- An issue here is lack of teacher competence.Teachers may require professional development in this using Bebo and social networking. Bebo is predominantly used by the younger generation, therefore many teachers may not be savvy with using this social networker. Before teachers can encourage children to use Bebo, they need to be aware of its potential and how to use it.
Possible solution: Firstly techers would need to become competent with using the internet. Today it is becoming essential that teachers are confident in using the internet, when researching I came across a website called Marco-Polo, which encompasses a free teacher- trainning programme that helps teachers become more internet savvy and become aware of the useful tools; like social networkers that are out there, and how they can be used to create rich web based contexts in their classroom. Along with this, this fantastic website provides resources teachers can use to help implement the internet into the classroom.
Check out the website if you feel as if you are in this prediciment http://www.marcopolo-education.org/teacher/teacher_index.aspx
US higher ed admissions increasingly using social media: new study
Filed under: General News, Weblogs — Bryan Alexander @ 08:24:57 am
American college, and university admissions departments are increasingly using social networking tools, according to a new study.
The use of blogging, social networking, writing and drawing on message boards as a form of communication is on the increase, this graph is American based, but the increase of New Zealanders using these forms of communication is phenominal! How many individuals do you know that don't have a Bebo page? I can't think of any.
If Social Networkers are so popular with university students why not encourage under 18 year olds to use Bebo as a means of communication too?
- An issue in response to this question is safety. When researching on the internet I found a few articles concerning children's safety when using social networking websites as a means of communication. When surfing the net I found a conversation concerning Bebo and its dangers. http://http//www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054914195 One writer voiced his concerns about how young children can be stalked or simply found on websites and added as friends. For many individuals this is a major concern, and I can understand why, in the past there have been many cases where children have been stalked via the internet.
Possible solution: I personally believe Bebo is one of the safer social networking websites, they take huge safety precautions and have recently changed some of the dimensions of their website, to make it a safer place for children under the age of 18 year olds. Bebo has many safety precautions and a hole link related to Bebo safety, that users, parents and teachers can access and read about.
If you are wanting to learn about some of the safety precautions Bebo has in place you can visit the Bebo website and click the link safety or visit one of these cyber safety websites, that have video footage and resources teachers can use to show students how to communicate using social networkers safely and in a positive manner.
Wired Safety- http://www.wiredsafety.org/wiredlearning/videos/index.html
Insafe-http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/index.htm
This link takes you straight to Bebo safety, on this page there aredownloadable resources such as worksheets and poems that can be used in the classroom for teachers to teacher children how to use Bebo safely, so that they can implement it into classroom practice.
http://www.bebo.com/Safety.jsp
Example of a worksheet:
http://s.bebo.com/img/safety/safe_social_networking.pdf
Bebo definately provides a lot of resources to encourage safety. The website itself also acknowledges saftey for under 18 year olds. Children that are wanting to make profiles must set them to private so people other than their friends can not see them. Bebo has also created new elements to their website to prevent cyber bullying, children can now report bebo bullies and delete inapprioriate messages and pictures off their webpages. Users that are not following the code of conduct of Bebo also have their memberships terminated.
If Bebo is used appropriately a healthy virtual community of learners and friends can be created.
I am not the only one that shares these beliefs. When researching Bebo and social networking as a component of E-learning I came across other teachers that share my beliefs that Bebo has the potential to enable children to develop a wide range of communication skills through a variety of mediums.
Social networking in the classroom: Learning by Stealth
'We cannot have social networking during school hours', stated our CEO today. Oops....but that is what I do....well in a good way.
'How can we not encourage social networking if it has valid educational outcomes?
I tried to explain that my class does not end when the students work out the door. The collaboration, interaction and socialisation continues. My students interact with each other, they interact with me, their teacher, via online tools of various names and varieties which could all come under the broad term of 'social networking'. They have their own online areas, including digital portfolios, as well as community areas.
They post to blogs and respond to each other. They are out there using social bookmarking, folksonomy, class wikis, creating podcasts and vodcasts and putting them online, using social imaging (flickr) and anything else I can think of to encourage motivation and excitement in their ultimate quest for learning. I do not apologise for this.
I do not essentially see anything wrong with this in 21st century learning. In fact this approach has changed my whole teaching style and changed the way I interact with the students. The development of PLEs (personal learning environments) and ubiquitous and mobile computing means I now start my classes with '...open your blogs, refer to the class wiki...etc' rather than '..take out your books and copy from the board'.However, I will add that I agree with my CEO that non-focused, time-wasting activities during school time are to be discouraged' (Juile Lindsay, 2006)
Rest of the article and other responses that agree with the ideas this teacher presents:
http://123elearning.blogspot.com/2006/09/social-networking-in-classroom.html
As you can see this teacher has taken the fact on board that; social networking can be dangerous if it not used correctly, but if it is used effectively has the potential to truelly cater for children's needs in communication development. This teachers students are learning commuication skills through a rangeof contexts via the internet that are meaningful to them! So many of the ideas presented in this article I believe are valid to my arguement, teachers need to be preparing their students for future technological learning to help them cross over comfortably into the real world, rather than inhibiting their communication skill learning by giving them tasks that are only enabling them to communicate with their fellow peers. I feel children need to be learning about cultures all around the world, by communicating with children in Africa, Europe, Japan etc.
Joanne writes, "Social networking sites have taken us, educators, outside of our comfort zone. Like all other new technologies, we need to explore how we can continue to educate students about how to use these sites wisely".
This is a very valid statement. We can not prevent children from using social networkers at home,so why not encourage their use in a postive perspective and educate them how to use these websites wisely and safely by using them in an educational manner (develop E-learning literacy) or simply for healthy socialisation amongst peers.
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