including MySpace et al
Posted January 18th, 2008 by khaines
I’m curious as to what people think about using social software like Facebook, Beebo and MySpace with teenagers. Is it encroaching on ’their’ space? Has anyone done anything like this?
Karen
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Hi Karen
You ask a relevant question there! In fact, one of the readings is an article about this question, called 'Get out of myspace!'. I don't teach this age group, but I have heard from people that do and that also use these platforms to varying degrees of success.
I'm looking forward to hearing about experiences from others
Illya (smielt team)
I opened an account on Facebook (and Orkut) for myself but have never attempted adding my students or using it to teach. However, to my surprise, students and ex-students have added me and send me personal messages or about school issues - to which I respond very informally.
I would not like to use it as a teaching tool because I feel it spoils the fun. For me, these spaces are basically for informal social interaction and should not be forced upon anyone.
@Karen. Perhaps one of the next year’s sessions should be devoted to Facebook? I have been exploring it (for social purposes only) for a year and I find it fascinating. I think it is seen primarly as a site to socialize by the people who are on it; however, I see the educaitonal potential there. Some of the conversations seem to be trivial or pointless and there is a lot of exchanging videos and messages on curious topics. What if the educators try to stir the energy students devote to socializing on Facebook into a more pedagogically beneficial way? I think it’s definitely possible…. Looking for ideas :)
I am far from an expert on Facebook, but I’ve gotten interested in it in the last few months. There are some add ons that are for ESL/EFL learners. One is the italki add on. I haven’t had time to try it out but it links up learners so they can practice together.
I have a feeling there must be more…I guess I should start investigating..
JoAnn Miller
Mexico City
Hi bdiieu! I agree with you. Spaces should not be forced upon teenagers. I think we, teachers, should bear in mind we are learning new tools, and it´s becoming part of our job to teach how to use them, but always keeping our teaching content as the main character of this story. So social interaction should remain optional, mainly with teens.
I started a Myspace last winter for use with the teens in my school. It began as a school project, but I was quickly informed that all references to the school had to be eliminated.
For several months, I actively sought out "friends" who were authors. The response from them was tremendous. Many sent advanced reading copies for my students. I have not kept at it, and I am not sure why.
In my region of the world, Myspace is perceived to be a negative influence on students. Meanwhile, my own 13 year old daughter uses it daily to communicate and "keep up" in her social circle. My sons, 18 and 20, both use Facebook daily to communicate with friends. I recently attended an Institute for Advocacy put on by the American Library Associations Young Adult division. There, librarians expressed strong convictions that both Myspace and Facebook are powerful tools for public libraries to use to gain teen attention and respect.
Feel free to look at my Myspace, called Book Buzz 2.0: http://myspace.com/jvhslibrary.
Sarah
Hi, Sarah. Thanks for sharing your MySpace site with us. I admit to not quite "getting" MySpace. I don't know if it is because I am such a private person by nature or what. I agree that these tools can be used to reach out to young people. The question seems to be how to do it.
Nancy
Thanks Sarah - I liked the way you were using your MySpace. And thanks for the headsup on the Guardian article Illya.
The power of connection that happens in Facebook, or whereever amazes and fascinates me.
Dave Warlick blogs briefly about using social networking and Facebook/MySpace etc. at http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/11/14/to-elgg-or-not-to-elgg/ I wrote something on my blog which Dave commented on at http://krnhaines.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/social-networking/ if you’re interested.
Gilly Salmon (quoted in Get out of MySpace article) posits socialising as a crucial first step in e-learning before knowledge construction happens. http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml Perhaps it is that connecting (as happens on Facebook etc) isn’t enough for learning to happen. Does there need to be something more? Something more directed, more content oriented, more than just messing round with media so that we call it learning. Are our kids (my three are adept at online social networking) learning to nagivate social media and developing their online literacy for themselves which we then are able to capitalise on to build into their learning in a place different to MySpace? Which then begs the question - how are we learning to be similarly literate? And what about kids who don’t do social networking? How important is it? How crucial is online literacy from a networking point of view for our students?
Nice to talk…
Karen
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. John Cotton Dana
As always happens, went to check my bloglines and found the below blog post which is particularly apposite and much better thought out than my vague ponderings in the post above! Should have read it first.
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/01/15/the_economist_d.html
Karen
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. John Cotton Dana
Karen, thanks for sharing this post. I think it adds a relevant point of view to the discussion.
In my humble opinion, it would certainly be the wrong direction to use technology 'because it's there', and I agree that not every kind of social media belongs in the classroom. However, I feel it is becoming an ever more important aspect of our jobs as educators to help pupils develop an understanding for the ethics of social media and illustrate good usage. This, however, necessitates that the educators know and can use these tools themselves - becoming aware of the possibilitites as well as the limitations.
In any case, we're on the right track here!
Illya (smielt team)
Karen,
Instead of working on a project for school, I just spent an hour trying to digest the discussion in zephoria. While reading, I created 5 new feeds! I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the philosophical discussions that are taking place among those who I consider the elite among digital thinkers and doers (including our own Bee!) Perhaps if I didn’t have to write my own meager first blog post for this course today I would not be feeling this way…
Sarah
"I despise Facebook" - the opening words of an article by Tom Hodgkinson in The Guardian last Monday: With friends like these …
He goes into the people, philosophy, politics and money behind Facebook. It makes you think at least twice about what you put on there, or whether you should even be there at all. And yes, I am on Facebook, though I’m not quite sure why - the vast majority of what I see there bears no interest for me whatsoever. I suppose I’m curious to see what all the fuss is about.
There is certainly a potential for connecting with people, for interacting, for sharing, across a far wider spectrum of interests and in a greater variety of ways than you could find on a single-issue mail-list or forum. It’s just that most of it is so silly, a lot is pre-fabricated rather than creative, and some of the people behind it are just plain sinister.
And yes, we all need a bit of silly from time to time.
Michael
PS: a search on ‘Facebook’ on the Guardian web-site brings up 22 references within the past week - so we’re not the only ones talking about it.
3 weeks ago I blogged about the reasons I dislike Facebook, and yes I do have an account (2 actually, but that’s another story) For work with elementary students I decided to utilize Ning. We have 3 Ning networks going, one in 5th grade, one in 6th grade and another which is a joint Ning for English speakers in my school and students in a partner school in the US. The Ning which is seeing the most activity is predictably the shared Ning as this is the only space the students have to socialize with their friends abroad.
I do agree with zephoria to a certain extent "SNSs do not make youth engage educationally; they allow educationally-motivated youth with a structure to engage educationally. " In fact I am seeing this in action in our school Ning networks. Most of the students when left to their own devices will chatter about music, videos, movies etc but I have yet to see them ask for help through the network for anything to do with school or homework.
As to "a compelling argument for why social network sites (or networking ones) should be used in the classroom" I agree with Illya, "it is becoming an ever more important aspect of our jobs as educators to help pupils develop an understanding for the ethics of social media and illustrate good usage" and would add that many of our students are already using these tools. As a teacher I can help them work out the pros and cons while implementing a secure school network.
SusanT
@Sarah. I think that Sarah’s observation, "Meanwhile, my own 13 year old daughter uses it daily to communicate and
"keep up" in her social circle. My sons, 18 and 20, both use Facebook
daily to communicate with friends" clearly shoes that the online social networking and socialization that we are witnessing is primarly teen driven. We are the ones that are learning how to introduce social tools into out teaching and trying to make it as pedagogically sound as possible. However, I would disagree with Edita that "So social interaction should remain optional, mainly with teens." The current social interaction is very much part of teen’s life; I don’t see it as optional for them; it’s really their life.
Karen’s questions: "Which then begs the question - how are we learning to be similarly
literate? And what about kids who don’t do social networking? How
important is it? How crucial is online literacy from a networking point
of view for our students?" are of paramount importance. It seems WE are constantly trying to catch up with today’s teens’ literacy skills. We may despise Facebook and other similar sites for various reasons, but the teens are OUT THERE making it very much part of their life (not education yet). And if they are making it a part of their life right now, imagine what it will be in 10 years with these kids joining the workplace. Complete and unavoidable change in communication and networking…
What should we then do about Facebook/MySpace? How important is this new multiliteracy skill?
What are "teens literacy skills" which we adults do not have? What has basically changed in the way people communicate and network? Knowing how to use a tool? What is it to be multiliterate? What are the basic skills for dialogue, communication and networking we all desire? Are they enhanced or hampered by these tools?
Mark Prensky's digital X native digital discourse has been proved more of a myth than reality as current research and practice suggest. While teens may use these environments, many do not see how to interact and network in other aspects of their lives (work, family, education). What is missing?
See:
I think that what is missing is integration to all their activities. At
least here in Argentina, they use the web to be in contact with friends; or to find some information for school (always the first google
option), but they regard this as the easy way to do homework. They are
even surprised if I chat with them, I don’t know if that’s because they
consider me old (and I am) or because they think teachers don’t do
that. It’s quite difficult when you’re the only one using technology at
school.
What I really "envy" from them is their multitasker ability. For
example, I can listen to a talk and read and write in a chat at the
same time, but if I stop and get a sudden consciousness of what I doing
I feel a sort of vertigo, and I stop listening or reading. In those
moments I feel an immigrant. Only in those moments.
Gabriela,
You write:
I think this is really a matter of stereotyping and generalization. They want to separate themselves from the adult world and perhaps they lead themselves to believe that they can do it through technology - their own little secret world, and phase out the fact that it is also an integral part of the adult world. This, at least, is my conclusion in dealing with my own kids.
Bee, thanks for sharing the articles. They mirror my own feelings about the over-rated abilties of the students. On the other hand, it might have to do with teachers panicking instead of informing themselves about these technologies.
My humble opinion is that it’s time to discuss our roles as teachers in the discussion and look at just what ELSE we want our learners to be able to do with internet tools.
I teach teachers English and have made it an aim to acquaint them with blogs and possiblities of how they can be used so they know at least one tools out there on the internet.
I’d be interested in exactly what others are doing to train teachers and learners.
I’ve been thinking.
Most of us just have "feelings" about our students technological
abilities. I’d thought of building up a survey to get more information
about wht my students really know/expect. Now I’ve thought that we
could design one together, and collect some data that could give us a
better perspective of the reality. I don’t mean doing this right now,
here, because it’s not the objective of this workshop. But.. when it’s
over… I’m just writing this now because I know I might forget
later.We could invite other teachers as well.
What do you think?
Gabriela, I think this is a great idea. Perhaps this could become a part of the group work. The wiki topic comes immediately to mind, but I can imagine using other tools to explore and develop a survey.
I am currently engaged in a research project which is looking into how technology is used for teaching and learning and students’ feelings about it. It’s very interesting, especially since my students are mostly primary school teachers.
Illya (smielt team)
It might be difficult to do a survey on "our students technological
abilities". What would our benchmarks be?
Perhaps it would be more interesting to find out what web resources they use and what their expetations are about them. What do you think?
Ann, you’re right.
Illya, do you mean the "wiki group" suggested in the wiki here? We could use a wiki as a sandbox. And in the meantime discuss about wikis.
Sorry for the repetition of "wiki" (I had to write it again, mmm)
Gabriela, you seem to have read my mind. I personally appreciate having a hands-on, practical task to work on and illustrate an idea. A wiki probably wouldn’t be a good way to give the survey, but having a concrete project to collaborate on would be good working practice.
Have you seen this video on wikis in plain English?
Illya (smielt team)
Yes, I’ve seen it.
you’ll see it in the homepage of the wiki I had with my students last year (we didn’t do much, I don’t have access to computers at school)
http://takingitfurther.wikispaces.com/
I love them. You can do so many different things with the same tool.
I think the only way to get to know a tool is using it. I really experimented with blogs and wikis using them with my students. I always told them: i’m telling you this today, but I don’t know what I will say tomorrow, I’m learning. I really I think it’s good to show your students you’re a teacher who is learning not just teaching. Anyway I’d love to experiment with colleagues.
As for the survey itself, there lots of survey builders. I’ve bookmarked some here.
http://del.icio.us/gsellart/survey_builder
Sorry for all the urls, but I don’t feel like editing.
Gabriela,
You write "They want to separate themselves from the adult world and perhaps they
lead themselves to believe that they can do it through technology -
their own little secret world, and phase out the fact that it is also
an integral part of the adult world."
I totally agree. In my school, many students do not have reliable internet access at home. These students are not part of any social media revolution. Even those that do have access are most likely just using Myspace, thinking that they, as you suggest, are socializing in "their own secret little world." Given this reality (which I would love to confirm by participating in the suggested online poll), as an information literacy teacher, I feel responsible for teaching the "have-nots" to be competent digital creators while at the same time teaching those who think they know it all to be ethical digital creators.
In the library (I am the librarian), or wherever the students are using computers, the resultant mix usually means that unless a content-area teacher has built in evaluation and use of information as part of the assessment, that students will go to Google, type in a one-word description (say…dogs..), click on the first link, copy the text into their paper, poster or Powerpoint, and be done with it.
Assignments are boring, and students do not have to think about anything. Teachers are happy with this and justify the research end by concluding that students indeed are digitally "equipped." Training teachers and learners is the hardest part of my job. The fact that we are discouraged from exposing students to the big world through social media makes it more difficult to demonstrate opportunities for creativity and collaboratoin among students…but even without technology there is a chasm between doing what has always been done and stepping outside to explore new ways to help students learn to be independent thinkers and responsible participants in society.
Sarah Braxton
Here is a link to a very intereseting video interview from Discover Magazine: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid370512060/bclid533256427/b…
It’s with Danah Boyd, a PhD student who is researching how teenagers use social media, especially Facebook and MySpace. She also mentions other technology like texting.
JoAnn Miller
Mexico City