Use of smart phones, tablets, and mobile devices are receiving the green light in more and more of today’s schools, but a recent reader poll by eSchool News makes it clear that while social networking pages are a fun, interactive and quick communication path with students and parents – it’s still on pause.
Social networking within the majority of schools raises fears around school security, cyber-bullying, and teacher-student online relationships.
Wanting to understand how social media, a profound influence on our culture, can benefit the K-12 districts and schools, readers were asked: Name one way you use social networking in your school/district. Or, how would you like to use social networking?
Respondents provided strong examples of how professional development, mathematics, and valuable resources for education are being combined with social networking in the schools in which they live and work.
At times it helps to hear real-life examples from those with direct experience of trial and error. The following lists out the top ways that schools are successfully integrating social media as stated directly from reader comments:
Integrating real-world applications into teaching – “Social networking is an excellent real-world example of discrete mathematics. This document is one way we have used social networks to make mathematics meaningful,” commented reader Mary Hosten.
Networking with colleagues – “The power of the Personal Learning Network that our staff tap into would be impossible without the global interactions and connections our teachers have made through social networking tools. We have just finished our review of our Strategic Plan, and we have indicated as one of our goals for 2012–the expansion of Personal Learning Networks for all of our staff harnessing the power of social networking,” stated Jan MacNamara.
Collaborative learning – “Our district is using the paid version of Gaggle.net this year with the middle school and high school students and teachers. This online social media [platform] includes a social wall, very similar to Facebook, along with an eMail account, a digital online locker, blogging, … [and] many other available items. One of the main reasons we went with this medium is because of the tight security it offers our students, by using filters for slang words, curse words, hate words, and more. It is a medium to teach the students how to use social media in a professional manner to help prepare them for the marketplace upon employment. The students enjoy having the social aspect of it, and the teachers are appreciative of the means to acceptably and safely contact the students,” wrote LeAnn Waldie, instructional technology specialist, Godley Independent School District, Texas.
Cross-cultural communication and language learning — “A few years ago, when I used to work in … a Greek private elementary school, we cooperated with several schools from foreign countries, such as Holland, England, France, and Sweden, and used social networking in order to communicate with each other and break down the distance and language barrier. This activity materialized with the great contribution of the internet…It has been a great experience and assisted young students in [becoming] communicative and confident in using English, as well as the internet, in [performing] hands-on-activities,” commented E. Mantzana.
Assessments — “I use Twitter to do an end-of-the-unit review by tweeting various topics, people, and dates for AP U.S. History,” stated Ann Wright, assistant principal, Kansas City.
Distance learning -- “We use social media in two distinct ways: (1) As a communication tool between the district and parents. We are a small district, but over one-third of our families ‘like’ our Facebook page. This gives us a great tool to communicate pretty quickly with a good portion of our parents. (2) For classroom use—a teacher who taught a distance-ed class for our school and three others set up a Facebook page to foster communication between the remote students and the students she taught physically,” stated George Sorrells, technology facilitator, Winneconne Community School District.
Course assignments – “We have some teachers using schoology.com to leverage social networking features in the classroom,” stated Brian C. Dvorak, technology TSA, curriculum and professional learning, school support services.
Community outreach – “At my school we use it to promote various activities, gain feedback, or start a conversation for something, and sometimes [for] recognition of a particular group, teacher, etc. We never use full names for students or tag them in photos. … I think it is a great tool for connecting with our parents who are already participating in social media,” wrote Shannon Bosley.
Professional development – “In my professional role, I’ve become very quickly reliant on Twitter and Facebook to inform me of trends and Web 2.0 tools I should be considering using with students/sharing with staff,” commented Marcia Dressel, K-5 librarian.
This list provided helpful resources and real-world tips from other school administrators, technology instructors, teachers, librarians and more. To read further visit, http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/10/21/ten-ways-schools-are-using-social-media-effectively/?
Source: Ten ways schools are using social media effectively by Meris Stansbury. eSchool News, online.
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