According to the English Oxford Living Dictionary (Social networking | Definition of social networking in English by Oxford Dictionaries, 2018), Social Network is the use of dedicated websites and applications to interact with other users or to find people with similar interests to one's own.
Image: Advantages and disadvantages of Social Networks by Youth Portal Retrieved 21 March 2018 from http://www.youthvillage.co.za/2013/10/advantages-disadvantages-social-networks/
Social online networking communities have been around for many years. Thus, involvement and interaction have increased over the years. There is a lot of support in inviting people into these online communities and the benefits of social online networking is far greater. Technology just keeps evolving and new online social networking communities and sites are being created and are easily accessed.
Online social networking is used to connect with friends, family, work colleagues and new people. They are utilized to communicate and share ideas, invite responses, and support and create discussions. Our social circles once known as the community we lived in has been transformed by the digital world allowing us to be globally connected through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and many more. Social networks offer the potential to support us in our professional learning by communicating with like-minded people. We all know how that works just look at all of us participating and contributing in our Mind Lad Post Grad Community.
Teaching Digital Citizenship
As teachers, we need to teach our students about cyber safety and to encourage safe usage on the internet in order to develop culturally situated learning experiences for our learners and ourselves. I introduced blogging to students in my classroom last year. When we blog, whether in or out of school, communication encourages discussions in many ways. Once you start to blog and that information/thought/conversation becomes public, it will then take on a life of its own by creating a ripple effect of continual learning (Utecht, 2017). The ways in which blogging helped my learners to develop their own personal voice benefitted me as an educator. They had ownership, they were creative, communicated, participated and contributed to an online community, and expressed themselves freely using tools at the click of a button. There are many opportunities for learners to blog. I feel I have experienced more successes than failures through allowing my learners to blog in the classroom.
As digital learning shapes our lives, teaching and learning practices must move with the times. While there are concerns about cyberbullying we still must address the need for teaching and developing our learners' online experiences, providing them with a safe and enjoyable one. This link to The Education Council (2018), provides some excellent information and resources in regards to the code of ethics for teachers and its relationship with social media.
Social media provides the pathway for us to connect our students with the global world, people and places far beyond their school and home environment. Networks such as Google Community and Facebook are used to expand our discussions, provide us with answers to queries we may have about our teaching practice and audiences.
It is all about building relationships outside of our home and work environment (school), communicating with like-minded people, and having awareness about what is happening in the world, being aware of the global issues. We not only use the internet for communicating with others but to view the ideas of others because as we all know why reinvent the wheel when ideas and resources are shared to use. By using social networks, we can explore many possibilities and contribute our own perspectives, thoughts and ideas to real life issues.
Social online networking is all about the rich experiences we have. In addition, if used correctly social networking would be a powerful tool for your learners who can engage in critical discussion with other people both near and far. They can make the most of the opportunities to inquire about the big wide world seeking information and answers to feed their curiosity.
What opportunities are you providing your learners with to engage in ‘Social Networking?’
REFERENCES
Education Council (2018). Teachers and social media. Retrieved March 16, 2018 from https://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/
Social networking | Definition of social networking in English by Oxford Dictionaries. (2018). Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 21 March 2018, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/social_networking
Utecht, J. (2007). Blogs aren’t the enemy: How Blogs enhance learning. Technology & Learning, 27, 32-34.
The advantages of online social groups are vast as you have highlighted in the beginning of this blog. The desire to connect and stay connected is a theme that is almost becoming a need to us in this time in life. I like the commitment you show to teaching digital citizenship. I agree that I need to teach this component as we explore and implement more ICT initiatives and use social media more as a learning and teaching resources in education.
ReplyDeleteResilience is another skill that I think the students will benefit from in the long run as more risks, critique and exploration in this area becomes a norm.
Online collaboration has been happening within and beyond our group our experiences provide role modelling for our students and let us put some of our hunches out there. Hopefully our students will be as responsive and responsible as the modelling and the teaching we are trying to implement with them.
Thank you for the reminder and some ideas to follow through with.
It is probably one of the essential needs of humanity to make connections with others. Awesome that you are encouraging your class to Blog and are viewing their cyber safety sensibly.
ReplyDeleteIf we wrap the children in two many layers of protection we won't be teaching them as Renee suggests the needed resilience to make those connections safe. Discernment that not everything read is true and the ability to check multiple sources are other skills that will hold them in good stead on their internet pathways.
Your class have become internet global citizens!
Hi Renee and Maree-Lou, I agree with both of you and what you have commented. Resilience is definitely a key skill that has certain aspects my learners still need to learn. Yes, we shouldn't cotton wool the children especially when they need to learn to be accountable for their actions and behaviour - both positives and negatives. My new year group in class this year are learning to validate information from multiple sources when researching and recording information as we all know that some facts and information can be misleading. Thank you both for bringing up 'Resilience in your comments. I think that is what I will focus on in my change in practice because at the end of the day, what we do as teachers counts!
ReplyDeleteI do hope to get digital gaming up and running next Term using Minecraft Education (Classroom edition) so resilience is important there as well. Nga mihi korua