While facebook is a lifeline for me, I had always thought of it as a guilty pleasure outside my professional and academic life. As a substitute teacher, I had to enforce schools’ rules against such social networking sites used during the school day. I even hid myself from my students, raising my privacy as high as it could go, so that no 15-year-old could know what Miss Larson was like in her college days. I felt that social networking was something to be kept far, far away from the classroom.
This is why it interested me to see in the article “The Instructional Power of Digital Games, Social Networking, Simulations and How Teachers Can Leverage Them,” the author suggested that social networking sites have a powerful role in the classroom. Sites such as Ning, Think.com, Diigo, and Panwapa combine the discussion power of a blog and the social networking power of facebook or MySpace. Not only are students sharing what they believe and know, but they are also able to create their own profile and connect with other students with similar ideas and interests. These websites focus on the educational benefits that social networking can create. Each website is a bit distinct, but most operate on a more private and safe premise than something like facebook. Their purposes are also very different from mere entertainment. They connect teacher-to-student and student-to-student so they can collaborate with each other. This could assist group projects, facilitate discussion and share of ideas, and bring people together in a lower-pressure environment than face-to-face connection.
These educational social networking websites sound great in theory. My question is: Has anyone actually tried social networking sites in their classrooms? What have been the results? If you haven’t tried it...would you? In what context and age range?
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