Many teachers have come to embrace social media instead of banning them. Government education figures across the USA, Canada, often the EU & other places have published “Internet Application Guidelines For Schools,” together with components on how to use web 2 . 0 and share information concerning teachers, parents, and little ones & keep the kids protected.
Even though many have come to embrace this movement, various teachers are still diligent about social network usage among kids, especially in classes. I strongly feel that all their uneasiness about social media application is based on negative media press and the pure lack of education of the technology itself. Using this being said, there are many fights that the educational benefits of social media marketing outweigh the risk, and the instructors in support of social media inside classrooms worry that educational institutions are missing out on an opportunity to integrate tools that many students know already how to use.
It doesn’t mean mom and dad and teachers put down all their guards about the Internet’s potential issues for kids, but it does necessarily mean getting involved & get up to help speed to help & consult with your kid on the Internet.
In a very pilot project, which commenced as a Facebook-like forum, a new seventh-grade teacher exhibited with her social media program that <20% of students (school-wide) were completing extra challenges for no credit, and degrees increased by more than 50%, in addition to absenteeism was reduced using more than a third.
Here are five reasons I feel schools should embrace social media, just like the 7th-grade teacher I stated.
1 . Social Media is Not Intending Away
Contextually, things haven’t changed. In the first 1990s, the debate seemed to be similar to today. University administrators were adamantly opposed to allowing access to the Internet – the top fear being pornography and predators. If you fast forwards, it seems like we’re facing similar issues today. Suppose a school not being connected to the Net now. Impossible!
However, there has been a significant change in pure numbers and use. For example, to a Kaiser Family Basis survey, almost ¾ of seventh to twelfth graders have at least one social media account, and the survey group applied to social sites more than they will play games or observed videos online. Also, I managed to survive ignoring social media, including Facebook, which has grown to over 600 million users in seven years, and I haven’t even been absent in the details of sites, including Myspace, Tagged, MyYearBook, Ning, Hi 5, and LinkedIn. Social media growth is dramatic.
Also, here’s something else this endorses social networks are not going anywhere soon. Not too long ago, some open schools in the UK had a DSL “lock down,” and the learners rebelled. Marks, absenteeism & attitudes changed with this “lock down.” Unlike often the teacher who had positive results ready to pilot the “Facebook” program, the youngsters who went through this “lock down” period seemed never to take responsibility for their steps.
Bottom line – social networks are usually here to stay. Parents or instructors should get on board – discover it & teach that.
2 . Kids Are Far better Learners When Engaged
A third and 4th grade Mn teacher started using websites in his classroom in the year 2007 as a way to motivate students to post. The results were terrific. Learners loved it.
In many articles, students have become acutely aware that blogging is not just producing on a piece of paper that obtains handed to the teacher, but also getting handed back along with a smiley. They know that blogging is often a shared concept, and good friends or other people may even falter across their writings. There is also a concept of power in that idea.
Kids are enthusiastic about in-class blogging. In the pilot Facebook or myspace project previously mentioned, students have to school earlier, and the total quality of their work is elevated.
Parents and teachers: when kids are employed, they learn better. We must become engaged before we all help them become engaged.
3. Safe Social Media Tools, and they are Free.
A teacher began using blogs to teach children and developed a ‘social media platform.’ His system allowed him to monitor and approve everything the kids had been posting online and held kids safe from inappropriate marketing. This teacher then created a similar web-based tool that teachers use today. The actual tool is called the kid blog. Org.
Kidblog is one of the hottest Web 2 . 0. 0 tools in K-8 education, allowing teachers to blog with their classes within a teacher-kid-friendly environment. Teachers usually gain a sense of the connection as the students run their way through their own class members’ blogs; teachers can also invite various other classes and guests for you to participate in the class’ posts, thereby broadening the loyal audience and increasing enthusiasm for students. Multiple teachers could also collaborate within a Kidblog category and share moderation tasks.
From a safety perspective, lecturers have complete administrative control over all comments, posts, and privacy settings. The manager can preview and accept (or unapproved) content released by students (and some other visitors, if allowed through their privacy settings). Kidblog endorses privacy & will not collect any personal information from students.
Kidblog also in no way subjects students to marketing, so teachers can feel at ease knowing that the publishing atmosphere is free from distractions.
Even though Kidblog. Org is exceptionally well-known. There are other equally popular resources, such as Edmodo & Edublogs.
The critical element – this tool is safe and 100% free.
4. Schools Stealing General public Social Media Time
According to the Neilson study, between 2004-2009, the amount of time 2-11 yr old kids spent online enhanced by 63%. One way universities have used this number to their advantage is to compete with various other social media sites for part of this occasion.
One school in the USA developed a pilot program and had their very own kids complete all their work on the school’s propriety social websites. As a result, the students spent five fewer hours regularly on Facebook and Myspace so they could do their assignments.
Yet another example, a teacher would likely post an extra assignment that students could complete soon after school every day. The placing was done on institution propriety social media. One day this lady had students comment on one of President Obama’s speeches; at a later date, she had them create two-minute videos of something on their walk home, which was a bad example of sustainability. These types of assignments had no credit score attached to them. The only inbuilt reward was interacting with some other students in the digital globe.
The results speak for themselves – social media displaced another and has accommodated college students’ desires to communicate with each other securely.
5. Social Media Stimulates Collaboration
Social media as a training tool has a natural collaborative element. Students critique and comment on each other’s projects, work in teams to produce content, and quickly gain access to each other and the teacher using questions or to start a debate.
On the other hand, traditional education typically involves teacher-given lectures, scholars with their eyes on their reports, and not talking to neighbors. Subsequently, when students enter the corporate world, they are thrown straight into groups, expected to produce, but unprepared and lacking collaboration skills.
Many studies demonstrate a compelling nature for kids to use social media tools in school, mainly how they collaborate. It was at first thought that the shy children would drift away from cooperation, but if they had a place to make, they would make it just as well as a non-shy child.
It’s easy to see that students enjoy interacting with each other, which is also safe and secure.
Conclusion
The negative press publicity has actually possessed a positive impact and made each of our school administrators fully mindful of the Internet dangers and thus designed programs and technology to cope with these concerns and keep our youngsters safe at schools. Being a by-product of these instruments, there is a reduction in absenteeism, along with our kids are appropriately organized for the collaborative world.
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