It seems that everyone today
participates in some form of social networking online. Many of us are members
of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. This has become part of our
society, so it is not surprising that social networking plays a part in the education
world too. Younger and younger students are learning to use social networking
sites, often better and more easily than their parents. Many educators are
taking advantage of this interest in social networking to make it part of the
education world as well. Often, students are more motivated to participate in discussion,
complete projects, etc. when they can utilize online resources such as social
networking. Of course, there are downsides to using social networking sites
with students as well. Some of those are listed below.
- · Cyber bullying
- · Online predators
- · Loss of face to face interaction time
- · Over-sharing of information by patrons
- · Invasion of privacy from social networking sites as well as cyber criminals
Just like there are drawbacks to consider, there are also
many benefits of social networking to consider as well.
- · Access to a wider audience
- · Stronger relationship with patrons due to increased communication
- · Better ability to reach patrons with social anxiety
- · Teaches computer skills especially for students with limited exposure to computers
- · Strengthens community with similar interests
Due to the drawbacks of social
networking sites as well as student safety issues, many school districts have
denied access to many social networking sites while on school property. This
does not mean that media centers cannot still utilize this tool though. Most
students (and parents too!) have access to social networking sites through
phones or computers at home, so use of social networking in blocked districts
is still possible. Many media centers have chosen to create social networking
sites to celebrate the media center and thus promote the media program. I think
this is a great idea even in districts that block these sites. Through a media
center page the media specialist and the patrons can communicate, discuss
common interests, share resources, etc. Social networking would be a great way
to promote the media center and make it a more useful and inviting place. Any way
that students can become involved in media center activities, either through
actual visits to the media center or online, helps the media program and the
students. Helping students is one of the major goals of the media center and
social networks can be one way to help meet this goal.
More Information
Here is a site of the 15 most popular social networking
sites. There are some on here I have never heard of but need to check out: http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites
This site discusses the pros and cons of social networking sites.
It brings up many good points on both sides: http://socialnetworking.procon.org/
This great site gives many ideas, reasons, and sites to try
out when using social networking for the media center: http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Social+Networks
I believe that teaching today's youth about the proper use social networking is extremely important as being able to properly us and interact using these medium are the way of the future. The site enable individuals to build maintain personal and professional relationships. IT can also encourage the young users utilize and strengthen their reading, writing and comprehension skills and improve their ability to communicate with others in an online community.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the website with the 15 different sites, Caley. My district is one that blocks all social networking sites, except Pinterest. As a nod to the fact that students love to participate in social networking, we have a new tool in my district called "My Big Campus." At a glance, it looks exactly like Facebook. It has the same layout, design, and functionality except it has extremely strict guidelines as to what can be posted. Teachers can upload You Tube videos as long as they are appropriate. Media centers can make pages in order to advertise for new books or share information about research tools. So, it has been a great way to incorporate social networking, and the students are slowly beginning to really use it.
ReplyDeleteDue to the online dangers that have been associated with social networking sites, I worry that social networking will automatically have a negative connotation in the school setting. I feel that social networking carries far more benefits that dangers. What better way to make learning and collaboration relevant to the 21st century student?
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out that social networking can help the social anxieties as well as helping students with computer skills, a skill that is going to be needed for the rest of their lives. I think that school systems get so hung up on the dangers that have made headlines that they have blinders on to the good that can come out of these websites.
Thanks for the list of sites to look into. That will be helpful. Wendi's localized site for her district seems helpful. I had been thinking that in the education setting we would do better with a social networking device that is not already so tarnished with suspicion as FB is. But on the other hand, almost everyone already has a FB, so you're not trying to force them into some other site or tool if we learn how to use the biggest ones (FB, Twitter). I know that on FB, you can make little groups. It would be helpful for students/other users to be able to keep their comments about their social lives restricted to one set of friends, and keep other school related stuff on their main stream. (I, too, have qualms about adding my professional peers to my facebook...not that I am posting much of importance, but that is part of the reason I don't. I certainly can't post myself having too much fun, and my friend, who's also a teacher at my school, won't let me put any of our vacation pictures up because she doesn't want people to see the extend of her tatoos. But anyway, I digress.)
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see you say that many people in schools are using their mobile devices to go right around the school filters. I wonder what's the worst the school system can do about it? (Not much, I suspect.)
This is an excerpt from Dave Copeland's article "For School Media in the Classroom to Work, Instructors Need Best Practices"
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/for-social-media-in-the-classroom-to-work-instructors-need-best-practices.php
"How social media was used depended on the class. The freshman writing class was encouraged to use Google+ to peer edit papers and discuss group projects. A film class used Twitter to ask questions and make comments during in-class screenings. An intro to journalism class live-tweeted events on campus, used Storify to analyze the coverage of major news events and performed a Twitter scavenger hunt to test their reporting skills as part of a final exam.
All of these sound really interesting ways to engage students to me.
For whatever reason, I cannot become a contributor to the blog, and cannot post an original post. I've been trying for days to resolve this, but cannot. Here is my post on social media:
ReplyDeleteSocial Media in the Library
In this age of social media obsession, it only makes sense for library media specialists to use social media to promote their library media program. There is definitely a place for social media in the media center. It’s important for library media specialists to promote their program continuously; to students, teachers, and the community. That ensures that their patrons remain informed about the happenings at the media center. That, in turn, would do a lot to increase book circulation and media center usage.
I know that many school districts do not allow access to social networking sites, but that should not stop a library media specialist from using social networking. The media center patrons will still benefit from media center social networking. I visited with a media specialist that has a Twitter and Facebook account for her media center. She includes pictures of what is going on in the media center, links to book reviews on her blog, shares recommended books, keeps students abreast of current contests going on at the media center, informs patrons of new books that have just arrived, and more. She has students that ask for book recommendations via social networking, and share reviews of books. So, it’s a great way to involve students and promote reading.
The way the aforementioned media specialist used social media to promote her media center is great. Social media should be used to promote the library program, and keep patrons informed of its services and offerings. Social media provides a great way to increase reading motivation by:
• Allowing the media specialist and students to discuss books and increase motivation for other students to read the book.
• Informing students of the variety of books that the media center offers.
Social media is an asset to a media center that can motivate students to read and keep patrons informed of the media center’s happenings.
Thanks, Caley for the thorough analysis. It's such a shame that so often the dangers (and they are real) overtake the benefits (which could be so endless). Cobb is encouraging use of Edmodo. We're all just getting into it so my reflections are somewhat limited at present, but if offers perhaps a middle of the road option. What I have noticed from students (thus far) has alerted me to another issue with the use of Social Networking in education and that is the need for a paradigm shift with students. For them it IS a social outlet... and unfortunately seems too often to reflect the shallow thought that so often accompanies social network exchanged.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, many schools (including mine) block social networking sites. I would love to have my media center page have a link to a Facebook page, but I would never be able to work on it at school because Facebook is blocked. Yes, Edmodo works, but Edmodo is not something that is mainstream that everyone has access to, and the whole point of making a Facebook page for the media center is to publicize the cool things that are happening in the library. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are integral parts of the real world, so they need to be come integral parts of the school setting as well.
ReplyDeleteI completey agree with Penny that it is a shame the downfalls outweigh the benefits of using social media in schools such as Facebook right now. It is possible that another site such as Edmodo would work just as well for our purposes, but I am not familiar with that site. All social media is blocked in my county. You can't even log into a blog site of any type. So, I'll probably have to check out Edmodo from home...I don't think that social media will go mainstream in the classroom, but I do think that we will mainstream announcements and send homework assignments out in mass texts to students and parents. We already do some of this at our school. We do not do it every day. I think that a daily text/email with all assignments/announcements will soon be mainstream.
ReplyDelete