Journal #1

Social Networking for the K-12 Set
By Jim Klein

This article featured in Learning and Leading with Technology Magazine in the February 2008 issue focused on integrating helpful, easy-to-use, technology aids to assist students and teachers in the classroom. Teachers need a way to communicate between one another, share teaching strategies, and get in touch with their students. At the same time, students need visual aids to help them learn new ideas and the ability to communicate with teachers at the push of a button. Both of the challenges teachers and students face is connecting with each other and learning new ways to find information. By implementing social networking in the classroom both teachers and students will have the tools they need to succeed. According to the article, “SUSD Teacher and Student Community sites, dubbed ‘learning landscapes,’ we [education technology leaders] aimed to provide the tools and resources our educators and students needed to better communicate, collaborate, learn, share, and grow not only among themselves, but with the community at large.” The SUSD Teacher and Student Community sites allowed both teachers and students to access a web site in which they could post comments and read comments by other students and teachers.

Questions:

1. What information could I post on this type of website to help my students learn U.S History?
I could post links to websites, which give both summaries and detailed information about topics covered in class. These links would help students to learn the basic information they need to know for tests and also they could explore topics more deeply if they are particularly interested in them. Also, if I receive many e-mails from students with the same particular question about an assignment, I could post the question and answer on the website so every student who had not yet e-mailed me would know the answer as well.

2. How could my colleagues benefit from this type of website?
My colleagues could benefit from this type of website because we, as teachers, could share information and teaching ideas with one another. Teachers could post links to good websites for other teachers to use at their leisure. By sharing good website links each teacher could potentially improve their knowledge about certain subjects.