Social networking & E-learning

What is Social Networking?

• New platform for social interaction

• Global communication tools

• Virtual community

• Place where people share common interests

Social Network Tools

Multimedia:

• Photo-sharing: Instagram, Flickr

• Video-sharing: Youtube

• Audio-sharing: imeem

News/Opinion:

• News: Digg, Reddit

• Review: Yepp, epinions

Social Network Tools

Communication:

• Microblogs: Twitter

• Social networking services:

• Facebook, Myspace

Social Network in Education

● 90% of college students visit social networking sites on a regular basis

● Today's students want to document their feelings and insights in a highly timely manner

● Social network can create new channels for students to learn.

Source: http://elearningindustry.com/social-media-in-education-%E2%80%93-the-bright-side

Challenges for teachers

● Many instructors are interested in learning how to add social media tools into their curriculum, but they aren’t sure how

● Social media sites can be a huge distraction for students who aimlessly click through sites

● It can be challenging to find ways to incorporate activities with social media that promote actual learning.

Challenges for teachers

● The learning objective is most important. Social media is a tool to help teach a concept so be sure to not lose sight of the learning for the cool factor.

● Choose 1 tool to start and make it purposeful.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is the world's largest social network, with more than 900 million users. People mainly use it to connect with important people in their life.

FACEBOOK in Education

FACEBOOK in Education

● Students can use it to connect with each other outside of the classroom.

● Students can create a Facebook Group to form online study groups

● Students may want to add you as a “Friend”

FACEBOOK in EducationBrainstorm: Ask students to collaborate and brainstorm on your classroom's Facebook page.News gathering: Your classroom can follow media outlets or public figures relevant to your latest classroom discussions.

Archived videos: Important lectures, slides, and more can be shared and saved on Facebook.Familiarize yourself with students: In large classes, it can sometimes be hard to remember each and every student. Facebook makes it a little easier to connect faces with names.Flashcardlet: Using Flashcardlet, you can create your own flash cards that students can study on Facebook.Source: http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/05/21/100-ways-you-should-be-using-facebook-in-your-classroom-updated/

GOOGLE+

second-largest social media site in the world

monthly active user base of 235 million.

Circles, Hangouts, Communities, Google News

Google+ in Education1. Communication

Classroom teachers can use Google+ to communicate directly with learners, learner families or other educators.

Clarifying current learning targets, reviewing recent concepts, delineating homework assignments or providing a public forum for learners to ask questions...TipsPublish test and due datesPublish and clarify learning targetsReview complicated topicsOffer extension activities for Gifted Learners

Google+ in Education2. Project ManagementAn online portal where users can all access the same documents, notes, research links and videos needn't require Moodle or other more formal learning platforms. Signing up for a Google account gives you access to the full portfolio of Google software. That means if you've got a Gmail account, you have access to Google Calendar, Google Docs and of course Google+. So consider setting up a circle for each:

Project Content area (K-5)Period/block (6-12)Advanced content area (9-12+)By doing so, you can use these circles as ways to manage projects: distribute rubrics, clarify

due dates, share critical handouts or disseminate multimedia content. In fact, you can even verify who actually saw the documents by having them "+1" the link (Google's version of "like").

Google+ in Education3. Full CollaborationRather than simply responding to parent inquiries or sharing documents, by functioning as a messaging, media and link-sharing platform visible to everyone, Google+ can act as a potent project management platform.

Tips

Learners can collaboratively brainstorm a problemWriters can support one another through stages of the writing processGroups can compete against one another through said "circles" in a public forumLiterature circles can be separated by role, first on pages, then in circles, so that all

"Visualizers" can collaborate on a reading section before sharing with their groups. The same approach would also work for jig-sawing.