I chose the Facebook option to complete Thing 3.
My experiences with social media can be described as skeptical! I was very timid to join Facebook or any other social media organization simply because of security issues. I am slowly getting my feet wet and do have a Facebook account. I do not "blog" on it much, but am able to add pictures here and there and catch up on the gossip for each day! It makes me a little nervous knowing that anyone could be reading what I write, so I cannot do it freely and have to be so cautious in doing so.
On a positive note, I like the fact that you are able to reach so many people so quickly! Wow! I also like that you are able to connect with people who you might not be able to otherwise because of lost contacts. Facebook is very "user-friendly" as far as adding pictures, websites, etc.
Social media is definitely changing the way most of us communicate today. Who really picks up the telephone anymore? Not counting our iPhone to text, email or take pictures :O) I would probably be surprised at the percentage of communication that is done in person or via a real telephone conversation! It scares me when I think of my own kids and what kind of face-face communication skills they will have. How will relationships differ? I'm not sure that it will be such a negative thing to them because it will be what is "normal" to them and what they grew up knowing. It is just sort of bitter-sweet knowing that the "good old days" are exactly that.
Students rely heavily on social networking sites to learn and communicate. Any information they need for school or life in general is at the tips of their fingers. It will take smaller school districts a while longer to catch up to this social networking/learning trend, but I believe it is coming. Students will be using phones and laptops to connect to networks right from their desks. For teachers, this means staying on top of the learning curve with technology to keep our students interested in what we have to teach them.
I do not see myself using Twitter or Facebook professionally, but I am very interested in setting up a blog site to keep students and parents informed of all assignments. After all, this would be just one more tool to encourage active learning and parent involvement with the goal being to decrease late or missing assignments.
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Great response--I couldn't agree more about how social networking is changing our kids' ability and need for social interaction. And I think you're completely right about the difference in social interaction being imperceptible to them. I honestly wonder if, for my own girls, phone calls won't seem as "old fashioned" to them as telegrams do to me!
ReplyDeleteI also think you've picked up on something interesting by envisioning a school environment where kids have smart phones or laptops sitting on their desks during class. It seems to me that social media, like Facebook, for example, is blurring the lines between our personal lives and our professional lives (or, for students, their school lives). Perhaps eventually kids will sit in class with their browsers open to Facebook and will be chatting with a student in the classroom next door at the same time they're participating in an interactive online activity within the classroom. I know that's difficult for educators to swallow (to me it's the equivalent of passing notes in class), but I honestly feel that kids are going to be able to, and may even be expected to, attend to several online tasks at once. For these kids multi-tasking is going to be a way of life. Whether that's a good thing or not, I can't say, but I think it's invetable!
I also agree that one of the things that Facebook, and Web 2.0 applications in general, have going for them is that they're so user-friendly. Remember when the Internet used to be something that only geeks used? It amazes me how much this technology has become a part of our daily lives, and, with the introduction of devices like the iPhone, we're even more closely connected to it!
I enjoyed reading your response! Thing 3 complete!