Monday, May 11, 2009

Social Networking Sites & Education?????


I was wondering if social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter and the like can be used for educational purposes. Our students are constantly on these sites-are they really learning anything? Can we find a way to make them educational? What do you all think?

6 comments:

  1. Excellent question regarding the other blog pages students are using, Jennifer. Personally, I would be reluctant to marry those blog pages you mentioned, as you do not have control over what is posted.

    Irregardless, you have done an excellent job in creating this blog page. I'll be anxious to hear how your students use this and other pages to enhance their learning.

    Dr. Howe

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  2. I definitely think there is a place for twitter in the classroom. I'm going to use it next year to post homework, important messages, and assignment reminders. Facebook and myspace would be hard to integrate considering the lack of control and obvious safety issues, but sites like 21classes.com that serve as surrogate social networking sites could be used effectively.

    Dan Lollis

    PS - I really like your blog.

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  3. Dr. Howe,

    Thank you! I am also reluctant to use those social sites. I was reading a blog from another teacher and he wrote quite a bit on using twitter, I was very intrigued and thought I would pose the question myself. I do look forward to collaborating with a few of my colleagues to create blogs for our students to interact with one another on different grade levels for the coming school year.

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  4. Mr Lollis,

    Thanks for your insight on using twitter. I agree Myspace and Facebook would be a bit of a problem. I will look into the site you recommended though.

    Thanks!

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  5. Jennifer,

    I agree with the others. Personally, I choose to keep my MySpace and Facebook pages private. These are Aundrea's pages, not Mrs. Croft's. I suppose one could create a special page for a classroom, but I think the blog would do just as well and it wouldn't be blocked by school computers.

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  6. Aundrea,

    I agree it's much better to stick with blogging and safer compared to Myspace or other networks that are similar.

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