Until recently, social media as a learning tool has been widely underused. Most schools restrict access to sites like Twitter and Facebook. The biggest concern for parents and educators is student privacy and safety. However, educators are now discovering many benefits of using these sites to help students learn and develop good communication skills. Slowly, they are being incorporated, safely and effectively, into classroom instruction. (Ramig, 2009)
Social media sites have become very popular and widely used in today's society. It only makes sense to incorporate them in schools. An important aspect of social media is its power to encourage students to interact, participate, and collaborate with each other. Social media allows students to post questions about homework, continue or start classroom discussions at home, or respond to questions posted by the teacher and other students. (Ramig, 2009).
Besides communication, there are other benefits to using social network sites. Using Wikis, students can store research papers and portfolios; share summaries, notes, and study guides; and collaborate on projects with students in other schools. Students may use blogs to make a record of their learning while incorporating audio, video, images, and classroom discussions. Teachers are even beginning to use Facebook and Twitter to post class schedules, ask questions, make announcements, and facilitate discussions. Many of these sites can only be accessed with passwords or the school's intranet which is only available to teachers, students, and parents. (Kist, 2013).
For our class project on the state of New Hampshire, the students will create a fact book after completing their WebQuest to find information on the internet. When the project is complete, the students will be required to write a few sentences in the class project blog about what they have learned and which part of the project they enjoyed the most. This blog is located on a secure social networking site called Edmodo. Students will need a code to access this blog and no one, except the teacher, students and their parents, is permitted to view the site.
In assessing the students on what they've learned about the economics, government, history, and geography of New Hampshire; I will ask them to post a blog entry about one fact they learned, one fact they already knew, and one fact they might like to learn. I will also ask them to discuss their favorite part of working on the project. The value of this blog is to promote social interaction and participation. It is important for our children to learn good communication skills and social media gives students an opportunity to sharpen these skills. Edmodo also ensures a safe environment for them while they interact.
The link to the class blog is provided below and students may sign up for the group using a code I will supply them with. I would like this blog to be an ongoing discussion about the topics we discuss in class and the projects we collaborate on. It will also serve as a record of each student's learning. While participating in the posts, they will sharpen their reading and writing skills. They will hone their communication and collaboration skills. They will interact and participate in classroom discussion. https://www.edmodo.com/home#/group?id=7690789
References
Kist, W. (2013). Class Get Ready To Tweet: Social Media in the Classroom. Our Children: The National PTA Magazine, 38(3), 10-11. (Dec. 2012-Jan. 2013).
Ramig, R. (2009). Social Media in the Classroom-for Kindergartners
Through High Schoolers. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 16(6), 8-10.
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