most of the students showed they were already using Facebook for fun and leisure so did not have any troubles adapting to using this social networking for their education classes. The next article I found, (Gray &Annabell& Kennedy, 2010) talks about medical students, and the use of Facebook to help in their learning and education. Again, most of these students use Facebook already, when they do have free time, and jumped at the opportunity to use it in their studies. They liked the idea of being able to get

Social Networking in Schools

assistance with questions and concepts at any time and from people from all around the world. They liked the fact that teachers were allowing them to use what they already use to benefit them in the classroom.The last article I found on article (Jones & Gaffney-Rhys & Jones, 2011) was the most current. It looked at just the way teachers and administrators could use Social Networking to better their communication in their school districts. This was a little harder to accomplish as a whole. The younger aged teachers loved it and used it all the time. The older teachers had a more difficult time adapting to this, and said they preferred the old style of communication, emails. The ones that used the Social Networking tried to show the benefits of this tool, and how it could help with student learning, but again, some of the vintage teachers had a lot harder time with this. So how can the use of Social Networking help with the education of our students? The medical students (Gray &Annabell& Kennedy, 2010) showed that they could communicate with each other, their professors, and even doctors from around the country to get help with questions they may have. They could get help from their classmates individually, or even as a whole class. The professors can interact with the students, even if they are not in the classroom, and they can give them places on the Internet to look at for specific concepts or applications. Administrators and teachers can keep in contact about meetings and special events that are coming up (Jones & Gaffney-Rhys & Jones, 2011). Teachers can post discussions and the students can log on and answer and debate these questions from the comfort of their homes (Williams, 2008). The applications of Social Networking can be widely used in various forms and applications. It is just a matter of everyone jumping on board and making it happen.

Social Networking in Schools

I have used this tool in my classroom, and for fun and leisure. Social Networking is a great tool, in my opinion because of all the things you can do with it. You can set up discussion questions that the students can post answers to, students can get help from their classmates a lot easier while they are not in school, and parents can see what the class is doing on a regular basis. Teachers can remind students of upcoming events like tests, quizzes, projects, or things like when class pictures are going to be taken. Teachers and parents can stay in contact a lot easier, and administration can post important message about school/district events. Our School system also uses Facebook to accomplish this, and they have been very pleased with the results. I do think this is a very beneficial tool for all parties involved, and the more we can show the seasoned teachers that are a bit more skeptical, and how easy it is to use, the quicker we will see it take over our classrooms for the better. And the best part is, it is FREE, and the students know how to use this already, so we dont have to waste time trying to show them how to use it. I think this is a win/win situation for the new age of learning. I have read that Social Networking is on the rise. It does what teachers want it to do, it allows all parties to stay in contact with one another a lot easier than an email, which can get lost in cyber land or not received due to numerous reasons, or because someone changed their email address. One statement can be posted, and then everyone can see that. Social Networking saves time trying to set it up, which allows the teacher to spend more time on their lessons for the classroom. It also enables the teacher to get the students to talk about things outside of their classroom. Discussion posts can be set up, and the students can log in and discuss and debate with one another. It also allows students to stay current with what is going on in the classroom, even if they are out of class for whatever reason. I think Social Networking has a lot of merit because of its ease to use, the cost, FREE, and the functionality of it. Social Networking allows

Social Networking in Schools

people to stay connected, even if they are not in the same place anymore. This is the way of our educational future, so it is time to embrace it and use it now. The barriers to implement Social Networking into our schools would be very easy to do. The only thing that the technology department would need to do is to unblock the Social Networking site, like Facebook. The teacher can then set up a class page, and have students become friends/fans of that page, and then you are good to go. There might be a few students that need to sign up for a free account, but that would not take much time at all. Once the page is set up, and the students can view the page, the Social Networking can begin. This would not be a hard tool to implement within the classroom, it is just getting permission by the technology department to give teachers and students access to it while at school. I can see Social Networking making its place in the classrooms nationwide in the next 2 years, if not sooner. This tool is so widely used already in a number of other places, mostly at home for fun and leisure, so implementing it into the classroom would not require a huge transition. I can see Social Networking being so widely used that students will have that instead of textbooks; they will be interacting with people in other counties, states, and even countries on assignments and projects. This just opens up the lines of communication far easier than emails or phone calls. I do see Social Networking being the way of future education, and I think that classrooms and school may even fade out some. Teachers can post videos of their lessons, tutorial assistance, and chats with their students, and never having to leave their home/office. Students can learn from the comfort of their homes as well. I do see more schools and school systems adopting this learning style, and I see our students really benefitting from it.

Social Networking in Schools

Social Networking in Schools

References Jones, J., Gaffney-Rhys, R., & Jones, E. (2011). Social network sites and student-lecturer communication: an academic voice. Journal of Further & Higher Education, 35(2), 201-219. Gray, K., Annabell, L., & Kennedy, G. (2010). Medical students' use of facebook to support learning: insights from four case studies. Medical Teacher, 32(12), 971-976. Roblyer, M.D., McDaniel, M., Webb, M., Herman, J., & Witty, J.V. (2010). Findings on facebook in higher education: a comparison of college and faculty and student uses and perceptions of social networking sites. Internet & Higher Education, 13(3), 134-140. Williams, P. (2008). Leading schools in the digital age: a clash of cultures. School Leadership & Management, 28(3), 213-228. Williams, A., &Merten, M.J. (2008). Review of online social networking profiles by adolescents: implications for future research and intervention. Adolescence, 43(170), 253-274.