M5 - Social Networking Tools and Social Media

5-4 Blog: Social Networking

In your Blogger blog, outline the pros and cons associated with allowing social networking in schools. 

The infographic shared in the Devon Glenn article is interesting, though it focuses on colleges, so I'm not quite sure how must it transfers to K-12 education.  

So, I hunted online to find something more applicable to my own area, focusing on K-12 and discovered these:

First I this Printable Guide to Social Media  at EDTECH, and while it is designed for small business, much of the information is easily transferable to the classroom. 

Adoption Rates of New Styles of K-12 Teaching [Infographic]was created using data from 255 responses to a 2012 Styles of Learning Survey conducted by Enterasys, suggesting that google +, facebook, and twitter are the leading social media platforms being used in the classroom.

What are some "pros" for integrating social networking in schools?

• Well, it's engaging, and if we are being honest, too many students are getting bored in the classrooms because we are pulling out all the exciting and new technology, because of fears.  Engaged students are more likely to work and achieve success.   
• It is also important to recognize that if we don't start to use these tools in the classroom, and model appropriate use, we take a huge risk of allowing students to wander the social networking world without guidance.  After all, wasn't it the first generation of facebook users that got caught up in the problems of social media effecting their college and career aspirations due to poor photo choices for posts?  We didn't know enough to educate those students in time.  Now that we know, aren't we obligated to prepare them to make wiser choices?  
• Social networking develops collaborative skills in a manner that many students will use in the future.

What are some "cons" for integrating social networking in schools?

• It can be a distraction in class.  True, but so can anything, in a boring class, I was fully able to distract myself with a pencil and paper for the full hour when I was in high school.  We need to develop better classroom management strategies, and more engaging classrooms, not just cut out social networking.  
• Less human interaction.  This is a problem, one that we need to think about, we need to help teach students to find a balance between the cyber world and the real world.  
• Inappropriate use, as stated earlier, it is our job to teach appropriate usage.  Someone has to, and we can't leave that up to just parents.  

Aimee Hosler shares some of these opinions in her article 6 Pros & Cons of Social Media in the Classroom.

This blog post started me thinking about how long a social networking platform might need to be around before it is "accepted" in a school.  I remember first trying to use blogs while teaching an ESL summer school class in 2008, and now it is still viewed as a newer technology by some educators.  I discovered this interesting infographic on cloudtweaks:
Infographic: Social Media Evolution provided by ProhibitionPR
I wonder what we will be using a few more years down the road?  

M2 - Digital Citizenship

2-2 In your Blogger blog, reflect on your own digital footprint and personal thoughts on digital citizenship, as well as the necessity of teaching students about digital citizenship in school. Also, discuss your thoughts on an appropriate age of introduction to digital citizenship.

"Kids are growing up on a digital playground and no one is on recess duty."  
-@ Kevin Honeycutt

This was a quote that made me stop in my tracks, when I saw it on a Pintrest board. I felt it was a startling, yet accurate description of students in our schools today.

Personally, I have struggled with thoughts about digital citizenship for a long time, stemming from my teaching background in a tech-savvy private school where I learned to post, text, and surf the net side-by-side with my students.  As a "in loco parentis" I was friends with students and their parents on Facebook when I first joined, and used it as a tool to monitor (and try to prevent) poor choices made by my high school students.  At first this was applauded by administrators, as time went on, friending students and parents grew to be a taboo.  I don't even want to think about how many images I "stole" online, with digital screen shots, before I learned that it was a copyright issue!  

With so many aspects of digital citizenship, we are all wandering in an unmonitored playground, hoping we are making the right choices as we all grow and develop. This experience made me feel that the digital citizenship of a teacher, like personal life, should be somewhat transparent: modeling acceptable, yet realistic, behavior, learning from our mistakes, and helping set positive expectations for the community.  Live, learn, and grow.  It is also important to be aware of what we post, and the misinformation that might be linked to us as posted by others.  

I found a great resource for digital citizens of all ages when visiting the Northern Gateway Digital Citizenship site, I liked that it was set up for students of various ages, parents, and teachers.  As the parent of a 9 year old, and an 11 year old, I want them to learn early, what the digital citizenship expectations are.  I always like the comment, "don't do anything that would make you embarrassed to show your Grammy" - that applies for sites visited, comments posted, and information shared. 

We are all growing and developing in an exciting, sometimes terrifying, information age.  We are learning to be responsible digital citizens as we shape this new frontier.