Social Networking Tools in Schools

Recently there has been a movement by schools to integrate social networking sites into teaching and learning. This trend follows on the heels of attempts to outlaw these websites in the past. Teachers are finding success in using social networking tools as part of today's educational process.

Today's learners are engaged in informal learning through their use of social networking, both in and out of school. So why not use the same free online technology for formal learning? Mix in digital citizenship and media literacy into your teaching, and you're bound to see 21st-century learning take place.

Social-networking tools aren't just for listening to new musical groups on MySpace. The evolving world of online communication—blogs, podcasts, tags, file swapping, Tweeting— offers students radically new ways to research, create, collaborate, and learn.

But, too often, schools use computers as little more than glorified workbooks, and that's criminal, says Chris Lehmann, principal of Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy. He explains why teachers should embrace networking and how they can use it to improve education:

"What exactly is social networking? It's software that allows people to come together around an idea or topic of interest. A school could use blog software to bring together anyone who's writing about politics or computing or Greek literature. It's the 21st-century equivalent of Pen Pals on steroids."

"Why should schools encourage all this sharing and meeting? Schools should reflect the world we live in today. And we live in a social world. We need to teach students how to be effective collaborators in that world, how to interact with people around them, how to be engaged and informed 21st-century citizens. We need to teach kids the powerful ways networking can change the way they look at education, not just their social lives. We don't talk enough about the incredible power of social-networking technology to be used for academic benefit. Let's change the terms. Let's not call it social networking. Let's call it academic networking."

"How do you keep students from wasting time chatting or sneaking to inappropriate sites? You teach! You have frank discussions. You show them examples and ask them to make ethical decisions. You ask: What does it mean that 15-year-old kids are calling themselves 19 and posting racy pictures online? What does it mean that college kids are posting raunchy spring break pictures that a prospective employer can find? The idea that we are the stories we tell has never been more important. Schools have always taught kids how to present themselves — that's why we did oral presentations in the classroom. Now we need to teach them to present themselves electronically. That's why it's so scary to lock these powerful communications technologies out."

Let students explore some of the issues of the use of technology in schools and how that impacts student achievement and teacher management of the learning process.

Click the SIRS Issues Research link > Select the Visual Browse options link > School, Family, and Youth > Technology > Cyber-Socializing

Assign students to write a Pro or Con report of at least 150 words or a presentation of at least seven slides. Students should cite at least three resources that addresses the essential question presented in this SIRS Leading Issue (you should add or substitute others).

Encourage students to use the new Web 2.0 tools that help student organize, analyze, and synthesize the information into reasoned conclusions. Links to these critical thinking tools are integrated into each Leading Issue and found beneath the Topic Overview: Research Guides (Note the unique student template Research Guide for Critical Thinking) and Notes Organizer in particular.

Students can select from a variety of report and presentation models to demonstrate what they have learned: Mini-debate models; mini-research written models, and PowerPoint presentation template models. The links to these models is found by clicking the RESEARCH GUIDES icon.

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