SMART Day 5: Teaching With The Tools Kids Really Use, Chapter 5

In chapter 5 of Teaching With the Tools Kids Really Use, Brooks-Yound dances around the concept of social networking and the thought of using them as a teaching tool in the educational setting. It was not until recently that the thought of using such an internet based networking site in the classroom ever crossed my mind. That opinion probably develops from my personal interactions with social networking sites. I entered the social networking community by means of MySpace. I believe it was back in high school and maybe my freshman year. At this time, Facebook was only open to college students so the next best thing for people in high school was MySpace. With MySpace I remember being concerned with the layout of my profile and how many views of my profile I could obtain. When Facebook opened its access to those outside the college community, I joined. I remember being hesitant to use Facebook as MySpace was all that I was used to. I did not want to change, nor saw any purpose at the time. Today, I would say I spend on average about an hour a day (total time from using the website throughout the day) on the social networking site. I mainly use Facebook to keep up with friends from high school or with family and friends outside the state of Tennessee. With Facebook taking up so much time and having so many features to look at, I have began to use twitter. Twitter provides me what people are doing in less than 140 words. With all this social networking community aside, I enjoy the concept of it, however, I see caution because social interaction still needs to happen in person. 

Using social networking sites in the classroom can be practical at times, but at that caution is advised. So much information is available through such websites and the teacher that implements services such as Facebook, MySpace, or the other sites mentioned by Brooks-Young need to be clear with the classroom intentions. If I had my choice of using any of the social networking sites in the classroom, I would more than likely select Facebook. There are so many features that would work well in the classroom. Given that most students in my future class will already come to class on the first day with a Facebook account, the need to have them create an account would be bogus. I would just suggest that they "like" the classroom page I created. This page would serve the purpose of a website but with more interaction besides the standard click here and follow this link. This classroom Facebook page would function as an interactive, constantly updating, and instant classroom newsletter. What better way for students and parents to stay connected to the classroom. Another feature that I would implement would be to create a learning community where students interact virtually from a global perspective. Students have the ability, through the use of the internet, to connect with people all over the world. I would promote a pen-pal type atmosphere as a year long learning project. Through Facebook peers can learn about students in other countries while yet feeling as if they where right next door. 

Overall, social networking as a place, just as every piece of technology does, in the classroom. The most important part would be for the teacher to select the proper lesson to implement such teaching strategies. Given that our society is promoting online relationships and expressions of 140 characters or less only create a larger challenge for future teachers. Educators are facing the challenge of keeping their students in the here and now and not the world wide web or the virtual world. If teachers can find the bridge that connects the two environments and do it well, I see huge academic improvements occurring across the board in all academic areas.