I am discovering the world of social networking. In lieu of social protest and reformation as in the Middle East, I am thinking that Twitter is mostly for fun here in the good old USA. However, my eyes have been opened to many more possibilities with blogging, wikis, etc. for me as a student and as a teacher. A couple of months ago I didn’t even know what Twitter was. I don’t text much, don’t pay for a texting package, and I figured it was only for cell-phones. For those of you who still feel “Twitterpated” as well, watch this video, “Twitter in plain English.” http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=24497&title=Twitter_In_Plain_English
I was totally enamored with NetVibes. I was able to customize my home page so every time I log on, I can see updates on any blogs I am interested in, any news headlines I might wish to look at, and any site that will give me a feed. My guess is that most every site will soon have an RSS feed available. I liked the fact that I could make tabs to organize whatever I wanted to. I can have a page with only educational blogs I would like to follow, another with my fellow students, another with my family, etc. What a useful tool that is always available as long as I’m wired.
I love being able to see my fellow students’ Delicious bookmarking pages also. If we share all our knowledge, how much better the outcomes! It can be exponentially greater. Just the thoughts of high school students being able to work together to research subjects and write collaboratively on Google Docs makes my head spin.
Education is still in the dark ages as far as social networking is concerned. We seem to be afraid of the possibilities. “They will cheat!” reverberates through teachers’ minds when they see students’ texting. “They won’t pay attention!” I say, “Well, duh…” Kids now a days don’t know how to pay attention to only one thing. They have for so many years done several things at once, a teacher lecturing will only put them to sleep. I believe we need to rethink the current way we teach and somehow use those skills exploding on the scene. So many social networking spots are blocked at schools, it’s nearly impossible to find a way around it. So how have you teachers done it? How can I get my district to allow more?
I loved an article called Transforming Pedagogy through Social Software
Catherine McLoughlin and Mark J. W. Lee. (Retrieved Sept. 8, 2009 from http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=539&action=article).
If we can use Web 2.0 tools in school, those tools will help students work together, share knowledge, and network globally. They will have more motivation to work, and collaborate easily and freely. They will produce and share knowledge, concepts, and ideas for the world. This will prepare our students for their future. We have to enable this to happen in our schools.
So what do you think? How can we be the catalyst for change?
@Karlene
ReplyDeleteI just love reading your posts! As a teacher how can we not utilize the media literacy tools that Web 2.0 gives us especially social bookmarking. I too love Delicious bookmarking and find it a great collaborative tool for sharing and updating our own resource database. We're in this together anyway as educators so why not share our resources. It's just as important for our students to benefit from these tools as well. Makes my head spin too to think of all the things that are out there that we don't even know about yet!:)