The Socially Networked Classroom

For today's reading, I reviewed a chapter out of William Kist's book entitled, The Socially Networked Classroom. Though the title lends the reader to think that book is all about using social networking in the classroom, one is easily fooled. The premise of the book rest on the foundation of using social networks in everyday educational instruction, but that is not the sole discussion of the book. The book is divided into several chapters with adaptions of how to use technology, with an emphasis on social networking, among students who come from differing levels of technology availability in the classroom.

I took a look at chapter two of Kist's book and it discusses simple and easy ways classroom with limited technology access can still use the coveted media in everyday instruction.  The main emphasis on this chapter rested on the understanding that there are reveal free sources available to teachers and they need to maximizes their capital on them. Basically Kist was saying that if you have one computer in the classroom, use a free resource found on the web that all students can use at any given point throughout the day. He started his chapter off discussing how to engage students in everyday lessons and then connecting those lessons to a simple online activity such as blogging or using a wiki for class discussion. The purpose of this type of "hook" per lesson is to provide an engaging lesson, yet not rely too heavily on the technology aspect of it. The technology discussed in this chapter was mainly that of blogging or other form of online collaborative writing. Students were to use the provided time at the end of lessons or throughout the day to reflect or post comments about what they learned.

Though the chapter did not really interest me to the notion that I am anti-technology in the classroom, the practicality of the chapter is nice. The discussions around creative and engaging lessons is encouraging to understand as not every classroom is going to be decked out in the latest technology. Just as Kist states   in this chapter, not letting students rely solely on technology is a good thing. I agree with that. Technology can become a crutch for students and an easy way out of meeting the basic standards (depending on the lesson objectives, etc.).  I would like to have seen more discussion on the social networking side of things as I believe social networks have a place and a time in the classroom. It would have been helpful to see how to use social networking sites in a low technology classroom besides just blogs or wikis.