Nowadays, every teacher has a class website, but are they using it to it's fullest potential to create a community? In this digital age, social networking is vital. You can fight it, but there is no way around it. Facebook changed how the world works in all aspects: Social, Education, Business, and Media.
We have to develop an online community in the classroom to keep up with society and the new way of learning. Schools all around the country are adopting small learning communities, but they should also develop online learning communities as well. Does Facebook have a place in the classroom?
Of course it does. I remember when I first made my Facebook account back in my senior year of college. I used it solely to connect to my classmates and professors. It was a way to connect with peers from your college and other universities only. It was an easy way to ask questions and clarify assignments without waiting until the next class time.
I find it funny that many schools and districts have their own Facebook page or Twitter account, but those websites are blocked on the classroom computers for students. It just doesn't make sense to me. Educators can like Facebook in Education, a group on Facebook devoted to providing information to educators on how to safely and effectively use Facebook in the classroom.
It is a controversial issue on using Facebook in education due to safety issues, but there is a similar social networking site design for educational use: Edmodo. I have successfully used Edmodo during my student teaching assignment. Since it looks almost exactly like Facebook (it even uses the same color scheme), students and teachers catch on very quickly. I like how it's a social network with the features of an online class. Students are able to submit their assignments online, and the teacher is able share their work to the whole class and give immediate feedback. A teacher can also create groups to differentiate instruction. I know at the school where I student-taught, they used Edmodo for most of the gifted and talented projects. It was an excellent way for those students to collaborate outside of the classroom.
Whether or not you are a fan of social networking sites like Facebook, it is critical that teachers create some sort of online community for their class. An easy and safe way that teachers can create an online community is by incorporating blogs, podcasts, and web 2.0 tools to their standard classroom websites. Just a little extra time in designing a fun website is one step closer to creating a classroom community!
Reference:
Edmodo. (2011). Make Your Classroom a Community. Available from http://www.edmodo.com/assignment?mid=16207711
Thank you Stephanie for addressing Edmodo in this blog. It is amazing how many wonderful tools are out there but time as always is an issue and sometimes we are not aware of these tools. I like what Facebook has to offer and more after I read Facebook in Education profile and now Edmodo can offer the same as Facebook. Social networks create a student to teacher connection because students can get feedback faster and even answers immediately either by the teacher or their peers. The only worry I have is that many school districts now have many sites blocked, I will check to see if Edmodo is not blocked. Students are interested in interactive tecnology and Edmodo can offer that. Willing to give it a try!
ReplyDeleteI had never actually heard of Edmodo before this. It seems like a great site. My school has been looking for a way to give students a kind of homepage where they can log in and see a calendar of events, send messages to teachers, and download assignments. This seems to be free, at least for individual teachers to use, which is great.
ReplyDeleteI'm always looking for a better, easier way to communicate what's going on in my class with parents and I'm constantly looking for the latest trend. At first, I did mailing lists. It was a pain, and many times my emails were blocked by spam filters. Then I built my own teacher website and posted there. Parents would only infrequently check it out. They wanted the content brought to them instead of having to go after it themselves. Then along came Twitter. This was great because I could send updates from my phone and parents could receive them as a text message. But some parents were intimidated by the setup so they didn't join. This last year, I broke down and made a Facebook page for my class. I hate Facebook. I'm a private person and I don't like sharing a lot of information over the internet. I had some serious privacy concerns and the liability of what happens if a student wants to be friends.
I like Edmodo because you keep the good features of Facebook, but you move it to a safer environment. I think more parents would be willing to let their kids make an Edmodo page than a Facebook page. The trick is to get kids to check it often and use it every day.
Edmodo. (2011). Make Your Classroom a Community. Available from http://www.edmodo.com/assignment?mid=16207711
I had a great experience using Edmodo in my student teaching assignment. It is totally free to teachers, students, and parents. The way it works is that a teacher sets up the class/group and students are given a passcode to join the group. It is very secure. The students are only 'friends' with their classmates and teacher. Since it closely resembles Facebook, most students and parents are more likely to use it on a daily basis. Also, there is an app for Edmodo, so you can post, grade or assign via iPhone or iPad. It is an online class and social network mashed into one. It's very useful and very easy to use.
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