Summary:
Social networking in my opinion is an effective way to help students educate themselves. With nine-17 year olds spending a sufficient amount of their time using social networking tools as they do watching television. 96% pf students with online access report that they have ever used any social networking technologies such as chatting, text messaging, and blogging. Social networking tools allow students to express their learning with words, music, and video. Most students spend a good amount of time posting content on online sources. Incorporating the internet and social networking tools into education, gives students the drive to want to study and participate in their learning. With recent studies, it is found that most students (96%) have homework that involves the use of the internet. It's becoming more and more common for school districts to set up social networking tools that enable students to have enjoyed their learning. A great percentage of students have the 21st century skills needed to engage in social networking. However, there are some disadvantages. School districts around the country have several disadvantages that include: requiring a permission form, rules on chatting and instant messaging, and blocked internet sites. Overall, social networking gives students the chance to incorporate what they already do in their spare time, with education.
Ideas on the topic:
Almost all tweens/teens are using social networks such as blogging sites, text messaging, myspace and facebook now. These kids and students are now spending more time on these sites than watching tv. A lot of these students claim that a large amount of their time online is spent doing work or research for school. Although these sites are banned in most schools; teachers continue to assign more and more assignments that need the internet to be completed. Schools should use these social network tools AS tools for the classroom. Teachers could use these networks for students to post blogs on the lesson, or to find more information on topics they are studying in the classroom. There are so many ways for the internet to be used in educational ways, and if students are using these social network outlets they could be used as a great tool for educational purposes. Maybe if there was a way for schools to block the parts of the site that they do not want the student to use at the school, yet be able to keep the educational usable portion such as the blogging portion, ect. Since students are so familiar with these social networks and can get around them so well, they should be able to use them with ease in their school work, hopefully helping them in their educational experience. Social networking tools are so popular these days, lets use them to furter education, and help our students reach higher in their educaitonal careers.
Social Networking has grown to be very popular among teens. This study reported that 9-17 year olds spend almost 9 hours a week on social networking sites. Compared to 10 hours a week watching television. That is huge. Kids have become computer couch potatoes now. 96% of students with online access report that they used social networking technology such as chatting, text messaging, blogging, visiting MySpace and Facebook. Those figures are astonishing considering it was only a few years ago that these things did not even exist and all kids did was watch television, play video games and play outside. But with all of the advances in technology kids are able to stay connected to eachother in many ways. surprisingly though students reported that the most common topics of conversation on these social networking sites is education, and schoolwork. Even this being so a vast majority of school districts have strict rues about students visiting these sites during the school day. even though parents report few problems with behavior online. I think that there should be less strict rules regarding students visiting these sites during the school day. I do think there should be some limitations because some students will try and abuse being able to go to these sites but not everyone should be punished and those that do use the sites to talk about school and their schoolwork should be aloud to.Social Networking is a great tool that we are fortunate to have in this day and it should not be taken away from students just because they are in school. They should be able to use it in school too.
Opinion:
Social Networking tools have their pros and cons about them. Many people especially parents think that these tools are unsafe for their children to be using. Depending upon age, many children should be supervised when using these tools. Obviously if your child is old enough to make their own decisions then as a parent you might have to just step back and let them do what they want, after all most of these sites are now private where you have to be accepted to view a persons profile. Many students use these social networking tools to communicate back and forth with their friends. These social networks could look into the kind of information they are asking people to put on their sites and determine what sould be allowed and what shouldn't be, such as where they live and work and all of that. That kind of information doesn't necessarilly need to be distributed to anyone who doesn't already know that. When it is all said and done, I think it all depends on the age group when determining if social networking tools is right or not.
Further Research:
It seems that after reading these articles on incorporating technology into the school system we have to be taking our cues from somewhere. That somewhere is NASA and other government agencies. The school systems seem to be using techology that is proven to work in other aspects before testing them out in the schools. I think that is very smart and a great way to screen different tools to see if they would translate well to the education environment. According to this article students use their social networking tools in education more than people realize. I'm sure many can say they have used it for rate my professor and such. Social networking tools are present in the students lives and it would be to the schools advantage to educate about the safety and to incorporate them instead of ignoring or banning them. Below is a link to safe education when it comes to social networking tools:
http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/issues/issues423.shtml
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Social networking tools are becoming a part of modern day learning. 96% of students with online access report that they have ever used any social networking technologies such as chatting, text messaging, and blogging.It's becoming more and more common for school districts to set up social networking tools that enable students to have enjoyed their learning.
I would have liked to see some more interest in your blog. It was hard to follow because it was only labeled by sections as to what team member had done. I would have liked to see maybe a graphic or a sentence that would have pulled a reader in. However, you guys did have alot of information and clearly knew what you were talking about!
This was a very informative blog. My group id a article that was very similiar to this one and I liked how you set up your blog, but I agree. It was a bit difficult to read. Mostly because the red font though.
I really liked reading the article you guys chose and I enjoyed reading your additions... I wonder how soon it will be when students begin spending more time online and less time in front of the t.v.
Post a Comment