Chapter 9 Blogs, Wikis. Podcasts

Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. Chapter 9

This week’s chapter talked about using social Networks. They hit on the very popular networks of Facebook, and Ning. Many people use social networks to explore interests and find information that goes beyond what they have access in school or in their local community. This chapter is going to talk about how teachers can successfully use social networking sites in their classrooms.

According to our book many schools block Facebook from their computers. What they don’t realize is that you could actually use this tool, or social networking tools like it to aid yourself and fellow teachers in education your students using a method they all seem to enjoy.

The book started of its rant about Facebook explaining that they advise to not befriend their students on Facebook. You should tell your students that your connection to Facebook to them is interest based not friendship based. On Facebook teachers can create private or public groups where classes can exchange information, write on each other’s walls, answer questions, and create a shared space of materials of the course. The next pages in the book listed some example of the few numbers of teachers that actually use Facebook in their classroom. Teachers are creating groups, and libraries have pages to give out information on new books coming out.

The book then switched to talking about a site called Ning, which is something that I have never heard about. Ning allows you to create your own free social networking site around whatever topic you want, complete with personal profiles, photos, video links, groups, discussions, blogs, and more. It seems that this could be a safer site to use instead of Facebook, and it could also be more useful. Many schools throughout the nation are already using Ning as they have found there are huge benefits. Just like the first section the book listed many examples of people using Ning in the classroom. (pg. 141)

As a future teacher I think that social networking sites are awesome! Though there is always a risk of bad things that could happen, it is my beliefs the benefits way outweigh the negatives. I really had no idea that schools were beginning to use sites such as Facebook and Ning in the classroom, but after they explained why I think that they can be awesome tools. Though the chapter mainly talked about how social networking cites can be helpful to the students I believe that they could also be helpful to the parents of the students. Now longer will teachers need to take private time painstakingly writing notes home. Now they can just log on send the parent’s private messages, and save a bunch of time and materials.

I plan on using social networks in my classroom as much as I can. I believe they are awesome tools that not only help the students but the parents too. (Also, it will make my job a lot easier and more effective)