Social Networking in the Classroom

First of all, I’d like to say that I love Facebook.  I move around a lot, and it has been a great way to keep up with all of my friends and family who live far away.  For many people, sites like Facebook and Twitter are simply places to network socially.  They provide a simple way to share with the world the answer to “What’s on your mind?”.

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. It can be a great way to keep current with certain events and individuals, but it can also become yet another demand on one’s time. There has been a flurry of news articles lately on how many social media users feel obligated to stay online; indeed, many feel compelled to constantly tweet or update their Facebook statuses, even while on vacation or during the night.

Adolescents and teens are the heaviest users of social media – a 2009 Pew report found that 73% of kids aged 12-17 used social media regularly. It’s no wonder, then, that some teachers have decided to shake up traditional lesson plans a bit by incorporating social media in their classrooms.

There are many excellent free online resources available to help teachers enhance lessons and appeal to the tech-savvy audience that makes up many of today’s classes. Today I am discussing one category of these resources: social networking tools. Educators are forming connections with one another through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (and MySpace, Google+, Pinterest…the list goes on). Some teachers are choosing to bring these tools and connections to their students as well.