I remember my first Facebook experience... An un-techie friend of mine suggested I try it and swore that I would “LOVE” it. Sceptical as I was, I signed up and was instantly hooked. Simultaneous to my developing Facebook addiction, I was getting ready to leave for an adventure teaching in the United Arab Emirates. My time in the UAE away from family and friends and meeting new people from around the world, only solidified my addiction to this ever-popular site. I posted pictures of my trip for my friends and family to view, and was able to keep them informed as to my adventures and keep up with there’s. The people I met 3+ years ago on this trip are still my Facebook friends and I enjoy being able to easily keep up with their exciting jet-setting lives over Facebook.
I now check Facebook everyday – while this might seem obsessive, I really do enjoy and learn from it. What is it I love so much about Facebook? Firstly, I’m a super social person and I love to see what others are up to. Not only that, Facebook provides a casual way to contact others; particularly with those who I don't feel comfortable just calling up. Perhaps more intriguing is that through Facebook I can discover that my colleague is neighbours with my brother’s girlfriend’s parents! It’s a small world after all!
A New Way of Thinking: Learning About Social Networking & Our Schools
I have tried my hand at using a variety of social networking sites namely Facebook, Ning, and LinkedIn. While they each offer slightly different services and features, once you’ve learned one, you can easily navigate another. I didn’t spend much time exploring these tools this week for this reason. Instead I spent my time investigating how these tools can be used in our schools for student learning and for my own professional development.
Honestly, when I read over our course outline I was astounded to see that we were required to learn about using social networking tools such as Facebook with our students and for professional development. Like most people, I see social networking as a recreational activity and couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of using it as a learning tool for myself and my students. That being said, my thoughts have begun to change as we have explored Web 2.0 tools over the past few months in regards to enhancing teaching and learning through technology. I launched into my learning this week with an open mind and was happy to see that employing social networking tools in education doesn’t mean teachers have to “friend” their students or put up with distracting Farmville requests while trying to teach a lesson. The teachers I read about this week have tapped into the social networking craze and used it in creative ways to increase learning and no doubt engagement.
Without a Trialfire this week I started by reading Will Richardson’s chapter on social networks in his book “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” and I was pleasantly surprised to read that recent studies have found that students are in fact using social networking sites to find information and connect with others from outside their school and/or immediate community. It is very exciting to realise that students are not only using social networks for time-occupying, but also for learning (whether they realise it or not) - this goes to show that our students possess the skills needed to learn and connect through social networks. While the academic integrity of this learning is up for debate, students are learning and connecting non-the-less and that’s something us teachers/TLs need to tap into. Richardson also goes on to state that networked learning, “is committed to a vision of the social that stresses cooperation, interactivity, mutual benefit and social engagement” – could we ask for anything more? I was still wondering how us teachers/TLs can make the most of learning through social networks?
I learned that if employed properly, Facebook can offer students and teachers a place to connect and share ideas and learning. This is all well and good, but I still had concerns over safety when using sites such as Facebook in the classroom. I turned to “The Socially Networked Classroom” by William Kist for advice. Kist makes some compelling points about internet safety and our students. Firstly, he reminds us that students can just as easily write a nasty note on paper as they can on another’s Facebook wall and more importantly, since we teach students about internet safety we need to give them the oppertunity to practice these skills in a supervised environment (i.e. school). I then decided to call up a few friends (many who are teachers) of mine who have school aged children and ask their opinions on using social networking sites such as Facebook in the classroom. Most of my friends expressed concern over using Facebook for learning due to security issues, and I don’t fault them for this. What I think they are missing is the fact that Facebook (and other social networking sites) are used in different ways for learning than we use them for in our recreational time. By using social networking sites in our schools, we can model and teach internet etiquette and safety in an authentic way. Facebook security features and “tricks” can be employed to maximize student atonomy - a useful guide of Facebook Safety Features is available here.
In regards to my professional development and social networking sites, this wasn’t such a paradigm shift for me. I was introduced to LinkedIn by Mack Male through the Illuminate session we had earlier in the course and signed up shortly thereafter. LinkedIn is a professional social media site which allows users to connect based on academic and/or professional interests. After creating a profile I was astounded to see how many people from my school district were already on LinkedIn. From Educational Assistants to the Director of HR, there were many familiar names that came up for my district. This was an eye opening experience for me as I didn’t fully realise just how linked in (pun intended) to social media my colleagues were. After creating my contact list I joined a few groups: Technology in Education; Elementary Education and University of Victoria Alumni. I’ve been following the discussions on these groups and am impressed by the amount of “action” each topic gets! In hopes of learning more about this week’s topic, I posted my first discussion topic asking for other’s thoughts and ideas in regards to using social networking sites in our schools.
While I did get a few responses, after reading up a bit I learned that the discussion forums aren’t really for asking questions so much as stimulating discussions from an interesting link etc. I then came across the “Answers” page on LinkedIn and posted a question about Web 2.0 and engaging students.
The other questions and answers that people had posted were both interesting and meaningful. I enjoyed scrolling through them as I appreciated the info others were offering.
As I began to research and reflect on the idea of using social networking sites for my own professional development and the learning of my students, my thinking changed. Facebook and similar sites are getting a negative reputation thanks to the many frivolous applications they have (i.e. Mafia Wars). Smart, modern and creative educators aren’t letting this digital clutter get in the way of these tools learning and connecting potential. Through cleaver manipulation (for lack of a better word) of these tools wonderfully rich and engaging learning opportunities are being created.
Not a Hard Sell: Social Networking, My Life & Learning
As I mentioned in my introduction, Facebook is a favourite “tool” of mine to feed my need for connections with people and my obsession for knowing what others are up to. I don’t see myself deleting my Facebook profile anytime soon. It’s a fun and handy way to connect, re-connect, plan events, promote initiatives, share photos and send messages – all of which I have done in the past month through my Facebook account. For these reasons I like Facebook as it’s convenient and amusing (and also very time consuming)! Having not had a LinkedIn account for too long, I didn’t realise that there were LinkedIn groups of a less-professional nature (i.e. Equestrian Enthusiasts, which I signed up for) and appreciate being a member of. The nice thing about LinkedIn is that the groups and discussions have a more “mature” tone to them than most Facebook groups. When needing to get “real” information, LinkedIn is a much better bet than (my beloved) Facebook.
In regards to my personal professional learning I haven’t found Facebook much of a help considering that the extent of what I learn through Facebook involves who is pregnant and who is moving to Nepal to live with monks! While fascinating, the information I get through Facebook doesn’t help me progress professionally. I will say that I appreciate how Facebook has allowed me to stay in contact with my classmates from my BEd cohort. We all live in various cities around Canada but enjoy keeping each other informed as to our latest teaching acquisitions. The casual, collegial support our Facebook communication gives us is a welcome boost to an often challenging profession.
LinkedIn is a site I see myself using far more for my professional learning. LinkedIn users are able to post links to articles, blogs, websites, and/or videos etc. that they think would be of interest to others in the group. I was thrilled that my Elementary Education group discussion directed me to this article about helping students find the main idea in a paragraph as that was exactly the lesson a teacher I was in for requested I teach! The nature of technology advancements makes the Technology in Education group particularly “active” and the group is literally buzzing with discussions. One very “hot” discussion was around the article “18 Technologies Changing Education For Ever” which I found relevant to this course. It’s interesting to see how others around the world who are involved in education interpret this article.
I will continue to check in with my LinkedIn groups as I appreciate the professionalism and collegial dialogue that is the standard on LinkedIn. While I didn’t find searching through the Discussions and Answers pages very useful for researching purposes, I do appreciate that I can keep up-to-date on matters of education by checking into my LinkedIn account. More than anything, sites such as LinkedIn get users thinking and connecting. Through use of LinkedIn, I can keep up with the current debates, initiatives and resources related to teaching and learning.
Social Networking, Teaching & Learning
Social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn can help to foster a feeling of community and promote professional development amongst school staffs. TLs can take on a leadership role in promoting the use of these sites to colleagues. While some staff members may be sceptical about the quality of such sites, I believe with adequate explanation and leading-by-example, most staff members would begin to see the positive aspects of these sites.
Facebook use in particular has the potential to be met with some resistance from staffs so we TLs really need to illustrate the value of being on Facebook. My opinion is that Facebook is most useful for school staffs to connect and get to know one another. Not only that, Facebook can offer a casual and friendly support network for colleagues to communicate, particularly in larger schools where staffs have little opportunity to connect. A Facebook group could be created for a given schools’ staff in which reminders, updates and friendly messages could be relayed. I found this “Paris Elementary’s GREAT Staff” group a particularly good example of a friendly, supportive and informative Facebook group for a school staff. In our Illuminate session, Mack Male made the point of stating the importance of including what he calls “mundane updates” frequently on our social media network profiles. He argues that these “mundane updates” humanize your online profile making you that much more relatable. I agree with Mack on this point as (contrary to popular belief), teachers are humans first and we need to see our school staffs as people before co-workers. Who knows, by learning a bit about one another’s lives outside of school we might actually begin to like each other...just kidding, I love my colleagues!
I believe using LinkedIn to promote professional development in our schools would be an easier “sell” to most staffs than using Facebook. TLs would have to provide a short in-service for staffs outlining the professional learning potential offered through LinkedIn and the basics around using the site. Those staff members not so keen on using Facebook due to privacy issues, would likely be more comfortable using LinkedIn as it’s a less personal service and focuses more on professional learning and connections. Furthermore, the more grown-up atmosphere on LinkedIn is appreciated by those who find the frequent Farmville requests and “poking” annoying on Facebook. A LinkedIn group could be created for school staff to share ideas, resources and useful links. TLs could also encourage staff members to join certain groups related to the schools' goals/needs and/or teachers’ personal interests. LinkedIn is a wonderful social network for those not totally comfortable with posting personal information online, making it a good choice for people new to social networking.
Social networking sites are increasingly becoming the way of the world. Facebook is the social network of choice for the vast majority of us and is the choice of our students. For this reason I have chosen to exclusively examine how Facebook can be employed in our schools to engage students and enhance learning. I see the argument for employing Facebook in our schools as 2-fold:
1. Meeting Students Where There At: Interestingly enough, I found an article on Proquest titled, “Facebook HELL?” by Woody Evans published in “Searcher” in which he strongly disagreed with the argument that we need to meet students where they’re at (i.e. on Facebook). Evans argues that librarians shouldn’t jump on the band wagon with the latest technology craze (Facebook) as our real concern is, “about teaching sound principles of information finding, use, and evaluation.” I think Evans has missed the point - why not meet our students where they’re at while teaching about library skills and promoting literacy?
2. Connecting With Others: As with all Web 2.0 tools, Facebook allows users to connect. Not only can students connect with one another within a given class/school; but parents and community members can become involved in learning too. Even more exciting is the potential of connecting with others from around the world – sure to be an exciting opportunity for students.
Having spent some time learning about the how and why teachers are employing social networking sites such as Facebook into their teaching, I was interested to examine a few examples of Facebook use in today’s classrooms. (One important note: Facebook requires users to be over the age of 13 to create a profile so these ideas are intended for students 13 and over...)
Blogger Stephen Abram referred some interesting statistics about library promotion and Facebook in a recent post. A survey conducted in July of 2010 revealed that about 25% of 18-24 year olds used Facebook to find out about library programs offered in their communities. He went on to say that 50% of this age group uses the “likes” feature of Facebook to show their support for services in their community (i.e. libraries). What better way to promote our library programs than on Facebook? It’s free, wide reaching, allows users to show their support and is easy to update and keep current. Buffy Hamilton (AKA “The Unquiet Librarian) understands the convenience and effectiveness of having a library Facebook page. The Unquiet Library Facebook page not only promotes library use and literacy, but also showcases student work and provides useful information. A library Facebook page is a great way to allow students to feel a part of the library culture, not to mention that the mere fact that having a Facebook page makes the library super cool!
In the text, Richardson discusses how teacher Jim Meredith used Facebook as a forum for class discussions – which turned out to be a huge success. Meredith found that shy students spoke up online and that the class community was increasingly positive and supportive. Renita Edmonds is another teacher using Facebook to extend her classroom. Not only do her students use the class Facebook page as a discussion forum, but also as a portal to information on class work, tests, assignments and homework support. The peer-to-peer teaching and learning that naturally occurs when using a Facebook page such as Edmonds’ is a wonderfully exciting by-product of learning through social networking sites. It is our hope as educators that this supportive online environment transfers to the physical classroom and to our communities.
No doubt the most powerful aspect of using Facebook with students is the connections that they can make however; the mere idea of using Facebook for school work is an exciting prospect for all kids. A couple years back when I was teaching grade 6, I noticed that my students had a keen interest in Facebook. For a fun assignment, I had my students create a paper Facebook profile of themselves in grade 6 as well as a profile of themselves at 30. We put the profiles into a time capsule which they are to open on their 30th Birthday. My students LOVED this assignment primarily because it involved Facebook. I can only imagine how engaged and thrilled students would be if they were actually using Facebook for learning!
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Employing social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook into teaching and professional development seems natural and is effective. Students and increasingly school staffs, are already using these sites for recreation and with simple guidance can be shown how to use them for learning. The best part of these sites being their ability to bring users together... It is a small world after all!
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