Social Networking, Yay or Nay.

As we all are familiar with social networking. It may have it's pros and cons. I am a fan of social networks, I am on numerous different ones. So many I cannot keep count. But do we want to incorporate these social network into our classrooms? I say yes, many students may love to be on facebook or myspace and getting their homework done while communicating with other classmates. A question that arise is, how safe are the social networking for students? Social networking is safe for students the reason being is as a teacher you can be able to have limitations on what exactly a student may see or do. Like the social network we use in our Computers in Education class. We are limited to as to what we can do on the site. For example, we cannot go and change any of the assignments, rubric, announcements etc. All we can do is provide comments and everyone can read it and make comments if needed. Just like in the text it stated, "social networking is growing very rapidly in popularity." We demand them and we get them for free of cost.

How can teachers use social networking in the classroom?
Teachers can use social networking in the classroom for a lot of different reasons. Some may include studying geography with Google earth, use of video streaming bring the field trips into the classrooms, or even the newest one twitter. On twitter the teacher can provides links for lesson plans or any important information with 140 characters or less. All of these and more can be ways for teachers to use social networking in classrooms. The teacher will have to be aware of sexual assault, invasion of privacy and cyber-bullying from occurring. To make students aware on how to use social networks for what they are intended to do. Parents, teachers, and schools should host student awareness discussions mentioned in the text to fully educate students on social networking.