Dec. 8th

1.       Yes, absolutely all teachers should be encouraged to create online activates within their classrooms. The students that we are teaching today are going to be living in a world dominated by technology and they more they use the more they will learn about it and see how helpful it is. I don’t think that teachers need to feel like they have to do everything online but if teachers were able to incorporate just a few online or technology based activated into their curriculum I think they would start to see the benefits as well. I think a lot of teachers don’t use technology because of their own lack of understanding.

2.       I honestly am not sure if I think social networking has a place in education. I would not use social networks in my classroom of 5^th graders and I think if teachers were going to use them it should not be until the high school level. Students younger than high school age are too obsessed with the social aspect of social networking and not how they can be used educationally. I am not sure how I would incorporate something like Facebook into my classroom. I feel like there are so many other ways to get students to connect to a larger community without using social networking sites.

3.       As I stated I am not sure teachers should be using social networks in the classroom but if they were I would hope it would be at the high school level and after a lot of instruction and guidance about cyber bullying and internet safety. If students were going to use a social network within education I think it would be interesting to see how something like a facebook profile or a myspace page could be used for college applications. Students would obviously have to be very careful but it could be an interesting way for colleges to learn more about students and possibly interact with them more. But there are also many things that could go wrong here. Students could also use twitter in a social studies or current events class and follow politicians or other influential people to keep up on what is happening in the world. Although again I would hate to see a generation that gets all their important news from twitter.

4.       As of right now I still see the role of social networking in education as a problem. Students are using places like facebook as a place to bully and bash other students. High school students and middle school students don’t realize these social networks are public domains and they are getting themselves into trouble. Students who suffered from being bullied at school used to be able to go home and escape from these attacks, now with the prevalence of cell phones and almost all middle school students having a facebook page this bullying does not end when the school day ends. We have clearly seen an increase in students attacking other students through social network pages. For me the role of these networks in education needs to be usas educators teaching tolerance and acceptance, not trying to incorporate these media’s into the classroom.