Social networking is no doubt a hit with the kids. Many of the teenagers I know spend the majority of their spare time frequenting social networking sites like Facebook and Foursquare. With such popularity, it seems like a no-brainer to incorporate social networking tools into instruction in order to adapt to the needs of today’s students. Many schools have already tried. Per the American Association of School Librarian’s 2008 longitudinal study on social networking tools in education, 53% of k-12 schools have already implemented collaborative tools to enhance instruction. In fact, the two schools where I conduct most of my field experience both use Destiny Quest, an OPAC with social networking capabilities. With Destiny Quest, students can rate and write reviews on books they have read. At Kell High School, many of the teachers also use blogs to keep their students updated about assignments, events, and recent lectures. McCleskey Middle School teachers have tried to use the social bookmarking site, Delicious.com, to share useful Websites with students, while other teachers at the school have attempted to use Goodreads.com or LibraryThing.com to create discussions about books.
However, all of these attempts have been rather unsuccessful. While many of the teachers’ blogs at Kell allow for group discussions through the comment function, almost all of the blogs I reviewed lacked any student comments. The same holds true for Destiny Quest in that students do not take the time or effort to login to Destiny Quest to rank a book or write a review. Most of the books are unrated and the only book reviews that are posted, are ones submitted by teachers or the media specialists. At McCleskey, teachers experienced good success with students logging into social bookmarking sites, but only for viewing purposes and to obtain information needed for an assignment. Students neglected to share their own bookmarked sites or post their own information unless the teacher made it a requirement for a grade. When students don’t take advantage of educational social networking sites for group collaboration and discussion, these tools join the ranks all other non-interactive tools used prior to the invention Web 2.0.
According to my mentor, many teachers are also less than thrilled with the idea of using social networking because it instills more work on their part. Some teachers that have classroom blogs, have disabled the comment function in order to prevent students from using obscene wording. The teachers that do allow for commenting often times have to review all comments prior to posting, therefore spending time that could otherwise be used for planning, grading, etc. Then of course, there are teachers who are just intimidated by Web 2.0 tools and do not have the technological expertise or desire to incorporate social networking into their classrooms.
I think students utilize social networking sites only in areas that truly interest them, like keeping in touch with friends and staying up to date about local events. For instance, the Kell High School soccer team has a Facebook group page that has been widely accepted by the soccer players, however, students not involved in soccer are less than interested in using the Facebook group page. Unfortunately, the majority of students are not interested enough in Shakespeare, for example, to want to join a social networking site to discuss Shakespeare during their free time. So, unless students are participating in distance learning or the teacher finds a topic that generates an enthusiastic response, my opinion is that the tried and true way of group discussion via face-to-face interaction during class time is still the way to go.
One way to get the students involved in the book reviews would be to make it a grade, but then that almost defeats the purpose of using social networking to peak the students' interests. A reason that students may not be leaving comments may be due to the fact that they don't have any time and aren't encouraged to do so. I know in my school, the teachers want them in and out of the media center as fast as possible, so that they are not wasting class time.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, adding one more thing to the already overloaded pile of duties and responsibilities is very unappealing. To incorporate social networking, it would need to take the place of something else. Like instead of writing book reports, post a review on the blog.
So often, it all comes back to motivation. You speak to the buy-in from teachers and students alike in your posting. The uses of blogs as one-way information traffic only does not involve the social aspect of these tools. Without the interaction, it becomes the same as any other text/graphic resource available. Time is a valuable commodity for all, especially educators. As Amy noted, if the blog entries for students took the place of other assignments, more might be likely to take the dive. Requiring students to post/discuss assignments online is a tricky issue as the digital divide is still pervasive. With any classroom activity, teachers have to work for the student engagement; the use of social tools is no different, just a different spin on a old game.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right to point out how many features of social networking tools - and certain tools themselves - do not incite interest in students, and are only used by students when teachers require it. Although students might not gravitate toward using specific social networking tools, I think it is still good for them to be introduced to useful tools so that they can familiarize themselves with aspects of social networking they would never have chosen to explore on their own. Additionally, it might prove useful to students somewhere down the road, if they are required to use a certain networking tool for a high school or college class or a job, that they are familiar with that networking tool because they were required to work with it earlier in school.
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