The Social Network and Your Classroom.

image via | Compu Info Systems

Social networking is often categorized in the same group of technologies such as personal laptops and Smartphones, which are blacklisted from ever making an appearance on campus much less the classroom. As I pointed out in class last week, the draconian rules established for both hardware and software applications are often applied to limit their presence before their potential usefulness can be revealed. Despite these “perceived risks and dangers” of opening up the firewall to allow social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter to our students to access, there is a free and relatively easy opportunity to get connected with our students outside of the classroom in a way never conceived of before.

Most of the arguments I hear about why social networking shouldn’t be used is to maintain teacher and student privacy.  I too believe privacy is a serious issue, but there are various ways we can look at this. First, I believe as educators we are role models and being so we must carefully watch how we conduct ourselves in front of our students both inside and outside of the classroom. I believe that teachers and administrators who chose to friend students have an excellent opportunity to model how they (the students) should act online and within the community.  However, I equally stand by the claim that as educators we are mandated reporters. If students post pictures/comments about their crazy weekend or there is evidence of online bullying, we are put into that awkward position of potential liability. An argument by Cory Doctorow points to a more psychological issue with encouraging the use of social networking and sharing their personal information: 

Another way to resolve this issue specifically for Facebook is to understand the difference between friending and creating a page.  When we friend a student they see everything we do and we see everything they do (but limitations can be set on how much they can see within Facebook’s convoluted privacy menu). Again, this puts the teacher in the territory of awkward liability. Creating a Page entitled “Mr. Tinsley’s History Emporium” or “Room 4G Class Page of Awesomeness” (you can tell I spent time thinking of these names, right?) offers students to see the activities posted on the wall and keeps them out of your profile. The same applies to the teachers being able to look into the student’s profiles as well.

The Possibilities

 Continuing the lesson: Have you ever taught a lesson on something and then go online later that night to find a really interesting article or video clip that drives the information home in such a way that your students should see it too, but then you forget/ don’t have to time to go over it in class the next day? Yeah, I have had that happen many times and my bookmark list continues to grow because of it. Social networking sites can be that venue to continue the lesson outside of the classroom. 
     Social networking can be an excellent way to extend the reach of education into the homes of our students.  Discussion topics about lessons can be posted by both the teacher and students.  Students who are struggling with certain aspects or of the lesson or assignment can post it on the wall and either the teacher or their peers can help point them in the right direction.  

Classroom updates: No matter how many times a teacher has told a student throughout their career in education, students who were absent class will always ask the question, “So, what did we do yesterday?” Ideally the answer would be, “Didn’t you check the Facebook post yesterday?” Although social networking will probably not stop this habit, it will at least help as a reference point. Students who were absent can keep up to date with a posting about what was discussed in class with a link to the various downloadable assignment online.  

Parental Support and Accountability: In the short time I have spent in education so far I have come to realize the need for parents to be aware of what their children are doing in class.  I believe the parent/teacher relationship is often very weak, when it should be strong for the benefit of the student. Social networking can be an excellent venue to strengthen such bonds and allow parents of students a glimpse into the classroom and see what their child is learning. Parents would be able to see and comment on photos or videos of their child’s presentations. The question of “What did you learn at school today?” can be replaced with “I saw that you learned about the battle of Antietam today, did you know that your great great great great great grand father was in that battle?” 

Opportunities for building leadership: Another beauty about having a Facebook page instead of a profile is that you can create other admins to help maintain the site. I believe this would be an excellent opportunity to include some of the more tech savvy and responsible students into roles of leadership. Selected students who are made admins can help monitor conversations on topics and be in charge of making a daily update about what was discussed in class today for other students who may have been sick. Delegated responsibilities and tasks like these can give the students a sense of ownership about the content produced.  This would also help lighten the load for the teacher in terms of the responsibility of overseeing the entire effort.

A resource to make life easier:

I started using Hootsuite for my church’s social media needs earlier this year and I have loved it ever since! This free website lets you aggregate  and post to all of your social networking hubs into one spot.  The best part is that you can schedule postings for a later date and time, which is great if you want to get ahead and not worry about having to post every single day.