I love this part of my job! Students in my Tech for Educators course had an interesting discussion on the topic of Social Media in K-12 Education. They discussed uses of Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs. Concepts of “friending” students and parents, where to draw the line between personal and professional life, and digital citizenship all entered the conversation.
It is interesting to see ways K-12 schools are using social media. I am also intrigued by the conversation of how students sometimes set up their own Facebook or other social media to extend learning beyond the classroom—student led. We as educators need to have these types of conversations and look at all sides. As we do, I agree with one of my students who ended the conversation by saying there are more questions than answers!
Listen to these podcasts on social media in the classroom. This interview with Alan November and David Weinberger entitled, The World Has Become “To Big for Us to Know” (28 min) is a must listen for all of us! What do you think about social vs private learning? What voices do you hear on the Internet? Alan and David “discuss what knowledge means and what type of learning must take place in a connected world of overabundant information.” This second interview is especially for the amazing math teachers in my course: Bringing Twitter to Life with Alan November and Jessica Caviness (14 min).
My students inspired me to give a simple taste of how Twitter can be used without student accounts. I pulled out a few assessment sites they shared in our wiki a few terms ago and posted them using this hashtag #TCE596Winter.
What are your thoughts on social media in education? Happy discussions! (Face-to-face or virtual ;)
Cross posted on WTME.
