In our current state, social networking so often gets a negative rep. As a high school teacher, I know why. I am appalled at some of the drama I've seen and heard about on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I personally have been jaded by the sites of Twitter and SnapChat, but refuse to bow down to the evils of the sites. Last year, I had a student tweet completely inappropriately about me and it turned into an ordeal. It was upsetting, unnerving, and needless to say, completely unnecessary. I've never loved the idea of Twitter, especially after seeing some of the perils as my high schoolers bring me the drama it contains. This incident only added to my dislike of the site. This year, a similar incident occurred with SnapChat and my only saving grace in both scenarios was individual students who reported the inappropriate postings. As upsetting as the experiences were for me, I cannot discount the benefits of social networking and their capabilities in our schools. The sites have their demons, but I can fully recognize the positive impact social networking is capable of within the realm of education.
With technology literally at our students' fingertips, we cannot ignore the powers of social networking. What me must realize as educators, however, is that we must model the proper and appropriate ways to utilize the tool. With Edmodo, that is possible. I was introduced to the social networking site a few years ago and integrated it into my classroom this year. I very slowly began to use the site to remind students of upcoming quizzes, post worksheets so that students could access them at home, and send messages to students who were missing assignments. This year my knowledge of the tool has grown and I've begun to use it much more frequently. In my Creative Writing class, I am able to briefly introduce a lesson and then send my students on their own as they navigate through assignments and notifications I've posted on Edmodo. The site has allowed my students to use their prior knowledge of social networking in order to guide them educationally. There was, of course, a learning curve that took place.
When I first introduce Edmodo to my students, I know that I must take time to let them play around. With this in mind, I spend more time than needed in the computer lab to introduce the tool. Being well versed on the site's capabilities, though, I know that I don't have to worry about some of the issues that often come with social networking such as cyber-bullying. Edmodo allows the teacher absolute control of her students as they work on their class page and only have access to direct messages to the teacher or the whole class. As the moderator, I'm able to delete and manage all student postings and even passwords. After the first week or so, it isn't necessary to monitor my students because they learn how to properly use the tool and begin to do so without much assistance at all.
Edmodo isn't the only tool I've integrated into my Creative Writing class. Pinterest is also a great tool for my students to use as motivation for their creative flow. Unfortunately, the site has been blocked for students, as have many social networking sites. I understand the concern for the site being blocked because of the vast amount of images the site contains, however, if I am encouraging to use the site for specific reasons, shouldn't I be the judge of it is acceptable to be used in my classroom?
Going forward, I want to consider ways that I can acceptably use social networking in my classroom. Edmodo works great and when Pinterest is working, it works well, also. But are these the only sites that I can utilize? With the plethora of sites available, I can't imagine those are my only possibilities. What I need to figure out, though, is if the learning curve is worth my time in what I'll be able to get out of the tool, as well as what are the affordances I must meet with the tools, and really if students will benefit from using social networking in the classroom.
Edmodo sounds like a really cool networking site because it allows you to post homework, assignments, and message students about missing work. I wonder how it could work with younger students or if it's better to keep it to older students?
ReplyDeleteAs I read the first part of your post, I couldn't believe how students use twitter and snapchat to bad mouth teachers and other students. It must be so frustrating to hear about those things and know that people can be so mean to one another. People need to use their powers for good not evil.
Leah, I remember those issues you had and they really bring to light the dark side of these sites. Teens are often impulsive and don't think before posting. I hope that these were learning experiences for your students, but it's certainly not fair that those experiences came at your expense. Yet another reason why we need to be teaching students how to use these sites and how not to use them. Many of our students use them in such positive ways, but I have long believed that social networking can also bring out a darker side of human nature - the side that is petty, selfish, mean-spirited, and jealous. Of course, these sites don't cause that behavior, but they do provide a platform in which such behavior is often accepted. This gets into "character education" which I think can often fall flat, but if we use these sites in the context of the classroom and they are associated with course objectives, it provides a gateway for us to covertly include the character education in a less obvious, preachy way. Like you said, edmodo is a great place to start and their design has already thwarted some of the problems we see with sites like facebook.
ReplyDeleteIn our elementary school, we are having similar problems with Twitter and Snapchat and these are 5th and 6th graders! There will always be an evil in people but it seems this generation enjoys bullying on another. Does your school do the Bring Your Own Device? We have 1st graders bringing ipads to use in class.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to know how you would use Pinterest in a creative writing classroom. My CLT teachers use Pinterest as an informal place to share and get ideas. Our personal obsession turned professional and it's been a great site for us. I've never looked into boards for creative writing. It's a shame that it is not available in the classroom anymore. :(
ReplyDeleteLast semester, when Pinterest was available, I used it more as a motivation board. If students finished an assignment early, I encouraged them to go explore and find images that would work as writing inspiration. In the course, I often use images to prompt assignments. With a Pinterest board, students make their choices and inspiration more personal.
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