Social networking in our schools is going to become more and more prevalent in the upcoming years. I do think there is a place for them. When I was a librarian in Virginia, our school's tech specialist completed a lesson with me on blogs. I would read a book aloud to students and then the students would post responses on the library blog. It was a very cool lesson. I used the blog throughout the year and loved the responses I got from students. I think some of the students felt more comfortable responding online rather than aloud. I got very honest feedback from some students and very silly responses from others! The blog certainly needed to be monitored and comments needed to be addressed to help keep students on track. I could tell getting to do blog responses was something cool and new for the students and they really got into them.
One of the most important aspects of the blogging lesson though was the added lesson of internet safety which certainly needs to be considered and taught. One of our jobs as educators especially as media specialist is to teach internet safety. The article "Secure Social Networking" by Gail Junion-Metz gives some great sites that are secure for students to use. I am not currently in a school, but in the schools I have taught at in the past most social networking sites were blocked. We could get access to sites for class projects such as the blog but for the most part social networking sites were blocked.
As long as schools take the proper steps to ensure safety. I think there are many ways to use social networking in our schools!
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