By Leonie McGlashan

(Layton & Brothers, 2010)

Begin by considering...

How do you feel about social networking?What online communities are you involved with?What are the benefits of using social networks?How should we educate students to be safe online?

Why use social networks in the

classroom?

They are social constructivist technologies

For the development of safe online social skills

For ICT and civics education

To align our teaching with the technologies

teenagers enjoy using.

For collaboration and group work.

Facebook and MySpace are banned by most Victorian public secondary schools. Reasons for this cited at my school by the head of ICT are that these sites are not considered to have educational value and can pose a risk to students and teachers.

Teachers can use safe alternate social network platforms in the classroom that parallel banned sites -

MySpace Ning

Public ningsPublic can access.Personally identifying material

cannot be posted.Teacher needs to constantly monitor

the ning for inappropriate content posted by others.

Cyber safety and netiquette needs to be taught prior to use.

Members only access.

Personally identifying material can be posted.

Teachers can experiment with social networks

safely.

Members can see what other members have done.

Cyber safety and netiquette can be modelled

during use.

Private ning case study

This ning is used for:

•Providing feedback

•Assessing student work

•Modelling netiquette

•Collaborative tasks

Providing feedbackUsing a forum on the ning students can

discuss their ideas.They can comment on others’ entries.Teachers can provide feedback about

their conceptions or misconceptions.Teachers can model appropriate

responses or comments.

Assessing students’ workSample rubric for a forum post

CRITERIAHigh/5 marks

3 of the criteria

Med/3 marks

2 of the criteria

Low/1 marks

1 of the criteria

Negligible/

0 marks no post

Original thought that answers questions.

Supported by example from textbook.

Minimum 50 wordsSource: Adapted from Kist, 2010.

Collaborating – sample task 1Respond to each Chapter 9 discussion on the

ning. You need to:Write a response to one discussion question.For another agree or disagree with a post using the

how to agree/disagree proforma.For another provide three links to websites other

than wikipedia that provide information on this topic.

10 marks for all parts completed

Collaborating – sample task 2Class Cheat SheetFor the Unit 1 exam a class cheat sheet is

allowed.Each student can contribute one eighth of

A4 page of information.Use this discussion forum to tell the others

what you’d like to contribute. It may be theory, formulas, worked examples.

This is information is due Thursday.

Problems with using nings Cost - Creating a ning has been free but they

will be priced from July 2010 onwards (~$4/month)

Ning network communication – Communication is confined to the ning members belong to, however Facebook, Twitter and MySpace allow individuals to communicate with other individuals.

(Facebook, 2010)

Into the futureNings can be sustained if schools and teachers are willing to pay for them.

If cost is an issue, nings will be hard to part with because they are enjoyable and interesting to work with.

Edmodo is a free social learning network environment with members restricted to communicate with other members.

Twitter allows members to communicate with any other member across the network.

Diaspora is in development......(Shiels, 2010)

References:Breen, G., 2010 `Teen’s murder sparks Facebook privacy pleas’, ABC [Online]. Available at

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/17/2901537.htm (Accessed 29 May 2010)

Facebook, 2010 `Leonie McGlashan’ Facebook. Available at www.facebook.com (Accessed 22 May 2010)

Gray, p. 2010 `Facebook `hindering the police’. The Age [Online]

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-hindering-the-police-20100525-wb8u.ht

ml

(Accessed 29 May 2010)

Hattie, J., 2009 Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, Oxon:

Routledge.

Hutcheon, P., 2010 `Facebook founder feels the heat as privacy backlash rages’ SMH [Online]. Available at

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebook-founder-feels-the-heat-as-privacy-backlash-

rages-20100514-v38t.html (Accessed 29 May 2010)

Kist, W., 2010 The Socially Networked Classroom – Teaching in the NEW MEDIA AGE, Corwin, California.

Layton, J., & Brothers, P., 2010 `How MySpace Works’ HowStuffWorks. Available at

http://www.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/myspace.htm

(Accessed 22 May 2010)

McGlashan, L., 2010 `Keysborough Chemistry’ Ning. Available at www.keysboroughchemistry.ning.com

(Accessed 29 May 2010)

McGlashan, L., 2010 `Leonie McGlashan’ MySpace. Available at www.myspace.com (Accessed 25 May 2010)

Shiels, M., 2010 `The anti-facebook’ BBC [Online]. Available at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/05/the_antifacebook.html (Accessed 29 May

2010)

Topsfield, J. 2010. `Students smear teachers on Facebook.’ The Age [Online]. Available at

http://www.theage.com.au/national/students-smear-teachers-on-facebook-20100402-rjup.html (Accessed 29

May 2010)