Today's student is extremely comfortable with Social Networking and communicating via the internet, sometimes to a fault. But using various Social Networking sites is an opportunity to work with students using a platform in which they are comfortable. There are multiple ways these tools can be used in the classroom in facilitate learning and create a lasting learning experience for students. One standard that we as school librarians are expected to fulfill is to create lifelong learners and by collaborating with teachers on something like this, we could help to do that.One example is that I love the goodreads.com site and think that this could be very successful for encouraging student reading and encouraging literary discussion between peers.
One of the most depressing things about my job in a high school library is the ridiculously strict filtering enforced in our system. I often read articles about Web 2.0 tools and the fantastic ways that school libraries around the country are using Social Networking and then find myself blocked from attempting to do the same.
One way that our teachers have somewhat gotten around this blockage is by creating similar projects, but not using the actual sites. Our teachers have students create Facebook pages for book characters, such as Beowulf and Hamlet. This way students can communicate their learnings in a format that they understand and find exciting. It has been fun to watch students create these projects.
Another way we 'get around the system' is by using the county blog format on our webpage. I added a blog widget to my book club site and my kids really loved it. This year I shared this with an English teacher and he has begun to see similar success.
There are so many options and opportunities for classroom success with Social Networking, but currently there are many hurdles. Hopefully one day school systems will be able to get past the negative stigma of the sites and allow this opportunity to blossom.
I think using the ideas from other sites and having students create their own sites is wonderful. It reminds me of that design show where you try to make your room look like the expensive one with a small budget. I think this is probably a better way to teach the actual process and it certainly allows for creativity. Teaching at the elementary level and being over 50 probably makes me more aware of the negative aspects of social networking. The idea of keeping students within boundaries at school seems like a positive plan because the teacher will have more control of the lesson and outcome. I love the web 2.0 tools such as delicious and flickr, but I do have to question how we keep our students away from the bad and the ugly.I understand it is our job to teach the proper use of these tools, but when teachers don't even know the proper use it is a little scary. Just my thoughts... as you can see I'm conflicted about how to use these great tool. Jodye
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the idea of creating facebook pages for literature characters. That is an awesome idea in which students will easily know the format and can immediately start working on their project. I'm wondering if facebook is unblocked at your school or if you meant that the students use the facebook format in class, but do not actually use the site. This could actually be better in that, it will be an assignment in a fun to use format but not actually require students to set up accounts solely for the project (which may require them to have an additional email).
ReplyDeleteSometimes the IT person for your school or system will be able to unblock sites if requested and are deemed appropriate for school use. Hopefully, you will be able to do this soon without too much bureaucracy or slowlness involved!
They actually just made posters and word documents! :)
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