Social Networking In Schools: Educators Debate The Merits Of Technology In Classrooms

In this digital world, opportunities for education are available like never before. Though teachers using online tools are empowering students take part in their education, they may also expose them to inappropriate material, sexual predators, and bullying and harassment by peers.

Teachers who are not careful with their use of the sites can fall into inappropriate relationships with students or publicize photos and information they believed were kept private. For these reasons, critics are calling for regulation and for removing social networking from classrooms -- despite the positive affects they have on students and the essential tools they provide for education in today's digital climate.

The positive effects of social networking sites in education are profound. According to a study conducted by the University of Minnesota on student use of social media, students who are already engaging in social networking could benefit from incorporating it into curriculum.

Christine Greenhow, who was the principal investigator in a study, elaborated on the impact social networking could have on education.

"By understanding how students may be positively using these networking technologies in their daily lives and where the as-yet-unrecognized educational opportunities are, we can help make schools even more relevant, connected, and meaningful to kids."

Through utilizing teaching techniques that incorporate social media, teachers are able to increase students' engagement in their education, increase technological proficiency, contribute to a greater sense of collaboration in the classroom, and build better communication skills.

A Mashable article titled, The Case For Social Media in Schools, also details several reasons for advocating the use of social networking in the classroom and provides a real example of how it is affecting education in a positive way.

"A year after seventh grade teacher Elizabeth Delmatoff started a pilot social media program in her Portland, Oregon classroom, 20 percent of students school-wide were completing extra assignments for no credit, grades had gone up more than 50 percent, and chronic absenteeism was reduced by more than a third."

Karen Cator, from the U.S. Dept. of Education, in an online question and answer series featured on edutopia.org also commented on the potential of social networking to improve the American education system.

"Think about not only incorporating technology into your lessons, but creating more and more compelling assignments so that 21st century skills, the kinds of things students will have to develop in terms of critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, global participation -- that these are incorporated into assignments. The best spaces will incorporate social media, and interacting with others. "

Another study, which analyzed how students performed when asked to use twitter to do assignments, found that students who were asked to "contribute to class discussions and complete assignments using Twitter increased their engagement over a semester more than twice as much as a control group."

Use of social networking not only benefits students, but also provides new opportunities for communication amongst teachers and administrators. According to a report featured in The Journal of Educational Technology Systems:,

"Tech savvy administrators are using blogs as a tool to keep parents, teachers, and students informed of the things going on in their schools."

As calls for education reform resonate across the country and looming budget cuts indicate a grim future for many public schools, online tools are becoming valuable resources. Some say, however, they come with too great a risk. Reports of sexual predators have raised the alarm and prompted parents and legislators to question the potential of using social media for education.

Though sexual predators are often cited a the primary concern, Amanda Lenhart with the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, explained, in an article for the Houston Chronicle, that this is less of risk than it is made out to be.

"Mostly kids at risk already have a bunch of social and emotional problems in their lives. These kids are the ones who might engage in risky behaviors, seek out sex talk online and knowingly meet people who are older."

According to the article, "Peer-to-peer harassment and bullying are much more common threats to online youngsters," which is a concern both online and off.

Both Federal and state legislation has been proposed to curb the use of social networking in schools, which has incited controversy over the legality of such legislation. Critics believe that regulating online activity is a violation of first amendment rights.

In lieu of the controversy, networks have stepped up their efforts to create safer online communities for students. Facebook, which currently has over 900 million users making it the largest social networking site, partnered with the National PTA "to promote responsible and safe Internet use to kids, parents and teachers."

According to a report about the collaboration, "National PTA and Facebook will establish a comprehensive program that will provide information, support and news to encourage citizenship online, reduce cyberbullying and advance Internet safety and security." Facebook went on to create both safety and education tabs that provide information and resources for educators and concerned parents.

Myspace also established a partnership with the Attorney General, created a safety task force, and released a list of strategies for online safety.

There have also been several student-oriented sites and programs created to provide safety without sacrificing social networking opportunities. According to a report issued June 2010 in the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching "Educational Networking" is a new erupting trend utilizing "social networking technologies for educational purposes."

The report emphasizes that these new "social networking sites aim to capitalize on the enormous popularity of online social networking while simultaneously providing a more secure and regulated platform for social networking activities."

As the debate over the role technology and social networking play in the classroom continues, proponents on both sides are fighting to find a balance between the importance of innovation and the safety of students. Though there are risks associated with encouraging students to use social networking sites, proponents argue the potential for opportunity outweigh the costs. As solutions that satisfy both sides continue to develop, online education resources may pave the way for growth in America's schools.

Comments

[progressiveteacher]

10:28 AM on 03/29/2011

I use Ning and Moodle extensively in my classroom. In addition, I created a teacher facebook page, many of my students are "friends" and I notifiy them over facebook when I have a new assignment/discussion. Simply put, it's getting the students eyespace and attention and it works.

[Yam716]

03:15 PM on 03/31/2011

a program called blackboard is what we used in college. How do you communicate with your students who are not allowed to have a FB account?

[Michal Hope Brandon]

09:22 AM on 03/29/2011

It's exciting to see real world applications being used in education. The more connections our kids can make between what they're learning, and how they're learning, to what happens outside of school will greatly benefit us all.

[CabCurious]

08:55 PM on 03/28/2011

Even in 2011, technology has barely been integrated into US classrooms in a comprehensive and vital manner. Only in pockets of schools and classrooms do we see proper integration.

Focusing on "social networking" is a complete distraction unless it's a tightly controlled, internal social networking site for the school/community. Concerns with inappropriate content access are extremely valid in schools and it is NOT nearly as simple as we may want to believe to address these concerns. it is not something you can ignore or take lightly, when it comes to children and their families.

[Katy Scott]

07:53 PM on 03/28/2011

There are SOOOO many benefits to social networking in the classroom. But schools should stay away from Facebook or MySpace; rather, teachers and schools should create their own social networks, through sites like Edmodo, to help teach students what it means to be part of a professional social network. More info at: http://tinyurl.com/4jd9wey

[hagagaga]

07:06 PM on 03/28/2011

Well, every time I have the chance at my high school, I'm on Facebook anyway. You can't stop us. We can always find away.

[CabCurious]

08:59 PM on 03/28/2011

Until a teacher comes into the bathroom and takes your phone.

:D

[hagagaga]

07:30 AM on 03/29/2011

I'm in the IB Computer Science class right now with Facebook open in another window.

[Cool Bam]

05:02 PM on 03/28/2011

For all our "attempts" in integrate tech into learning I'll bet 2 in a hundred High School kids can't say how to do a proper search on their favorite web bowser. For instance, when you try to find something and you get 500k results; what do you do? Same is true I'm sure for how to use the help syntax in any of the common software used by 95% of businesses like MS Office (or Open Office). I do understand that kids need a base of traditional education, but really folks; if your boss wants you to find the date of the first Battle at Bull Run you can Google it and have wiki open to it in 2 or 3 second. Outside a base skill set the value of any specific set of "knowledge" is very low these days. What has value is getting stuff done, and they don't call you a cheater for using the internet. Can you or can you not get it done when presented with a new problem you have never encounter before, say "make me a cross tab report" in Excel. The kid that looks at the help file and syntax and "Google's it" or otherwise finds the answer and implements it is "winning". The kid that memorized some other set of commands that don't apply or have since changed is not.

[Cool Bam]

06:44 PM on 03/28/2011

As for collaboration, if I had a dollar for every time I got the answer from I friend that knew the scoop in a problem that was breaking my hump (30 seconds later in a "chat") I could buy a new car. Say I can't get a rounding function to work. Chat (Val worked with me at my last job)

"Hey Val HELP, why doesn't this work??"
"Bam it's rounding b101 before it totals. Put perens around to the cells you are summing and make sure that is right first,then put perens around the whole thing and use "RoundUp"
Example +e101+D6 becomes RoundUp((+e101+D6),2). This rounds the sum to two places ;)

"Thank's Val, I owe you a beer ;)

Is this fair to other employee that sit at their desk for 3 hours banging their head against a wall? Maybe not, but it real. It happens hundreds of thousands of times a day in businesses every day from assistants trying to collate on fax machines to programing stored procedures.

[Cool Bam]

07:09 PM on 03/28/2011

Another interesting thing I've noticed on collaboration and teams is this. I repeatedly had people asking for one of my least qualified people on teams. After a couple months I found out she was baby sitting the projects and would do whatever it took to get it done. On one of her first assignments several people provided a format they couldn't use and she retyped their entire sections on her own time and was simply the person that got it done. How do measure the worth of that? That people just want someone there because they make it happen?

[mikey09]

04:34 PM on 03/28/2011

First, what kid doesn't have internet on their phones these days. So not sure its necessary to have social media as part of the education process, someone is wanting a stock jump  I think....:-)
 
But my grandkids all have laptops on their desks at school, all homework, notes, etc are stored on flash drives, they can bring these home and do their work.....I think eventually laptops will replace books and most other educational material.....I know one of my grandkids was working on a special project and because he had internet right at his desk was able to talk to a grad student at Duke for help.

[dudervision]

04:22 PM on 03/28/2011

On the one hand, I agree that allowing access to facebook or myspace in the classroom can be a disruption. BUT, social networks dedicated to education which are designed and set up by professionals who know how to create exciting and engaging virtual communities can be an incredibly powerful tool. I used to teach technology in High School, and now am an online teacher at the college level and know that the future of online learning is through social networks. The key is making sure these custom networks are as exciting and involving as the commercial alternatives. All too often "educational" mean BORING. Learning SHOULD BE FUN AND EXCITING!

[Yam716]

03:17 PM on 03/31/2011

I think the problem is on social networks, the students would be be networking socially, vs learning.

I agree, let's integrate technology and learning but I don't think FB or My_____ is the way to do it.

[TFT]

02:01 PM on 03/28/2011

Every kid with a smart phone already has unlimited internet access--in school.

This is a non-issue. Unblock the web and let people use it how they see fit. It won't make or break anything in education. It's simply another tool, and not a magical one.

[deanleto]

03:57 PM on 03/28/2011

no no no....

if parents are ok with children being on adult websites, that is their own business....

but not on class time.

I do not want to be sued over whether a student was sexually harassing another with XXX pictures on the web....

Won't make or break anything?

LOL. Consider the idea that it is hard enough engaging students in their work without free use of technology in class distracting them every minute in the day...

[Cool Bam]

04:35 PM on 03/28/2011

That's funny, even though just about every guy I knew in High School had some kind of porn stash, they weren't chasing people down the halls with it as you suggest. Although it needs to be planned, integrating tech and information into our schools has to be done. I understand that it changes the classroom and that take effort. Considering that the fact that it's hard engage these kids IS THE POINT if you read the article. They are seeing marked improvements in involvement and grades in these pilot programs. Technology IS the real world, not only can we use that; it is more necessary we teach how to properly integrate this resource than it is to make kids memorize facts they will likely never again use (and if they need them they can look look them up in 10 seconds on their cell phone)

[TFT]

04:44 PM on 03/28/2011

I didn't say let them sit around all day surfing porn sites. I said allow the schools unfettered access, and trust teachers to use it.

Teachers could stab kids today with pens, pencils and scissors, not to mention slicing of any body part one wants with that huge slicer thing with the arm you slam down to cut through the 30 sheets of construction paper. We allow them in school and trust teachers will not use them for evil.

Teachers are the ultimate grown-ups. If anyone can be safe with a potentially dangerous thing, it's teachers.

[Ed Vim]

05:27 AM on 03/29/2011

Most schools ban cell phone and other mobile device use in the classrooms, or have designated areas on school grounds with restrictions so this is not a real issue. Yes there are often those who get away with it but for the most part but most kids follow that rule.

Unrestricted Internet access is not an issue??? Obviously you haven't been in a classroom for a long time. Most kids don't have the self-control to discipline themselves, it's something they need to develop as they mature (hopefully). That's like saying we don't need police because adults are for the most part able to obey all rules and laws.

[NunuDudu]

01:28 PM on 03/28/2011

FOE!

[kevinmsieg]

01:06 PM on 03/28/2011

Schools need to keep social media websites such as Facebook out of the classroom. I wouldn't allow my children to have a Facebook account at that age period.

[Cool Bam]

01:27 PM on 03/28/2011

At what age? We might all be looking at this from our own standpoint; I'm thinking about High School kids. At that age the vast majority of kids have these accounts whether their parents know it or not. The only real "protection" at that point a parent's policing has is they can't use their real name and information is the parent is smart enough to do searches for them on FB regardless of their rules. My own niece got busted after having an account like this for over a year solely because one of her friends who is a family friend and allowed on FB, friended me and I figured out who she was by her posts. I just at least this was they are secretive about who they really are, where they live and how old they are.

[deanleto]

03:59 PM on 03/28/2011

so, now that these students have these accounts w/o parental permission, you want the schools and teachers to subvert parental will, and allow use in class, when students need to be working on academics...

please... get a clue...

[Cool Bam]

12:51 PM on 03/28/2011

The potential gains from new tech and media are too great to ignore. Pretending that the vast majority of kids have their current internet use regulated/monitored better then it could be in schools is silly. I've yet to meet anyone who has any effective content blocking (even though it's available) for their kids or even bothers to set rules on the router for times the net is blocked (same after 12 on a school nite). Things like Moodle (As Ed Vin) suggested below could be used as a massive boon to educating by not only boosting involvement and organization or kids, but also of dramatically improving the involvement of parents. I installed and started learning Moodle myself for the sole purpose of getting myself in position to volunteer my help implementing it at a local school should we convince the Administration of it's benefits.

[Ed Vim]

12:04 AM on 03/28/2011

I worked a few years as an independent contractor doing IT support in a Chicago Public School. There's a large variance between schools in urban and suburban environments. I can't heap enough praise on your typical inner city teacher -- they have to work with a warped support system consisting of an upper, central administration that cares very little about the students, the middle local administration that cares very little about the teachers, and parents that are either too busy or too apathetic to care about their kids once they're on school grounds. And while the majority of the kids adore their teachers (and most of the teachers love their kids) there's ALWAYS just a few kids in each and every classroom that have no respect for themselves, their classmates, or their teachers. Those are the ones who dampen any kind of truly effective learning environment. It's not uncommon to have classes where there can be 35-40 kids and just one teacher (teacher aides were budget cut victims years ago and volunteer parents are rare). In a situation where you have that many kids and only one person to manage them it's unrealistic to even think about giving those kids unrestricted online access. Content filtering is not just a legal, financial issue tied to CIPA regulations, it's just common sense appropriate to the situation. Also, there should be more valid discussions regarding the use of public sites like Facebook vs. localized, internal network solutions such as Moodle, Blackboard, or FirstClass.

[eceresa]

06:52 AM on 03/28/2011

I sincerely doubt that content filtering blocks anybody except the teachers.

[Cool Bam]

01:05 PM on 03/28/2011

Any kid that learns how to set up or use proxy server can't be stopped. I'd view their ability to defeat the system as a victory in itself. You could probably make case that you could teach kids more about computer use by leaving holes in your network for them to access say Facebook, that takes some work, and letting them all teach each other,then by having them in a "computer class". I really wonder how a moving target of exploits could be used in this way. I actually know a High School teacher who has learned a great deal from trying, and finally succeeding to circumvent the IT blocks on FB. She first used several exploits that the kids were using (changing as they fixed the holes) and finally (with help ;) set up her home machine as a proxy server.

[Ed Vim]

05:39 AM on 03/29/2011

Content filtering can be quite effective when set up properly. If you're looking for a never fail solution that's not realistic or practical, there are no 100% answers to a problem as complex and convoluted as social networking in schools.

[jojackie]

10:45 PM on 03/27/2011

I'm surprised that this even became an article- my school district totally blocked any social networking sites as well as any dealing with "entertainment", celebrities, etc., well over two years ago. I assumed it was the same with other districts.

[supportamerica]

10:56 AM on 03/28/2011

jojackie: My 13 year old granddaughter's school did the same thing. Even older adults have been tricked by scam artists. It is a scary proposition to have unrestricted sites available to these children.

[ebruns]

09:50 AM on 03/29/2011

"Even older adults have been tricked by scam artists."

Perhaps teaching media and information literacy in schools would help this? I agree that the tools need to be age appropriate -- no one is advocating giving kids easy access to porn, no one is advocating violating privacy protections for minors. What people are advocating is using social networking tools to extend the classroom and build authentic learning communities. I've done research in science classrooms that use blogs and Ning-based social networks - in all cases, it is successful at increasing the sense of community and engagement. However, it doesn't always lead to increased achievement. In one case where it was used well, it increase student "face-to-face" participation in discussions almost four-fold when compared to a control group. That was a very positive unanticipated outcome. During interviews, kids said that the virtual interactions increased confidence so that they were not "scared" to participate in class.

For many youth, social networking and virtual communities are a big part of their life. They see Facebook as a natural communication tool -- just like we saw talking on the phone. Of course, our parents thought that talking on the phone was going to be the end of society too...