Pink Floyd’s hit of 1979, Is There Anybody Out There? was on the right track! Although Pink Floyd queried the existence of others with whom to make connections, implying beings from alternative worlds, teens today are also seeking to be connected, not just to be popular but to feel connected to their world and the greater earthly world around them. Social networking has always been an important part of human existence but with the creation of Web 2.0, social networking has seemingly become even more important.
A social network is an online social grouping of individuals who have a specific interest in a particular topic, belief, information set or friendship basis connected for cooperation, collaboration, and information sharing. It is a virtual third space or informal public gathering space. In his book, The Great, Good Place, sociologist, Ray Oldenburg describes the first space as home while the second space is the workplace and the third space is an area where people gather to interact, discuss and enjoy one another’s company. It is a place of socialization where everyone is treated equally. Teens have and will likely always require a separate space where they can socialize and interact with others their own ages. Since key adult figures in their lives seem to be either absent or working, or overly controlling of the social interactions of children, today’s teens are turning to online social networking spaces trying to fill the void with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and numerous other social networking sites. (Heeger, 2006) To view a list of social networking sites at Wikipedia.
The software used for social technology allows conversational communication between individuals or groups using numerous tools such as instant messaging and collaborative workspaces. (Lamb and Johnson, 2006) Any software offering interaction, feedback, and connections is readily recognizable as social software. Teens particularly like social networking sites since they meet the needs of affirmation, uniqueness, and communication. Belonging to a group, and interacting with its teen members or friends, allows teens to develop relationships while being the center of the action taking place online as a result of whom they contact and the type of communication that is maintained. In these social spaces, teens assert themselves and their opinions. They can be as socially active in the greater world or simply comment on what they are doing at any given time. “Whether it is voting on American Idol or participating in a global warming forum, they want to feel part of what is happening in the world.” (Rosenfeld and Loertscher, 2007) New social networks are coming online, virtually every day, to fill this perceived need. For more information, the following site hosts a movie that describes social networking simplistically in an engaging manmer to attract teens.
Facebook, one of the most popular social utilities currently used by students, offers unlimited photo uploads, groups to join, friends to locate, message boards and full profile control. This network allows individuals to communicate individually in postings which can be seen by friends who are invited specifically by the user. Although created primarily for college students, Facebook has taken on a more universal life by being easily accessible to teens and adults. When research was conducted at a British university, students responded that although they had initially joined Facebook as first year undergraduates to investigate university groups, plan social events and communicate with new online friends at university, as they became more embedded in university life, the use of Facebook changed as students used it to contact other students to organise group meetings for academic project work, revision and coursework queries. It became more than just a social network for some students and started to become an informal educational network as well. (Madge, C, Meek, J, Wellens, J, Hoolen, 2009)
I developed my profile for Facebook two years ago so that I could stay in touch with my adult children who were in various corners of the world with limited time and access to computers. In order to make best use of their time between longer email posts, they posted updates and photos to their Facebook accounts and that way their friends and relatives could keep in touch even if only on a limited basis. It is only recently that I have added other “friends” to my Facebook account. Many of these newcomers are younger staff members at the school where I teach, and most recently, graduates who wish to stay in touch. I find that most of my contacts use their accounts almost like a Twitter account. They post short quips about what they are doing currently and post a few significant photos to allow the pictures to speak for them. So far, those with whom I stay in touch have been mindful of their postings and photos; however, I have found that not all high school students are so discrete as observed during supervision in the library. Facebook offers possibilities for creating book clubs, literature circles, and writing informal responses. To date, Facebook has not been allowed at our school during class periods unless students are directly supervised in its use yet increasingly I receive requests from students to use Facebook to retrieve homework or a comment written by a classmate while editing the work. Originally we did not allow Facebook access because too many students were accessing it for social not educational purposes. However, given this increasing demand to use Facebook as an educational tool, this policy will need to be revisited.
I developed my profile for Facebook two years ago so that I could stay in touch with my adult children who were in various corners of the world with limited time and access to computers. In order to make best use of their time between longer email posts, they posted updates and photos to their Facebook accounts and that way their friends and relatives could keep in touch even if only on a limited basis. It is only recently that I have added other “friends” to my Facebook account. Many of these newcomers are younger staff members at the school where I teach, and most recently, graduates who wish to stay in touch. I find that most of my contacts use their accounts almost like a Twitter account. They post short quips about what they are doing currently and post a few significant photos to allow the pictures to speak for them. So far, those with whom I stay in touch have been mindful of their postings and photos; however, I have found that not all high school students are so discrete as observed during supervision in the library. Facebook offers possibilities for creating book clubs, literature circles, and writing informal responses. To date, Facebook has not been allowed at our school during class periods unless students are directly supervised in its use yet increasingly I receive requests from students to use Facebook to retrieve homework or a comment written by a classmate while editing the work. Originally we did not allow Facebook access because too many students were accessing it for social not educational purposes. However, given this increasing demand to use Facebook as an educational tool, this policy will need to be revisited.
Although using social networking applications to engage students in classrooms has virtually been unheard and there are those who feel it should be left as a social tool, they are making their way into the classroom. Last year, two of our school’s English teachers were stumped for a way to engage students in a project which culminated their Romeo and Juliet Shakespearean unit and came to me for ideas. Partially joking, I challenged them that since students like to be on Facebook, why not develop a project using Facebook? Taking my suggestion seriously, they developed a unit of study that the students absolutely loved! Students built a profile for one of the main characters, created several discussions between their character and other characters as well as used other prescribed aspects of the Facebook site, while writing in typical Shakespearean language prose. I can honestly say that those students were engaged and motivated to complete their projects, so much so, that their teachers found the projects a complete joy to assess. Several students used the social networking site with humour and aptitude while maintaining online safety as their teachers had instructed. I found that students more readily engaged in conversation over their projects and willingly came to the library to seek assistance from me as well as from their classroom teachers. Many students expressed the idea that they had learned a great deal about the Shakespearean language, history and play as a result of this project. Whenever assuming a character or persona is required, Facebook is a useful application for teaching. What library doesn’t require promotion? Perhaps Facebook is an adept means of attracting today’s learners to the library. Through projects such as these teachers and teacher-librarians can encourage interaction, engagement and meaningful learning.
Twitter is another social networking site that I have only recently begun to use. It provides individuals with a chance to publish thoughts, and connect to information streams created by other users around the world. Each message is very short, created to make a single point or present a single thought or link and is referred to as micro-blogging' or micro-publishing'. An added bonus is that if your friends have a Twitter account, friends may access information on your account from a mobile phone, or computer. To make it more convenient to join a conversation or follow a friend’s posts, Twitter offers its own RSS feed so that users may follow several interest options at once. It is my observation that most Twitter users combine personal posts to friends and join in more publicly oriented discussions side-by-side. Users may offer a useful link to a website of interest, comment on an occurrence and follow the news all within a few minutes or less. By using Twitter’s advanced search option, while matching particular phrases or collections of terms, users search for tweets by a particular person, or those coming from a particular location. Instead of checking each tweeter individually, setting up a TweetGrid allows users to view multiple Twitter searches, each one appearing in its own box in a grid-like manner. One of the downsides of Twitter is that a mandated 140 character limit creates concise authors, it often does not provide enough characters for a user to include a long web address along with a message. This is a place where TinyUrl or bit.ly, both of which are URL-shortening services, comes in handy. By shortening a web address, the user is now able to include it and a thorough message to Twitter friends. Librarians may find Twitter useful for communicating library events and student activities through the school website. Twitter and other character limited networks require messages to be thrifty while allowing classmates to interact in a short, non-threatening manner. An activity that gets students writing is a bonus for reticent learners. A growing issues and one that I ran into is Twitter spam. When I signed on to one site, instantly I got tweets from a handful of spammers stating that they were following me. When I looked at their responses on Twitter, they had posted advertisements for various products. This constitutes misrepresentation of themselves as fellow librarians. Bad Tweet etiquette I’d say! Can Twitter be used in the classroom? When attempting to create a culture of collaboration within a classroom community, reader’s responses, collaboration with other school communities around the world, surveys, metacognition exercises, individual conferences, team discussions, explorations of language, and quick announcements, Twitter is a supportive option for the classroom. The key is that any social networking site must have solid educational purposes in order to be useful as an educational tool.
Of all the social networking sites that offer the greatest amount of control for teachers, and safety to students its a Ning. “A Ning is an online social network platform that allows you to create your own customized social network.” (Gardner, 2007) The user decides on what others see, who is invited, and what they can do. This seems the way to go for classroom situations. This private network allows the set up of discussions, student interest groups, book reporting and reviewing alternatives, journaling, writing, and reading opportunities, and can be posted for students and families to be seen under shared space circumstances. Since the whole network is private, it becomes what students and teachers wish it to become and can include: group selection features, internal dialogue between students or student/teacher or parent/student/teacher, and provides teachers the opportunity to preview everything that is posted beforehand. A Ning offers low initial technical understanding to set up and run, the user builds the community of learners so no RSS feed is necessary, it allows individual blogging with ease of posting and once the user is more knowledgeable about online environment, this can be changed yet the platform is socially-engaging. Since it is simplistic, this may be a way to start early learners and those who are not comfortable with blogging. I have not had the opportunity to create a Ning for a class yet but this is a platform that I feel is promising for the classroom learning environment.
An SNS (social networking service) that appears to have great promise for language learners is italki. Find a language teacher, practice with a language exchange partner, ask questions, discuss in groups, find free resources are some of the services offered. With free registration and the possibility to sign up and be paid for teaching your own language, this site appears to be practical and useful. It offers instruction from beginner upwards, and allows students to request a translation of a phrase or word. If looking for language lessons, payment is required by most instructors who may or may not be actual teachers. Students can join the official student group or there is a possibility that an internal group of students could be created whereby students in your classroom could chat and learn amonst themselves. I would advise exercising caution with students on this site but this same service could be set up through a Ning setting where ESL students could converse with their teachers and then offer their own language service to the school population.
Students use social networks for communication, creation, adventure, homework help, sharing information, and many other uses. In an educational survey done by The National School Boards Association in the USA, 9-17 year olds reported spending approximately 9 hours a week on social networking, and approximately 10 hours a week watching TV. A whopping 96% of students who were online users claim that they use social networking technologies such as chatting, text messaging, blogging , and visiting online communities such as Facebook while 71% say that they use social networking tools weekly. (Grunwald Associates, Ltd., 2007) While the common misconception is that students use social networking sites for only gossip and catching up with friends, this study found that education and homework were topics that teens discussed online more than 50% of the time.
Despite these statistics and the fact that parents who took part in the poll also reported few problems with online behaviours, many school districts ban or restrict the use of social networking sites during the school day and perceive problems with social networks. Since most teachers routinely assign online-based homework, it may be time to re-examine this concept. A common misconception about social networking sites was unearthed in a study done by Pew’s Senior Research, that teens are putting personal information on their profiles for anyone to read. This study reveals that 91 % of teens who use social networking sites do so to stay connected with existing friends while 82% use them to stay in touch with friends they rarely see and over 50% reveal their profiles only to friend. (Whelan, 2007) This study demonstrates that teens are, in fact, exercising some control and discretion over the information they share while in the social networking context.
If facts demonstrate that students are using online resources in a responsible manner and for educational purposes, libraries of all kinds need to make further attempts to break down the barriers so that students who may not be connected through online social networking sites can learn, how to use them and how to use them in a safe manner. We must adjust to the needs that teens are demonstrating so that they remain online learners for life. School librarians, in particular, must advocate with teachers, and districts for the reasonable acceptance of online social networking tools while teaching students not only how to use them but also how to stay safe while using them. Students and teachers must experience the tools, and be comfortable using them. Stephens states that before teachers and administrators are going to sanction the use of these Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms and schools, they need to experience the tools first hand, understand how the tools work, and then they will be in a position to advocate for student use of the tools within a teaching context. To aid in this movement toward acceptance, he suggests that librarians adapt and implement a hands-on staff development workshop using various social networking applications as has been developed at Public library of Charlotte & Mecklenbug County website. If, as David Warlick claims, students grow up in a rich, collaborative environment until they enter school, then how can blocking or banning social networking technologies aid them in maintaining the richness offered by being online learners?
When using any online application, it is the teacher’s and teacher-librarian’s responsibility to teach ways of staying safe online so that the online raw energy may be captured and channelled into strong education practice. Teaching students and staff about: hackers, originally a term applied to computer enthusiasts, it now defines someone who gains unauthorized access to your computer system for the purpose of stealing or destroying data; viruses and worms; email spam; adware, spyware and cookies are all important aspects to maintaining computers and ensuring the safety of users. Conversations with students about these dangers as well as investigating with teens, sites such as: Get Net Wise an excellent site for parents, teachers and students separated into age appropriate content categories and covers topics such as risks of technology and guide to online privacy; Wired Safety another excellent site for parents, teachers, and students of all ages that covers topics of issues such as cyberbullying, and chatting online; and Safe Canada which covers everything parents, teachers and students need to know to stay safe online and it’s Canadian! These sites offer practical strategies and tips on staying safe and would make very useful information for newsletters or features on the school or library web site.
Despite those haunting words of Pink Floyd which queried the existence of other beings in the universe, teens of today are not alone. They have many social networking applications to satisfy their need to belong. This is their world. When we adults have problems, all we need to do is ask: “Is there any student out there who can help me ...please?” and when one of our worldly teens comes to the rescue, we will have opportunity to watch as the online social world unfolds.
References
Gardener, T (2007). NCTE Inbox Blog. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from Social Networking: The Ning’s the Thing Web site: http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/2008/09/social-networking-ning-thing.html
Good, R (2007, 04, 25). Be Smart, Be Independent, Be Good. Retrieved August 2, 2009, from Mobile Instant Messaging Meets Social Networking: Twitter - A Beginner's Guide Web site: http://www.masternewmedia.org/social_networking/twitter-instant-messaging-mobile-messaging/twitter-a-beginners-guide-20070425.htm
Grunwald Associates LLC, (2007, 11 09 ). Online Social Networking And Education: Study Reports On New Generations Social And Creative Interconnected Lifestyles. Robin Good, Retrieved 08, 01, 2009, from http://www.masternewmedia.org/learning_educational_technologies/social-networking/social-networking-in-education-survey-on-new-generations-social-creative-and-interconnected-lifestyles-NSBA-20071109.htm
Heeger, P (2006, July). A Tie for Third Place: Teens Need Physical Spaces as well as Virtual Places. School Library Journal, Vol. 52 Iss. 7, Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdlink?index=8&did=1080136461&SrchMode=3&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1249256236&clientId=12301&aid=1
Madge, C, Meek, J, Wellens, J, Hoolen, T (2009). Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university: 'It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work' in Learning, Media and Technology. London, England: Routledge.
Rosenfeld, E and Loertscher, D. (Ed.). (2007). Toward a 21st Century School Librariy Media Program. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecros Press, Inc..
Rosenfeld, E and Loertscher, D. (Ed.). (2007). Toward a 21st Century School Librariy Media Program. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecros Press, Inc..
Stephens, M. (2006, Dec.). The Read/Write School Library. School Library Journal, Vol. 52 Issue 12, , Retrieved 08, 01, 2009, from http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdlink?index=19&did=1170764351&SrchMode=3&sid=4&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1249262017&clientId=12301&aid=1
Whelan, D (2007, 02). School Library Journal. Teens Don, Vol. 53 Issue 2, , Retrieved 08, 03, 2009, from http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdlink?index=19&did=1208116061&SrchMode=3&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1249260550&clientId=12301&aid=1
Whelan, D (2007, 02). School Library Journal. Teens Don, Vol. 53 Issue 2, , Retrieved 08, 03, 2009, from http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdlink?index=19&did=1208116061&SrchMode=3&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1249260550&clientId=12301&aid=1
I love the fact that the English teachers took your suggestion seriously AND that they had great success with using Facebook for Shakespeare! Fabulous! Maybe I can use this example with some of my teachers and see if anyone is willing to take up the challenge. I'm finding a lot of this kind of mind boggling, but with more ideas like this, I can start to see my way to some of my own projects!
ReplyDeleteI identified with your pointing out that not all students are discreet in what they post in general, or even specifically to someone. I accepted a former student as a friend in Facebook and was shocked at some of the pictures and comments that he was posting. I have to say, it's made me particularly hesitant to add other students as friends. Maybe I need a separate identity just for student friends....
A separate student site is a great idea for adding students. I was thinking of doing that as well. Now for sure I will be doing that.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Joanne