As I move from theory to practice in my educational technology journey, I realize that all of these new tools I have examined will have a far greater impact if I share them with my students and colleagues. In the words of the mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, “Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them”.
If I Could Only Introduce One New Tool
Where to start? Well, it would be helpful to provide staff with an overview of the new Web 2.0 tools that are now available and relevant to teaching and learning. This short video from Teacher Tube gives a brief overview.
As a teacher-librarian, I would find it difficult to narrow it down to just one tool to share and promote to my staff. So, I went to the experts in my ever-growing on-line learning communities and found the Center for Learning and Performance Technologies. This Slide Share outlines 25 free tools that ‘…every learning professional should have in their toolbox”.
After watching this slideshare, I would most likely introduce wikis to my staff. For example, PB Wiki ranked #16 on the Center for Learning Performance Technologies’ list of the top 25 Web 2.0 tools. Although I would love to also show them the power of podcasting and the many applications of Voice Thread, I believe that wikis have tremendous potential to improve communication and collaboration between students and teachers in all subject areas. In any case, my amazing T-L already demonstrated Voice Thread to the staff last year, yet I believe I am still the only teacher in my school to actually use it or encourage its use with students.
Wikis are the way to go. Why you ask? Well, they are extremely easy to create and have many applications. In Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for the Classroom, Will Richardson suggests using a wiki for a class Wikipedia – which is exactly what I am going to do next semester for my Social Studies 11 students, who can get bogged down with all of the vocabulary they have to learn in order to be able to write their provincial exam (in French no less). Even better, according to Richardson, they can post not only text, but “graphics, links, annotations and reflections” as well as “PowerPoint presentations, video and audio files…” The following Wiki educational link outlines other uses for wikis in the classroom such as collaborative textbooks, student portfolios, collaborative between teachers and even literature circles. In another article, Wild About Wikis, David Jakes discusses the educational benefits of wikis in the classroom (class writing projects, class textbooks, group lab reports, collaborative problem solving), for professional development (workshop planning and post-workshop reflection) and for administrative use (collaborative creation of policy documents).
To encourage teachers to use wikis, I would first make sure that I am proficient with the technology myself. This means creating at least one wiki to demonstrate its uses to my colleagues. I would also encourage staff to check out this PBwiki Mini Tutorial by Ramit Sethi. I could also call upon Lee Lefever of Common Craft to supply a straightforward instructional video on how to use wikis. Here’s his tutorial, Wikis in Plain English.
You Can Lead a Horse to Water…
How do we encourage our colleagues to adopt new technologies? Adults don’t learn new skills or information in the same way that children do. In his article, Principles of Adult Learning,Stephen Lieb discusses how adults learn differently from children and teens. He identifies the following characteristics of learners: they need to be self-directed, they want to connect their life experiences and previous knowledge to their learning, they already have specific goals in mind when it comes to their learning (but still appreciate identified, specific learning goals) and they must see relevant, practical connections between their learning and their work.
I have learned through personal experience that new technology cannot be forced on teachers. Educators are more likely to adopt new tools if they can see it and experience it for themselves. For me personally, I would want to experience a new technology and see practical applications of that technology before I invest the time in using it in my classroom. Will it be useful? Will I be able to easily incorporate it into my teaching practice? Just throwing something out there to our colleagues will not convert them. For example, I suggested that my colleagues and I start a subject specific ning to better communicate and share resources (since this is one of our department goals). My suggestion was met with a polite but lukewarm response. This was AFTER I offered to set up the ning myself. It’s not that they weren’t interested, but for busy classroom teachers, it’s just ‘one more thing’ to add to their already overflowing plates.
So, the best way to build momentum and to keep it going is to use the new technology yourself and to introduce it to staff one by one. Generally, I have found that sweeping changes in education (whether they be directives from a principal or new curriculum policies from the province) are often met with resistance or fall flat on their faces. Any BC educator who has been in the biz for more than 15 years can tell you what a resounding failure the top-down ‘Year 2000 Program’ was. The best approach is to be a positive example and to recruit like-minded colleagues. New ideas will spread slowly - grassroots style - and will gain momentum as more and more teachers adopt them. If we really want to encourage change and growth, it isn’t going to happen overnight. Patience grasshopper, patience.
Promote, Advertise and Celebrate!
How do early adaptors of technology in education build on their grassroots successes? Well, you’ve got to get the message out. Here’s how:
Promote
Allow districts, schools and professional development committees to earmark money for technology pro-d and integration. Teachers need TIME to explore and integrate new technology. Technology teachers and administrators need to encourage other educators to pursue professional development in technology education.
Advertise
Publish examples of integrating technology on the school website, teacher websites and blogs, principals' letters to families, the library website, displays during open house night, and on the school district website. Provide links on the school web page to teacher blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other multi media examples.
Celebrate
Principals, tech teachers and coordinators need to celebrate the individuals and groups who are exploring and successfully integrating new technologies in schools. Most people love recognition whether they admit to it or not. Why not celebrate and recognize teachers’ and students’ use of new technologies so that their example can serve to inspire and encourage others?
As someone who is now poised to be more of an educational technology leader as opposed to a follower, the time has come for me to pass the relay baton onto the next colleague, all the while continuing on in my own quest for knowledge. So, in the words of the great Walt Disney, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing".
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Blogging Up a Storm - A Recipe for Growth
The Basic Ingredients – Blogging and Professional Development
Whenever I create something, whether it’s a home cooked meal or a blog post, I like to start with the basics. Just as I gather all of my main ingredients for my tomato bisque, the same applies to blogging. So, I need to start by defining my terms. According to Wikipedia, a blog or weblog is “a web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video”. OK, that’s fairly straightforward. But this definition also points out that ‘blog’ can be used as a verb “meaning to maintain or add content to a blog”. Hold the salt! I’ll come back to this idea in a minute.
Adding professional development to the mix means adding the “skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement.” In this post, I hope to explore what can be created when blogging and professional development are combined.
Blog Reading Versus Blog Writing – Is There a Difference?
At first look, ‘blogs for professional development’ and ‘blogging for professional development’ are different. But are they? Is one passive and the other active? Not necessarily. I would suggest that they are one in the same. If you are truly participating in blogs, then you are reading, commenting and responding to comments. Likewise, if you are truly ‘blogging’, then you are posting, reading comments and responding to comments. It’s one in the same and is in fact a never-ending circle. For example, ‘Orange Guy’ and ‘Blue Guy’ in the diagram below are fully engaged in blogging. Whereas ‘Turquoise Guy’ just reads blogs but doesn’t comment or post.
Why Blog for Professional Development?
What did we ever do before the Internet and Web 2.0 technology? If I stretch my mind back to my practice teaching experiences, I seem to remember keeping a reflective journal (in a notebook) to document my triumphs, tragedies and learning. Although it was full of insights and discoveries, they were only shared between my instructor and me. Lord knows where that journal is today! These days, I am blogging as a means of professional development. Here’s what blogging for pro-d is doing for me:
It is a permanent, accessible record of ideas that is not only available for the user, but to all who are interested.
It is opening me up to many more possibilities for learning and sharing since I have a much bigger and more interactive audience.
Having a potentially large and authentic audience makes me want to do my best by being knowledgeable about my subject and by communicating effectively to that audience.
It encourages me to try new things and seek out other sources of information as the edublogosphere is so interconnected.
It has helped me to find my voice through articulating my philosophy of educational technology by finding evidence to support that philosophy.
Blogging for pro-d makes it easier to locate ideas and resources using the computer as a tool for searching through reams of information.
But there’s more to this recipe…
Will Richardson’s blog post, Blogs for Professional Development maintains that blogging can aid with staff development presumably through the sharing of ideas and resources. He references Karl Fisch, another well-known edublogger. Fisch relates that blogs are a central part of his work as a reflective practitioner as they assist him and his colleagues to “create community around common goals” such as student use of technology, implementing curriculum and preparing students for the future.
I thought that Lesley Instone put forward some great reasons for using blogging in professional development. In her article, Conversations beyond the classroom: Blogging in a professional development course, she offers these three reasons why blogging is beneficial to pro-d:
Flexibility – learners do not have to learn according to a linear schedule; balance constraints of personal and professional lives; can read, share and learn at their own pace
“Creating a knowledge community” – this goes beyond something learned in a course or a workshop – it can endure and can create a supportive learning community
“Conversation as learning” – blog formats are less formal, not constrained, more dialogue than monologue.
In the article, Building Virtual Communities by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, she offers some interesting points on blogging and pro-d. Educators can:
Create communities not from common locations but from common interests
Advocate for educational reform as one voice becomes many voices
Bring about change - virtual learning communities are the movers and shakers in terms bringing in new ideas.
I’ve got the cookbook and the ingredients – it’s time to cook
As a classroom teacher and an emerging teacher-librarian, I see many practical applications of blogging for professional development. In my current position as a teacher, blogging can help me to:
Find others who are teaching the same subjects
Share resources and not reinvent the wheel
Use and develop best practices
Get help and give and receive advice
In my future role as a teacher-librarian, blogging will enable me to:
Feel less isolated by creating connections with other TLs
Stay current and relevant in my field
Promote the library as a welcoming learning environment
Be an educational leader and resource person
Connect staff members to materials and to each other
Clearly articulate a mission, provoke readers to take action and can create opportunities for learning (book reviews, book chats and lesson sharing), according to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Use staff blogs to “…foster improved staffwide communication and camaraderie”, as noted by Sophie Brookover.
Tweaking the Recipe
Blogging is becoming more and more a part of educators’ daily lives. But is the recipe just right? Blogging for professional development clearly has many strengths, such as accessibility, immediacy and opportunity for collaboration. But, it isn’t as easy as apple pie. The challenges that remain for me, and many bloggers, are how to get full participation from those readers who don’t feel they have anything of value to add or who don’t feel it’s worth the effort to comment. The solution? Set the right tone in the blog to encourage participation and provide an RSS feed for users to subscribe to your blog.
Blogging and pro-d - bon appétit!
Article Cited
Brookover, S. (2007). Why We Blog, Library Journal, 132(19), 28. Retrieved November 21, 2008 from Proquest Educational Journals database.
Whenever I create something, whether it’s a home cooked meal or a blog post, I like to start with the basics. Just as I gather all of my main ingredients for my tomato bisque, the same applies to blogging. So, I need to start by defining my terms. According to Wikipedia, a blog or weblog is “a web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video”. OK, that’s fairly straightforward. But this definition also points out that ‘blog’ can be used as a verb “meaning to maintain or add content to a blog”. Hold the salt! I’ll come back to this idea in a minute.
Adding professional development to the mix means adding the “skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement.” In this post, I hope to explore what can be created when blogging and professional development are combined.
Blog Reading Versus Blog Writing – Is There a Difference?
At first look, ‘blogs for professional development’ and ‘blogging for professional development’ are different. But are they? Is one passive and the other active? Not necessarily. I would suggest that they are one in the same. If you are truly participating in blogs, then you are reading, commenting and responding to comments. Likewise, if you are truly ‘blogging’, then you are posting, reading comments and responding to comments. It’s one in the same and is in fact a never-ending circle. For example, ‘Orange Guy’ and ‘Blue Guy’ in the diagram below are fully engaged in blogging. Whereas ‘Turquoise Guy’ just reads blogs but doesn’t comment or post.
Why Blog for Professional Development?
What did we ever do before the Internet and Web 2.0 technology? If I stretch my mind back to my practice teaching experiences, I seem to remember keeping a reflective journal (in a notebook) to document my triumphs, tragedies and learning. Although it was full of insights and discoveries, they were only shared between my instructor and me. Lord knows where that journal is today! These days, I am blogging as a means of professional development. Here’s what blogging for pro-d is doing for me:
But there’s more to this recipe…
Will Richardson’s blog post, Blogs for Professional Development maintains that blogging can aid with staff development presumably through the sharing of ideas and resources. He references Karl Fisch, another well-known edublogger. Fisch relates that blogs are a central part of his work as a reflective practitioner as they assist him and his colleagues to “create community around common goals” such as student use of technology, implementing curriculum and preparing students for the future.
I thought that Lesley Instone put forward some great reasons for using blogging in professional development. In her article, Conversations beyond the classroom: Blogging in a professional development course, she offers these three reasons why blogging is beneficial to pro-d:
In the article, Building Virtual Communities by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, she offers some interesting points on blogging and pro-d. Educators can:
I’ve got the cookbook and the ingredients – it’s time to cook
As a classroom teacher and an emerging teacher-librarian, I see many practical applications of blogging for professional development. In my current position as a teacher, blogging can help me to:
In my future role as a teacher-librarian, blogging will enable me to:
Tweaking the Recipe
Blogging is becoming more and more a part of educators’ daily lives. But is the recipe just right? Blogging for professional development clearly has many strengths, such as accessibility, immediacy and opportunity for collaboration. But, it isn’t as easy as apple pie. The challenges that remain for me, and many bloggers, are how to get full participation from those readers who don’t feel they have anything of value to add or who don’t feel it’s worth the effort to comment. The solution? Set the right tone in the blog to encourage participation and provide an RSS feed for users to subscribe to your blog.
Blogging and pro-d - bon appétit!
Article Cited
Brookover, S. (2007). Why We Blog, Library Journal, 132(19), 28. Retrieved November 21, 2008 from Proquest Educational Journals database.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Tune in, Turn on and Aggregate
When in Doubt Start with Will Richardson
According to Richardson, the amount of content on the web is exploding. So, we need a tool to organize all of it and to access what we really want. RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, is a news feed or a web feed. The big advantage is that the content comes to you instead of you going to it. Plus, you just get the information you want, not lots of ads or other distractions. If you no longer need or want a particular feed, all you have to do is just delete it from you aggregator. Wait! What’s an aggregator? Richardson describes it a type of software or “feed collector” which “checks the feeds you subscribe to…and collects all the new content from those sites…”. I like his description of an aggregator as “a personal information filter”. This is one tool that will only grow in importance as the content on the web continues to multiply. The advantage is that you can then open up your aggregator at your leisure and read the new information from your subscribed sites. Some examples of aggregators include Google Reader, Netvibes, bloglines and SharpReader.
Other aggregators Richardson recommends signing up for are Technorati and Moreover. He calls Technorati “a leader in indexing Weblog content.” Technorati itself proclaims that it “collects, organizes and distributes the global conversation online”. I like how Time Magazine describes Technorati – “If Google is the Web’s reference library, Technorati is becoming its coffee house.” This is definitely worth a more in-depth look. Richardson states that Moreover “offers a huge list of predefined topic searches” organized into categories. You can even determine their relevancy by ranking them. Finally, he suggests Pageflakes and Netvibes. I have heard of Pageflakes, which helps you to “group together a whole bunch of different RSS feeds onto one page. So, Pageflakes is actually another aggregator. I checked out Will Richardson’s Pageflake page. I like that it is more visual than text heavy. The same goes for netvibes – it has a very visually appealing user interface.
Getting Set Up
At first, I wondered, ‘Should I set up a Google Reader account in addition to my blog or is this a repetition of functions/services’? Richardson says that if you are already on Blogger, then you already have a reader account. Hey! He’s right! I just checked my blog and there it is. I already had my RSS feeds set up from the beginning of my blog experience, but didn’t realize that I already had Google Reader within my blog. I forgot that I also already have an RSS reader within my Firefox browser that I added on at the beginning of the course – it’s called Simple RSS Reader. I initially added Will Richardson’s blog, my blog and CBC news. I have now added all of the professional blogs that I was following in my own blog, plus Technorati, which will hopefully keep me up to date on what is happening in the world of blogging. Now, I can just scroll through them without having to go to my blog.
Richardson also recommends that the best way to find information sources and other teachers with common interests is to “follow the links in the sources you find interesting or relevant”. He says that in this way “links are like recommendations”. This makes sense to me. He also recommends using an organizational system such as folders, which will quickly become a necessity for RSS consumers.
Branching Out on My Own
In my own online searches, I checked out the official blog for Google Reader, which includes ‘News, tips and tricks from the Google Reader team’. Wow, their latest update – automatic translation!!! In addition, The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies - Knowledge, Skills and Tools for the Learning 2.0 Age has ranked Google Reader as one their top web 2.0 tools. It has earned high praise and is touted as one of the top 25 free learning tools that “every learning professional should have in their toolbox.”
After following the trail fire for the blog RSS Bringing What’s New to You, I discovered that Google has a blog search function. So, after searching for blogs relevant to my current teaching assignment, I have subscribed to a blog search feed for ‘French Immersion’. How awesome is that! I also did a Google blog search for ‘Teacher Librarian’ and whose blogs popped up? None other than my classmates, Cynthia and Rhonda! The web really isn’t that big, is it?
Educational applications of RSS Feeds and Aggregators
I was actually surprised to see how many educational applications there are for RSS feeds and aggregators. Here are some great ideas:
Student Research - If kids are researching a particular topic, a teacher or student could create an aggregator of relevant feeds. This would greatly cut down on time wasted scouring the Internet.
Student Weblogs - Teachers could also have all of their student weblogs fed into an aggregator instead of having to go to check each one individually. This is a good way to track what is going on in student blogs.
Study Guides - In the article Academia Adds RSS Feeds to Their Teaching Tool Kit, the author suggests creating RSS feeds that contain daily questions. Students could check out a word or problem of the day related to what they are studying in a particular subject.
Updates & Reminders – In the blog post Educational Uses for RSS Feeds, the author suggests that teachers “set up RSS feeds for class updates and reminders” regarding homework and projects. I can see the kids squirming now as their parents subscribe to these kinds of feeds. The old “I was away” excuse will vanish into cyberspace. Another use could be no-hassle updates for teachers or students working on collaborative projects using wikis.
Not just for teachers – Parents could subscribe to a school feed to keep up to date on school events. I know that our secretaries would welcome this change with open arms – no more adding each family’s email address to the school list for mass newsletter emails.
Coaches Rejoice – The article Academia Adds RSS Feeds to Their Teaching Tool Kit suggests that players and parents could stay on top of new information regarding school sports teams’ practices, games and results by subscribing to a calendar update feed.
Principals like it too – Principals could easily communicate with staff regarding professional development opportunities, educational articles and relevant sites Yay! No more photocopies! No more attachments! Yes, it looks like email’s dominant position in communications may be slipping.
Where to Now?
My first step will be to start checking out my current RSS feeds more regularly than simply glancing up at the toolbar once in a while. I would also like to explore aggregators like Pageflakes and Netvibes as I like their layout and organization. As well, I will take Will Richardson’s suggestion of finding new and relevant links by searching for links on the blogs I already follow. Finally, I am going to start my own edublog for my future students and parents. All they will have to do is to subscribe to my blog and voilà.
According to Richardson, the amount of content on the web is exploding. So, we need a tool to organize all of it and to access what we really want. RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, is a news feed or a web feed. The big advantage is that the content comes to you instead of you going to it. Plus, you just get the information you want, not lots of ads or other distractions. If you no longer need or want a particular feed, all you have to do is just delete it from you aggregator. Wait! What’s an aggregator? Richardson describes it a type of software or “feed collector” which “checks the feeds you subscribe to…and collects all the new content from those sites…”. I like his description of an aggregator as “a personal information filter”. This is one tool that will only grow in importance as the content on the web continues to multiply. The advantage is that you can then open up your aggregator at your leisure and read the new information from your subscribed sites. Some examples of aggregators include Google Reader, Netvibes, bloglines and SharpReader.
Other aggregators Richardson recommends signing up for are Technorati and Moreover. He calls Technorati “a leader in indexing Weblog content.” Technorati itself proclaims that it “collects, organizes and distributes the global conversation online”. I like how Time Magazine describes Technorati – “If Google is the Web’s reference library, Technorati is becoming its coffee house.” This is definitely worth a more in-depth look. Richardson states that Moreover “offers a huge list of predefined topic searches” organized into categories. You can even determine their relevancy by ranking them. Finally, he suggests Pageflakes and Netvibes. I have heard of Pageflakes, which helps you to “group together a whole bunch of different RSS feeds onto one page. So, Pageflakes is actually another aggregator. I checked out Will Richardson’s Pageflake page. I like that it is more visual than text heavy. The same goes for netvibes – it has a very visually appealing user interface.
Getting Set Up
At first, I wondered, ‘Should I set up a Google Reader account in addition to my blog or is this a repetition of functions/services’? Richardson says that if you are already on Blogger, then you already have a reader account. Hey! He’s right! I just checked my blog and there it is. I already had my RSS feeds set up from the beginning of my blog experience, but didn’t realize that I already had Google Reader within my blog. I forgot that I also already have an RSS reader within my Firefox browser that I added on at the beginning of the course – it’s called Simple RSS Reader. I initially added Will Richardson’s blog, my blog and CBC news. I have now added all of the professional blogs that I was following in my own blog, plus Technorati, which will hopefully keep me up to date on what is happening in the world of blogging. Now, I can just scroll through them without having to go to my blog.
Richardson also recommends that the best way to find information sources and other teachers with common interests is to “follow the links in the sources you find interesting or relevant”. He says that in this way “links are like recommendations”. This makes sense to me. He also recommends using an organizational system such as folders, which will quickly become a necessity for RSS consumers.
Branching Out on My Own
In my own online searches, I checked out the official blog for Google Reader, which includes ‘News, tips and tricks from the Google Reader team’. Wow, their latest update – automatic translation!!! In addition, The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies - Knowledge, Skills and Tools for the Learning 2.0 Age has ranked Google Reader as one their top web 2.0 tools. It has earned high praise and is touted as one of the top 25 free learning tools that “every learning professional should have in their toolbox.”
After following the trail fire for the blog RSS Bringing What’s New to You, I discovered that Google has a blog search function. So, after searching for blogs relevant to my current teaching assignment, I have subscribed to a blog search feed for ‘French Immersion’. How awesome is that! I also did a Google blog search for ‘Teacher Librarian’ and whose blogs popped up? None other than my classmates, Cynthia and Rhonda! The web really isn’t that big, is it?
Educational applications of RSS Feeds and Aggregators
I was actually surprised to see how many educational applications there are for RSS feeds and aggregators. Here are some great ideas:
Student Research - If kids are researching a particular topic, a teacher or student could create an aggregator of relevant feeds. This would greatly cut down on time wasted scouring the Internet.
Student Weblogs - Teachers could also have all of their student weblogs fed into an aggregator instead of having to go to check each one individually. This is a good way to track what is going on in student blogs.
Study Guides - In the article Academia Adds RSS Feeds to Their Teaching Tool Kit, the author suggests creating RSS feeds that contain daily questions. Students could check out a word or problem of the day related to what they are studying in a particular subject.
Updates & Reminders – In the blog post Educational Uses for RSS Feeds, the author suggests that teachers “set up RSS feeds for class updates and reminders” regarding homework and projects. I can see the kids squirming now as their parents subscribe to these kinds of feeds. The old “I was away” excuse will vanish into cyberspace. Another use could be no-hassle updates for teachers or students working on collaborative projects using wikis.
Not just for teachers – Parents could subscribe to a school feed to keep up to date on school events. I know that our secretaries would welcome this change with open arms – no more adding each family’s email address to the school list for mass newsletter emails.
Coaches Rejoice – The article Academia Adds RSS Feeds to Their Teaching Tool Kit suggests that players and parents could stay on top of new information regarding school sports teams’ practices, games and results by subscribing to a calendar update feed.
Principals like it too – Principals could easily communicate with staff regarding professional development opportunities, educational articles and relevant sites Yay! No more photocopies! No more attachments! Yes, it looks like email’s dominant position in communications may be slipping.
Where to Now?
My first step will be to start checking out my current RSS feeds more regularly than simply glancing up at the toolbar once in a while. I would also like to explore aggregators like Pageflakes and Netvibes as I like their layout and organization. As well, I will take Will Richardson’s suggestion of finding new and relevant links by searching for links on the blogs I already follow. Finally, I am going to start my own edublog for my future students and parents. All they will have to do is to subscribe to my blog and voilà.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
«You’ve Just Been Poked » The Strange World of Social Networking Sites
My Spidey Senses Are Telling Me Something
I might as well come clean right off the bat. This isn’t going to be a post that celebrates the many merits of social networking sites. Yes folks, I’m getting ready for another rant. Put on your seatbelts.
Although I created a Facebook page a year and a half ago, I did it against my own better judgement. Some of my colleagues were getting into it and kept sending me emails to join. So, I did. However, there was always this little voice in the back of my head asking questions like: “Do I really want to be sharing all of this personal information with friends, acquaintances and whoever might be on their lists of friends?”, or “Why does this feel so much like high school?” and finally, “Do I actually have the time to keep up with this new tool?”
The Lowdown on Social Networking Sites
Myspace was the first of the really popular social networking sites. It would appear that it is no longer as popular as it once was. Facebook has overtaken it as the number one SNS. Apparently, though, it has added more privacy protections than Facebook.
Facebook appears to now be the most popular SNS for high schoolers and university students. It has very good name recognition and is quite user-friendly.
Classmates is best for keeping in touch with your pals from high school. I signed up for Classmates two years ago as I was on the organizing committee for my 20th high school reunion. I haven’t really used it since.
Bebo is an acronym for “Blog Early Blog Often”. From what I gather, it is more for high school kids than the rest of us. According to various sources, it is for younger users and has caught on more in Europe than North America.
LinkedIn is more appealing to me as it is mainly for adults wishing to build business and professional networks for the purpose of career and employment connections. I had a former colleague invite me to join, but I never got around to signing up.
My Family is a good way for family and friends to stay in contact, particularly for family reunions. It describes itself as a “private web space for stories, photos, videos and events”. I can see this site being really appealing for those people who want to stay in touch with family, but who don’t want all of their family’s personal information on public display.
Of course, these are just a few of the dozens of social networking sites out there. For a more detailed list, check out some of the more well-known sites on this Wikipedia list.
Social Networking – Hip Hip Hooray!
Just to prove that I’m not totally down on SNS, I have compiled a list of their general benefits and useful applications. With Social Networking Sites, you can:
*Stay in touch with friends and family, especially ones who don’t live in your city, province or country.
*Get in touch with old friends with whom you have lost contact.
*Create a fun and social place to share info, hobbies, pictures and videos.
*Expand your circle of friends through mutual friends.
*“Find support networks for a range of needs” according to Lamb and Johnson. Those needs could be of the professional (teacher-librarians) or personal (cancer survivors) kind.
*Participate as they are virtually free – in most cases, all you need is an Internet connection. Therefore, cash-strapped schools and school districts would not be excluded from this technology.
The Downside of Social Networking Sites
Whether social networking sites are used for personal or professional purposes, users should be aware of these following shortcomings:
*Too much of our personal information is stored and accessible on these sites. There are significant threats to users’ privacy due to hacking and identity theft. In the article,Millions warned of dangers of social networking sites surveys indicated that almost two-thirds of respondents indicated “they had never considered that information they put online now might be permanent and could be accessed years into the future”. Many people do not understand the concept that you can never fully erase something that you put online. Even after I shut down my Facebook page last year, all I had to do to reactivate it was sign on again. In fact, it is probably easier to erase that tattoo you got when you were 20 than it is to erase your digital footprint left behind in social networking sites.
*Do we really want to be promoting social networking sites with kids, whose judgement is still developing? It is common knowledge that employers now use Facebook to find the real dirt on potential employees. According to Kelley Weldin, who writes in her article Beware of Facebook Pitfalls, “sixty percent of employers and seventy- five percent of job recruiters have used Facebook to get further information on potential employees”.
*Current popular social networking sites seem more geared for teens and college-age students. In fact, they seem quite juvenile. In the article, Who’s pressing your buttons on Facebook? “you can “poke” people, or indeed “high five” them, even “butt slap” them – it’s all too easy to imagine you’re on an American college campus.”
*It is not appropriate for teachers to have students as friends on their social network page. More and more, teachers’ unions actually have to tell teachers not to do this! K-12 teachers are expected to maintain appropriate relationships with students in the real world and this shouldn’t be any different in the cyberworld. Already, we are seeing evidence of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students in cyberspace.
*Social Networking sites can easily become addictive ‘time suckers’. One page leads you to a link and then another link and there is no end. Is it really essential that you find out RIGHT NOW who has added whom to which friend list or who has added a fun, new application (such as a virtual gift or an online quiz) to their Facebook page?
*There is something inauthentic about social networking sites. Who has 300 friends with whom they need to keep up contact on a regular basis? It is very superficial. In Who’s Pressing Your Buttons on Facebook, the author suggests that “Social networking will dilute real-life relationships; we will swap handshakes and hugs for keystrokes”. Real friendships take face-to-face time to develop and nurture. What happened to the intimacy of friendship? Better still, why do friendships need to be so public?
*How much of what you actually see on SNS is real? Most people fib on their resumes – the same could be said for SNS.
*We need to ask ourselves what is the real purpose of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace? What are the stated claims versus the actual impact? Is it just a means for marketers to identify or track potential customers?
Social Networking Uses for Educators
Despite the numerous disadvantages of social networking sites that I have discussed in this post, there ARE some potential positive uses of SNS in education.
The TeacherLibrarianNing, created by Joyce Valenza, “is an online community comprising more than 1,000 members, primarily teacher-librarians” where T-Ls can “read discussions, post comments and questions, and participate in various forums”.
According to Wikipedia, LibraryThing “is a prominent social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists”. Users, or thingamabrarians, “can catalog personal collections, keep reading lists, and meet other users who have the same books”. This SNS has great potential for teachers and teacher-librarians to share professional literature as well as recommended titles for students.
Along the same line is Goodreads, a “social cataloguing website” that “permits individuals to sign up and register books to create their library catalogs and reading lists.” Users can also see what their friends are reading, can recommend books and can keep track of what they have read or what they would like to read. This site looks like it would be good to recommend to students for their personal use.
Another social cataloging application that I have already added to my blog is Shelfari. According to Wikipedia “Shelfari users build virtual bookshelves of the titles they own or have read, and can rate, review, tag, and discuss their books”.
Implications for Teaching and Learning
Social networking sites fulfill many needs for our students: they feel involved and that they belong to part of a larger community, they have a voice and a real audience and are able to express themselves relatively freely. However, educators need to be able to teach students how to be safe and effective online when using social networking sites. According to Lamb and Johnson, we need to:
*Model positive and appropriate behaviour when using social networking
*Discuss time management and multi tasking
*Help students to deal with information overload
*Teach students how to critically evaluate information
*Encourage kids to talk about their social networking experiences
*Help students to be responsible and ethical when making decisions about social networking
So, social networking (or some future form of it) is probably here to stay. As an engaged educator, I will continue to critically examine and evaluate the potential uses and disadvantages of social networking as they apply to me and my students.
Articles Cited
Harris, K. (2008). Using Social Networking Sites as Student Engagement Tools. Diverse issues in higher education, 25(18), 40.
Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2006). Want to be my "friend"? what you need to know about social technologies. Teacher Librarian, 34(1),55-59.
Rosenfeld, E. (2008). Expanding your professional network with Nings. Teacher Librarian, 35(3),60.
I might as well come clean right off the bat. This isn’t going to be a post that celebrates the many merits of social networking sites. Yes folks, I’m getting ready for another rant. Put on your seatbelts.
Although I created a Facebook page a year and a half ago, I did it against my own better judgement. Some of my colleagues were getting into it and kept sending me emails to join. So, I did. However, there was always this little voice in the back of my head asking questions like: “Do I really want to be sharing all of this personal information with friends, acquaintances and whoever might be on their lists of friends?”, or “Why does this feel so much like high school?” and finally, “Do I actually have the time to keep up with this new tool?”
The Lowdown on Social Networking Sites
Myspace was the first of the really popular social networking sites. It would appear that it is no longer as popular as it once was. Facebook has overtaken it as the number one SNS. Apparently, though, it has added more privacy protections than Facebook.
Facebook appears to now be the most popular SNS for high schoolers and university students. It has very good name recognition and is quite user-friendly.
Classmates is best for keeping in touch with your pals from high school. I signed up for Classmates two years ago as I was on the organizing committee for my 20th high school reunion. I haven’t really used it since.
Bebo is an acronym for “Blog Early Blog Often”. From what I gather, it is more for high school kids than the rest of us. According to various sources, it is for younger users and has caught on more in Europe than North America.
LinkedIn is more appealing to me as it is mainly for adults wishing to build business and professional networks for the purpose of career and employment connections. I had a former colleague invite me to join, but I never got around to signing up.
My Family is a good way for family and friends to stay in contact, particularly for family reunions. It describes itself as a “private web space for stories, photos, videos and events”. I can see this site being really appealing for those people who want to stay in touch with family, but who don’t want all of their family’s personal information on public display.
Of course, these are just a few of the dozens of social networking sites out there. For a more detailed list, check out some of the more well-known sites on this Wikipedia list.
Social Networking – Hip Hip Hooray!
Just to prove that I’m not totally down on SNS, I have compiled a list of their general benefits and useful applications. With Social Networking Sites, you can:
*Stay in touch with friends and family, especially ones who don’t live in your city, province or country.
*Get in touch with old friends with whom you have lost contact.
*Create a fun and social place to share info, hobbies, pictures and videos.
*Expand your circle of friends through mutual friends.
*“Find support networks for a range of needs” according to Lamb and Johnson. Those needs could be of the professional (teacher-librarians) or personal (cancer survivors) kind.
*Participate as they are virtually free – in most cases, all you need is an Internet connection. Therefore, cash-strapped schools and school districts would not be excluded from this technology.
The Downside of Social Networking Sites
Whether social networking sites are used for personal or professional purposes, users should be aware of these following shortcomings:
*Too much of our personal information is stored and accessible on these sites. There are significant threats to users’ privacy due to hacking and identity theft. In the article,Millions warned of dangers of social networking sites surveys indicated that almost two-thirds of respondents indicated “they had never considered that information they put online now might be permanent and could be accessed years into the future”. Many people do not understand the concept that you can never fully erase something that you put online. Even after I shut down my Facebook page last year, all I had to do to reactivate it was sign on again. In fact, it is probably easier to erase that tattoo you got when you were 20 than it is to erase your digital footprint left behind in social networking sites.
*Do we really want to be promoting social networking sites with kids, whose judgement is still developing? It is common knowledge that employers now use Facebook to find the real dirt on potential employees. According to Kelley Weldin, who writes in her article Beware of Facebook Pitfalls, “sixty percent of employers and seventy- five percent of job recruiters have used Facebook to get further information on potential employees”.
*Current popular social networking sites seem more geared for teens and college-age students. In fact, they seem quite juvenile. In the article, Who’s pressing your buttons on Facebook? “you can “poke” people, or indeed “high five” them, even “butt slap” them – it’s all too easy to imagine you’re on an American college campus.”
*It is not appropriate for teachers to have students as friends on their social network page. More and more, teachers’ unions actually have to tell teachers not to do this! K-12 teachers are expected to maintain appropriate relationships with students in the real world and this shouldn’t be any different in the cyberworld. Already, we are seeing evidence of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students in cyberspace.
*Social Networking sites can easily become addictive ‘time suckers’. One page leads you to a link and then another link and there is no end. Is it really essential that you find out RIGHT NOW who has added whom to which friend list or who has added a fun, new application (such as a virtual gift or an online quiz) to their Facebook page?
*There is something inauthentic about social networking sites. Who has 300 friends with whom they need to keep up contact on a regular basis? It is very superficial. In Who’s Pressing Your Buttons on Facebook, the author suggests that “Social networking will dilute real-life relationships; we will swap handshakes and hugs for keystrokes”. Real friendships take face-to-face time to develop and nurture. What happened to the intimacy of friendship? Better still, why do friendships need to be so public?
*How much of what you actually see on SNS is real? Most people fib on their resumes – the same could be said for SNS.
*We need to ask ourselves what is the real purpose of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace? What are the stated claims versus the actual impact? Is it just a means for marketers to identify or track potential customers?
Social Networking Uses for Educators
Despite the numerous disadvantages of social networking sites that I have discussed in this post, there ARE some potential positive uses of SNS in education.
The TeacherLibrarianNing, created by Joyce Valenza, “is an online community comprising more than 1,000 members, primarily teacher-librarians” where T-Ls can “read discussions, post comments and questions, and participate in various forums”.
According to Wikipedia, LibraryThing “is a prominent social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists”. Users, or thingamabrarians, “can catalog personal collections, keep reading lists, and meet other users who have the same books”. This SNS has great potential for teachers and teacher-librarians to share professional literature as well as recommended titles for students.
Along the same line is Goodreads, a “social cataloguing website” that “permits individuals to sign up and register books to create their library catalogs and reading lists.” Users can also see what their friends are reading, can recommend books and can keep track of what they have read or what they would like to read. This site looks like it would be good to recommend to students for their personal use.
Another social cataloging application that I have already added to my blog is Shelfari. According to Wikipedia “Shelfari users build virtual bookshelves of the titles they own or have read, and can rate, review, tag, and discuss their books”.
Implications for Teaching and Learning
Social networking sites fulfill many needs for our students: they feel involved and that they belong to part of a larger community, they have a voice and a real audience and are able to express themselves relatively freely. However, educators need to be able to teach students how to be safe and effective online when using social networking sites. According to Lamb and Johnson, we need to:
*Model positive and appropriate behaviour when using social networking
*Discuss time management and multi tasking
*Help students to deal with information overload
*Teach students how to critically evaluate information
*Encourage kids to talk about their social networking experiences
*Help students to be responsible and ethical when making decisions about social networking
So, social networking (or some future form of it) is probably here to stay. As an engaged educator, I will continue to critically examine and evaluate the potential uses and disadvantages of social networking as they apply to me and my students.
Articles Cited
Harris, K. (2008). Using Social Networking Sites as Student Engagement Tools. Diverse issues in higher education, 25(18), 40.
Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2006). Want to be my "friend"? what you need to know about social technologies. Teacher Librarian, 34(1),55-59.
Rosenfeld, E. (2008). Expanding your professional network with Nings. Teacher Librarian, 35(3),60.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Using Multimedia Sharing Sites
I am so happy that this worked! It took a lot of time and much trial and error, but in the end, technology and tenacity prevailed. Please be patient when playing this voicethread as it takes time to load. As with any web-based multimedia application, speed is often second to universal access. I look forward to your feedback.
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