Article 2: Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities

Summary:

                The issue of social networking has had recent research and publication on how educators can build off of the skills that students are developing through social networking.  However, it is not social networking at the center of this educational development; it is only the start of utilize the deeper points of learning of connection and socialization.  In psychology, social networking builds on the idea of social constructivism where students can build and create their own educational environment to build knowledge off of each of the other students in the class.  The deeper issue is getting students to go past the social networking and begin the social construction of knowledge piece.

                There are important keys that professors need to keep in mind in order to further develop the student’s social construction piece.  Social networking is not only during school hours, it requires a constant stream of being connected.  As a teacher, make sure that you are customizing your attention to each student and how they are using the social networking site.  Teachers are, also, responsible for keeping issues on topic and continually growing.  Students may grow bored or completely take the topic in a different, non-productive direction.  The students have grown accustomed to multi-tasking so, more than likely, they may have multiple different sites going at once (blogs, facebook, wiki, video sharing, etc.)  Teachers, in addition, need to make it easy for students to be active members of this learning community.  Through successful implication of social networking tools in the classroom, students can learn to interpret and construct real-world processes, pool knowledge plus compare notes and learn to respect multiple perspectives and understand diverse communities. 

                NOTE:

                It is crucial to note teacher’s NEED to be careful when creating groups on social networking sites such as Facebook; any conduct that seems social in nature can be construed as creepy and unsettling.  Teachers need to be clear and provide specific instructions on how social networking will be used in the classroom. 

Response:

                This day in age, we have come to think of social networking sites as damaging to the educational community.  It has become a distraction from the learning/educational process.  It has, also, become an area of controversy on the amount of personal information that can be found on social networking sites.  There are stories out there involving teachers getting fired for what was found on their personal accounts; so why would teachers want to put themselves at risk by creating a social networking setting for their class?

                However, just like the introduction of everyday technology to education (document cameras, Powerpoint presentations, slideshows, video sharing, typing papers, etc.), social networking is an overarching topic that will join in the importance of educational uses.  By providing this gateway for student communication, we can use their skills in computer communication to get them to share and develop ideas on a deeper level.  I have heard of school districts creating classroom blogs where students and teachers have an online blog area where students keep blogs describing what they are learning and they can go and read what each other is gathering and learning in class.  This allows them to see different perspectives and learn from different viewpoints of the classroom.  This also allows the teacher to have a contained center where they can control what is being put on the blog and see how their interests are developing and changing.

                In colleges, many are using other Web 2.0 sites in order to promote sharing such as Blackboard.  Students can engage in communication and sharing of information through discussion boards.  Although this is not a social networking site, it provides the type of discussion that we, as teachers, want to create in a social networking environment.  We want to tap into the sharing capabilities and range of individual focus/resources that students can gather through social networking. 

                I believe that this type of research we need to continue in order to tap into the world of social networking and create it into an effective process for our classrooms; just like the growing technology development.

APA Citation:

Reynard, R. (2009, July 22). Beyond social networking: Building toward learning communities. Campus technology, Retrieved from http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/07/22/Beyond-Social-Networking-Building-Toward-Learning-Communities.aspx?Page=1